ever-never-records

[ever-never-records]

Dust Volume 5, No. 1

Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids

Our first Dust of the year ties up loose ends from 2018 with several of our writers using the holiday break to rip through big piles of neglected discs, find the good and the great and share their observations. It’s an impressive haul with a little something for everyone from fusion-y Afro-jazz to twin guitar reveries (played by actual twins) to improvised percussion to a fascinating bandleader who reminds us of everyone and no one. This edition’s contributors included Bill Meyer (who wins this round), Isaac Olson, Derek Taylor, Patrick Masterson, Jennifer Kelly and Jonathan Shaw. Happy new year.

Keep reading

[ever-never-records]

“1, 2, 3, 4!”: Jennifer Kelly’s 2018 review

Jennifer Kelly is a frantic romantic.

Rock and roll forever, sure, but it’s hard to avoid the fact that the guitar/bass/drum idiom has been pushed way off to the side in the cultural conversation. Mainstream sites list “best rock records” as a weird, subcultural genre, with a slightly bigger audience, perhaps, than best cumbia records or top Hawaiian slack key recordings (but not much). Worse, to come up with a reasonable size list they include all kinds of things that don’t belong. I mean, really, is Mount Eerie rock by any definition?

Rock isn’t dead, but it’s been made to sit in the corner. The only time in 2018 when everybody thought at once about a guitar band was when Pitchfork’s Jeremy Larson dropped his scathing, hilarious review of the Greta Van Fleet. For a moment, we all snickered as one.

Big rock was terrible in 2018. It almost always is. Yet there’s something disingenuous about the genre of year-end write-ups that laser in on the absolute worst and most bloated of rock bands to make a point about the art-form as a whole. Sure, Imagine Dragons suck. Yes, “Africa” is a soul-destroyingly awful song no matter who sings it. No, I’m not wading into the whole 1975 thing. Who has time? Who has the heart for it?  

Because this year, against a tide of commercially viable horse shit, against a backdrop of monolithic indifference, rock bands of all configurations, from all countries (but really especially Australia), continued to make great punk and rock records. And, I, for whatever reason, heard more of them than usual, and it made me happy. And maybe that’s the secret to being happy in music, in any year…find your niche, listen to the best in it, forget about what the mega-corporations are trying to sell.

Also see it live. My big highlight this year was seeing the Scientists in October (with Negative Approach, too!), but it was a pretty great 12 months for live music. It started with a fantastic show comprised of Mike Donovan, the Long Hots, J. Mascis and his Stooges cover band and Purling Hiss (with J on board for one song) at the Root Cellar, a venue I’d never heard of before that show, and that ended up putting on a string of great events. I saw Marisa Anderson, Paul Metzger, Speedy Ortiz, Howling Rain, Trad Gras Och Stenar with Endless Boogie, that Scientists show and Gary Higgins at the Root Cellar this year, and I missed a lot of shows I would have liked to see. Other great shows happened outside the Root Cellar – The Thing in the Spring in Peterborough with William Parker, Bonnie Prince Billy and others, Amy Rigby and Wreckless Eric at the Parlour Room, Messthetics at the Flywheel. Western Massachusetts has been in a commercial chokehold for years, with one organization controlling most of the venues, but there were a lot of options this year.

So, here’s to the drummers with their sticks in the air, counting off the four. Here’s to the guitar player wrecking his knees jumping up and down as he/she furiously slashes away. Here’s to the sweat and muck and black humor of $10 shows with four bands on them, two of them still in high school. And here’s to the people (me at least and possibly you) who like these things. Eddie Argos of Art Brut, who used to top these lists and now merits a footnote, spoke for this tiny, beleaguered sub-cult when he urged “Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s rock out.”

Indeed. Let’s.

Keep reading

[ever-never-records]

Harte 10! Tres! Traneninvasion! Peel Dream Magazine! Kudu! Eli Keszler! Tarkamt! Dwarfs Of East Agouza! Crazy Doberman! Sudden Infant! Handle! DUDS! Lithics! Italia 90! The Ex! No Babies! Patois Counselors! Noseholes! Ruby Karinto! Collate! LOX! Big Supermarket! Terry! Yves Bernard! Lavender Flu! Heavy Metal! Murderer! Snob! GOGGS! Warm Bodies! X-20! Gen Pop! Rolex! Scrap Brain! Borzoi! Dog Chocolate! Shux! Mosquitoes! EXEK! Exploded View! Chips For The Poor! Conduit! Bo Gritz! Miscomings! Scarcity Of Tanks! Razorlegs! Full Blast! Kuzu! Sympathy Nervous!

[ever-never-records]

✰ BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2018 ✰

✰✰✰✰✰ 6th ANNIVERSARY  ✰✰✰✰✰

Neil Morris, speaking to Alan Lomax in 1959:

“Well, when I was just a small boy, Old Uncle Milt Oldfield…Billy Oldfield, the Congressman from Arkansas for so long, it is his father. He and my father are awfully close friends. And they were discussing music. They were music teachers both of them. 

“And uh, and they said, dad did and Uncle Milt sanctioned what he said, that MUSIC HAD NO END. That you could learn all the other guy [or girl] learned, and after you got that done they would then, something else would crop up. That uh, that you, that was the reason why that uh, music advanced. That’s why that you would get a better music in one generation maybe that is, uh, IT WOULD FIT THE TIMES IN WHICH THEY LIVED.” 

[Lomax: “What about music on the grapevine?”] 

“Welllll, they said that MUSIC GREW LIKE THE GRAPEVINE THAT IS NEVER PRUNED. That each year it’d…it’d put on a little bit more. That was what they said, now, about it. Any further questions?”’

It’s time to feast from 2018′s Grapevine That Is Never Pruned with 123 (+ 162 more) of the BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2018!

A prefatory note: The Best Reasons campaigns of our first five years endured critiques from far and wide about too many damn records listed.  Well…we can no longer countenance such reproach.  Every single one of these nuggets is an essential thread in the tapestry of 2018′s combustible sonic arts!  We here at FRR stand for ecumenicism and as such, consider the breadth of our listening parameters: Feeding Tube Records issued 74 items in 2018 (!), Clean Feed released about 80, and Astral Spirits about 30…that’s a lot potential gold in those three labels alone. Sure, it’s too much for any one person to absorb, but still… 

We all know that some combination of easy access to home studio tools, world wide web streaming, social media delirium, legacy record industry collapse, and artistic resistance to creeping authoritarianism has (somewhat paradoxically) unleashed a tidal wave of idiosyncratically great music during the past decade, so it should come as no surprise that such a list as this would contain nearly 300 essential items. Yea, it seems nearly everything gets recorded and released these days (especially the zonked improv/collagist /noise/outer limits realm), but whether or not we listen to such items as frequently as we consumed Exile On Main Street or Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy back in the day is irrelevant…the time is now, and as far as wild sounds from the outer dimensions goes, now has unprecedented bounty…listen heartily, for tomorrow, who knows?

(…all long playing records unless otherwise noted…also, the list was made complete with links, but grrr they don’t show up, so point your browser as they used to say and happy hunting!)

✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

✰ ROSALI  Trouble Anyway (Scissor Tail) ✰

✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

✰ BRIDGET HAYDEN  Pure Touch Only From Now On, They Said So (Early Music, Sweden) ✰

✰ YUZO IWATA Daylight Moon (Siltbreeze) ✰

✰ L$D FUNDRAISER  Witness Disco (CocoMuse, New Zealand) ✰

✰ MAXINE FUNKE  Silk (Feeding Tube) + Eternity 7” (I Dischi Del Barone, Sweden) ✰

✰ LONG HOTS  Monday Night Raw cassette (self-released) ✰

✰ BASIC HUMAN  Cassette (Meatspin, Australia) ✰

✰ LOOSE-Y CRUNCHÉ Unruly Top  cassette (Altered States, Australia) ✰

✰ ETHERS  Ethers (Trouble In Mind) ✰ 

✰ UNHOLY TWO  The Pleasure To End All Pleasures (12XU)

✰ ZAÏMPH  Rhizomatic Gaze 2LP (Drawing Room) ✰

✰ ALLISON COTTON  All Is Quiet At The Ancient Theatre (Feeding Tube) ✰

✰ CONSTANT MONGREL  Living In Excellence (Anti Fade, Australia / LVEUM, U.K.) ✰ 

✰ OTHERWORLD  (aka Kay Logan) Mad Wee Light  cassette (Kit, UK) ✰

✰ DUSK  Dusk (Don Giovanni)  & “The Pain Of Loneliness (Goes On And On)” 7″ (Dirtnap) ✰

✰ WENDY EISENBERG  Its Shape Is Your Touch (VDSQ) ✰

✰ THALIA ZEDEK BAND Fighting Season (Thrill Jockey) ✰

✰ EN ATTENDANT ANA  Lost And Found (Trouble In Mind) ✰

✰ MARK MORGAN  Department of Heraldry (Open Mouth) ✰

✰ MORE KLEMENTINES More Klementines (Twin Lakes/Feeding Tube)✰

✰ PATOIS COUNSELORS Proper Release (ever/never) ✰

✰ ANNE GUTHRIE Brass Orchids (Students Of Decay)

✰ STEFAN CHRISTENSEN  City Code (Knotwilg, Belgium) & Two Live cassette (The Loki Label)

✰ BB & The BLIPS  Shame Job (Thrilling Living)

✰ SAMARA LUBELSKI / BILL NACE Samara Lubelski/Bill Nice (Relative Pitch)

✰ The SEDIMENT CLUB  Stucco Thieves (Wharf Cat)

✰ BEAT DETECTIVES  Rhythms & Edits Volume 1 cassette (Altered States, Australia)

✰ The COWBOYS Live At Tony’s Garage  7″ ep (Feel It) & The Cowboys [3rd Album] (HoZac - 2017)

✰ SUSANA SANTOS SILVA  All the Rivers – Live at Panteão Nacional  cd (Clean Feed, Portugal)

 ✰ DIRE WOLVES Paradisiacal Mind  (Feeding Tube/Cardinal Fuzz, U.K.)

✰ SPECIAL INTEREST/S Spiraling  (Raw Sugar)

✰ JANUSZEWSKI & SZLAZAK Split cassette (Czaszka, U.K.)

✰ NYLEX  Nylex cassette (Tenth Court, Australia)

✰ CHARALAMBIDES  Tom And Christina Carter 2 LP (Drawing Room)

✰ CHRISTINA KUBISCH/ANNEA LOCKWOOD The Secret Life Of The Inaudible 2 cd (Gruenrekorder, Germany)

✰  HEAVY METAL Heavy Metal ep 7″ (Total Punk)

✰  LUJIACHI  Invisible Hands cassette (Altered States, Australia)

✰  OBNOX Templo del Sonido (Astral Spirits/Monofonus Press)

✰  PINEAPPLE RNR  Pineapple Rik N Roll 7″ (Lumpy)

✰  WILLIAM PARKER Voices Fall From The Sky 3 cd (AUM Fidelity)

✰  RON JONS SURF SHOP  Ron Jons Surf Shop Sampler cassette (Ron Jons Surf Shop)

✰ LUCY MILLER Lion’s Heart : Demos & Early Recordings cd-r (Soleils Bleus, France)

✰ BLUE CHEMISE  Daughters Of Time (Students Of Decay) 

✰ EKIN FIL Maps (Helen Scarsdale) & “Windblow”  download (Longform Editions, Australia)

✰ COUNTER INTUITS Vietnamese Lighter 7″ (Total Punk)

✰ CHRONOPHAGE  (Minneapolis) Prolog For Tomorrow (Cleta Petra)

✰ HOBBS-WHITE DUO Hobbs-White Duo at Whitechapel Gallery, 10 June 1973H download (EMC, UK)

✰ CHRONOPHAGE (Austin) Give Chance A Peace download (self-released)

✰ CIA DEBUTANTE  Waves (Czaszka, U.K.)

✰ WEEPING BONG BAND  Weeping Bong Band (Feeding Tube)

✰  COOLIES/The FUTURIANS Coolies/The Futurians split cassette (Uniform, New Zealand)

✰ QUIETUS Volume Four (ever/never)

✰ New Centre Of The Universe (Anti Fade, Australia)

✰ LISA CAMERON/SANDY EWEN  See Creatures cassette (Astral Spirits)

✰ BRUTAL BIRTHDAY “Commotion” + 2 7” (Total Punk)

✰ DE PONTI/MORETTI Before We Were Foam We Were Unbridled Waves cassette (Dinzu Artefacts)

✰ DAVID NANCE GROUP  Peaced And Slightly Pulverized (Trouble In Mind)

✰ CRAMMM  Crammm cassette (Brainplan) &  Live 2018 (Brainplan)

✰ NERVE BEATS Nerve Beats (Fine Concepts)

✰ WILLIE LANE  Known Quantity reissue (Feeding Tube)

✰ The WAY AHEAD Bells, Ghosts And Other Saints cd (Clean Feed, Portugal)

✰ BADSKIN  Where Was I  (Brierfield Flood Press, Australia)

✰ The ANCIENTS Frozen Aisle (Tenth Court, Australia)

✰ METTE RASMUSSIN & CHRIS CORSANO A View Of The Moon (From The Sun) cd (Clean Feed, Portugal)

✰ SYLVIE COURVOISIER TRIO  D’Agala cd (Intakt, Switzerland)

✰ MOSQUITOES Drip Water Hollow Out Stone (ever/never)

✰ CHARLOTTE HUG Son-Icon Music: Orchestra And Choral Works cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

✰ RUSS WATERHOUSE  Amaro cassette (Gertrude Tapes)

✰ RICHARD PAPIERCUTS  Twisting The Night 12″ (ever/never)

✰ The COOL GREENHOUSE  “London”/“The End Of The World” 7” (Market Square Recordings, Spain)

✰ SANDY EWEN & CHASE GARDNER Transfusion cd (Marginal Frequency)

✰ AMEEL BRECHT  Polygraph Heartbeat (Kraak, Belgium)

✰ SUCCHIAMO Mani In Fuoco (Antinote, France)

✰ PORTRON PORTRON LOPEZ De Colère Et D'Envie (PoiL, France)

✰ TOM SMITH & MARK MORGAN Bones Sound Shipwreck cd (KSV, Germany)

✰ CIVIC New Vietnam 12″ (Anti Fade, Australia) & Those Who Know 7″ (Famous Class)

✰ CARLO GIUSTINO Non Uscire cassette (No Rent)

✰ DONALD MCPHERSON & TETUZI AKIYAMA The Kitchen Tapes, Volume 1 cassette (God In The Music, New Zealand)

✰ HORNE & HOLT Wires (Self-Sabotage)

✰ WOLKOROTS Don Treppenwitz cassette (Dinzu Artefacts)

 ✰SAVAK  Beg Your Pardon (Ernest Jenning Record Co.) 

✰ The BALKANYS The Balkanys  (Toddi Records/Another Records, France)

✰ ANTELOPER Kudu cassette (International Anthem Recording Company)

✰ CLAIRE POTTER & BRIDGET HAYDEN’S I Am Come From A Place) cassette (Fort Evil Fruit, Ireland)

✰ LAURA LUNA CASTILLO Laminaires (Genot, Czech Republic)

✰ RST  Spectra  (\NULL|ZØNE//)

✰ TORI KUDO ガラ刑GALAKEI  2 LP (bruit direct disques, France) 

✰ SIGNE DAHLGREEN  Kunki Snuk cassette (Astral Spirits)

✰ PIOUS FAULTS  Old Thread  (Feel It)

✰ MELFI  Four Concerns  cassette (Czaszka, U.K.)

✰ The EX  27 Passports (Ex Records, Netherlands)

✰ J.H. GURAJ Steadfast On Our Sand (Boring Machines, Italy)

✰ KUZU Hiljaisuus (Astral Spirits)

✰ WUSSY  What Heaven Is Like (Shake It)

✰ BORZOI  A Prayer For War (12XU)

✰ RAYS  You Can Get There From Here (Trouble In Mind)

✰ DELPHINE DORA  Eudaimon (three:four, Switzerland)

✰ LAKE MARY & M. SAGE  Lupine Deluxe cassette (Patient Sounds (Intl))

✰ ART GRAY NOIZZ QUINTET  “A Call To You”/”Won’t you Say It To My Face” 7″ (Robelion Music)

✰ VANILLA POPPERS I Like Your Band 7″ ep (Feel It)

✰ SOURDURE L’Espròva (Les Disques du Festival Permanent/Pagans, France)

✰ LOGARDECAY (Leslie García and Paloma López) FRGL cassette (Umor Rex, Mexico) 

✰ DE KLUMB  Con Pimiento cassette (U-Bac, Germany)

✰ MIDWIFE  Prayer Hands cassette (Antiquated Future)

✰ SALAD BOYS  This Is Glue (Trouble In Mind)

✰ RAMBLE TAMBLE Outlaw Overtones cassette (Eiderdown)

✰ ABBY LEE TEE  Imaginary Friends I cassette (Czaszka, U.K.)

✰ INGRID LAUBROCK Contemporary Chaos Practices / Two Works For Orchestra With Soloists cd (Intakt, Switzerland)

✰ PATRICK SHIROISHI  Sparrow’s Tongue cassette (Fort Evil Fruit, Ireland)

✰ FIA FIELL  All In The Same Room cassette (Nice Music, Australia)

✰ PREENING  Nice Dice 7″ ep (Fine Concepts) & Greasetrap Frisbee 7″ (ever/never)

✰ SABASABA  SabaSaba (Maple Death, U.K)

✰ HEADROOM/DIRE WOLVES Split (Pome Pome Tones/Centripetal Force)

✰ APOLOGIST  Houston  cassette (No Rent)

✰ The SITUATIONS  The Day After The Night Before cassette (Melted Ice Cream, NZ)

✰ WONDERFULS  Voices Like Rain cassette (Round Bale Recordings)

✰ TASHI DORJI & TYLER DAMON  Leave No Trace: Live In St. Louis (Family Vineyard) & Soft Berm cassette (Magnetic South)

NAUJAWANAN BAIDAR  Volume 1 cassette (Radio KHIYABAN, Netherlands)

LOUIS MINUS II  Je Voudrais Juste Dormir Pour Toujours cassette (Econore, Germany)

The OPAWA 45s Silver Screen Guitar cassette (Melted Ice Cream, New Zealand)

MT ACCORD Postcards From A Dream cassette (Czaszka, U.K.)

JONÁŠ GRUSKA Žaburina (LOM, Slovakia)

CHICALOYOH  Jaune Colère (213 Records, France)

MAMITRI YULITH EXPRESS YONAGUNISAN  Yulith  2 LP (bruit direct disques, France)

AONGHIS MCENVOY & TRISTAN CLUTTERBUCK  Duos cassette  (Fractal Meat Cuts, UK) 

IE Pone cassette (Moon Glyph)

MARILYN CRISPELL/TANYA KALMANOVITC/RICHARD TEITELBAUM  Dream Libretto (Leo, U.K.)

E  Negative World (Thrill Jockey) 

Wound 2 lp (Carbon Records)

DOMINIQUE VACCARO Close Distances cassette (Dinzu Artefacts)

RIÑA  Aqui No Eres Nadie 7″ ep (Thrilling Living)

GÜNTER BABY SOMMER & TILL BRÖNNER  Baby’s Party cd (Intakt, Switzerland) 

TRISTAN MAGNETIC  Tristan Magnetique  triple cassette box (Otomatik Muziek, Germany)

FAMOUS LOGS IN HISTORY Famous Logs In History cassette (Fuzzy Warbles) 

LUKE STEWART’s Works For Upright Bass And Amplifier  cassette (Astral Spirits)

RADIANT FUTUR  Overdriven Youth download (Get Busy!, Russia)

LÄRMSCHUTZ TAFELMUSIK SEPTET  Vierte Tafelmusik  cassette (Katuktu Collective)

TERRESTIALS  Terrestials 12″ (Heel Turn)

ALEX CRISPIN Open Submission cassette (Constellation Tatsu)

MAAVIN Sunday Drive EP download (Get Busy!, Russia)

CHARLOTTE HUG & LUCAS NIGGLI  Fulguratio cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

NAMELESS FRAMES Already Inside + 3 10″ (Super Secret Records)

GÜNTER SCHLIENZ  Liederbuch cassette (Muzan Editions, Japan)

SCRAP BRAIN Scrap Brain (Thrilling Living)

WURLD SERIES Stately and Befrothed cassette (Melted Ice Cream, NZ)

ENDURANCE Celestial Governors cassette (Tymbal Tapes)

BRABRABRA  Lagooona 7″ ep (Kitchen Leg, Germany)

DAN MELCHIOR  ‘The Folksinger’ (Swashbuckling Hobo, Australia)

JEN KUTLER  Worth cassette (Never Anything)

Field Recordings from the Sahel cassette (Sahel Sounds)

MONNONE ALONE Cut Knuckle 7” (Lost And Lonesome Recording Co., Australia)

ANDREW BARKER & DANIEL CARTER Polyhedron cassette (Astral Spirits)

YVES MALONE  Aced (2014) cassette (Baked Tapes)

JOHN HOEGBERG  Motion Detecting Songs cassette (Ehse)

CHAOSOPHY  Who Are These People And What Do They Believe In cd (Discordian/Liquen Record, Spain)

ARIAN SHAFIEE A Scarlet Fail  (VDSQ) & Beauty Tuning (Hausu Mountain) 

AKIRA SAKATA & CHIKAMORACHI with MASAHIKO SATOH Proton Pump cd (Family Vineyard) 

LEA BERTUCCI  Metal Aether (NNA)

BIG SUPERMARKET 1800 (Hobbies Galore, Australia)

GARCIA PEOPLES  Cosmic Cash (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

R.M.F.C. Hive cassette (Slime Street, Australia)  

BIKINI COPS Three 7” (Drunken Sailor, U.K.)

MUYASSAR KURDI & NICHOLAS JOZWIAK Intersections & Variations cassette (Astral Spirts)

P WITS Blonde On Blonde  double cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia)

FOLD Aegean Sea 12” (AUS, UK)

TASHI DORJI & DAVID GRUBBA  Fixed Entrance Derivatives cassette (Sky Lantern)

WET PISS Wet Piss cassette (Dumpster Tapes)

TIM & THE BOYS Growing (Meatspin, Australia)

DINO SPILUTTINI  Forever cassette (No Rent)

NEGATIVE NANCIES You Do You download (CocMuse, New Zealand)

MISSING PAGES  “Long Way Down” 7″ (12XU) 

SUNWATCHERS II & Illegal Moves 12” (both Trouble In Mind)

EYES NINETY Glaucoma Chameleon (Swashbuckling Hobo, Australia) 

PATRICIA KOKETT  Diabel 12” (Knekelhuis, Netherlands)

GEE TEE  Gee Tee cassette (Slime Street, Australia) 

C. WORTH  A Farther Sea cassette (Gertrude Tapes)

OREN AMBARCHI/KONRAD SPRENGER/PHILLIP SOLLMANN  Panama/Suez 12” (Ostgut Ton, Germany)

REX WONDERFUL & THE SILK SHEETS  Ego Death cassette (Tenth Court, Australia)

SARAH DAVACHI Gave In Rest  (Ba Da Bing) & Let Night Come On Bells End The Day (Recital)

PELVI$$  Pelvi$$ cassette (Fuzzy Warbles)

JEFF TOBIAS  Completely Phantom cassette (Baked Tapes)

BILL ORCUTT & CHRIS CORSANO  Brace Up! (Palilalia)

DONKEY BUGS  Ancient Chinese Secrets (Lumpy)

MOUNTAIN MOVERS  Pink Sky (Trouble In Mind) &  New Jam 12″ (C/Site)

MAbH  cinjusti cassette (Tymbal Tapes)

Bad Taste Vol. II - Another Collection Of Sounds From The NZ Underground cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia)  

TERRY I’m Terry  (Upset! The Rhythm, UK)

NYZ  RLD GLD ET AL cassette (Fractal Meat Cuts, UK)

THEE OPEN SEX White Horses (Sophomore Lounge)

DRUNK MUMS  Denim & Leather, Together Forever cassette (Slime Street, Australia)

JONES JONES [OCHS/DRESSER/TARASOV] A Jones In Time Saves Nine download (self-released)

IVAN THE TOLERABLE & FRIENDS Autodidact 10″ (Ack! Ack! Ack!, U.K.) 

DANIEL CARTER / WILLIAM PARKER / MATTHEW SHIPP Seraphic Light cd (AUM Fidelity)

PURPUR SPYTT Nitpick 7″ ep (POUeT! Schallplatten, France)

BLOWDRYER  Blowdryer cassette (self-released)

CHARNEL GROUND  Charnel Ground (12XU)

KAJA DRAKSER / PETTER ELDH / CHRISTIAN LILLINGER  Punkt​.​Vrt​.​Plastik cd (Intakt, Switzerland)

DRY CLEANING Sweet Princess cassette (self-released, U.K.) 

ELKHORN Lion Fish cassette (Eiderdown)

ROMAIN BAUDOIN  Bestiari (Pagans/In Situ, France)

SUNWATCHERS AND EUGENE CHADBOURNE 3 Characters 2 LP (Amish) 

FRANCIS PLAGNE Moss Trumpet (Penultimate Press, U.K. )  

SHITTY LIFE  Switch Off Your Head (self-released, Italy)

SICK LLAMA Stage Poison double cassette (unifactor)

ROCKET 808 “Digital Billboards”/“Mystery Train” 7” (12XU)

JON COLLIN What Is Thunder cassette (Fort Evil Fruit, Ireland)

CONCRETE LAWN Demo cassette (Urge, Australia)

BLANK REALM  Last Seen (Hobbies Galore, Australia)

DJ OVERDOSE  DJ Overdose 12” (L.I.E.S.)

LUDWIG BERGER & VERONIKA EHRENSPERGER  The Capacity Of Things To Act cassette (Dinzu Artefacts)

BRANDY Laugh Track (Monofonus Press)

PETER EVANS/ AGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ/BARRY GUY  Free Radicals cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

LES HALLES  Zonda cassette (Not Not Fun)

SAMARA LUBELSKI  Flickers At The Station (Drawing Room) 

PRANA CRAFTER  Bodhi Cheetah’s Choice  (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

YLAYALI  Pumpkin Patch cassette (self-released)

DEAF WISH  Lithium Zion (Sub Pop)

ROSE THOMAS BANNISTER  Ambition cd (self-released)

MIDDEX No Home (Polytechnic Youth, UK) 

SEI A  Phase EP (Aus Music, U.K.) 

KALI MALONE Cast Of Mind (Hollow Ground, Switzerland) & Organ Dirges 2016-2017 cassette (Ascetic House) 

GERRIT HATCHER Parables For The Tenor cassette (Astral Spirits)

The 1902 Syntropic Seasonal 5 cd-r comp (Wist Rec, Ireland)

The LENTILS  My Pillow Lava (Complete Trilogy)  double cassette (unread)

SCY2E*GLOCHIDS*NURSE BETTY  Weird Ear’s Fantastic Voyage (Autumn East Coast Tour) comp (Weird Ear)

the SHIFTERS  Have A Cunning Plan (Trouble In Mind)

CÉCILE CAPOZZO TRIO Sub Rosa cd (Ayler Records, France)

PROJET DE VIE  Vol. #1 EP cassette  ([Equilibre Fragile], France)

JAX DELUCA  Organs In The Wind cassette (ACR, U.K.)

LUCY CLICHÉ Cliché’s Principle (Fleisch, Germany)

JANO DOE( aka KATARÍNA GATIALOVÁ)  Duranzie cassette Genot Centre, Czech Republic)

KOMARE Komare cassette (Round Bale Recordings) 

COLLATE Liminal Concerns (self-released)

AREK GULBENKOGLU  A gift like a hollow vessel (Penultinate Press, UK)

BASIC HOUSE & WANDA GROUP  No Sympathy  (Opal Tapes, U.K.)

MANUEL TROLLER Vanishing Point (three: four, Switzerland)

STEPH RICHARDS/VINNY GOLIA/BERT TURETZKY Trio Music  cd (pfmentum) 

HEART OF SNAKE  Heart Of Snake cassette (Maple Death, U.K.)

SCHWEBEN Sketches Of Plains cassette (Otomatik Muziek, Germany)

GENEVA SKEEN  A Parallel Array Of Horses download (Room40, Australia)

IKUI DOKI  Ikui Doki  (Ayler, France)

CHARLES BARABÉ  De La Fragilité cassette (Astral Spirits)

MIDNIGHT MINES  Invisible Insurrection Of A Million Minds (The Loki Label) & Stations 7″ (I Dischi Del Barone, Sweden) 

DELACAVE  Window Has No Glass (POUeT! Schallplatten, France)

MARY LATTIMORE & MEG BAIRD  Ghost Forests cd (Three Lobed Recordings)

M/M  I Know You Are Thinking I’ve Said This All Before cassette (Czaska, U.K.)

The ATTACHMENTS  II cassette (self-released)

TYSHAWN SOREY  Pillars 3 cd (Firehouse 12)

JOËLLE LÉANDRE  Strings Garden 3 cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

STONE WITCHES  Machine Efficient cassette (Slime Street, Australia)

CARA STACEY & CAMILO ÁNGELES Ceder  (Kit, U.K)

DIRE WOLVES (JUST EXACTLY PERFECT SISTERS BAND) One For The Heads cassette (Baked Tapes) & Earthquake Country cassette (Sky Lantern) & Shootout At The Dildo Factory (Eiderdown) 142

(this is a pic of DIRE WOLVES with their eyes closed)

GEN POP II  7″ ep (Feel It)

ANGLES 3  Parede (Clean Feed, Portugal)

FRANK HURRICANE Holy Mountain Coffee tour cassette (self-released)

CARROM  Prehistories cassette (self-released, Canada)

PARSNIP Feeling Small 7″ (Anti Fade, Australia)

ÁINE O’DWYER / GRAHAM LAMBKIN Green Ways 2 cd (erstwhile)

Longform Editions digital series, particularly: EKIN FIL “Windblow”, MARJA AHTI “Entering A Cloud” and STEAM VENT “Swells”

CLINTON GREEN Setting For The Iliad CD-R (Frustration Jazz, Australia)  

PETER EVANS & BARRY GUY Syllogistic Moments cd (Maya Recordings, Swizterland)

ETRAN DE L’AÏR  No. 1 (Sahel Sounds)

ALIEN NOSEJOB Various Fads & Technological Achievements (Anti Fade, Australia)

J.C. SATÀN Centaur Desire  (Born Bad, France)

NAGUAL & STEFAN CHRISTENSEN Third 7″ (I Dischi Del Barone, Sweden)

EXEK  Ahead Of Two Thoughts (W.25th)  &  A Casual Assembly  12″ (W.25th)

ARUÁN ORTIZ TRIO’s Live in Zurich (Intakt, Switzerland)

MIA DYBERG TRIO Ticket! (Clean Feed, Portugal)

LA DANTA Alpeis Καράκας cassette (Fort Evil Fruit, Ireland)

WEAK SIGNAL LP1 cassette (Reality Delay)

DISTANT STARS The Way Things Work cassette (Detonic, Australia)Field Recordings from the Sahel

MUDHONEY Digital Garbage (Sub Pop)

ROB NOTES & RYAN LEE CROSBY  Modal Improvisations on 34 Strings cassette (Cabin Floor Esoterica)

…all those LOKI LABEL boots…

[ever-never-records]

Best of 2018

A handful of favorites from what seemed like a particularly strong year for music. Rest in peace to Yuzo Iwata, who had the album of the year the second I heard it. I Dischi Del Barone was my label of the year; everything Matthias released could’ve gone on here. Most releases listed below are readily available via any links provided: support the artists, and let’s keep this thing rolling.

LP

Yuzo Iwata, Daylight Moon (Siltbreeze)

Mournful Congregation, The Incubus of Karma (20 Buck Spin)

Lolina, The Smoke (self-released)

The Body, I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer. (Thrill Jockey)

Woolen Men, Post (Dog’s Table)

Constant Mongrel, Living In Excellence (La Vida Es Un Mus/Anti Fade)

Mamitri Yulith Empress Yonagunisan, Yulith Lilith (Bruit Direct Disques)

Vilkacis / Turia split (Altare Productions)

Arv & Miljö, Svensk sommar i stilla frid (Omlott)

Six more:

Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt, Brace Up! (Palilalia)

The Doozer, Figurines (Feeding Tube)

Geld, Perfect Texture (Iron Lung)

The Native Cats, John Sharp Toro (R.I.P. Society)

Patois Counselors, Proper Release (ever/never)

Mette Rasmussen & Tashi Dorji, s/t (Feeding Tube)

12″ / 7″ / cassette

Mosquitoes, Drip Water Hollow Out Stone 12″ (ever/never)

Alienation, Bitter Reality 7″ (Warthog Speak)

Fåglar I Bur, “Platt” b/w “Öppen Inbjudan” 7″ (I Dischi Del Barone)

Healer / DJ Eons, Dank Goblins split 7″ (Warthog Speak)

Honey Radar, Psychic Cruise 7″ (Chunklet)

JJ Ulius, “Tänder Ett Ljus” b/w “Era Jävla Manér” 7″ (Happiest Place)

Monokultur, s/t 7″ (I Dischi Del Barone)

The Native Cats, Spiro Scratch 7″ (Rough Skies)

Phrenelith, Ornamented Dead Eyes 7″ (Night Shroud)

Rapid Dye, Nurture or Destroy 7″ (Paradise Daily)

Mary Lattimore, Charlie’s Yard cassette (Petty Bunco)

Long Hots, Monday Night Raw cassette (self-released)

Wonderfuls, Voices Like Rain cassette (Round Bale)

Reissues? My research was scattered and lacking, but my top picks would be the Nightcrawlers’ Biophonic Boombox Recordings 2xLP, a much-needed reissue of Corrupted’s Se Hace Por Los Asesinos (buy that here or here), and Cut by Bill Direen/Bilders.

Above: Mizmor at Migration Fest 2018, Mr. Small’s Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA

Shows

Migration Fest at Mr. Small’s Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA: So many great sets, bolstered by the best company I could ask for and a multitude of trips to the nearby Grist House brewery. Mizmor, Mournful Congregation, Hell, Yellow Eyes and Fórn were my favorite performances of the weekend.

Primitive Man and Spectral Voice at the End, Nashville, TN

Bill Direen / Bilders at the Pilot Light, Knoxville, TN

Tashi Dorji at the Pilot Light, Knoxville, TN

[ever-never-records]

Best of 2018

A handful of favorites from what seemed like a particularly strong year for music. Rest in peace to Yuzo Iwata, who had the album of the year the second I heard it. I Dischi Del Barone was my label of the year; everything Matthias released could’ve gone on here. Most releases listed below are readily available via any links provided: support the artists, and let’s keep this thing rolling.

LP

Yuzo Iwata, Daylight Moon (Siltbreeze)

Mournful Congregation, The Incubus of Karma (20 Buck Spin)

Lolina, The Smoke (self-released)

The Body, I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer. (Thrill Jockey)

Woolen Men, Post (Dog’s Table)

Constant Mongrel, Living In Excellence (La Vida Es Un Mus/Anti Fade)

Mamitri Yulith Empress Yonagunisan, Yulith Lilith (Bruit Direct Disques)

Vilkacis / Turia split (Altare Productions)

Arv & Miljö, Svensk sommar i stilla frid (Omlott)

Six more:

Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt, Brace Up! (Palilalia)

The Doozer, Figurines (Feeding Tube)

Geld, Perfect Texture (Iron Lung)

The Native Cats, John Sharp Toro (R.I.P. Society)

Patois Counselors, Proper Release (ever/never)

Mette Rasmussen & Tashi Dorji, s/t (Feeding Tube)

12″ / 7″ / cassette

Mosquitoes, Drip Water Hollow Out Stone 12″ (ever/never)

Alienation, Bitter Reality 7″ (Warthog Speak)

Fåglar I Bur, “Platt” b/w “Öppen Inbjudan” 7″ (I Dischi Del Barone)

Healer / DJ Eons, Dank Goblins split 7″ (Warthog Speak)

Honey Radar, Psychic Cruise 7″ (Chunklet)

JJ Ulius, “Tänder Ett Ljus” b/w “Era Jävla Manér” 7″ (Happiest Place)

Monokultur, s/t 7″ (I Dischi Del Barone)

The Native Cats, Spiro Scratch 7″ (Rough Skies)

Phrenelith, Ornamented Dead Eyes 7″ (Night Shroud)

Rapid Dye, Nurture or Destroy 7″ (Paradise Daily)

Mary Lattimore, Charlie’s Yard cassette (Petty Bunco)

Long Hots, Monday Night Raw cassette (self-released)

Wonderfuls, Voices Like Rain cassette (Round Bale)

Reissues? My research was scattered and lacking, but my top picks would be the Nightcrawlers’ Biophonic Boombox Recordings 2xLP, a much-needed reissue of Corrupted’s Se Hace Por Los Asesinos (buy that here or here), and Cut by Bill Direen/Bilders.

Above: Mizmor at Migration Fest 2018, Mr. Small’s Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA

Shows

Migration Fest at Mr. Small’s Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA: So many great sets, bolstered by the best company I could ask for and a multitude of trips to the nearby Grist House brewery. Mizmor, Mournful Congregation, Hell, Yellow Eyes and Fórn were my favorite performances of the weekend.

Primitive Man and Spectral Voice at the End, Nashville, TN

Bill Direen / Bilders at the Pilot Light, Knoxville, TN

Tashi Dorji at the Pilot Light, Knoxville, TN

[ever-never-records]

LADIES & GERMZ, MERRY XMAS AND A SAFE HOLIDAY SEASON TO YOU ALL…IT’S TIME TO TRADE IN THOSE LAME GIFT CARDS AND SPLURGE FOR THE REAL DEALZ…AS WE PRESENT TO YOU THE 2018 VERSION OF THE…

✰ FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS HOLIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE!✰

As previously noted in these here dead mall tumblr pages, we acquired these 80s/90s zine antiquities one way: we went shoppin’! Sure, most of the original fare pictured above is loooonnnggg gone, but many of the original content creators continue to blast forth far into our era of networked ether…so gaze into your handheld digital marvel with your gift card/credit card in hand and support the current perspectives and endeavors of aging scribes and contemporary writhing chives…and then some…

BUT FIRST!  Some sort of contribution to La Résistance:  SWING LEFT  ✰  DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA  ✰  NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION  ✰  NATIONAL IMMIGRATION LAW CENTER  ✰  COALITION TO STOP GUN VIOLENCE  ✰   SECULAR COALITION OF AMERICA   ✰  NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS  ✰  PLANNED PARENTHOOD   ✰   CLINIC VEST PROJECT  ✰  U.S. COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS (USCRI)   ✰  THE TREVOR PROJECT  ✰ AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION (ACLU)  ✰ NATIONAL ABORTION AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ACTION LEAGUE (NARAL PRO-CHOICE AMERICA)   ✰   THEJEREMY WILSON FOUNDATION MUSICIANS’ EMERGENCY HEALTHCARE FUND   ✰   SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER   ✰   NATIONAL NETWORK OF ABORTION FUNDS    ✰   EMILY’S LIST   ✰    BRADY CAMPAIGN TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE   ✰   WFMU START   ✰   

AND NOW…OPEN UP THY CREDIT!

12XU  FRR said: “Resurrected in 2011 by Gerard Cosloy [Conflict, Loaded, Forced Exposure, Matter, a letter to Flaccid in 1988…], the quality of rock combustibles is consistently staggering.”

2018′s CLASS  includes: MISSING PAGES, BORZOI, UNHOLY TWO, ROCKET 808, CHARNEL GROUND and a bunch of Spacecase deliverables: RICHIE VENUS 7″, JEFFREY EVANS & ROSS JOHNSON, the AND BAND…     

( 2018 Unholy Two pic above by Michael O'Shaughnessy…lifted from 12XU without permission).

VDSQ continues to deliver the zonked out acoustic mesmerizables! 2018′s CLASS includes ARIAN SHAFIEE (204 years in the making!), WENDY EISENBERG, and two Holiday 2018 downloads by ANTHONY PASQUAROSA and  MARK MCQUIRE, not to mention essentials from the past five years or so!

Speaking of VDSQ, didja know it’s part of an emerging empire of outer limits combustion (along with Thin Wrist Recordings) called The Black Editions Group? Yeah, they’re taking over! The flagship flashback enterprise of this collective is, naturally, BLACK EDITIONS, reissuing on vinyl the output of the legendary PSF Records, which so far includes deluxxxxe vinyl versions of Keiji Haino’s Watashi Dake, the first Tokyo Flashback comp, High Rise II, and Ché-SHIZU’s A Journey! Mouth watering!!

SILTBREEZE & THE PHILADELPHIA RECORD EXCHANGE  What we  said at a younger age (like four years ago): “Of course we know these are two separate entities, but Siltbreeze’s Tom Lax (classic overtures in Forced Exposure, Opprobrium, Superdope, Wind-Up and…possibly… even…Siltbreeze) was the primary spirit animal of both operations since Reagan’s second term (more or less).”

In 2018, Siltbreeze issued what might be the finest psych-folk dark dream weaver since Simon Finn’s Pass The Distance, YUZO IWATA’s Daylight Moon. Iwata died this year not long after its release, giving this gorgeous collection an even heavier spiritual weight. R.I.P.   

(Yuzo Iwata video above from  3/31/18 performance at the Philadelphia Record Exchange)

Speaking of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania…OMGUH…ROSALIE is the shapeshifting musical genius of our time! Her second long player Trouble Anyway (on Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Scissor Tail Editions) is a deep future dream burner, MAYBE THE BEST REASON TO WRITE A FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEW IN 2018 (although you’ll have to wait until we publish our official year end list on 12/31/18)…the songs radiate, as if our primo choice Fleetwood Mac songwriter/gtr player Bob Welch (yea, that’s right, Bob Welch) was reincarnated in her restless carbonic space, in response to which she sez to his ghost, “Thx for the glow, Bob, now scram! I’m a woman of 1000 years and I got my own songs to write!” Rosali does this while alternating as a mangler with the primitive Sic Kidz inspired (yay, Philly!) raunch trio LONG HOTS, who we told you guys to pay attention to on last year’s year end list! 

FORCED EXPOSURE  We said, “Like, duh, who isn’t familiar with this already? We all know Jimmy Johnson rode a wave carved in his own likeness into online shopping supremacy via the post-FE catalogs of PSF crack. (Oy, that’s a mouthful!). Nineteen years later, the volume of worldwide outsider music featured at the FE site every fucking day is totally nuts!” 

INTAKT RECORDS is the flagship enterprise for the immortal IRÈNE SCHWEIZER (that diacritical over the letter ‘E’ still confuses us to this day though, always have to look it up). Since emerging online a few years back, the label has been nearly flawless in sound and design. Some of our 2018 faves include INGRID LAUBROCK’S Contemporary Chaos Practices - Two Works For Orchestra With Soloists, the ARUÁN ORTIZ TRIO’s Live in Zurich, and the SYLVIE COURVOISIER TRIO’s finger snappin’ coolio missive D’Agala. This label gets the highest recommendation for those of you into contemporary free zone sonics. 

Speaking of labels who release far too much fire music in a single year than anyone - even us freaks - could write down on a single piece of paper with a Sharpie, much less listen to with any sorta recurring familiarity…hello Portugal’s CLEAN FEED RECORDS! Some of 2018′s cosmic tones for mental therapy include the MIA DYBERG TRIO’s Ticket!, The WAY AHEAD’s Bells, Ghosts And Other Saints (ya, note the Ayler reference…Swedes blast off sweetly), ANGLES 3′s Parede (that’s double bass action from Ingebrigt Håker Flaten with percussion by Kjell Nordeson and reeds by Martin Küchen), Space Quartet by SPACE QUARTET (Rafael Toral, Hugo Antunes, João Pais Filipe, Ricardo Webbens), METTE RASMUSSEN & CHRIS CORSANO’s A View Of The Moon (From The Sun) [btw, this from the Clean Feed booster department: “Extreme expression, extreme timbres, extreme techniques: the Danish, but living in Trondheim, saxophonist [Mette Rasmussen} keeps here the same attitude she has with the punk-jazz band Trio Riot and her collaborations with Cocaine Piss in the hardcore field, always pushing the envelope to the highest and the lowest notes of the alto sax…”], SUSANA SANTOS SILVA’s dazzling solo trumpet and bellz excursion All the Rivers – Live at Panteão Nacional, and ZACK CLARKE’s Mesophase (with Charlotte Greve on sax, flute and clarinet, Leonid Galaganov on shakuhachi, waterphone, percussion, Chris Irvine on cello and Nick Dunston on double bass. All superb! 

…aannnnddd from the Not-To-Be-Outdone-In-The-How-Many-Frickin’-Great-Records-Can-You-Release-In-One-Year Department, hello (again)  FEEDING TUBE RECORDS! Dayum, who can keep up? It’s also the sugar shack our first ever BEST REASON TO WRITE A FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEW (in 2013) winner Byron Coley calls home (he was singled out by our senior editorial crew for his solo LP of long form narratives, Dating Tips For Touring Bands, on Chris Corsano’s Hot Car Warp , as he writes all the copy for the label’s multifarious output (as well as still writing for spiritual homies Forced Exposure and an essential column and contributions to The Wire).

So what’s good on Feeding Tube in 2018? We thought you’d never ask! Proprietor Ted Lee seems to’ve struck a deal with the United Kingdom’s Cardinal Fuzz Records, resulting in four excellent 2018 burners from across the psych spectrum: SUNFLARE’s On, TRIMDON GRANGE EXPLOSION’s self-titled (Coley sez: “…one of the finest blends of UK folk and West Coast psych since the glory days of Fairport”), DIRE WOLVES’ (who’ve had an excellent year!) Paradisiacal Mind, and the utterly stunning All Is Quiet At The Ancient Theatre by ALISON COTTON (Coley again: “…blending long dark viola and harmonium lines with vocals drawn straight from the clouds. The effect resembles Tony Conrad in places and John Cale’s work with Nico in others, while remaining trademark Alison Cotton throughout….designed to last through the ages. Beautiful stuff.“)…

What else does Feeding Tube have to offer in 2018? Well, speaking (above) of METTE RASMUSSEN, how about her duo cassette (or LP) with TASHI DORJI?  MAXINE FUNKE’s third long player Silk melts us like only modern english can, it’s construction time again with (NEW ENGLAND) PATRIOTS’ Patriots, CREATIVE HEALING’s Low Effort Social Events long stares an excellent Beefheart/Men & Volts mesh, STATE CHAMPION’s Send Flowers (co-released with Sophomore Lounge) almost killed @still-single‘s Doug Mosurock in his tracks…plus the WEEPING BONG BAND record rules (Clark Griffin, Wednesday Knudsen, PG Six, Anthony Pasquarosa and Beverly Ketch, all heroes around these parts).

We also luvvved the MORE KLEMENTINES record, about which we said on the FRR Instagram stories page, “Two dazzling extended odysseys by a New England trio perhaps best thought of in the context of Sun Burned Hand Of The Man infiltrating and destabilizing KAK…The Jon Schlesinger/Steubs guitar:: banjo:: mandolin tapestry radiates a very celestial Gary Yoderized wobble, the kinda tone we all pine for on rainy, starless nights, elbowed forward by Michael Kiefer’s precision zig zag trap rolls and cymbal tang.This record is an out-of-nowhere year-end topper, co-released with @twinlakes by the third mind gurus at feedingtube…the kinda thing that convincingly rewards our unyielding interest in unpopular musics…it’s that good 🙏”  

Furthermore from Feeding Tube: Conrad Capistran and Joshua Burkett are TARP and their electric boogaloo sounds just like you hoped it would coming from these two denizens of the the Pioneer Valley, goner folk emerges from the dome of NED COLETTE’s Old Chestnut, and how could we leave out a new record from Jacqui Ham’s post-Ut skronk immersion unit, DIAL?  That’s just scratching the surface of Feeding Tube enterprises this year, so good luck wrapping your head around all of it. 

Movin’ on from Feeding Tube - sorta - those two CHRIS CORSANO/BILL ORCUTT recs on Orcutt’s Palilalia Records are nutso! Brace Up! is still available at Forced Exposure.  

TASHI DORJI has had a hell of a year (again) and each of his collaborations have had a higher level mind bending impact around the FRR office: with TYLER DAMON on Soft Berm (Magnetic South) and Leave No Trace: Live In St. Louis (Family Vineyard), DAVID GRUBBA on Fixed Entrance Derivatives (Sky Lantern), in KUZU with Damon and DAVE REMPIS (Astral Spirits), in MANAS with Thom Nguyen (Null Zone) and a buncha solo endeavors too.  

Speaking of cool guitar sounds on Astral Spirits: the LISA CAMERON / SANDY EWEN duo record See Creatures is a dazzler!

Y’know, we was jawin’ with each other at the FRR Xmas party a few nights ago regarding the apparent self-evident greatness of the 1983-1988 era of sub-underground freak rock taste makers (egads, an awful term, I know)…labels like Homestead, SST, and Touch & Go…when right then and there, I proclaimed that RIGHT NOW, there are more than a few contemporary labels successfully carrying the torch…like NYC’s ever/never records, f’r instance!

 2018 saw ever/never continue its domination of presenting outstanding unpopular rock music to the masses, finally delivering on the follow up to RICHARD PAPIERCUTS’ legendary 2015 LP “If” with Twisting The Night, a four song instant classic extended play that’ll have you thinking this music shouldn’t be so unpopular after all (i.e., even your normie friends’ll dig it). Also included in the batch of 2018 goodies was a solid club house make out collab between SPRAY PAINT & THE REBEL, the fourth long player of “unhurried, rain dripping confessionals” from Geoffrey Bankowski and friends aka QUIETUS, excellent curved air outsider moans from the U.K.’s MOSQUITOES, the debut long playing vinyl from supercharged dub housing acolytes PATOIS COUNSELORS…and a coupla more! 

No OBNOX titles from ever/never or 12XU this year, but furrow your bushy brows not! Astral Spirits had the presence of mind to ask Lamont Thomas to make a ‘free jazz’ record, so we’re gifted with Templo del Sonido, which’ll bulldoze ya’ like Charles Gayle wrestling with Borbetomagus and Jean Grae down a mountainside! We haven’t yet heard the other 2018 record Obnox made for old friends Smog Veil, Bang Messiah, but how can it be anything other than stellar?   

Continuing our celebration of super duper contemporary sub-underground rock labels requires us to throw our hands in the air for Trouble In Mind and its 2018 lineup, about which we said one day while driving down the Long Island Expressway making the thinking emoji face, “…was musing about how Trouble In Mind has been able to corner the market on infectious tilted pop masterworks these past two years, what with Rays, Ethers, Salad Boys, En Attendant Ana, Chook Race, Connections, Love-Birds, David Nance, Mountain Movers, the Shifters…! The label has amassed a dragon’s fortune of timeless music (it puts out more than just those records as well), in the league of early Flying Nun or mid 60s Capitol.  It’s almost like Bill and Lisa Roe walked into a garden of low hanging earthly delights and much to everyone’s delight, are the only ones equipped with the machinery to do anything about it en mass. Long may they!!”  Since we posted that on the FRR story page accompanied by neato GIFS, TiM has issued another SUNWATCHERS 12″ and is promising to deliver the second WRITHING SQARES full-length in early 2019.  

Hey, remember that PORTON PORTON LOPEZ record Moi Aussi J'Ai Des Amis Qui Font Du Bruit we hyped back in 2015? Even @cyanidetooth was impressed enough to stop making fun of us for a day. Well, PPL are back and have a new one De Colère Et D'Envie and it’s another satisfying stab at harder edged Merrell Fanhauser/MU venutian blues, so yeah, it kills. 

Another year, another set of manic missives from DYNAMITE HEMORRHAGE: more podcasts than you can shake an iPod classic at, and former Superdope editor Jay Hinman continues to be an excellent source for “sub-underground and raw music from the last five decades or so: punks, freaks, crude garage, experimental, free jazz, folk, proto-punkers and more”. He also just hipped us to the upcoming  AMATEUR HOUR LP Framtiden Tiller Inte Oss (Happiest Place, Sweden - 2019) and yes, we are holding our breathe for that one!

Speaking of crazily informed heads, we can’t let this long winded post go by without mentioning Erika Elizabeth’s excellent Futures And Pasts podcast and Maximum RNR columns, not to mention her role in COLLATE and the band’s great 2018 self-released album Liminal Concerns, about which none other than Jay Hinman wrote, “…Fans of bass-driven, ear canal-cleaning agitprop from the likes of the Au Pairs and the more contemporaneous Household will find much to crave here.”  

Would FRR even be on tumblr anymore if it wasn’t for the wickedly sardonic verbiage about worthy cumbustibles of the modern dance that originates from the pages of @dustedandsocial? D&S’s editor is the closest we’ve ever come to encountering omnipotence about these matters. He’d probably be a lot better off focusing his energies on California acquifier investments, but thankfully for us, he’s more interested in sharing essential no count discoveries like The BALKANYS cassette  (Toddi Records/A other Records, France), P WITS’ Blonde on Blonde LP (chemical imbalance.), PINEAPPLE RNR’s Pineapple Rik n Roll EP,  and DRY CLEANING’s Sweet Princess, among so many others.          

DAVE BRUSHBACK! He recently encouraged readers to check out Ron Jons Surf Shop Sampler ‘18 by Ron Jons Surf Shop and yeah, it’s a yet another stunning Connecticut psych foray, thanks Dave (again)!   

Yet for all the rock based proselytizing we do around here, we actually spend most of our listening time in the outer limits of quasi-formal architecture, i.e., with those who trade in wide eyed improv, collagist delirium, cosmic bubble tea and noise-on-the-nose. That there are so many consistently great labels corralling 2018’s best practitioners of the uncategorizable is, therefore, a great thing for those times  we need to stare at the wall:

ASTRAL SPIRITS (2018’s faves include SIGNE DAHLGREEN, ANDREW BARKER & DANIEL CARTER, GERRIT HATCHER, LUKE STEWART’s Works For Upright Bass And Amplifier, CHARLES BARABÉ, that KUZU collab mentioned above), and about ten more….

CONSTELLATION TATSU  (ALEX CRISPIN’s Open Submission, RHUCLE, CELER…)

FORT EVIL FRUIT (JON COLLIN’s What Is Thunder, whoa!, CLAIRE POTTER & BRIDGET HAYDEN’S I Am Come From A Place), PATRICK SHIROSHI’s Sparrow’s Tongue…)

DINZU ARTEFACTS (DEPONTI/MORETTI slays, as does the WOLKOKROTS cassette) 

Philly’s NO RENT RECORDS!! (really dug the DINO SPILUTTINI,  CARLO GIUSTINI and OBSIDIAN NEEDLES cassettes) 

GERTUDE TAPES (the RUSS WATERHOUSE and C. WORTH cassettes in particular)… 

We could go on, but you stopped reading hours ago and it’s time to wrap this up…but we can’t part without revisiting what we said about BRIDGET HAYDEN’s amazing Pure Touch Only From Now On, They Said So LP on Sweden’s Early Music: “If the idea of distal phantasms glowing in the woods, accompanied by hollowed out guitar riffs and collapsed piano, strikes yr fancy - and why would it not - then this just might be your record of the year. The seven constructions here are the most devastating haunts we’ve heard since Hayden’s  2017 cassette on @fortevilfruit, or Letha Rodman Melchior’s two rex on Siltbreeze…similarly and simultaneously warm, menacing, otherworldly and hypnotizing. Impossible to resist the unnerving lull of these audio visages.”   

oh yeah…that CONSTANT MONGREL record, holy moly!: “Three years since the last Constant Mongrel record, this is without a doubt one of the most devastating rock blasts of 2018. Forget all those dopey reviews you’re reading about post punk influences, it’s such a limiting reference point for this band. On the contrary, this new one has all the density of the first Blodwyn Pig record: guitar lines hit like rusty shanks, production is full on BOLD and enveloping, the forward motion absolutely unstoppable, songs possess brain-worm caliber quality (and yeah synth and piano plonk adornments abound)…and…are those horns?This is rock excitement personified! It’s also a step above all that’s preceded it in this realm, including  those Total Control recs you love so much. OUTSTANDING!” 

…hello, there’s a new THALIA ZEDEK BAND record and shout out to Thrill Jockey’s BETTINA RICHARDS for doing it so well for so long: “Another breathtaking  modern classic from Thalia Zedek. Her cracked and weathered vox, framed by a set of gut wrenching hymns for deeply troubled times, augmented by Dave Curry’s violin and Mel Lederman’s piano, devastates the FRR emotional landscape. YAH, there are parts of this that wipe us out and YEAH, we gush. One of the most gush-worthy rock performers of our era, make no mistake. It’s FIGHTING SEASON!” 

…must acknowledge two superb and long standing sources of great music, the Free Form Freakout podcast and Marc Masters’ bandcamp column, Hi Bias 

…also big hello to @goodbysunball and @raygarraty, who write über worthy missives every now and again about even more…thanx for keeping tumblr interestin’!  

[ever-never-records]

Wipers! Wire! Ragtime Frank & The Drivers! Witch! Oh Sees! HOGG! Nurse With Wound! Claire Potter & Bridget Hayden! Chips For The Poor! Lubricated Goat! Conduit! Mosquitoes! Peter Evans & Weasel Walter! Sediment Club! Boy Dirt Car! Bo Gritz! The Contemporary Jazz Quintet! plus Alice Cooper live in ‘69!

[ever-never-records]

Dust, Volume 4, Number 7

Young Widows  

It’s been some time since we published a Dust, and, as anyone’s mother will tell you, this stuff accumulates if you don’t keep after it. This month’s edition includes the usual smattering of metal, jazz, rock, folk and a healthy dose of our favorite genre, “unclassifiable.” Contributors include Bill Meyer, Patrick Masterson, Jennifer Kelly, Derek Taylor, Justin-Cober Lake, Jonathan Shaw and Isaac Olson

Keep reading

[ever-never-records]

Hardly ten seconds into “Disconnect Notice,” the opening track on Patois Counselors’ debut LP Proper Release, and I’m struck by how much this sounds like Pere Ubu - specifically their Modern Dance/Dub Housing period, though the last two or three LPs wouldn’t be bad reference points, either. I don’t take the comparison lightly; 6 out of 7 days a week I’d probably say Pere Ubu is my favorite band, and it’s a resemblance the band can’t shake as the album rolls on. There’s the rubberband bassline in “Get Excitement” (and the rhythm section in general), the constant electronic interference causing the grooves to become seasick, and the barbed lyrics largely focused on the human condition. The lyrics, in particular, are precise without any trace of ostentation, designed to be pored over - ”What are you doing with your hands?/They are wasted,” on “Too Many Digits,” or the chorus to my favorite track, “The Modern Station,” where screen addiction is taken to task. Lest you think the whole thing is some scolding, slogging narrative, there’s the self-deprecating “Terrible Likeness” (”I thought I was more handsome/a regular raging bull”), and, more to the point, the album whips by in a flash. Each song here is trimmed and elbowing for space among any number of art-punk welterweights. The catchiest moment is saved for last, and if there was any justice in the underground, “Target Not a Comrade” would be a hit by summer’s end. Make your own justice, immerse yourself in Proper Release, a dizzying trip and one of the year’s top contenders.

ever/never records brought us Proper Release - you can buy it from their Bandcamp. The LP comes with a lyric sheet, perfect to satisfy your meager summer reading needs. Between the Preening 7″ and the upcoming Mosquitoes 12″ (out July 13), the good folks at e/n are on a tear this year.

[ever-never-records]

Allen Paulino

Listening to the recent Real Kids records from Crypt brought back such a flood of memories from my time spent with the crazy, irrepressible, ultimately lovable (sometimes infuriating) person named Allen Alpo Paulino. No one knows much about that time period except for me, David and Dana. We were an island unto ourselves in the Boston scene. We all worked at Rounder records in Cambridge. David and Dana and Allen worked in the warehouse, and I worked upstairs in the computer department. Rounder was a crazy place, even though it was a folkie label. JJ Rassler worked upstairs with me as did Glenn Dicker and Tor Hansen (later of Yep Roc label fame). We listened to music all day and were generally pretty unruly, undisciplined types who drank a lot (at least not at work, most of us anyway).

Down in the warehouse all kinds of weird shit was going on. Dana and David would keep me abreast of all the delinquent activities, people shitting in bathroom sinks etc. One day we had a new recruit to the warehouse staff- Allen Paulino. I don’t know how he ended up there. Probably through Howie Ferguson or maybe JJ Rassler. Alpo was in rough shape but he was doing the best he could to fight his demons, which were many…and not just alcohol related. I don’t remember how I personally met Alpo. But we worked together for a couple months and he came out to see us play at Bunratty’s. We had a woman named Dina Perleman playing bass with us. She was our first bassist. Allen watched the show and said something to the effect that we could use a better bass player and that he would be willing to play with us. So we unceremoniously booted Dina out. Cruel, but we wanted to get better, and we had A LOT of improving to do at that point. We were all just beginning to play instruments, let alone be playing out in clubs in a competitive Boston scene. But we were playing primarily original songs and Alpo liked what he heard.

So we started practicing together. We would ride down to our practice space from Central Square in Cambridge down to the south end of Boston near South Station. On the way down Alpo would want us to stop at the liquor stores to pick up some “nips”, little bottles of vodka usually. During the trips to the space and to shows we would hear so many stories about the Real Kids. I hate to say I did not know anything about the band at at that time- literally nothing. Their records were hard to find, no internet googling, 1977 was ancient history in 1989. Although I knew a lot about music from earlier periods. I was still pretty young and had been in college with no exposure to most things important ( except literature).

When we played with Allen we became much more cohesive as a unit. He taught us to be a band. He had experience and great taste, and always played the right notes- and he swung like a bastard. Full forward propulsion. None of that “on the beat” shit that I hate.

I will never forget going to his family house on the north shore (Peabody, I think) and seeing where he grew up. It was so amazing to me. And learning about his mom naming the Nervous Eaters because they ate so fast at the dinner table. And learning about Jonathan Richman’s dastardly deeds as a homewrecker. And all the things he found in the trash (the family business was trash collecting. We were big trash pickers too.) Fucking endless great stories that blew my mind.

Allen not only was in our band he lived with us for a period of time. He loved us like another brother. We tried to help him, but it was too much too take on. He lived in our basement and he had a friend that would sneak nips and drugs in pizza boxes and deliver them to him downstairs. I was a very naive person and thought he could cure himself if he had people who cared for him. It did not work. He went from bad to worse and we finally had to split ways. It was very sad and we were hurt and he was hurt also. I remember after he left he listened to us do a radio broadcast with Merle Allin who replaced him and he said something like “that guy isn’t right for you” and he was right (soundwise).

I will always look back fondly listening to music in our little living room in Allston. We would listen to Love “Forever Changes” and Modern Lovers “Hospital”. He would steal David’s prescription cold medicine and chug it. We would laugh incessantly at all that was ridiculous around us. He could be a real charmer. Then he could be the darkest demon you ever met. But I will never speak badly of him because I love him to this day, and am very happy he had a few years of peace in his life toward the end.

Alpo was a rock star in Boston. He was very brave to play music with us. Everyone thought he was crazy to play with us because his crowd thought we were terrible. They would tell him that right in front of us at shows we played. Often times we were  terrible. But Alpo shared the same love of crazy fucked up rock n roll and he treasured originality. And he saw that in us. We were from different worlds but he related to us. He knew we were raw and just beginning our journey but he was never condescending. His playing with us took me to another level of creativity at that time. Thank you Alpo- and long live the Real Kids!

[ever-never-records]

Patois Counselors — Proper Release (Ever/Never)

“I’ve got a new dance called smashing the fingers. Why don’t you gather round?” posits Patois Counselor’s Bo White, as a no wave sax whinges mosquito-like somewhere in the vicinity of his head. A pause intervenes, about the length of a deep, calming breath, and the band kicks into a chaotic, upheaving, jumping-straight-up-and-down frenzy. The song, “Too Many Digits” comes about halfway through the band’s full-length debut, and if it’s not the high point, it’s one of them. Recorded live with an appreciative audience in a bit over a minute, the cut encapsulates everything that’s great about this ragged post-punk band, the way slack drawled observations give way to rock hard rhythms, that chaotic blurts of detuned keyboards frame insidious fragments of anthemry, that a clanking, wandering bass anchors everything, keeping encroaching chaos at bay.  

Keep reading

[ever-never-records]

Out today on evi/nevi is Patois Counselors’ debut Lp, “Proper Release. Hope it excites you half as much as it does me.

[ever-never-records]

‘Modern Station’ off upcoming Patois Counselors debut LP. Out on ev/never 6/1/18

[ever-never-records]

MAXIMUM ERNST Presents “Disappearing Duo’

[ever-never-records]

MAXIMUM ERNST 

Live @ The Glove

4/14/18

[ever-never-records]

pix