#Derek Vinyl City

[skippybal09]

BOOM new sprites!

I finally got to making actual sprites for my OCs.

(from the top, left to right)

TR, Jenny, Jimmy, Geoff, Hyde, Jekkuh, Scooter, Skippy, Trevor, Derek, Waffles, Cynth, Carmen, Kandi, Trixxy, Vinelle, Angel, and Damien! I'll make intro posts for each of them eventually. (I already did Geoff and Jimmy's as of typing this.)

[myvinylplaylist]

Ted Nugent: Ted Nugent (1975)

Epic Records

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Thank you Steven! Thanks so much!

Description:

Jeff Buckley | HMV Superstore | Toronto, ON, Canada | 10/27/1994

Jeff Buckley and his band made a special appearance at the HMV Superstore in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on October 27, 1994. They were in town for a concert that took place the following evening at Trinity Church (aka Trinity Centre/Trinity-St. Paul's); I will post some snippets of the aforementioned concert in the pinned comment. Coincidentally, as a native Torontonian, I purchased my vinyl copy of Grace at the same store, completely oblivious to the fact that Jeff had played there about a decade earlier.

I would like to give thanks to my friends Alex Haitz and Cory, who both helped enhance the audio-visual quality of this footage, which was originally even more diluted. I would especially like to extend my sincerest gratitude to Karen Pace, who not only organized this event, but gave me a copy of her VHS transfer, which she made directly from the master tape. Here is a description of the video, in her own words:

"The footage is very poorly shot, very amateur. Our regular videographer was not working that shift, so it fell to one of the floor employees to hold the camera, which she did not do very well. It's very shaky. But it exists.

As far as I know, no one owns the original copy that would have been in the DJ booth at 333 Yonge St. after I left there in 1997. When the store closed, I bet you can investigate for decades and never find out what happened to the stuff that was in the DJ booth! I made a copy for myself right after the in-store, as I was the host for it that afternoon. The in-store happened because I asked for it from the label rep, and Jeff did it as a favour to me, because I had met him in New York City at CB's Gallery in December 1993, and again at his first 2 Toronto shows at Ultrasound and C'est What. He was a mutual friend of my New York singer friend Peter Stuart, who would go on to form the band Dog's Eye View. Jeff told me that he never did in-store performances, that he hated to do them, but he acquiesced and did it as a favour to me when I asked for it through the label rep. I will be forever grateful that we got that small performance at HMV.

The set was just over 30 minutes long, maybe 40 minutes, if I remember correctly. However, the store employee who videotaped it only put in a 30-minute tape into the video recorder, so the performance cuts off after 30 minutes and no one on the planet has the rest of the show on any footage anywhere. I know that for a fact. Cell phones with cameras didn't exist then for audience members to shoot it!

As for the original tape of his HMV set: the usual camera person was indeed Derek Conant, but he wasn’t working the day of Jeff’s in-store. So a floor person, who usually helped customers or handled cash, held the camera. The camera is not steady, the shots are blurry then come into focus. She had no experience and did us a favour by holding the camera while I did the interview. Derek was my cameraman for the next 3 years, as well as the marketing manager, Sara Kupusa, once in a while at the beginning, then Christopher Mills was hired to do all video editing and interview and live shooting as he was a film student at Ryerson. But on Jeff’s in-store day, we were still in the very beginning stages of having in-stores and video-taping them with an interview, to be able to edit them together to play in the store as a reel. She (the videographer) only put in a 30-minute tape into the video camera. So silly! None of us even double-checked to make sure it was a longer tape! It was a VHS camera. It taped right onto a VHS tape.

After the in-store, I copied the original VHS tape onto a used VHS tape from home that was 45 minutes long, so in the middle of that song, it cuts out to whatever else was on my personal VHS tape (a news reel for something), then goes blank. So we only have 30 minutes of that set. The set lasted about 40 minutes, if I recall. I don’t have a set list for it to know what songs came after that. Maybe some fans who were there wrote that down?

I have no idea what would have happened to all the stock at HMV, nor all the in-store video tapes that would have been in the DJ booth when it closed down. I assume they were all carted off to the dump. There is no head office that they would have been shipped to, and I assume everyone was given their walking papers without being able to take anything from the store. That’s how it usually works. The doors are locked and everything in the store is thrown out."

With that said, if anyone watching this video, and reading this description, has the master tape, or knows who might have it ― assuming that it even still exists (as Karen implied, it likely doesn't) ― please get in touch with me, as I would like to have it digitized for posterity. I should also note that the poor sound is due to this video being in mono. My friend, Cory, surmised that the master tape might have stereo sound, though.

[cigarretteluvr]

record store employee

being home for the holiday has filled me with nothing less than pure joy. where better to be during this mercury retrograde?

my teenage bedroom, where time seems to not exist. i'm not twenty one or fifteen or nineteen in this bedroom. not going through a breakup, not a student. i just am, freely.

getting finger cuts on the records i graze my finger on and don't pick. dancing in front of my window. watching movies i've put off watching because it wasn't the right "time." indulging in the core part of myself that isn't good or bad. but just is.

today i went into town with my dad to look at the leaves changing color and falling. there's no better time to be in the city of trees than in the fall, i always tell people.

we started at mast coffee. i got a hot pumpkin chai and picked leaves out of my hair. he pulled out his camera to take pictures of me- which i co-opted immediately, "this is my new toy for the day," i said, playing with the focus. he chuckled.

the city was celebrating fall. leaves sprinkled down like confetti. trees still full of them saturated the skies and the blankets covering the streets made the neighborhoods look warm and happy and glowing.

after leaving the tower district (saddened by the demolition of tower records), we skipped over to the historic district for a record store we went to years ago. where i picked up yeezus on vinyl and it changed my life.

it was busy, but not as busy as you'd expect it to be. and not busy enough to distract the owner from my enthusiasm.

after pulling out derek and the domino's layla, and other assorted love songs, i ran to my dad to show it to him. original pressing and all.

as we stared, the owner comes up to me. he's older, short, and a sarcastic type. the kind of guy you would expect to run a record store in the historic district, but with a little bit of edge.

"now how does a youngin' like you know about this album?" he asks me.

looking at my own reflection in his sunglasses, i laugh, and respond, "i guess i'm cultured, how could you not know about this album?"

he looks at my dad snd i with a laugh. "you know, this may not be politically correct to say, but it's amazing what heartbreak and a little heroin can do. this is one of the best double lps ever made."

"yeah, pretty much sums up the seventies, huh?" i respond.

he pats me on the shoulder and laughs. we go our seperate ways. i'm looking for the marias new album still. nose-deep in the new releases, i overhear a boy in a sac state hoodie talk to my new friend.

"i'm coming back for this kanye album, i just need to run to the bathroom," he explains.

"alright buddy for sure," he responds, "it's down the hall on the right."

quickly, mr. state darts out of the store.

although i own every kanye record worth owning, my ears perked up. i meandered to the hip-hop crate and stood uncorrected: nothing i didn't already have. but gorlliaz in the hip-hop section? i thought to myself, that's a choice.

"young lady, if you enjoy hip hop, i have two unopened boxes over here i haven't priced yet. you can go through them if you'd so desire," the owner says.

"there's nothing i'd love more than to look through unopened boxes of hip-hop records," i say dramatically.

he leads me to the corner of the store next to the register and tears open the boxes. "have at 'em. i'm going to get some water. while i'm gone, you're in charge." he gives me a pat on the shoulder and disappears.

i stand puzzled for a moment. how would i react to the guy with gages asking me about a talking heads cd? but i'm too blinded by the pandora's box in front of me to think too hard about it.

somewhere between illmatic and damn, sac state is taking out his wired headphones and waiting patiently in front of the register. but for now, in front of me.

"...hi," I start

"what's up."

"oh, you know." i nod to the boxes i have made a mess of all over counter. my dad is by my side with the derek lp. "i'm in charge for now..." i offer.

he's uneased. "okay."

i try to break the tension. "what kanye album were you looking at earlier?"

"graduation, but i was wondering if," he pauses, "we... have any gorillaz." emphasis on we.

i feel like i stumbled into a fast draw. but looking at him, i get a feeling he feels the same. and the shared confusion between us makes it clear that neither of us have a pistol. so there we stand with our hands over our hip like idiots.

"yeah, uh, it's in the hip-hop section," i offer. but he's still looking at me expectantly. "i don't know which albums exactly," i pause, "we... have, but i know the sound machine is in there-- which is kind of a rare find. in the hip-hop crate," i continue, motioning my head over to the crate.

"alright. uh, cool,” he responds.

and that's the end of that. i continue looking through my boxes, and flower boy catches my eye. ever the sentimentalist, i hold on to it. the owner comes back with a glass of white wine.

"wouldn't you know it, i went out for water and came back with wine!"

"ho-ly," i remark.

"this kid," he laughs. "find anything?"

"yeah, i'm thinking flower boy." i hold up the album, in case he was wondering what flower boy was. "how much?"

"well for you, how about 30?"

"30?" i question.

"consider it an employee discount." i can't tell if he winked, but i like to imagine he did.

my entry about flower boy and la and camp flog gnaw plays in my head. "yeah why not. i'll take it."

fortunately that's the end of that story. the full circle-ness of it all bewildered me (enough to write it out on here at least). i walked out of the store giggling to my dad: how silly was that! i can't believe i actually knew what to say-- like i actually worked there. oh my god. that type of stuff doesn't happen down in socal.

and it doesn't. the most action i get in a record store in la or orange county tends to be the obligatory small talk during the purchase. the talking and the fun and the connecting-- you have to seek it down there. i'm not used to it coming to me.

after a walk in the capital mall, we end our day at a small mexican place where the cook comes out and asks us if we enjoyed the meal. and he asks genuinely. lucky for him we did, and i thank him again for cutting up a lime small enough to fit in the mouth of my mexican coke. he nods with a hand to his heart and runs back into the kitchen.

this stuff just doesn't happen down there, i reiterate.

--

if sacramento was a taste it would be a salted caramel dark chocolate. i could make up some poetic reason why (and i'm sure there is one), but i just always want one on my drive home. and it just feels right to me.

as if i need reasons to love her, it's like she always feels the need to prove herself when i come back home. making me a record store employee for ten minutes, giving me some of the best veggie tacos i've ever had, making her leaves- glowing red and orange and yellow- fall in slow motion and all around me.

here i am writing about la and she's getting jealous. my love, my hometown. reminding me that northern charm is hard to come by. that even if i want to run around la and act like a local, this is where my heart is and where it will always be.

[foraging-my-bliss]

One of the hobbies I have the brings me joy is making mixtapes. I was born near the end of the era that made mixtapes so, though I listened to cassette tapes (usually Disney stories on tape) I never got to participate in the art of making a mixtape. It was after reading “the perks of being a wall flower”and reading about Ponytail Derek (I think his name was Derek) would hand paint his mixtapes , I had to try my hand at this art form. One of of my trips to Boulder City , I found a shoebox tape recorder/player, and the first of many walkmans I would end up owing (they never lasted too long) and I began making mixtapes. All I really do is make a playlist on YouTube or Spotify and record them onto the tapes. It’s not the same as going through piles of cassettes and vinyls to find the perfect songs, admittedly, but It makes me happy. I love putting a playlist onto a piece of equipment that I can paint and decorated and carry with me. And since then, Ive found a little community on instagram that loves mixtapes as much as I do. We put together mixtapes for each other and send them to each other like musical secret Santa’s across the globe. For Christmas, I received one of my favorite gifts ever: an old Emerson dual deck stereo. My parents found it in an antiques shop and surprised me with it. I adore this machine. Today, I used it to listen to a mixtape I received in the mail from the exchange. The sound quality was fantastic and the tape itself had an excellent musical selection. The art was beautiful as well! Mixtapes bring me bliss. I hope to get better at arranging the music selection of my mixtapes but for now, I simply enjoy the process I do have of making mixtapes.

[zed-air]

OZ's 2023

______

Ch-ch-ch-changes

• • • 

Going to keep this year's recap brief. Not sure if anyone reads these, but I reference them sometimes when necessary.

The main thing of note this year was my workload.

I returned to concert performance following the pandemic lull of 2020-2022. I played about a dozen shows with Pepperland in the second half of the year, beginning with a private event in rural Alberta and ending by closing an awards gala for hundreds of folks at the Edmonton Expo Centre (video below) and a sold out NYE show at the Blue Chair. More performances with Pepperland and others are planned for 2024.

I also broke my first guitar string(s) since 2011!

My radio work unexpectedly shifted into high gear this year. Following various developments in 2022, I planned to drastically scale back my fill-in work at CKUA - particularly during the daytime programs. However, through some cosmic irony, by the end of 2023 I ended up doing more radio work than ever before. My previous record for fill-in shows in a single year was 95. I ended 2023 having acted as a guest-host on 141 occasions, in addition to my own weekly show. This was not planned, and nearly all of those 141 shows have been classical music programs. I have been operating since February as the guest-host of Classic Examples during the long term absence of the regular host Mark Antonelli.

My weekly Friday night Albertan music program In Our Neighbourhood continues on CKUA. Also continuing, now in its fourth year, my collaboration with NME as the Senior Producer on their podcast series The No Normal.

Working this many weeknights has had the unfortunate consequence of my family rarely being in the same place together. What little time we've shared has been spent introducing my kid to Star Trek.

••• 

Some of my favourite 2023 music releases, in no order besides alphabetical, with apologies to any which I've overlooked, missed, or haven't had the chance to listen to yet:

ALBERTAN ALBUMS

Audrey Ochoa – Head of a Mouse

Betaboys – Just Yesterday

Confusionaires! – Westernization

Des Arcs – Masks

Downtown Exit – Bootleg Stardust

Miesha and the Spanks – Unconditional Love in Hi-Fi

Jesse Murray – I Did It All For You

Doug Organ – Quiet in the Library

Starpainter – Rattlesnake Dream

Trevor Howlett & the Cruz Bros - Self-Titled EP

Void Comp – Metropol

OTHER ALBUMS & SONGS OF NOTE

The Beatles "Now and Then"

Fifty Fifty "Cupid"

Go_A "Dumala"

Kinva - Kinva

Monks on Call "Capsized"

SZA "Kill Bill"

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - City of Gold

Wayfinding "Bad Blood"

- - - - -

OTHER MUSIC THOUGHTS FROM THE ZIBLIOTHEK

In 2020, I started an alphabetical exploration of the Zibliothek’s vinyl collection. I’ve also been documenting the LP library and other aspects of the collection on Instagram. At my current rate, it will take me 13-15 years to listen to the full LP library. I made inconsistent progress in 2023, listening in waves with long gaps between opportunities. Here’s some of what I listened to this year:

Lou Christie: I once read he was Egyptian. This has proven difficult misinformation to shake. Some goofy goodies in his catalogue.

Eric Clapton: Outside of his 1965-1968 period, I am decidedly not a fan of Clapton as a person or musician. With the exception of his Unplugged album, which has strong moments, nearly everything since Derek & the Dominoes has been criminally dull. I can honestly say I never need to hear his music again.

Petula Clark: Great voice. Sometimes great songs too.

Roy Clark: I like his music best when I can't see him playing it.

The Clash: Tremendous.

Joe Cocker: Great bands behind him. Often great performances too. Not always strong material.

Patsy Cline / Leonard Cohen / Nat King Cole / Perry Como / Sam Cooke: All tremendous.

Ry Cooder: I remain a bit mystified by Ry Cooder. Admired by countless people I enjoy, but his music does nothing for me.

Elvis Costello: A very strong catalogue, and consistently enjoyable.

Cream: Clapton at his best, fighting for space in a tempest of madmen.

Creedence Clearwater Revival: I've never been a big fan. With a few exceptions, the overplayed radio hits remain tiresome. I have a vague memory of their live "Royal Albert Hall" album being strong, and I like their debut album and Cosmo's Factory, but everything in between was pretty plodding and dull overall.

Jim Croce: What a catalogue he might have produced had he lived. Some gigantic tunes.

The Cowsills: The hits still hit.

Bing Crosby: The birth of croon, but not the greatest in his field.

Crosby, Stills, and Nash (and Young): Great when they're good, forgettable when they're not.

Bobby Darin: I love his work, his young voice was one of the all-time greats for that kind of music. As his voice changed, he still used it well, but it was never as magical after the early 1960s.

Dave Cark / The Dave Clark Five: Business genius, funny drummer, some of the best British Invasion songs going. Mike Smith was a tremendously underrated rock & roll singer in his youth.

Deep Purple: Finally listened to the bulk of their peripheral catalogue. Several of their albums are essential for any library. Their early Mk I period is underrated heavy pop, before they found their signature sound. The iconic Mk II period is musically tremendous and lyrically abysmal, and Made In Japan still might be the greatest live album of all time. The Mk III period (and the Tommy Bolin years) weren't as bad as I anticipated, but didn't keep my attention either. The quality of the music seems unconnected to the quality of the album artwork.

Deep Purple solo projects: These range from forgettable to awful in almost every case. Some of Jon Lord's early works are nice to hear, but I love Jon Lord. Still don't understand the appeal of Tommy Bolin.

John Denver: I enjoyed his Rocky Mountain High album, but curiously his two greatest hits albums are painfully weak.

Delaney & Bonnie & Friends: Alright, I guess. Nothing special. Early shades of Clapton the boring.

Derek & the Dominoes: Sometimes very good.

••• 

This song came out in 2022 rather than 2023. Despite being familiar and a fan of Bill McClintock, I only discovered it a month ago. I've listened to it dozens of times and it might be the greatest mash-up ever made. Maybe even the best thing period.

••• 

No pithy ending for 2023. Be safe. Be well. Good luck going forward in 2024.

OZ

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

Hey, your blog is a blessing. Do you know any fics where Stiles is a new student/new to Beacon Hills and no one knows him yet? Like a first meeting kind of thing. Preferably Sterek but any ship is fine, really. Thank you!

Hi anon! @kevaaronday made this list just for you!

Lemon & Ginger by kaistrex

(1/1 | 2,520 | Teen | Sterek)

“Is—Is he my—” The word dies in his throat.

“How did you not know?” Laura screeches and Derek feels his hackles rise, defensive.

“Wha—Bu—But he smells good to everyone!”

“Not that good,” Cora scoffs.

“Yeah, not good enough to hump him over it.”

“I didn’t hump—”

“You kinda did,” Stiles agrees, scratching at the back of his head. “Though I can’t say I minded.”

-

A new tea shop has opened in Beacon Hills, and Laura drags Derek along so he can try the incredible, memory-evoking drinks for himself. He’s soon going back for more, but is it because of the tea, or the owner?

Welcome To Beacon Hills by weirdwithhumour

(1/1 | 5,278 | Teen | Sterek)

The one where Stiles is not from Beacons Hills.

Or human.

How are you so bad at this? By thornconelly

(1/1 | 6,242 | Gen | Sterek)

Stiles moves to Beacon Hills at the start of senior year of high school. Before class even starts, he bumps into a very cute and flirty werewolf who happens to be in almost all of his classes, and who is seemingly TERRIBLE at hiding his werewolfy traits.

California Never Felt Like Home to Me by CharWright5

(1/1 | 31,343 | Explicit | Sterek)

With the Kanima attacking, Hunters stalking him, and the looming threat of the Alpha Pack drawing near, Beacon Hills is no longer the home Derek once felt it had been. So when Boyd and Erica tell him that they're leaving, he joins them, along with Isaac, the Pack running into a ghost from his past as they leave California behind.

They eventually settle in a small town in North Carolina, where Derek finds himself falling for a local barista named Stiles, who shows Derek what "home" can truly mean and that it's okay for the Alpha to want something for himself every once in a while.

The Wonderful Mess We Made by haleonwheels

(12/12 | 34,619 Explicit | Sterek)

Derek is Scott's rude older brother. Scott is Stiles' new best friend. Stiles is in a really hard situation (in more ways than one).

Or the one where Stiles Stilinski moves to Beacon Hills from New York City and immediately befriends Scott McHale. Scott tells Stiles he's an only child--except he really, really isn't. So how was Stiles supposed to know Derek From The Jungle is actually Derek McHale, Scott's older brother that he kept secret for a reason?

Stilinski’s Home For Wayward Wolves by owlpostagain

(1/1 | 35,197| Teen | Sterek)

“At least your puppies knock first,” Stiles snorts. “Here I thought their alpha raised them to be well-mannered.”

“There’s a sign,” Derek responds stiffly.

Stiles, whose curiosity outweighs even his hardest of grudges, abandons his chilly façade of nonchalance in a heartbeat. He jumps right up and all but pushes Derek out of the way in his effort to get to the window, and sure enough when he leans outside there’s a laminated strip of cardstock duct taped to the vinyl siding:

DON’T FORGET TO KNOCK Stiles gets cranky when we scare him

---

Or, in which Stiles Stilinski moves to Beacon Hills for his junior year of high school and accidentally adopts a pack of teenage werewolves.

Pack Immersion: The How to by Stiles Stilinski by Jollyrancher1114

(25/25 | 66,611 | Mature | Sterek)

An AU where Kate didn't set fire to the Hale house and was framed when she tried to save them. Stiles and his pack find her trying to commit suicide and saves her. Kate becomes part of the Alpha Pack.

Oh, thank God. Stiles runs towards the bulking frame ahead of him, yipping in excitement as he throws himself onto the sturdy chest. Aiden growls beneath him, shoving his snout away from his neck. Brooke giggles off to the side and Stiles throws a wink towards her.

“Stiles. What the hell are you doing here?” Aiden hissed. Stiles huffs and raises an eyebrow as best as he can in his fox shift. Someone coughs off to the side and Stiles stiffens when he scents the foreign werewolves. Turning around, he bares his teeth at them only for it to be cut off into a whine when Aiden cuffs his head.

“Why don’t we bring this back to the house? I’m sure my alpha will find this… interesting.” The woman says. The man next to her bores his eyes into him. Stiles shifts uneasily, licking Aiden’s cheek when he picks him up and purposely ignoring the growl that follows. Only then does he see the pendant with a triskele sticking out from the woman’s shirt. Fuck.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation by grimm

(4/4 | 118,749 | Explicit | Sterek)

There's something weird about Beacon Hills that Stiles can't quite put his finger on. The way everyone in town knows his name the day he arrives. The way they insist the melancholic howling that echoes through the forest every night is just a dog. The way his dad denies getting a dog, even though Stiles comes home to find one sprawled across his bed, some big black thing whose eyes gleam red in the right light. The way that massive oak tree out in the woods vibrates under his touch, pulsing with sickly life.

There's something weird going on in this town, and Stiles is determined to get to the bottom of it.

[riseofthecommonwoodpile]

And so we end this project, a little over 2,000 albums in about a year and a half. Gonna do some Sum Up things for it later, but wowzers. So much good shit. I was probably overly charitable with my 9.0's this time around, but oh well. They're celebratory I suppose.

Alias- Muted (7.0/10, deleted from library)

Aloe Island Posse- Aloe Island Adventures (6.0/10, deleted from library)

Angkor Wat- When Obscenity Becomes the Norm… Awake! (8.5/10)

Annie Gosfield- Flying Sparks And Heavy Machinery (8.5/10)

Arthur Russell- Tower of Meaning (7.0/10, probably deleting from library)

Awenden- Golden Hour (9.0/10)

Barbaro- Nolte (9.0/10)

Bone Sickness- Theater Of Morbidity (8.0/10)

Breather Resist- Charmer (8.0/10)

BT- ESCM (9.0/10)

Califone- Everybody’s Mother (Volume 1) (7.5/10)

Carlos Giffoni- Welcome Home (7.0/10, deleted from library)

Caroliner Rainbow Solid Handshake and Loose 2 Pins- Transcontinental Pinecone Collector (7.5/10)

Charli XCX- Crash (8.5/10)

The Cherry Point & John Wiese- White Gold (8.0/10)

Chicane- Far From the Maddening Crowds (9.5/10)

Chris Corsano- The Young Cricketer (8.5/10)

Cities Last Broadcast- The Cancelled Earth (8.0/10)

Cobalt- Eater of Birds (8.5/10)

Constance Demby- Novus Magnificat: Through the Stargate (8.0/10)

Cristian Vogel- Specific Momentific (8.5/10)

critical_grim- Beach Party (6.0/10, deleted from library)

Daniel Menche- Guts (8.0/10)

Dark Angel- Time Does Not Heal (9.0/10)

David Holland & Derek Bailey- Improvisations For Cello And Guitar (7.5/10)

Deathpile- Final Confession (7.5/10)

Demolition Squad- Hit It (6.5/10, deleted from library)

Derrick May- Innovator: Soundtrack for the Tenth Planet (8.0/10)

Dip in the Pool- Silence (8.0/10)

Easley Blackwood- Microtonal Compositions (7.0/10, might delete later)

Eat Static- Implant (8.0/10)

Ellen Fullman- Through Glass Panes (8.5/10)

The Ex- Mudbird Shivers (7.5/10)

Faust- So Far (8.0/10)

Fire for Effect- The Beach (7.0/10)

Future City Love Stories- 油尖旺 District (8.0/10)

Gary Clail And Tackhead Sound System- Tackhead Tape Time (8.0/10)

The Gero-P- The Gero-P (8.0/10)

Gil Evans- The Individualism of Gil Evans (8.5/10)

goreshit- with all my heart. (7.0/10)

Greg Kelley / Olivia Block- Resolution (8.0/10)

GUDSFORLADT / non-- GUDSFORLADT / non- Split (7.5/10)

Han Bennink- Solo (8.5/10)

Hantasi- Tusop® (7.0/10, deleted from library)

Hash Jar Tempo- Well Oiled (9.0/10)

Horde- Hellig Usvart (8.5/10)

Incapacitants- Unauthorized Fatal Operation 990130 (6.5/10, deleted from library)

James Rushford & Joe Talia- Manhunter (8.0/10)

Joanne Robertson & Dean Blunt- WAHALLA (9.0/10)

John Butcher- Invisible Ear (9.0/10)

John Wiese- Circle Snare (8.5/10)

Kano- Kano (7.5/10)

Kim Cascone- cathodeFlower (8.5/10)

Kit Clayton- Lateral Forces (Surface Fault) (8.5/10)

Lancaster_- Press Play (7.0/10, deleted from library)

Legal Weapon- Death of Innocence (7.5/10)

Logos- Cold Mission (8.5/10)

Magik Markers- I Trust My Guitar, Etc. (8.5/10)

Malfeitor / Strid- Strid (8.0/10)

Mammal- Lonesome Drifter (9.0/10)

Maren Morris- Hero (9.0/10)

Marina Rosenfeld- P.A. / Hard Love (9.5/10)

Mathieu Ruhlmann- The Earth Grows in Each of Us (9.0/10)

Michel Chion- Requiem (7.0/10)

Milanese- Extend (8.5/10)

Miles Davis- Sorcerer (8.5/10)

Morton Feldman- The Viola in My Life (9.0/10)

N.Y. House'n Authority- APT. (8.0/10)

New Dreams Ltd.- Eden (8.5/10)

Nile- Ithyphallic (7.5/20)

Olivia Block / Kyle Bruckmann- Teem (8.0/10)

OSCOB- Everywhere, Beyond The Skybox (7.5/10)

Pacific Despair- ~~~Devour~~~ (7.0/10, deleted from library)

Peter Brötzmann- Nipples (8.5/10)

Philip Jeck- Vinyl Coda IV (9.0/10)

Pierre Boulez- The Three Piano Sonatas (8.5/10)

Pissgrave- Posthumous Humiliation (8.5/10)

Prosumer & Murat Tepeli- Serenity (8.0/10)

Prurient- Fossil (9.0/10)

Rajlib- Palm Readings (8.0/10)

Recloose- Cardiology (7.5/10)

The Rita- Lake Depths Lurker (8.5/10)

Robert Rich- Somnium (8.5/10)

Rollergirl!- Rollergirl (7.0/10, deleted from library)

Ryoji Ikeda- Matrix (8.0/10)

Sea Of Voices- Softcore Mall Inc. (7.0/10, deleted from library)

Sierra On-Line- Glass Shutters (8.5/10)

Soft Machine- Third (9.5/10)

Spokane- Able Bodies (6.5/10, deleted from library)

Steve Lehman- Sélébéyone (8.5/10)

Tim Berne- Fulton Street Maul (9.0/10)

Trist- Zrcadlení melancholie (9.0/10)

Tristan Murail- Gondwana/ Désintégrations / Time and Again (9.5/10)

Vatican Shadow- Kneel Before Religious Icons (6.0/10, deleted from library)

VentureX- Noctis Labyrinthus (8.0/10)

Whitehouse- Erector (8.0/10)

Whitehouse- Mummy and Daddy (8.0/10)

Yoshimi- Tokyo Restricted Area (6.5/10, deleted from library)

Yukiko Okada- Venus Tanjou (7.5/10)

死夢VANITY- f a n t a s y 真夜中のアパート (8.0/10)

[omegaradiowusb]

DECEMBER 29, 2021 (#292)

Performance: "Night Is Blues" The Counts: "Magic Ride" Gene Harris: "Koko & Lee Roe" John Dankworth & His Orchestra: "Return From The Ashes" Jon Derek Nicholson: "Steely" Little Royal & The Swingmasters: "Razor Blade" Ramsey Lewis: "Tambura" Sammy Nestico: "Shore Line Drive" Isaac Hayes: "Cafe Regio's" Jacky Nordano & Robert Hermel: "Accrocs" Johanna Group: "Desert Weather" Marvin Gaye: "T Plays It Cool" Eddie Russ: "Salem Avenue" Chicago Gangsters: "Ganster Boogie" Color Us People Band: "A Day Without Your Love" George Duke: "Prepare Yourself" Ian Carr's Nucleus: "Southern Roots And Celebration" Milton Floyd: "I'm A Shadow" New Birth: "Got To Get A Knutt" Pierre-Alain Dahan & Mat Camison: "Rythmiques No. 8" Side Effect: "There She Goes Again" Sunship Ensemble: "Inca" The Village Callers: "Hector" David T. Walker: "I Get High On You" Gene McDaniels: "Jagger The Dagger" Hal Galper: "Convocation" Terry Callier: "You Don't Care" Tracks: "If I Am Not Mistaken" Brick: "Southern Sunset" Dyke & The Blazers: "Let A Woman Be A Woman, Let A Man Be A Man" Enrico Pieranunzi: "The Day After The Silence" Harvey Mason: "Modaji" Jacky Giordano: "Cloudy Night" John Leach: "Allegro For Martenot (A)" Tony Gragory: "What'll I Do" BRF Studio Group: "Let's Go Again" F. Rolland & J.C. Pierric: "Couic Ah" Herb Ellis & Remo Palmier: "Groove Merchant" Sylvano Santorio: "Summer Sketch" Clarence Reid: "Nobody But You Babe" Shelly Manne: "Infinity" Freddie Hubbard: "Red Clay"

It’s Omega Radio’s final broadcast for 2021. We return to our temporary Wednesday morning free-air slot for one of our staple shows. It’s three hours of vinyl treasures in jazz, fusion, R&B, soul, and library stock music for producers, crate-diggers and samplists alike; or for anyone lucky enough to discover something new.

Omega returns on New Year’s Day for our first broadcast of 2022. To all of our listeners, followers, and supporters: have a happy new year.

January 1, 2022 (10PM New York City): deluxe Omega

January 3, 2022 (midnight New York City): bonus Omega

January 12, 2022 (3AM New York City): bonus Omega

January 15, 2022 (10PM New York City): deluxe Omega

January 29, 2022 (3AM New York City): deluxe Omega

[alysemeadfad]

ₒₗd ₛcₕₒₒₗ

Grandmixer D.ST.

Derek Showard, better known by the stage name GrandMixer DXT, is an American musician, one of the earliest to use turntables as a musical instrument in the 1980s. Renowned for his scratching techniques and his showmanship on stage, such as breaking in to dance or scratching records with other parts of his body other than his hands

Early in his career, he was known as Grand Mixer D.ST, a reference to Delancey Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. He was featured in the influential hip hop film Wild Style.

Widely recognized as a pioneer, Grand Mixer DXT is credited as being the first turntablist. He was the first person to establish the turntable as a fully performable and improvisational musical instrument. Especially important is his technique of altering the pitch of the note or sound on the record.

He is also credited with helping to popularize DJing through his scratching on Herbie Hancock's single "Rockit", from the Bill Laswell and Material produced album Future Shock. He is featured in the 2001 documentary, Scratch.

D.ST’s original group was The Infinity Four MC’s consisting of Kingpin Shahiem, Mike Nice, Baron and Legendary female rapper Kimba.

While working with the Infinity Rappers n 1982, he was part of the first hip hop tour to Europe with Afrika Bambaataa, Rammellzee, Fab 5 Freddy, Rock Steady Crew, the Double Dutch Girls, and graffiti artists Phase 2, Futura, and Dondi.

Phase 2

In late 1972, Phase 2 first used an early version of the "bubble letter" or "softie", a style of writing which would become extremely influential and is considered a "giant leap" in the art form.The puffed-out, marshmallow-like letters drawn by Phase 2 were soon copied by other artists who added their own variations.

 Phase 2 quickly embellished on his original form, creating and naming dozens of varieties of softies, such as "phasemagorical phantastic" (bubble letters with stars), "bubble cloud", and "bubble drip".He described the thrill of tagging subway cars as "impact expressionalism".He is also credited with having pioneered the use of arrows in graffiti writing around this same time. Hip-hop journalist Jeff Chang has noted that Phase 2's canvasses from 1973 have "been widely recognized as defining the early genre."

Futura 2000

He started to paint illegally on New York City's subway in the early 1970s, working with other artists such as ALI. From 1974 to 1978, he served in the U.S. Navy and traveled all over the world. In the early 1980s he showed with Patti Astor at the Fun Gallery, along with Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Richard Hambleton and Kenny Scharf.

Futura painted backdrops live on-stage for British punk rock band The Clash's 1981 European tour.  In 1985, he was on the first meeting of the graffiti and urban art movement in Bondy (France), on the VLP's initiative, with Speedy Graphito, Miss Tic, SP 38, Epsylon Point, Blek le rat, Jef Aérosol, Nuklé-Art, Kim Prisu, Banlieue-Banlieue. More recently, he is a successful graphic designer and gallery artist.

One of the most distinctive features of Futura's work is his abstract approach to graffiti. While the primary focus, during the 1980s, of the majority of graffiti artists was lettering, Futura pioneered abstract street art, which has since become more popular. Conversely, his aerosol strokes are regarded as different from those of his peers, as they are as thin as the fine lines usually associated with the use of an airbrush.

Dondi

Graffiti became a serious part of Dondi's life in the mid-1970s. He tagged using "NACO" and "DONDI", and worked on refining his style, gradually moving from simple tagging to building more elaborate pieces. Using the name Dondi (a version of his own name) was considered very risky at the time, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the New York Police Department (NYPD) were trying to crack down on writers. In 1979, Dondi officially adopted his name when he painted a giant piece on the roof of his house.

He became a member of TOP crew (The Odd Partners) in 1977. In 1978, Dondi formed his own crew, named CIA (Crazy Inside Artists), which included other prominent artists such as his good friend DURO. For the next 20-odd years, Dondi became recognized as the stylistic standard, influencing generations of graffiti writers.

Dondi pioneered many of the styles and techniques still used by modern graffiti artists. Though he would often do wildstyle pieces for the benefit of other writers (like the famous 2MANY piece), he wanted the public to be able to read and enjoy his work, so he would focus on readable letters with intricate fills and characters.

scratch

Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to fade between two records simultaneously.

While scratching is most associated with hip hop music, where it emerged in the mid-1970s, from the 1990s it has been used in some styles of rap rock, rap metal and nu metal. In hip hop culture, scratching is one of the measures of a DJ's skills. DJs compete in scratching competitions at the DMC World DJ Championship and IDA (International DJ Association), formerly known as ITF (International Turntablist Federation). At scratching competitions, DJs can use only scratch-oriented gear (turntables, DJ mixer, digital vinyl systems or vinyl records only). In recorded hip hop songs, scratched "hooks" often use portions of other songs.

Graffiti 

In the early days, the ‘taggers’ were part of street gangs who were concerned with marking their territory. They worked in groups called ‘crews’, and called what they did ‘writing’ – the term ‘graffiti’ was first used by The New York Times and the novelist Norman Mailer. Art galleries in New York began buying graffiti in the early seventies. But at the same time that it began to be regarded as an art form, John Lindsay, the then mayor of New York, declared the first war on graffiti. By the 1980s it became much harder to write on subway trains without being caught, and instead many of the more established graffiti artists began using roofs of buildings or canvases.

The link between hip hop and graffiti evolved as a competition, much like the dance moves of the hip hop culture. Graffiti began to show up on subways in New York and other cities as a form of expression of the culture who listened to rap music. Graffiti distiguished by "tags" or distinguishing marks of the originators and a way to distinguish or stand out from other graffiti artists. Graffiti quickly spread and was picked up by others.

Graffiti is viewed as a form of artistic expression by some and trash by others. Graffiti has been seen adorning the album covers of some rap artists, on sides of buildings, on busses, on clothing, and various imaginative places where you sometimes have to stop and wonder, "how in the world did they manage to get up there?"

Young rappers growing up and wandering the city streets still see graffiti all around them. For some, graffiti represents decay, but for hip hop culture, graffiti provided the visual inspiration that encouraged other forms of creativity and expression, such as emceeing.

Ed Piskor

Ed Piskor is an American alternative comic book artist. He gained his first fame illustrating stories in Harvey Pekar's 'American Splendor' series. Among his original works are the satirical comic 'Wizzywig' (2011) about hacking culture, and the educational graphic novel series 'Hip Hop Family Tree' (2012-2016), which deals with the history of hiphop. In 2017 he created another historical passion project, 'X-Men: Grand Design', a nostalgic look back at the history of Marvel Comics' 'X-Men' franchise.

Hip Hop Family Tree

In 2012 Piskor started a monumental project, named 'Hip Hop Family Tree' (2012-2016). It narrates the history of hiphop and various legendary artists and groups, among them the Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC, Schoolly D., the Beastie Boys, Ice-T, Public Enemy, Dr. Dre, Rakim, Will Smith...  Piskor said he was inspired by Robert Crumb's biographical comics about old blues and country artists. Just like Crumb loves music from the interbellum, Piskor is a hardcore hiphop fan. Even as a child he'd try to dig up the oldest singles by certain hiphop artists, particularly trying to find out where a certain musical sample came from? He is so well-educated in the genre that he felt he would be the right artist to make a comic book about the genre. As a bonus he would learn more about its roots too. 'Hip Hop Family Tree' doesn't just focus on the historic facts, but Piskor also illustrated many fascinating and occasional funny anecdotes about certain artists. Graphically Piskor gave the stories a yellowish newsprint effect to match the "old school" feeling.

From January 2012 until December 2015, the stories ran weekly on the website 'Boing Boing'. Fantagraphics later published the series in comic book format. In 2015 'Hip Hop Family Tree, Volume 2' won the Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work. It also entered the New York Times Best Sellers list, landing the artist an interview in Time Magazine. Rap legend DMC (of Run DMC) praised 'Hip Hop Family Tree' with the words: "I'm happy this book is here, because it tells a truth." Fab Five Freddy (Grandmaster Flash) shared a panel from one of the comics on his Facebook page and stated: "Being in an Ed Piskor comic is cool enough to freeze hot water." Chuck D. (Public Enemy) also tweeted favorable comments about Piskor's work.

As a huge fan of comics and hiphop since childhood Piskor also saw a correlation between the two art forms. Both are trash pop culture, initially scorned by true art lovers but eventually gaining more critical respect. Many cartoonists and hiphop artists take pseudonyms to give themselves a different public persona and alter ego. Both rapping and cartooning are often said to be easy. Most importantly, Piskor noticed that both hiphoppers and cartoonists have a tendency to borrow material, or sample, from their predecessors and colleagues. It motivated him to pay more homage to other comics in some of his panels.

Hip Hop album covers

Idea influence

vision boards

[myvinylplaylist]

Ted Nugent: Free-For-All (1976)

Columbia Records

[stcrryknights]

LIST OF MUSES

CANON

Plebe Red, Marok & Dale from Initiation (2016)

David Hellar from Game of Assassins / The Gauntlet (2013)

Derek Spears from King (2011)

Prince Schneizel from Code Geass

Will Brady from Haven

Robert Stahl from Shades of Blue

Wes Mitchell from Common Law

Tim ‘Roderick’ Nelson from The Following

David Siegel from White Collar

Deucalion from Teen Wolf

Kabal, Erron Black, Rain, Takeda, Fujin, Sub-Zero, Kung Lao, Kano & Shang Tsung from The Mortal Kombat Videogames

Higgs Monaghan from the Death Stranding Videogame

Sam Drake, Rafe Adler, Orca & Talbot from the Uncharted Videogames

Joel Miller from The Last of Us Videogames

Gideon from the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Videogame

Alex from the Call of Duty : Modern Warfare (2019) Videogame

Benji Dunn from the Mission Impossible Movies

Warren Lacy / The Galaga Guy from The Avengers (2012) (Heavily Headcannoned)

Anatoly Ranskahov from Daredevil (Heavily Headcannoned)

Charles Calvin from The Henry Stickmim Collection (Warren Kole - Human Verse)

Horus and Anubis from the Egyptian Mythology (Warren Kole & Troy Baker)

OC

The Last of Us

Ellis Taylor - A Pianist, Scientist and a former Firefly and current resident of Jackson in his own journey for survival. (Warren Kole)

Archer 'Kip' Goodwin - An excellent bowman, leader of the biggest group of hunters throughout the states. (Gideon Emery)

Detroit Become Human

BR-42 aka Baron - Client pleasure exclusive of the G.I. Joe Club (Warren Kole)

Call of Duty

Hunter Trip - Former Marine Sniper and current Captain of the 'Alpha Unit' of elite soldiers (Warren Kole)

The Hunger Games

Emeric Highborn from District 1 (Gideon Emery)

Thatcher Underdrop from District 2 (Troy Baker)

Argon Meadowstar from District 5 (Jonathan Cahill)

Falcon Meadowstar from District 5 (Dan Horton)

Cobalt Galloville from District 6 (Alan Van Sprang)

Luther Everleaf from District 7 (Chris Pine)

Orion Clearwing from District 8 (Warren Kole)

Mitchell Fairsmith from District 13 (Jeffrey Dean Morgan)

La Casa de Papel / Money Heist

Toronto - Tyson Bailey (Alan Van Sprang)

Edinburgh - Eugene Deackens (Chris Pine)

Los Angeles - Lars Addens (Jonathan Cahill)

Detroit - Daniel May (Troy Baker)

Birmingham - Benedict Reed (Cillian Murphy)

Kansas City - Kevin Cann (John Winscher)

San Antonio - Sebastian Arts (Warren Kole)

Star Trek

Maverick Cunningham - Helmsman, Agent, Covert Operative of the NCIA-97 of Section 31 (Jonathan Cahill)

Clarence Davenport - Covert Operative, the new Captain of the NCIA-97 of Section 31 (Troy Baker)

Joelle Gunn - Vice Admiral of Section 31, often aboard the NCIA-97 (Jeffrey Dean Morgan)

London Rooker - Agent of Section 31 undercover in Starfleet vessels, later captain of the NCIA-99 (Warren Kole)

Shadowhunters (The Mortal Instruments)

Valentine's right hand man, Reuben Rainmercy (Nolan North)

The Circle's moral compass, Rene Goldvale (Warren Kole)

A warlock for all sides, Cornelius Stone (Troy Baker)

Zombie Apocalypse

Alphonso Davis - Nicknamed The Zombie Slayer, leader of the zombie extermination squad, chemistry teacher (Alan Van Sprang)

Desmond O'Donnell - Nicknamed The Home runner, one of the finest of Alphonso’s team, vinyl store owner, baseball player (Jonathan Cahill)

Weston Nova - A caring father & the alpha of the sane infected, a group of infected people that haven't turned thanks to an old cure. (Troy Baker)

Kai Wood - Infamous survivalist, member of the sane infected, once a loner (Norman Reedus)

Eugene Blake - An once compassionate man now cold general who rises to power with his loyal followers. (Dan Horton)

Reginald Schwartz - A soldier of an independent military group who understands the real threats of this world. (Warren Kole)

Zombie Apocalypse (Global Catastrophe)

Sterling Lewis - A single father, immune to the sleeping zombie fungus that hit the world after the waves. (Nolan North)

Glendale Francis - One of the awoken, who witnessed his daughter's turning, leader of a group of rebels called the resurrectors. (Troy Baker)

Almond Wilkins - Former journalist, close friend of Glen, second in command of the resurrectors, skilled with a bo staff. (Warren Kole)

Clover Gallagher - An Irish salesman, friend of Glen & Almond, third in command of the Resurrectors. (Jonathan Cahill)

Agents

Special Agent & Squad Leader of the Canadian intelligence agencies, Metro Fleming (Alan Van Sprang)

Special Agent of the American intelligence agencies and Liaison in the Canadian agencies, Ralph Gordon (Jonathan Cahill)

Spy, assigned to the Canadian intelligent agencies, diplomat, Pierson Clean (Warren Kole)

Paranormal Investigation Agency (based on The X-Files)

Franklin Gates - The Captain of the 'Out of Order’ squad that investigates mysterious cases around the states. (Jeffrey Dean Morgan)

Stanley Prince - One of the most reckless yet effective agents of the P.I.A. that joins Frank’s squad. (Jonathan Cahill)

River Echert - Survivor of an alien attack that helps the squad on their first journey and officially joins them later. (Troy Baker)

Marley Zeal - An FBI agent that lost his partner during an alien incident and investigates the 'Out of Order’ team. (Warren Kole)

Western

The cowboy next door, relentless bounty hunter, Lloyd Norton (Warren Kole)

Blade Runner

The newest blade runner, the replicant terminator, Wells Harris (Jonathan Cahill)

Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)

Marine, red room survivor, talk show host, 'The Man of the Sand’, Cassius Fluor (Jonathan Cahill)

Courier, survivor, singer, vigilantly, 'The Blind Judge’, Martin Rad (Troy Baker)

Millionaire, animal lover, professional bowler, brother of a SHIELD agent, 'The Grand Glacier’, Hayden Lacy (Warren Kole)

Superheroes

The Strongest being in the universe, Lark Raymond 'Subject 24’ (Chris Pine)

The Keeper of The Holy Sword, Lucian Arkwright (Alan Van Sprang)

The one they call 'Red Ruby’, Alaric Rockefeller (Jonathan Cahill)

Superheroes (Alternative Universe)

The unique blood sorcerer, Rhys Malcolm 'Hemorrhage’ (Troy Baker)

The protector of the hive, Shepherd Nass, 'Arachnophobia’ (Warren Kole)

The keeper of the hourglass, Alistair Darkshire (Dan Horton)

The most powerful soul sorcerer, Raeden Darkshire (Jonathan Cahill)

The son of a banshee, Samson Rowen (Gideon Emery)

The master of the elements, Michaelangelo Boveri (Liam O'Brien)

Information regarding the OCs will be given via private message. Unfortunately I don’t have enough time to write everything down in docs. Feel free to request the bios of any character you would be interested to interact with or learn about and I’ll have them messaged to you. Some muses may be altered based on personal headcannons. Bare in mind I am a very busy person so I kindly request you to be patient. If you have a problem with the storyline, I am here for you. Feel free to send memes & unless you want to leave it to my judgment, please specify muse. List of muses will be constantly updated. If a muse is not active enough, I will make sure I inform you. I have close to 100 muses so it is impossible to keep them all active. Thank you for your patience. - Rania

[dustedmagazine]

Dust, Volume 6, Number 10

The Slugs 

September seemed to be the month when all the records on endless delay finally got kicked out the door, COVID or no, ready or not here we come. We’re deluged with music, some recorded before the world changed, some clearly cooked up mid-pandemic. There are a lot of covers EPs, lots of solo material, lots of home-made lo-fi, lots of benefit comps, and who are we to complain? Better, instead, to reach for the headphones, load up the hard drive, pile on the LPs and do some listening. Here’s some of the stuff that caught our attention, as usual ranging all over the continuum, from traditional to edgy and experimental, from silly pop punk to enraged death metal to bookish electro-acoustic improvisation. Contributors this time out included Jonathan Shaw, Patrick Masterson, Jennifer Kelly, Bill Meyer, Derek Taylor, Ray Garraty, Tim Clarke and Andrew Forell. Happy fall.

Amputation — Slaughtered in the Arms of God (Nuclear War Now!)

Slaughtered in the Arms of God by Amputation

Given the degree of smugness that accompanies utterances of the phrase “Old School Death Metal,” it’s frequently instructive to listen to some. Right on time, the misanthropic bunch at Nuclear War Now! has delivered some seriously Old School sounds to our digital doorstep. This new compilation LP gathers both of the demos of Norwegian knuckle-draggers Amputation, along with a contemporaneous rehearsal recording. Likely the resulting record will be of principal interest to fans of Immortal, the long-running, on-again-off-again Norwegian black metal band that Amputation would morph into in 1991. The songs collected on Slaughtered in the Arms of God have some additional musicological significance, as they document the sounds of 1989 and 1990, transformational years in Norway’s metal scene. Mayhem and Darkthrone tend to get most of the attention, for reasons both good and bad; and like Darkthrone, Amputation made death metal before transitioning to blacker, more brittle sounds. The music on Slaughtered in the Arms of God is muddy, thudding and thick. Perhaps that’s the result of the primitive recording tech the band used, likely of necessity. But through the murk (and to some degree because of it), you can hear the influence of Stockholm’s fecund death metal scene, especially Dismember’s earliest stuff. Scandinavia’s metal currents run deep and dark. Whether that means that Old School Death Metal is intrinsically a good thing is a different matter.

Jonathan Shaw

 Anz — Loose in Twos (NRG) 12” (Hessle Audio)

Loos In Twos (NRG) by Anz

I love the idea of listening to DJ mixes of original or all-new material; it’s probably why I still value, say, Ricardo Villalobos’ Fabric 36 so much. Manchester’s Anna Marie-Odubote, aka Anz, has been doing just such a thing annually since 2015 and really went wild with spring/summer dubs 2020, which compiled 74 tracks into nearly an hour and a half of new music. That would’ve been more than enough amid all of this (imagine me gesturing around vaguely), but “Loos in Twos (NRG)” on the venerable Hessle Audio imprint is an equally formidable, decidedly tighter release I played a lot at the start of September. Three club-ready tracks here break down acid, jungle and footwork, and while all three are heady breaks, the looped vocals and bongo of “Stepper” make it the one for me. Get those feet moving digitally now so they’re comfortable once the vinyl arrives in early October.

Patrick Masterson

 Ashes and Afterglow — Everybody Wants a Revolution (Postlude Paradox)

Ashes and Afterglow drops pop punk melodies into deep buckets of fuzz, lets them bubble and bob to the surface before shoving them under again. The band is mainly the output of one Luke Daniel, who appears to have been in other band called Sea of Orchids, but neither outfit has left much of an internet trail. And sure, this is the kind of thing that could easily get shuffled under; it breaks no moulds. And yet shuffling “To Take a Look at the World,” has a heart-worn resonance, Daniel’s voice echoing in reverbed hollow-ness against surging tides of guitar noise. “My Yesterday Girl” churns a little harder, with a bright, pop-leaning sort of hopefulness hedged in by seething feedback. It’s not bad, but it never hits a melodic vein the way that similarly inclined artists like Ted Leo or Ovlov or Tony Molina do, and it never pushes the noise over the top, either. Neither pop nor punk but somewhere in middle.

Jennifer Kelly

 Ballister — Znachki Stilyag (Aerophonic)

Znachki Stilyag by Ballister

A cake is still a cake, whether you put chocolate frosting and strawberries or white icing and a fondant roses on top. And while they don’t all taste or look exactly the same, a Ballister album is still a Ballister album, and the first Ballister album in three years does not mess with the recipe. Dave Rempis (alto and tenor saxophones), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello and electronics), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums and percussion) still trade in a particularly hard-hitting form of total improvisation. The changes are ones of emphasis — Lonberg-Holm sounds like he’s using a wah-wah pedal and deploys some especially slashing feedback tones, there’s a bit more space in Nilssen-Love’s intricate beat configurations, and Rempis left his baritone sax at home — and of location. Znachki Stilyag was recorded during the fall of 2019 in Moscow, Russia, which may explain why the big horn stayed at home. But the ones you hear still cut and thrust with broadsword force and rapier precision. This is a cake you can trust.

Bill Meyer  

 Vincent Chancey — The Spell: The Vincent Chancey Trio Live, 1987 (No Business) 

Vincent Chancey likely isn’t alone amongst his peers in feeling exasperated by folks singling out his instrument as uncommon or unusual to jazz. It’s a form of damning through faint praise and one that feel

s even more lackadaisical with any time spent with his music. Chancey plays the French horn and he’s plied it in settings as diverse as Sun Ra Arkestra, Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra as well as gigs supporting Aretha Franklin and Elvis Costello. It’s unclear whether the trio documented on The Spell was a working concern, but that hardly matters given how well bassist Wilbur Morris and percussionist Warren Smith gel with their convener. Spread across two sides of an LP, the concert recorded at a New York City art gallery covers four pieces, two by Morris bookending one apiece from Smith and the leader that stitch together very much like cohesive suite. An unadvertised surprise comes with Smith’s ample application of marimba alongside a regular drum kit. Recording quality isn’t optimal, but Chancey’s rich, rounded, phrases gain extra gravitas through the sometimes-grainy acoustics. Woefully underrepresented in the driver’s seat discographically, his acumen as both improviser and composer is easily vindicated by this limited edition (300 copies) release.

Derek Taylor 

 Che Chen — Tokyo 17.II.2012 (self-released)

Tokyo 17.II.2012 by Che Chen

Nowadays Che Chen has earned a measure renown as the guitar-playing half of 75 Dollar Bill, and all the praise is earned. But before that, he played a roomful of instruments in the True Primes, Heresy of the Free Spirit and duos with Robbie Lee, Tetuzi Akiyama and Chie Mukai. The through-lines to all these efforts is a willingness not to play things the way their supposed to be played, and a gift for supplying the right resonance in any setting. Since 75 Dollar Bill is a New York-based band made for social occasions, the COVID-19 lay-off has been especially hard — so there’s no better time to see what’s in those hard drives in the closet, right? Chen has released this solo concert from 2012 via Bandcamp. In Tokyo for a brief layover, he played amplified violin at a party held in the basement of someone’s apartment building. The amplified part is important; dips and swells of feedback count as much as in this 25-minute performance as the fiddle’s bright, plucked notes and rough, bowed tones. Chen moves purposefully from one mode to next, taking time along the way to savor the room’s lively acoustics.

Bill Meyer

 Jeff Cosgrove/ John Medeski/ Jeff Lederer — History Gets Ahead of the Story (Grizzley Music)

Odds are that even the estimable William Parker would be surprised by the prospect of a William Parker cover album. But that’s essentially what History Gets Ahead of the Story is as organized and realized by drummer Jeff Cosgrove. That the project is the province of an organ trio only adds to the potential consternation quotient. John Medeski officiates the Hammond B-3 console and saxophonist Jeff Lederer, doubling on flute, completes the combo convened by Cosgrove. The latter’s connections to Parker stem from a trio he was part of with the bassist/composer and pianist Matthew Shipp that disbanded in 2015 after fruitful collaboration. Parker’s personage and music left an indelible mark and the seeds for the present album were sown. Collective creative license doesn’t get in the way of soulful, energizing renderings of such staples as “O’Neal’s Porch,” “Corn Meal Dance” and “Wood Flute Songs,” but troika also cedes time for a triptych of strong originals that align aurally with their dedicatee’s inclusive tone world sensibilities.

Derek Taylor   

 Derelenismo Occulere — Inexorable Revelación (Le Legione Projets)

Inexorable Revelacion (FULL LENGHT 2020) by Derelenismo Occulere

This sounds like a rehearsal gone wrong. In the time of the COVID pandemic, Neo Apolion, a guy responsible for the music in this Ecuadorean duo, recorded a demo and sent it to the band’s vocalist Malduchryst with a message to do with it whatever he wants. Malduchryst took his band partner’s words all too literally. With complete disregard to the music he began vomiting a noisy, messy mass of screams to a microphone (has he never heard of a black metal with no vocals?). If it sounds totally batshit, you can rest assured that it is. This is what makes Inexorable Revelación actually great black metal. When a lot of metal bands these days are just Backstreet Boys with leather jackets on and with guitars, Derelenismo Occulere care about only fury and mayhem. Their Argentinean mix man Ignacio only adds more chaos to the album. The only flaw this tape has is that it is 15 minutes too long.

Ray Garraty  

 Whit Dickey — Morph (ESP-Disk)

Morph by Whit Dickey

Drummer Whit Dickey and pianist Matthew Shipp have been recurrent partners since the early 1990s, when they were both members of the David S. Ware Quartet. It’s fair to say that each man is a known quantity to the other, and that one of the things they know about each other is that they might still be surprised by the other’s playing. Dickey’s retreated from time to time in order to revise his approach, and while Shipp has often threatened to quit recording over the years, he has never stopped working or evolving. This double disc combines one duo CD and another that adds trumpeter Nate Wooley to the pair. Wooley’s done a number of dates with Shipp in recent times, but he and Dickey were musical strangers before they entered Park West Studios in March 2019. Without Wooley, Shipp and Dickey seem very free and trusting of each other, transitioning with dreamlike ease from abstracted gospel to sideways swing to restless co-rumination this the ease. The trio seems more considered. The trumpeter dips quite sparingly into his extended technique bag, favoring instead linear statements that instigate fleet perambulations from the pianist and more supportive, less overtly dialogic contributions from the drummer. Both sessions work, and their differences complement each other quite handily.

Bill Meyer

 Dropdead — S/T (Armageddon)

Dropdead 2020 by Dropdead

Yep, it’s that Dropdead, the Providence-based powerviolence band that hasn’t released a proper LP since 1998 and was on a long hiatus through much of the 21st century. Since 2011, Dropdead has put out a string of splits, with heavyweights like Converge and Brainoil. But a whole record? Maybe the unrelentingly shitty condition of our political and economic conjuncture motivated the four guys in the band (three of whom have been affiliated with Dropdead since 1991) to write the 23 burners, rants and breakdown-heavy hardcore tunes you’ll hear across Dropdead’s 25 minutes. It’s a welcome addition. Bob Otis’s voice doesn’t have the shredding quality of days of yore — but that ends up being useful. You can hear the lyrics, and they’re drenched in venom and righteousness. The rest of the band hasn’t lost a step. Pretty impressive for a bunch of guys with that much grey in their beards. That said, they don’t pull any intergenerational, “we’re-older-and-wiser” moves. This is still music that wants to collapse boundaries, between stage and mosh pit, between races and genders, between species, even. Not so much class positions: “Warfare State,” “United States of Corruption,” “Will You Fight?” Late capitalism’s depredations still bear the principal brunt of the band’s anger. Things have gotten worse, and Dropdead respond in kind. They may be a lot older, but they’re even more pissed off.

Jonathan Shaw

 Fake Laugh — Waltz (State 51 Conspiracy)

Earlier this year, Kamran Khan released his second Fake Laugh album, the charming, playful Dining Alone, which made its way into Dusted’s mid-year round-up of favorites released in the first half of 2020. Khan’s third album, Waltz, is a very different beast, featuring just piano, vocals and the odd keyboard texture, casting his songwriting in sharp relief. Undoubtedly created in this stripped-down way out of lockdown necessity, it’s hard to listen to these wistful, melancholic songs without imagining where Khan’s knack for colorful arrangements might take them, given the chance. (As a tease, closing song “Amhurst” offers up a shimmering electronic melody and some sighing synth chords.) There’s no doubting Khan’s way with a tune, and his naked vocal, though occasionally showing strain, suits the mood. It’s understated and undeniably lovely, yet Waltz feels like a minor release for this talented artist.

Tim Clarke

 David Grubbs / Taku Unami — Comet Meta (Blue Chopsticks)

Comet Meta by David Grubbs & Taku Unami

In the 23 years since Gastr Del Sol fell apart, David Grubbs has done many things that don’t sound much like his old band with Jim O’Rourke. And Taku Unami has worked in such varied settings and ways that the most persistent quality of his engagement with sound is its ability to induce question marks and ellipses in any train of thought intending to decode it. So, it’s both remarkable and delightful that this record, the duo’s second collaboration, sounds rather like parts of Gastr Del Sol’s Upgrade & Afterlife. The foundation rests upon the way two guys who can and do play intricate guitar duets make subtle use of other elements — creeping acoustic piano, humming synthesizer, urban field recordings — to make music that thickens atmosphere and accumulates mystery with such subtlety that you don’t notice it until you’re in it.

Bill Meyer  

 Guided by Voices — Mirrored Aztec (Guided by Voices Inc.)

I know, I know, it’s another Guided by Voices record, the fifth since 2019, but hear me out. Pollard is still tapped into the fuzzy, rackety, melodic sap of the rock and roll universe, and he has only to knock his hammer a few times against the gnarled tree of life to extract more of what sustains us. Shorter version: he can do this all day, every day, without any noticeable let-up in quality. So, let us celebrate another batch of Who-like power chords, of rumbling drums and monumental bass thuds, of melodies that curve out delicately like spring’s first vines, then thicken into thundering climaxes and triumphant refrains. Let us give thanks again for inscrutable lyrics that drift off into poetry then pull back in the most ordinary artifacts of the spoken word. “I Think I Had It. I Think I Have It,” crows Pollard in a voice that has been blasted by time but come out more or less intact, and yes, Bob, you still do.

Jennifer Kelly

  Edu Haubensak & Tomas Korber — Works for Guitar & Percussion (Ezz-thetics)

The celebrated Wandelweiser aesthetic serves as a loose overarching impetus for the four interpretations of compositions by Edu Haubensak and Tomas Korber that comprise Works for Guitar & Percussion. Classical guitarist Christian Buck and improvising percussionist Christian Wolfarth ply their instruments through pairing and isolation. Essayist Andy Hamilton describes context by delineating a distinction between music (based in the language of tones) and soundart (which is non-tonal) and placing the duo’s interpretations in the opaque border between these realms. Repetition and timbral disparity frame Haubensak’s “On” while Korber’s “Aufhebung” applies scrutiny to microtonal diversity and temporal impermanence. Wolfarth fields Korber’s “Weniger Weiss” from behind snare drum, trading recurring stick rolls with varying segments of silence that compel ears accustomed to Western musical structures to consciously fill in the blanks. Haubensak’s solo “Refugium” finds Buck bending two closely tuned strings in an extrapolation of an Arabic maqam that feels tenuously connected to the form, at best.

Derek Taylor 

 Inseclude — Inseclude (Inseclude)

Brad MacAllister of CTRL and Blue Images and Benjamin Londa of Exit have been working in the darkwave and chillwave scenes for several years and their first album as Inseclude is a long distance collaboration that mines the darker side of 1980s alternative and electronic rock. From Pennsylvania, MacAllister sent musical ideas to Londa in Texas who added guitars, lyrics and vocals to produce a set of songs that are well made and enjoyable if largely unmemorable. There are a number of contemporary bands doing similar things — Hamilton’s Capitol and Manchester’s Ist spring immediately to mind — taking the Cure, New Order, Sisters of Mercy template and why not? Unfortunately, the passage of time and the law of diminishing returns have led to overfamiliarity with this style of music that makes for easy and perhaps unfair comparisons. When they stretch themselves, Inseclude’s songs do hit. “Sondera” and “Failing To The Pulse” carry some real menace with the juxtaposition of wide-angle synths and paranoid vocals but elsewhere the pair seem held back by a restraint and lack of bottom end that diminish the impact of some pretty decent songs.

Andrew Forell

 Kvalia — Scholastic Dreams Of Forceful Machines (Old Boring Russia)

Схоластические Грёзы Силовых Машин by Квалиа

Krasnoyarsk sits on the banks of the Yenisei river in southern Siberia and is known both for the natural beauty of its surrounding landscape and for its primacy as an aluminum producer. Local musicians Aleksander Maznichenko and Aleksey Danilenko reflect the latter on their new five track EP Scholastic Dreams Of Forceful Machines, an icy, metallic collection of post-industrial clang pitched somewhere between Einstürzende Neubauten and early Clock DVA. Their machines are forceful but cranky, rusted, near obsolete. Maznichenko keeps the thrum of turbines is steady but the drum machines lurch and thump, the keyboards whine and scream, the Russian vocals protest their obstreperous charges. Danilenko’s bass is post-punk elastic skipping amongst the raining sparks hinting at a will to dance with his mutant riffs. They sound like they mean it and the result is a terrific EP full of fire, fumes, steam and sweat.

Andrew Forell  

 Mezzanine Swimmers — Kneelin’ on a Knife (Already Dead)

Kneelin' on a Knife by Mezzanine Swimmers

These songs circle around noise-crusted, repetitive beats, the drumming stiff and mechanical, the riffs chopped to short bursts, the vocals woozy and distended. “Sexy Apology” reiterates a three-note keyboard lick ad infinitum, as main Swimmer Mike Smith drawls the title phrase, similarly on repeat. Yet within this unchanging structure, chaos erupts in detuned keyboards, miasmic feedback and corrosive noise. It’s hard to say whether these songs are too tightly organized or too loose, a bit of both really, and yet, get past the headachy thud and there’s an unhinged psychotropic transport. No one ever said that kneeling on knives would be comfortable.

Jennifer Kelly

 Mosca — The Optics (Rent)

Mosca · The Optics [RENT001]

Part of the initial wave of neon-infused dubstep hedonism surrounding the Night Slugs camp at the turn of the last decade, Mosca’s Tom Reid has since survived on the strength of a regular slot behind the decks at NTS and sparingly deployed releases on such renowned labels as Numbers, Rinse, Hypercolour and Livity Sound. “The Optics” debuts his new Rent imprint, conceived as a way to get out music that doesn’t fit in elsewhere. (Originally, this was to be an a-side for a coming AD93 release, but as he says, “There's only so long you can keep a track with a baby crying in it back from the masses.”) Supposedly inspired by the Under the Skin beach scene, the five-minute track immediately throws you off with a dub-heavy shuffle and metallic, alien sounds that zoom around the mix. The main thrust of the melody arrives around a minute in, and gradually the sounds close in on you. There’s bells, birds, a baby crying and then, just when you’re feeling completely stressed out, it all falls away; a driving jungle rhythm carries you the rest of the way. Deeply satisfying dance from a head who hasn’t lost his way.

Patrick Masterson  

 Prana Crafter/ragenap — No Ear to Hear (Centripetal Force Studio/Cardinal Fuzz)

No Ear to Hear by Prana Crafter / ragenap

When Robert Hunter, the poet who wrote lyrics for the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star,” “Ripple,” “Truckin’,” “Terrapin Station” and many other songs, died in late 2019, long form psych musicians Prana Crafter (William Sol) and ragenap (Joel Berk) mourned separately but simultaneously. The night he died, both took solace in improvised music, which didn’t so much evoke or represent Hunter, but captured some of their feelings about his work and their loss. When they talked, soon after, they found that both had made lengthy open-ended meditations on the same person. Those two extended pieces make up No Ear to Hear. Prana Crafter’s entry, “Beggar’s Tomb,” is weighted and slow moving, building gradually from simmering drones into towering edifices of feedback and dissonance. Although performed largely on guitar, the sound is filtered through gleaming effects and layers into astral strangeness, a mystic’s trip through mental interiors. ragenap’s “Nightfall” also takes shape slowly out of looming sustained notes and black velvet quiet and sounds that scratch and vibrate at the edges. A solitary acoustic guitar takes up space at the forefront finally, carving a hesitant melody across the hum. The tune turns fuller and more agitated as it progresses, adding layers of feedback and distortion. Neither of these pieces sounds much like the Grateful Dead, and of course, neither has any sort of lyrics. I doubt that anyone, hearing this album for the first time would say, “Oh yeah, Robert Hunter.” And yet inspiration works in strange and, in this case, fruitful ways. You can enjoy this even if you don’t like the Dead.

Jennifer Kelly

 Raven Throne — Viartannie (Chroniki Źmiainaj Ciemry) (self-released)

Viartannie (Chroniki Źmiainaj Ciemry) /The Return (The Chronicles of the Serpent Darkness) by RAVEN THRONE

These Belorussian black metal veterans are true materialists. On their seventh album, they show that nature is a social construct, not something given. And boy, their nature is not a loving mother. Unlike many metal bands convey nature via field recordings, Raven Throne craft their ferocious sounds with guitars and drums. Aren’t these as natural instruments as stone and wooden sticks? The atmospheric black metal subgenre has been contaminated by pop and folksy metal so that it’s hard to maintain a truly evil sound, while still bringing the atmospheric elements into it. Raven Throne pull it off. This is how darkness should sound.

Ray Garraty  

 The Slugs — Don’t Touch Me I’m Too Slimy (2214099 Records DK)

Don't Touch Me, I'm Too Slimy by The Slugs

The Slugs are an exuberantly lo-fi punk pop duo out of London who bash and thump and shout short, acidic ditties about being female, in a band, under assault and under the weather. Liberty Hodes, who is also one half of the comedy duo A Comedy Night that Passes the Bechdel Test, plays a jangling, forceful electric guitar, while her Phoebe Dighton-Brown bangs away in brutal simplicity on the drums. Both sing, sometimes in unison, sometimes in rough harmonies, occasionally in slashing counterparts. (One chants “Feel sick/can’t be sick” while the other rolls out mellifluous “ah-ah-ah-ahs” in “Feel Sick.”) There is a charming, unstudied quality to their music, which is a bit too smart and biting to be primitive, but nonetheless eschews frills. It’s hard to pick favorites—the whole EP is over in five tracks and 11 minutes—but “Pest” is giddy fun, with its slouching, battering guitar-drum motif and slacker choruses. The shout along chorus of “Don’t touch me! I’m too slimy!” is the best thing on the record, hitting a rebellious, unwashed spot of resonance in the work-from-home era. Second best, the gleeful tirade about sleazy male promoters in “Girly Gang” (“Give you all the gigs if you touch my wang”), which builds in round-singing euphorias until it ends suddenly and a la Jane Austen in matrimony (“Married in a dress by Vera Wang”). People are comparing the Slugs to the Shaggs, but that’s just short-hand for banging away anyway without all the training. The Slugs are smarter, slyer and more autonomous, and if they sound a little rough, that’s exactly how they meant to sound.

Jennifer Kelly

Tobin Sprout — Empty Horses (Fire)

Empty Horses by Tobin Sprout

Blessed with one of the finest names in music (alongside dEUS’s Klaas Janzoons), Tobin Sprout is best known for being part of the Guided by Voices line-up that created classic albums such as Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes in the 1990s. Though Sprout’s subsequent solo output has been a steady stream compared to Robert Pollard’s deluge, Empty Horses is his eighth solo album. In it, the now-65-year-old ruminates faith, mortality and American history atop a spare, country-tinged backing. There’s a deep ache to many of these songs, the kind of emotional weight that manifests in pointedly low tempos, sparse drum parts that hang behind the beat and vocal performances that are almost uncomfortably intimate. Running to a succinct half-hour, with many of the songs clocking in at just a couple of minutes each, Empty Horses confronts demons seemingly too pernicious to overcome. Yet, when the music becomes more expansive — such as the graceful pedal steel of “Breaking Down,” the woozy modulation of “Antietam,” or the biting fuzztone of “All In My Sleep” — Sprout sounds like he may be on the verge of making a much-needed breakthrough.

Tim Clarke  

 Son Lux — Tomorrows I (City Slang)

Tomorrows I by Son Lux

Son Lux’s songs embed unsettling sounds in deep wells of silence, finding disturbing textures in string sounds, electronics, percussion and the fluttering soul falsetto of founder Ryan Lott. Tomorrows I, reportedly the first of three related albums, has a quietly dystopian vibe and a moist, echoing unease that might remind of you Burial’s classic Untrue. A brief, looped, keening violin motif punctures the opening cut, “Plans We Made” with all the threat of Bernhard Hermann’s shower music for the film Psycho, while Lott trills haunted phrases about being afraid to let go. “Undertow,” near the end, brings in a whole string quartet to swoon dissonantly, as a knocking beat (drummer Ian Chang) sounds like a body being dragged across the floor. “Just waiting for the undertow,” sings Lott in the dread empty spaces between, in arias of muted desolation. Minimalist and menacing and mesmerizing.

Jennifer Kelly

 Ulaan Janthina — Ulaan Janthina (Part 1) (Worstward)

Ulaan Janthina (Part I) by Ulaan Janthina

Steven R. Smith contains multitudes, and Ulaan Janthina is the latest manifestation of his mutating musical self. This release exemplifies three aspects of Smith’s practice. First, he likes to make beautiful things. Hard copies of this tape come in a custom-oriented box that contains tinted photos, shells and printed communications as well as the cassette. And he’s project-oriented. While other iterations have been devoted to an Eastern European vibe, or guitar noise or a virtual ensemble sound, Ulaan Janthina results from a decision to work primarily with the keyboards in his house. It’s a winning strategy, since his synthesizers, organ and harmonium all benefit from the grittiness of Smith’s recording methodology, and his spare playing style makes his melodies stand out quite starkly from the background atmosphere. Like the name says, this is part one of the Janthina (named for a genus of sea snail that makes its own floating platform — not a bad metaphor for the survival-oriented independent musician) venture; a second, similarly packaged cassette is pending from Smith’s Worstward imprint soon, and a future release is already planned by Soft Abuse records.

Bill Meyer

 Various Artists — Spr Blk: Liberation Jazz and Soul From the '70s and Beyond (Paxico)

Liberation Jazz and Soul by Marcus J. Moore

Author Marcus J. Moore (late of The Nation but also found everywhere from Pitchfork to WaPo) has a book on the way in October, The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America. In advance of its release via cassette devotees Paxico, Moore cobbled together “rare and somewhat familiar” Black music from his own crates. “These are the kinds of songs I play when walking through New York City or driving through Maryland,” he says in the release. What that means for you is a two-sided mix that burns slower on the A and gets more percussion-heavy on the B. Leading off with Doug Carn’s fittingly titled “Swell Like a Ghost” and featuring jams from Willie Dale, Milton Wright, Ronald Snijders and other lesser jazz, soul and funk lights, it’s a revealing mix that will no doubt pair well with that fall reading you’re about to get going on.

Patrick Masterson 

 Vatican Shadow — Persian Pillars of the Gasoline Era (20 Buck Spin)

Persian Pillars Of The Gasoline Era by Vatican Shadow

Dominick Fernow is hugely prolific, and most folks with ears tuned to the densely churning worlds of noise and industrial music will be familiar with his abrasive, unsettling output under the Prurient moniker. Fernow’s releases as Vatican Shadow are fewer in number, and more attuned to ambient, even melodic movements and textures. That’s sort of odd, given that the Vatican Shadow records thematize and explore Fernow’s obsession with the history of the Middle East, especially post-9/11 collisions of Western military force, Islamic traditions of resistance and the tactics of terror used by both sides. Relaxing stuff, that ain’t. Consistent with the larger project’s tendencies, Persian Pillars of the Gasoline Era claims an interest in the CIA-coordinated Iranian coup (MI6 helped out, too, those imperial scamps) that deposed Mohammed Mossadeq, installed the Shah Reza Pahlavi and inaugurated some of the principal tensions that have shaped the last half-century of world history. It’s unclear how Fernow’s pulsing, shimmering, sometimes juddering synth sounds are meant to represent or otherwise engage that history. For sure, record art and song titles summon all the right semiotics, sometimes with an interesting edge. But “Taxi Journey through the Teeming Slums of Tehran” sounds more like a malfunctioning MP3 player than a taxi or a “teeming slum” (can we all be done with that phrase now?), and “Moving Secret Money” is pleasantly trance-inducing, rather than insidiously evil. Musically, it’s quite good. The packaging seems to want strike other notes. Maybe that’s the point — too many folks are too busy consuming quietist pop to bother with the grind of the political. But is this the intervention we need?  

Jonathan Shaw

[bestreasonstowriterecordreviews]

✰ BEST OF THE BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2019 ✰        

It’s that time again: let’s feast from 2019′s Grapevine That Is Never Pruned with 21 (+ approximately 277 more) of the BEST OF THE BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2019!    ✰ 7th ANNIVERSARY ✰ 

<All long playing vinyl records unless otherwise noted...& many cassettes>

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ TOP 21 ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

✰ TAIWAN HOUSING PROJECT  Sub-Language Trustees  (ever/never) ✰

✰ SAMANTHA RIOTT  Bloodletting download (self-released)

✰ PAULA GARCIA STONE  Undercurrent  cd (Linear Obsessional, UK) 

✰ POSSIBLE HUMANS  Everybody Split (Trouble In Mind)

✰ WILLIAM HENRY MEUNG cassette FMerror (chemical imbalance., Australia)

✰ LEILA BORDREUIL  Headflush  (Catch Wave Ltd)

✰ LEIGHTON CRAIG Diamond Eye (Bruit Direct Disques, France) 

✰ KNITTED ABYSS   Bad Lassies (Paradise Daily, Australia)

✰ WEAK SIGNAL  LP1  (Mag Mag)

✰ TOM OF ENGLAND  Sex Monk Blues (L.I.E.S.)

✰ DRY CLEANING  Boundary Road Snacks And Drinks & Sweet Princess LP (It’s OK, UK)

✰ 75 DOLLAR BILL  I Was Real  double LP (Thin Wrist Recordings) 

✰ DARK BLUE Victory Is Rated (12XU)

✰ KALI MALONE  The Sacrificial Code 3 cd (iDEAL Recordings, Sweden)

✰ SHABAZZ MYSTIK Chant D’Lâme (Off, Belgium)

✰ LONG HOTS Give And Take 7” (Third Man)

✰ AMIRTHA KIDAMBI & LEA BERTUCCI  Phase Eclipse cassette (Astral Spirits)

✰ CHRIS BROKAW  End Of The Night (VDSQ)

✰ SPIRAL WAVE NOMADS Spiral Wave Nomads (Twin Lakes/Feeding Tube)

✰ HAMA Houmeissa (Sahel Sounds)

✰ YL HOOI  Untitled  cassette (Altered States Tapes, Australia)

JEANINES Jeanines (Slumberland)

ARTEFACTOS DE DOLOR  La Niña double LP (Pain Artifacts)

U-BAHN  U-Bahn  (Future Folklore, France)

MDOU MOCTAR Ilana: The Creator (Sahel Sounds)

STEFAN CHRISTENSEN The Upcoming Flame (bruit direct disques, France) 

TYSHAWN SOREY & MARILYN CRISPELL  The Adornment Of Time cd (Pi Recordings)

ALE HOP Apophenia (Buh Records, Peru)

TIM PANARETOS  Submergence cd-r (chemical imbalance., Australia) & Opposites End download (self-released, Australia)

KATE CARR City Of Bridges download (Longform Editions, Australia)

WRITHING SQUARES  Out Of The Ether (Trouble In Mind)

MY NORTH EYE  (My) North Eye (2011) cd-r  (Reverb Worship, France)

PINOCCHIO  Pinocchio ep (Toxic State)

BRIDGET HAYDEN Soil And Song cassette (Synchronise Witches, UK) [comes with Karen Dalton fanzine!]

The COWBOYS The Bottom Of A Rotten Flower  (Feel It Records)

OLUMPUS  Caucus & Surplus downloads (both stabbies, etc., New Zealand)

CHUCK CLEAVER  Send Aid (Shake It!)

JOSÉ DIAS  After Silence, Vol. 1. cd (Clean Feed, Portugal)

KNIFE WIFE  Family Party cassette (Sister Polygon)

TRAMPOLINE TEAM  Trampoline Team (HoZac)

KATE CARR  Heatwave cassette (self-released, UK)

SEBASTIEN STH BISET  Islæd cd (Mnóad, Belgium)

PHAROAH CHROMIUM  Eros + Massacre  (Scum Yr Earth, France)

JOSEPH ALLRED Aspirant cassette (Garden Portal Tapes) & O, Meadowlark (Feeding Tube)

ANDREA BORGHI Tistre cassette (Dinzu Artefacts)

MOPE GROOVES Desire (See My Friends Records)

JOSHUA ABRAMS & NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY  Mandatory Reality (Eremite)

SOFIE BIRCH  Island Alchemy cassette (Constellation Tatsu) 

VOYAGE DATA  Voyage Data cassette  (Econore, Germany)

JONNY COUCH  Mystery Man  (Damages Sofa)

FISCHERLE  Gmatwacz cassette (Czaszka, UK)

ROCKET 808  Rocket 808 (12XU)

LINDA TRIP  Sad Bangers cassette (Superdreamer) 

MATTHEW J. ROLIN  Matthew J. Rolin (Feeding Tube Records)

STEKKERDOOS  Kalendar cassette (No Rent)

IAN HAWGOOD  光 (Home Normal, Japan)

ÀLEX REVIRIEGO • DISCORDIAN STRING ENSEMBLE  Incerto For Doublebass And Strings download (Discordian, Spain)

JULIA KENT Temporal cd (The Leaf Label, UK)

NAPS  Better To Give cassette (Gertrude Tapes)

TERROR OF THE DEEP  The A-Team cassette (Melted Ice Cream, New Zealand)

CLAIRE ROUSAY Friends cassette (Never Anything)

ANNA SUBIRIANA • POL PADRÓS • JOAN ANTONI PICH Brull’s Bet download (Discordian, Spain)

HAKOBUNE  A Fan, Strings, and Two Guitars cassette (Patient Sounds)

LORI GOLDSTON Things Opening (Second Editions, Germany)

The RESONARS  No Exit (Trouble In Mind)

MARCIA BASSETT • MANUEL MOTA • MARGARIDA GARCIA  Here They Rest Immobile (Yew)

URANIUM CLUB The Cosmo Cleaners: The Higher Calling Of Business Provocateurs (Fashionable Idiots/Static Shock, UK)

THE COOL GREENHOUSE  “Crap Cardboard Pet” 7” (Hidden Bay Records, France)

ROB NOYES “You Are Tired”/“Nightmare Study”  7” (Market Square Recordings, UK)

TOM LÖNNQVIST  Häviävän Pieni Osa (Guggenhavn Archive, Sweden)

GOTOBEDS  Debt Begins At 30 (Sub Pop)

GREG KELLEY/ROB NOYES  Greg Kelley/Rob Noyes split cassette (self-released)

DEAD SEA APES  The Free Territory  double LP (Feeding Tube Records) 

DRAGGS  Draggs cassette (Slime Street, Australia) 

SPRAY PAINT Into The Country (12XU)

SPF Paul’s McCartney 

2 CHEVRONS No Rules In Outta Space cassette (Albert’s Basement, Australia)

DARK TEA Dark Tea (Fire Talk)

TERRINE  Live At Home cassette (Econore, Germany)

The SNAKES  The Snakes (Anti Fade, Australia)

LIVE SKULL  Saturday Night Massacre  (Bronson Recordings, Italy)

ELKHORN  Sun Cycle/Elk Jam 2 LP (Feeding Tube)

MESSRS  Messrs 12” (Heel Turn Records)

VIRGINIA PLAIN  Strange Game (All Hands Electric)

JEN KUTLER  Dismbodied (EyeVee)

MOR AIR  Life Behind Glass cassette (Genot Centre, Czech Republic)

CIA DEBUTANTE  The Landlord (Siltbreeze)

JOSÉ DIAS  After Silence, Volume 1 cd (Celan Feed, Portugal)

LAURA LUNA CASTILLO  Folksonomies cassette (Cudighi Records)

THE GIRL IN TIMES NEW VIKING  The Girl In Times New Viking (The Fah-Q Catalog)

43 ODES  43 Odes cassette (Eiderdown)

OOF Vanity Plate cassette & EGO cassette  (both Fuzzy Warbles cassettes)

ORGUE AGNÈS A Une Gorge (three:four, Switzerland; Standard In-Fi - 2018)

MICHAEL MORLEY Heavens Idleness Awaits 2 LP (Thin Wrist Recordings)

CHRISTINA KUBISCH  Schall Und Klang cd (Fragment Factory, Germany)

HUNTED CREATURES Sleep Weed cassette (White Reeves Productions)

UNITED WATERS  Coma To Coma (Drawing Room Records)

JULIUS MENARD  Hr  cassette (Econore, Germany)

GEE TEE Chromo-Zone download (self/released, Australia)

AARON RUSSELL  Coral Music cassette (Gertrude Tapes)

9TH HOUSE  Planetary EP 12” (Hot Haus, UK) 

SCAN  Scan 7” ep (Drugfront)

The HECKS  My Star  (Trouble In Mind)

ALINA PETROVA & KIRA WEINSTEIN  Sad Ko cassette (Never Anything)

HIEROPHANTS  Spitting Out Moonlight (Anti Fade, Australia) 

NOTS  3  (Goner)

P WITS The Desire and Pursuit of The Whole cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia)

GOLDEN PELICANS Grinding For Gruel (12XU)

TOPDOWN DIALECTIC  Vol. 2 (Peak Oil)

M. SAGE  Catch A Blessing (Geographic North)

ECHO OHS  Wild Weeds 12” (1:12 Records, New Zealand)

CIVIC  Selling, Sucking, Blackmail Bribes 7"  (Total Punk)

WENDY EISENBERG & SHANE PARRISH  Nervous Systems (Verses) 

KNEELING IN PISS  Tour De Force cassette (The Fah-Q Catalog)

s.soo Tyman download (New York Haunted, Netherlands)    

WSCHÓD  Wschód cd (Clean Feed, Portugal)

PREENING Gang Laughter (Digital Regress) 

CLARICE JENSEN  Drone Studies  cassette (Geographic North)

MARBLED EYE  Beat Sessions, Vol. 8 cassette (Shout Recordings)

STEVE MOORE  Steve Moore 12” (L.I.E.S)

The SELVA  Canícula Rosa cd (Clean Feed, Australia)

PROGRAM Show Me 12” (Anti Fade, Australia)

SLUMB PARTY Spending Money (Drunken Sailor, UK)

EUN-JUNG KIM & CHARLIE COLLINS  Shining Days cd (Linear Obsessional, UK)

NEON  Neon 12” (Square One Again)

CUCINA POVERA Zoom (Night School, Scotland)

PAULA SHOCRON & PABLO DÍAZ with GUILLERMO GREGORIO Díalogos cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

MY NORTH EYE / LE GOÛT ACIDE DES CONSERVATOURS  MNE • L / G / A / D / C split cassette ([Equilibre Fragile], France)

The WOOLEN MEN Human To Human (Dog’s Table)

PIERCE WARNECKE & LOUIS LAURAIN  

Phonotypic Plasticity cassette (Astral Spirits)

BIG QUIET Interesting Times (Unblinking Ear)

SEAN ALI • LEILA BORDREUIL • JOANNA MATTREY I Used to Sing So Lyrical cassette (Astral Spirits)

POWDER  Powder In Space cd (Beats In Space)

MUKQS Jaki Crush cassette (No Rent)

DENNIS GONZALEZ & DEREK ROGERS Certain Aspects cd (Marginal Frequency) 

PONT-À-MOUSSON Bye Bye Mirello! cassette (ABrecords, France)

AKI  ONDA  A Method To Its Messiness (Thalamos, Greece)

ALEXANDER  Untitled cassette (Garden Portal)

BRANDY  “Clown Pain”/“Rent Quest” 7” (Total Punk)

MAJOR STARS  Roots Of Confusion, Seeds Of Joy  (Drag City)

LORI GOLDSTON & JUDITH HAMANN Alloys cd (Marginal Frequency) 

PAINT THINNER The Sea Of Pulp (ŌBLĒK)

JEANS BEAST  Unearthly Gardens Of The New Gods cd-r (Econore, Germany) & Attrition cassette (self-releases, Germany)

SKULL PRACTITIONERS  Skull Practitioners 12” (In The Red)

UROCHROMES  Trope House (Wharf Cat)

LIVINGDOG & MIKE JOHNSON CRO$$ cassette (Constellation Tatsu)

HEADROOM  New Heaven 12” (ever/never)

JEFF HENDERSON  The Charming Clarinet download (III Records, NewZealand)

GRAHAM DUNNING & EDWARD LUCAS End Of A Cable cassette (tsss tapes, Italy)

VILDE CHAYE Demos cassette (Brainplan)

Heavy Space Records - Anthology Volumes I & II cassettes (Ikuisuus, Finland)

KYLE EYRE CLYD Eggshell cd (Yew)

NEUTRALS  Kebab Disco (Emotional Response)

FREDDIE DOUGGIE Freddie Douggie: Live on Juneteenth cassette (International Anthem)

AGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ • WILLIAM PARKER • SUSIE IBARRA  One Night At The Joan Miró Foundation cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

HUGO MASSIEN  Dance Trax Vol. 21 (Unknown To The Unknown) 

RRILL BELL Vagabond Laws cassette (Gertrude Tapes)

GAMARDAH FUNGUS  Natural Storm cd (Hidden Vibes, Ukraine)

WAYNE ROGERS  The Air Below (Twisted Village)

UNKNOWN SENDER Unknown Sender  (Colonel Records) 

BLUES LAWYER  Something Different (Mt.St.Mtn) 

DURA  Reverberation Hymns cassette (Garden Portal)

JODIE LOWTHER  The Cat Collects download (self-released)

WOLKOROTS Dan Manialogism cassette (Magma Tones, Finland)  

CEREAL KILLER  The Beginning And End Of Cereal Killer (Anti Fade, Australia)

COLIN WEBSTER/MARK HOLUB Nadir (Raw Tonk, UK)

The CAVEMEN  Lowlife 7” EP (Slovenly) 

FRANCISCA GRIFFIN  The Spaces Between cd (CocoMuse, New Zealand)

ANDY HUMAN & THE REPTOIDS  “Psychic Sidekick” 7” (Total Punk)

SEI A Mode Static 12” (Aus Music, U.K.)

JOHN SAINT PELVYN  Improvisation 7.7.18 download (Southern Jukebox Music) 

REBEL SCUM The Descent cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia - 2018) 

S. ARAW TRIO XIII Activated Clown cassette (NNA Tapes)

FERRAN FAGES & VASCO TRILLA  Gestell cd (Raw Tonk, UK)

HUA LUN  Wanderlænd + 2 cassette (Katuktu Collective)

VIRVON VARVON  Mind Cancer cassette (Girlsville)

PHILIPP OTTERBACH  The Rest Is Bliss (Knekelhuis, Netherlands)

EDITRIX Talk To Me download (self-released)

PAVLOV’S PUSS  Comfort Food  (Melted Ice Cream, New Zealand) 

NATHALIE STERN  Nerves And Skin cassette (Cruel Nature, UK)

AKI TAKASE  Hokusai  cd (Intakt, Switzerland)

MOORDDROOM  Deep VR Edits bandcamp DL (New York Haunted, Netherlands)

EXEK Some Beautiful Species Left (Digital Regress)

CLAIRE BIRCHALL  “Dead Air” bandcamp DL (it, Australia)

JUDY & The JERKS  Bone Spur cassette (Earth Girl) & Music For Donuts ep  (Thrilling Living) 

POWER STEERING  Power Steering cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia)  

RASMUS TIETCHENS  HOBOTPAHC cd-r (New York Haunted, Netherlands) 

UTINUTIN  Black Cat, Anyeurism, And Simian Politics download (no label)

GUY BIRKIN  Yemen Data Project cassette (New York Haunted, Netherlands)

LINUS VANDEWOLKEN  Het Vlier Een Hommel Op Aarde 10”x 2 (Okraïna, Belgium)

JOHN CHANTLER  Tomorrow Is Too Late  (Room40, Australia)

JENNIFER VANILLA  J.E.N.N.I.F.E.R. EP 12” (Beats In Space)

WOW  Come La Notte  (Maple Death, Italy)

KATE MOHANTY  Disappear Here  cassette (Friendship Tapes) 

ASTRO SOCIAL CLUB & GRUMBLING FUR  Plasma Splice Trifle (vhf)

SANR  Kesif cd (Flaming Pines, UK)

ANDREW TASSELMYER & PATRICK SPATZ  Interior Currents cassette (Constellation Tatsu)

AHMEDOU AHMED LOWLA Terrouzi cassette (Sahel Sounds)

SKRU  Count Zero cassette (Bedouin, UAE)

PUGILIST Blue 06 12” (Whities, UK)

ULAAN  KHOL  Collapsing Hymns cassette (Worstward) 

L.$.D. FUNDRAISER  No Peace Without Tranquility (no label, New Zealand)  

COCHONNE  Cochonne (self released)

LE POUFS À CORDES Le Poufs À Cordes cd (Pagans, France)

FRET!  A Vanity Spawned By Fear cassette (Cruel Nature, UK) 

UNWAR  Other People cd-r (Magma Tones, Finland)

WOJCIECH RUSIN  The Funnel (Akashic, Scotland)

SLEEPER AND SNAKE Junction And High (Aarght, Australia)

The OILIES Psychic Dog (Fruits & Flowers)

ELI KESZLER Empire 12” (Shelter Press, France)

HAIDER 10961 12” (Aus Music, UK)

FOSTER CARE El Abuso (Total Punk)

TORN HAWK Time Is A Scam 2x 12” (L.I.E.S.)

The LICE Nancy Spungen download (self-released)

DJ XNX  ATX  (Get Busy!, Russia)

SHITTY LIFE Vinyls Discography (Lo-Fo Lo-Life, Germany)

GONG GONG GONG  幽靈節奏 = Phantom Rhythm (Wharf Cat)

SARAH LOUISE  Nighttime Birds And. Opening Stars (Thrill Jockey)

MYRIAM BLEAU Lumens & Profits (Where To Now?, UK)

TV DUST  Forget (MyOwnPrivateRecords / Occult Gang, Italy)

PRIMORJE Reference Path  cassette (Thalamos, Greece)

JUNE CHIKUMA Ler Archives LP + 7” (Freedom To Spend)

dMyanche  Ergonomie cassette (Indian Redhead, France)

EQUIPMENT POINTED ANKH Live (Sophomore Lounge)

VIV CORRINGHAM  Until I Learn The Language Of Mineral Vegetable  cassette (Linear Obsessional, UK)

JACOB WICK feel (Thin Wrist)

AMATEUR HOUR Framtiden Tillhör Inte Oss (Happiest Place, Sweden)

The FICTIVE FIVE  Anything Is Possible cd (Clean Feed, Portugal) 

DANKETSU 9  Towards A Walk In The Sun cd (Patient Sounds (intl))

IVAN THE TOLERABLE  Rations 2LP (Stolen Body, UK)

DANA  Glowing Auras And Black Money (Heel Turn)

NATE YOUNG  Volume 3: Dance Of The Weeping Babe 12” (Lower Floor)

SHOLTO DOBIE & MARK HARWOOD  The Blue Horse  cd (Penultimate Press, UK)

HEAVY METAL 4  (Statik Age Music, Germany)

WET TUNA  Water Weird (Three Lobed Recordings)

CARRAGEENAN Invisible Design cassette (Czaszka, UK)

PRIVATE ANARCHY  Central Planning  (Round Bale Recordings)  

HIDEO NAKASAKO  Texture Of Days cassette (Muzan Editions, Japan)

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

PATRICK SHIROISHI & NOEL MEEK  Break Your Eyes cassette (Sploosh)

ANDY HUMAN & The REPTOIDS  Psychic Sidekick (Total Punk)

SLAG QUEENS  You Can’t Go Out Like That (Rough Skies Records, Australia)

ALIAS G Natural Love 12” (Unknown To The Unknown, UK)

NIVHEK  After Its Own Death / Walking In A Spiral Towards The House cd (W.25th)

GARCIA PEOPLES Natural Facts (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

MARCO SERRATO/FRANCESCO COVARINO Bestemmia cd (Raw Tonk, UK)

HOUSEWIVES Twilight Splendour  (Blank Editions, UK)

CLOUDWATCHERS  Cloudwatchers cd (Unexplained Sounds Group, Italy)

CATHERINE LAMB Shade/Gradient  (Black Pollen Press -2018) 

UNITED BIBLE STUDIES  Porti Sepolti cassette (Sloow Tapes, Belgium)

ÚJ BÁLA Diacritical Marks And Angels cassette (Baba Vanga, Czech Republic)

STRENGTH N.I.A.  Do Televisions, Frankie Moore ritual cassette (Stength N.I.A., UK)

DAVID LIPTAK David Lipton: Dove Songs [Tony Arnold, soprano/Allison D’Amato, piano] cd

ANNĒE ZĒRO  La Coolitude (Indian Redhead, France)

MELENAS “Ya Me No Importa Si Tú Quieres”/“Si Tú Me Quieres” 7” (El Nebula Recordings, Spain)

WHIRLING HALL OF KNIVES  Knukke cassette (Cruel Nature, UK)

PROTRUDERS  Poison Future (Feel It)

MOTHER JUNO  Commit cassette (popnihil)

LEFT HAND CUTS OFF THE RIGHT Purge cassette (Fractal Meat Cuts, UK)

CLAIRE ROUSAY  t4t  cassette (No Rent)

IQ+1  Conversaphone Plus (mappa, Slovenia)

BENOÎT PIOULARD & SEAN CURTIS PATRICK Avocationals (Bacon Sound) 

DELPHINE DORA  Dunkles Zu Sagen (self-released)

SOOT  Pockmarked With...Soot!  cassette (Eternal Soundcheck, Australia) 

DAN MELCHIOR BAND Negative Freedom (In The Red)

TÔLE FROIDE  Tôle Froide (Le Turc Mecanique, France - 2018)

AHMED AG KAEDY  Alkaline Kidal  (Sahel Sounds)

DUNNING & UNDERWOOD The Blow Vol. 5 cassette (Front & Follow, UK)

TAKAHIRO MUKAI Super Annoying cassette (Fort Evil Fruit, Ireland)

ANTONIO  High Voltage! cassette (Altered States Tapes, Australia) 

CUBE Decoy (W.25th)

The PLAINS  The Plains cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia)

KA BAIRD  Respires (Rvng Intl.) 

GINO & The GOONS  Do The Get Around (Drunken Sailor, UK)

VIVIEN LE FAY  Ecolalia  (Boring Machines, Italy)

DUKE  Uingizaji Hewa  (Nyege Nyege Tapes, Uganda)

ARIAN SHAFIEE  Arabic Voice cassette (unifactor)

MOUNT TROUT  Shelter Belt  cassette (Rough Skies, Australia)

OCEAN FLOOR  Vernalis cassette (Eiderdown)

CURRENT AFFAIRS “Buckle Up”/“World In Crisis” 7” (dotx3, Germany)

AARON SNOW  Instrumentals  ‘15-‘19  cassette (Surf Shop)

MELKINGS  Movement Music cassette (Regional Bears, UK)

DECIMUS  DECIMUS 6 (self-released)

SYLVIE COURVOISIER and MARK FELDMAN  Time Gone Out cd (Intakt, Switzerland) 

DANIEL HOLT Daniel Holt 12” (L.I.E.S.)

BEAT DETECTIVES  NYPD Records Volume 3: Nefertiti Abstract Movie cassette (NYPD Records)

STEFAN CHRISTENSEN & FRIENDS Unknown Fortune (C/Site)

DIRE WOLVES  Grow Towards The Light (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

FAMOUS LOGS IN HISTORY  Memories Of the Space Age cassette (Fuzzy Warbles Cassettes)

HAND & LEG Lust In Peace (Black Gladiator)

DEE DEE & The FUZZ COFFINS Three Golden Hits cassette (Earth Girl Tapes)

RAZORLEGS  Skip Skool cassette (Fadensonnen)

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2018

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2017

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2016

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2015

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIWS IN 2014

BEST REASON TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2013

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?”’

[directheat-stuff]

First Nations Musicians and Native American Musicians There were no borders. Part Four.

·       Derek Miller.

Derek Miller (born 29 October 1974 in Six Nations, Ontario) is an Aboriginal Canadian singer-songwriter.

He has received two Juno Awards.

He performed at the Closing Ceremonies of the

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics with Eva Avila and Nikki Yanofsky

·       Eekwol.

Eekwol (born Lindsay Knight) is a Muskoday First Nation rapper who is a solo female aboriginal hip hop artist."Her music offers  Natives, and Native Women in particular, a positive alternative to negative, violent stereotypes she is a graduate of the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan (M.A.).

Her master's thesis, completed through the Department of Native Studies, examines past and present Indigenous music and how both are interconnected.

·       Jerry Alfred.

Jerry Alfred (born 1955 in Mayo, Yukon) is a Northern Tutchone musician living in Pelly Crossing Yukon, speaking the Northern Tutchone language. He received a 1996 Juno Award for his recording ETSI Shon (Grandfather Song) in the category Aboriginal Recording of the Year. His parents bought him his first guitar when he was seven, and he began learning in earnest in his teens, probably due to the influence of Bob Dylan.

·       John Angaiak.

I’m Lost in the City (1971) is the sole vinyl LP offering from Yup’ik singer-songwriter, John Angaiak. Born in Nightmute Alaska in 1941 Angaiak began playing guitar at a young age, quickly learning the basics before serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Stationed in Vietnam and far away from home, Inspired by the program’s work and a friendship with music student Stephen Halbern, Angaiak recorded I’m Lost in the City, a project that helped to document and promote the previously oral Yup’ik language into a written one through a series of songs. Each side of the album, which showcases John’s intimate vocal and guitar style, shares a part of Angaiak’s culture and history: Side One is sung in Yup’ik, while the material on Side Two is delivered in English. Both are equally emotional, deeply personal and extremely affecting. Angaiak forged an astute outlook on his region, his country, and the world itself. Upon his return, Angaiak enrolled in the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where he became active in the preservation of his native language as part of the school’s Eskimo Language Workshop.

·       Willy Mitchel.

Willy Mitchell (born Percy Williams; 1953) is a Canadian First Nations musician. Mitchell recorded and toured mostly in the 1970s with his Desert River Band. He co-organized the 1980 Sweet Grass festival in Val-d'Or, Quebec, which gathered Inuit and First Nations musicians from across Canada. Mitchell was born Percy Williams in Malone, New York, in 1953, after his Algonquin and Mohawk parents were turned away from a hospital in Cornwall, Ontario. He was raised in Kitigan-Zibi in southern Quebec by his maternal grandmother. His grandmother gave him the nickname "Willy". In 1968, he started touring northern Quebec with his first band, called the Northern Lights Group. In January 1969, Mitchell was shot in the head by a police officer during an altercation over stolen Christmas lights. Mitchell was originally reported dead by the media. He used the money from a settlement resulting from the incident to buy a Fender Telecaster Thinline guitar. After recovering, he formed the Desert River Band, and began touring and recording. Mitchell wrote the song "Big Police Man" about the experience.

·       Morley Loon.

Morley Loon was a Canadian First Nations musician, from Mistissini  Quebec. Loon played in several groups, including Red Cedar and Kashtin, but was mostly known for his solo work. He mostly wrote and performed in the Cree language, and was a prominent activist for First Nations issues. Morley Loon was the first performer in the Cree language to see significant radio airplay in Canada. His song "N'Doheeno" is featured on the 2014 compilation album Native North America, Vol. 1.

·       Tom Jackson.

Thomas Dale Jackson, OC (born 27 October 1948), is a Canadian-born Métis actor and singer perhaps best known for the annual series of Christmas concerts, called the Huron Carole, which he created and starred in for 18 years. He was the Chancellor of Trent University from 2009 until 2013, and is also known for playing Billy Twofeathers on Shining Time Station.

·       George Leach.

George Leach is a Canadian musician and actor, best known for his work as a lead singer and songwriter. Leach is a Stl'atl'imx from Lillooet, British Columbia.As an actor, Leach has appeared on “This is Wonderland”, “North of 60”, PSI Factor and” La Femme Nikita” he also appeared in the six-part miniseries” Into the West”, as Loved by the Buffalo. He released his first album” Just Where I'm At” in 2000. He subsequently performed at the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, now the Indspire Awards. He won the Juno Award for Aboriginal Album of the Year in 2014 for his album Surrender.

·       Willie Dunn.

William "Willie" Dunn (August 14, 1941 – August 5, 2013) a Canadian singer-songwriter, film director and politician. Born in Montreal, he was of mixed Mi'kmaq and Scottish/Irish background. Dunn often highlighted aboriginal issues in his work. Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Dunn was a singer and acoustic guitarist. He released several full-length albums of recorded music including Willie Dunn (1971), The Pacific (1980) and Metallic (1999).Dunn also composed the song, "Son of the Sun", which Kashtin recorded on their second album Innu. In 2004 Dunn released the album Son of the Sun with sixteen songs (including three live versions).His songs "I Pity the Country", "Son of the Sun" and "Peruvian Dream" are featured on the 2014 compilation album Native North America, Vol. 1.

·       Joey Stylez.

Joey Stylez (born Joseph Laplante) is an aboriginal Canadian hip hop artist based in Vancouver. A member of Moosomin First Nation, Stylez was moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at an early age and raised by his single mother. Lorna Colleen Heiber (born c. 1960) is a Métis Catholic. She was formerly heavily involved in Métis politics, having served as a Métis leader including Acting President of the Métis Nation—Saskatchewan in 2004. Lorna is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal. Dale Gary LaPlante (born c. 1960) is Plains Cree and is active in First Nations and Canadian federal politics. He has worked hand in hand with Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and Phil Fontaine.Joseph Dale Marlin LaPlante (born May 14, 1981), better known for his stage name Joey Stylez is a First Nations Canadian singer-songwriter, rapper, hip-hop artist, First Nations activist, fashion designer. His break came when he was asked to open for 50 Cent in Saskatoon, only one night after his uncle Isho Hana was shot and killed in a drug related killing on Preston Avenue in 2004.

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

Hello! Much love to ya! I am looking for fics (preferably finished and Sterek) where stiles or derek doesn't really know the pack or community but slowly joins them? Kinda like "What I did on my summer vacation" which btw is an awesome fic everyone should read hehe!!!

Yeah it is! 

What I Did On My Summer Vacation by grimm 

(4/4 I 118,749 I Explicit)

There's something weird about Beacon Hills that Stiles can't quite put his finger on. The way everyone in town knows his name the day he arrives. The way they insist the melancholic howling that echoes through the forest every night is just a dog. The way his dad denies getting a dog, even though Stiles comes home to find one sprawled across his bed, some big black thing whose eyes gleam red in the right light. The way that massive oak tree out in the woods vibrates under his touch, pulsing with sickly life.

There's something weird going on in this town, and Stiles is determined to get to the bottom of it.

***

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, Oh my (god)! by day

(1/1 I 4,253 I Not Rated)

Stiles moves into Beacon Hills when he's 18. He doesn't know about the werewolves or the town hunters or the crazy amount of supernatural shit that goes on, because if he did, he would have hightailed it the fuck out of there instead of buying a small apartment and actually settling down.

So when he catches the scent of wolves on his jog, he groans and fights the urge to fling himself to the concrete and throw a tantrum impressive enough to rival any and all five year olds. He settles for sitting down on the scorching concrete and cursing his life choices.

In which Stiles can shift into any animal he wants and somehow the pack doesn't find out until Stiles' ~dramatic~ reveal.

(I'm serious it's dramatic)

The Wonderful Mess We Made by haleonwheels

(12/12 I 34,619 I Explicit)

Derek is Scott's rude older brother. Scott is Stiles' new best friend. Stiles is in a really hard situation (in more ways than one).

Or the one where Stiles Stilinski moves to Beacon Hills from New York City and immediately befriends Scott McHale. Scott tells Stiles he's an only child--except he really, really isn't. So how was Stiles supposed to know Derek From The Jungle is actually Derek McHale, Scott's older brother that he kept secret for a reason?

Stilinski's Home for Wayward Wolves by owlpostagain

(1/1 I 35,197 I Teen)

“At least your puppies knock first,” Stiles snorts. “Here I thought their alpha raised them to be well-mannered.” 



“There’s a sign,” Derek responds stiffly. 



Stiles, whose curiosity outweighs even his hardest of grudges, abandons his chilly façade of nonchalance in a heartbeat. He jumps right up and all but pushes Derek out of the way in his effort to get to the window, and sure enough when he leans outside there’s a laminated strip of cardstock duct taped to the vinyl siding: 



DON’T FORGET TO KNOCK Stiles gets cranky when we scare him

---

Or, in which Stiles Stilinski moves to Beacon Hills for his junior year of high school and accidentally adopts a pack of teenage werewolves.

in this twilight (i can't see shit) by Anniely

(9/9 I 39,744 I Mature)

About three things Stiles is sure:

First, the people in Beacon Hills are supernaturally gorgeous and he has no idea why he was allowed in. Second, if he hears 'mountain lion' one more time, he's going to do some serious maiming. And third, Derek Hale looks at him like he wants to eat him. And Stiles might just let him.