Saturday, September 23, 2006

New Music

August and September have been good months for new music here. Both Simon and Sonia have provided plenty of good stuff, but in addition Rullsenberg and Cloud brought up an entire catalogue when they visited and I have been gradually getting into it.

The most notable new entry so far then is the superb disk 2 of the Jar compilation from the wonderful Leicester-based Pickled Egg Records (who now have Last FM presence). L&N picked this up at Summer Sundae. Disk 2 seems to contain more of the 'out-there' electronica that I like so much. Notables include the prog/jazz of Bablicon, the energetic brass mess of Scatter, the inventive jazz/krautrock of Now, the ramshakle melodies of The Go! Team, the playful L'Augmentation, the underground brooding of Volcano The Bear, the classical-tinged madness of The Big Eyes Family Players and notey Need New Body. All healthy new stuff, although not all of it is novel in format; L'Augmentation sounds close to Stereolab and The Big Eyes Family Players could easily be a Godspeed! side project. My fave on disk 1 so far is the Hassle Hound track.

A requested new entry was the LP from the dark electronica outfit Various Productions , but I must say that the album in total fails to live up to the promise of Hater, although Thunnk for one is an equal. Still a nice listen like.

In addition to the pre-packaged disks, there were two brand new Ash Grove collections, and these are of the usual high standard. High points so far (beyond appearences by the artists mentioned above) include Disco 2000 by Nick Cave, Teach Me Sweetheart by Fiery Furnaces, Megamanic by Bob Mould, I May Just Have to Murder James Blunt by Mitch Benn and Localised Flooding by Kempston, Protek & Fuller. It's all good.

Further contributions from L&N include: seemingly all of the remaining Einsturzende Neubaten catalogue, Gang of Four's Entertainment and Ian Dury & The Blockheads' Reasons to be Cheerful as well as fine Uncut and Word magazine compliations.

Adding to this Simon's additions of:
Gjallarhorn - Grimborg
Smog - A River Ain't Too Much To Love
The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts
Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
Fort Lauderdale - Time Is Of The Essence

Sonia's additions of:
Kocani Orkestar - Alone At My Wedding [george says yeah!]
Getatchew Mekurya - Ethiopiques 14: Negus Of Ethipian Sax [george says yeah!]
John Cale - Fragments Of A Rainy Season [george says yeah!]
2046 - OST
Radiohead - Lost Tresures
Tom Waits - Asylum Years
Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch

And my own of:
Bud Powell - compilation
Billie Holliday - The Essential Recordings
Superqueens - Royal Shit [george says like, oh yeah!]
John Cale - Paris 1919
David Bowie - Singles Collected
Pere Ubu - Ray Gun Suitcase
Laika - Wherever I Am I Am What Is Missing
Sarah Vaughan - Swingin' Ladies of Jazz
Vive La Fete - Nuit Blanche
Sons & Daughters - The Repulsion Box
Prefuse 73 - Security Screenings [average, not recommended]
The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
Tom Waits - Real Gone [george says yeah!]

... and the 7 hour trip to/from Barnsley just wasn't long enough. When I get organised, some of this may just turn up on some future fine compilations. Meanwhile, I have work to do. Press play and stand by.

4 Comments:

Blogger Lisa Rullsenberg said...

Yeah! Glad so much worked for you! The Ash Grove additions can be an erratic collection, but pleased we did the right thing in bringing stuff to you!

24 September 2006 at 10:39  
Blogger George said...

Erratic and ecletic is all good. You can never say they tread old ground!!

24 September 2006 at 12:19  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

'Disco 2000' by Nick Cave - are you serious!? - that's amazing. These Superqueens sound interesting - must check them out. I'm into 'banjo bluegrass twang' at the moment - just a phase (as with the Lute music) - haha!

25 September 2006 at 19:31  
Blogger George said...

An electronic copy of it should be winging its way to you as I scribe. It really is something!

25 September 2006 at 19:43  

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