Twittering Machines

Before playing this I’d already decided that this was going to be completely brilliant.  I was not disappointed!  Collecting library music is a rich man’s hobby but thanks to Jonny Trunk we can all afford a little.

It’s records like this that make me proud to be an Englishman (I remember when the map was pink … sniff, sniff).

More Studio G info.  The rest of the Trunk site is essential viewing.

I borrowed the CD cover for the pic but there are 1000 black vinyls available.  Ignore at your peril!

Oceansize is an appropriate name for this British band with such a huge and varied sound the two discs of Everyone Into Position can barely contain it. In fact it doesn’t quite. It’s a real journey, this LP. It starts you off with some fat metal nimbleness then by side two opens up the world and lets you marvel at it’s textures and feelings. Pull back from the itchy electronica that starts the third side but relax when the familiar guitars and drums lead you with excellent pop drive to a slow, spread-out jam. Just the way I like it. A rush of metal and you’re finished off with a very tasty swirl of rock.

I first learned of Dirty Three from a collaboration they did with one of my favorites, Low, for In The Fishtank.

Cranked waaay down so you can feel the air before it becomes a note, feel it become the note and then feel it again after. Just the way I like it.

Oh yeah, and our girl is on a track. Nice.

+

If you are from NJ and stay out ’till 3am and drink just a wee bit too much and have a birthday/sleep-over party of eleven 12-year-old girls to prepare for, this is what you do. And you feel amazingly marvelous. Cool even.

Sonic Attack (Psychedelic Warlords)
Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno
White Hills

From a series of 7″ 33rpm cover/tribute to space rockers Hawkwind comes a double fisted fuzz faced sonic attack (truth in advertising). AMT the hardest working band in Japanese psych rip up “Brainstorm” while NYC’s White Hills get all psychedelic (more truth in advertising) on “Be Yourself”. Lovely packaging inspired by the Hawkwind’s ’73 release Space Ritual with a cameo appearance from none other than Mr. W.E.!

Available from Aquarius Records for $6 (search on “sonic attack”).

Jackie-O Motherfucker
Freaker Pipe

AFCGT
(A Frames + Climax Golden Twins)

detail

Magneticring

Yikes! I ordered 3 LP releases from UZU Audio, aka Kris(top), and man o man are they beauties! The second two are very hard to photograph but you can take my word for it, they’re lovely. My initial interest/Googleing led me to UZU in search of Jackie-O Motherfucker’s  Freaker Pipe and what a great record it is.  Three long live tracks that are fairly freaking fucking insanely great with dashes of free jazz n drone psych in a smooth acid bath.

The other 2 releases are very new to me but on the first and second take, the AFCGT (A Frames + Climax Golden Twins) is also a pure wonder-ful mash-up of styles with layers on layers over layers with different genres and flavors coming in and out of focus like alphabet soup. Or as Aquarius Records put it (better):

“The album opens with a tumultuous blast of glue-huffing noise-rock, sort of like a fist fight between the Butthole Surfers and the Sun City Girls. Soon after, a series of bad-ass Birthday Party / Oxbow swamp rock riffs explode with spindly space-age gamelan leads; elsewhere, the No Wave ghosts of R.L. Crutchfield-era DNA emerge with of jagged chops across the guitar pick-ups, bloodied fingers and all. Fuck, it all sounds fucking great!”

Some searching led me to learn that the Climax Golden Twins also put out some very cool “ultra-rare 78 rpm recordings from around the world” on their Victrola Favorites label.

Magneticring is also up my alley in the softer “Three tracks of hazy vintage synth pieces” kinda vibe. Cover art comes in 4 styles and I opted for the dark silver/white/black.

Three great releases that deserve and will get longer listening time. Add the amazing cover art & quality and you’ve got yourself some lovely tasty vinyl.

LSD March
Empty Rubious Red

What’s the sound of one guy strumming?  Shinsuke Michishita strums, sings, plays bass, drums and even whistles for a few super drowsy droney tunes joined by drummer Ikuro Takahashi on two tracks. In the midst of all the mist (“sorrowful birds on the last tree in the universe“) he cuts through with one song of slashing over-driven crush. I have no idea what he’s singing about and I have no idea why I keep listening to this record over and over. I must like it. Very nicely put together re-release from Tequila Sunrise Records of this “european manufactured 180 gram lp housed in a stoughton old-style jacket with j-card style obi. limited edition of 1000.”

I like her taste in beer too.

 
V/A
Negro Prison Songs

O Princeton Record Exchange
How I love thee
Let me count the ways

The new arrivals bins were fairly well picked through but I walked away with this Alan Lomax recording of prison songs made in 1947 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary. All a capella and uncredited (“prisoner 22″), the recording quality is wonderful as are the songs although Lomax notes that these recordings from 1947 already exhibit a decline in the ‘art’ of prison song (I don’t hear it but he’s the expert). I’d like to think the main reason was that the utterly inhuman conditions of these forced labor camps were in decline by then, but I doubt it. Lomax speaks of the common practice of “knocking a joe” which was slang for self-mutilation  – - people chopping off their arm or leg to escape the brutality of the day-to-day punishment of work. The fact that these songs are so beautiful and came out of this environment is in many ways simply astounding. Makes you feel silly to complain about — anything.

Ah yes, the joys of a cheap-ass reissue! The princely sum of nine dollars will put little gem in your collection; mine came courtesy of Dusty Groove (once again!). Dickerson’s majestic vibes swirl amidst the the sizable contributions of Andrew Hill, Andrew Cyrille and George Tucker.

Don’t let the cover ‘art’ fool you, this is a super record!

Kim Doo Soo
10 Days Butterfly

Stunning simple beautiful forlorn existential acid-folk song poems from Korea’s Kim Doo Soo. His 5th album but the first to  be released outside of Korea. Also featuring Kim Kwang Soek on electric and acoustic guitar, Ha Reem on bandoneon (accordion) & percussion, Kim Hyo Kuk synthesizer, Lee Hyeon Su cello, Um Tae Won trumpet and Ji Sing Chul piano. Gatefold double LP comes with translated lyrics in a separate booklet. The first PSF (Japan) vinyl release in 5+ years! and a pretty stunning sounding slab o vinyl it be (& unfortunately very pricey).

10 Days Butterfly

I will make the dance of the wind  in this world of illusion
My mind rising and setting down

That flapping, shining thing is
The flower of illusion

Ignorance, invisibility, incomprehensibility
The floating dream is nowhere

I am leaving to the road of the wondering wind
It is the floating empty void again

A complete Widerange system with three TA4151, two 597A Bostwick tweeters and two 15A horns with 555 drivers on a large(!) W.E. baffle. The baffle is probably 11′ x 8′ for a scale reference.