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LP: $19.98
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The Apples in Stereo
New Magnetic Wonder
This is vinyl only. The CD version of New Magnetic Wonder will be released Febuary 7, 2007.
The Apples in Stereo mark their first release in five years, as well as their fifth official full length album, with New Magnetic Wonder. The first release on Yep Roc Records' joint venture with Elijah Woods' newly formed record label, Simian Records, New Magnetic Wonder was produced by Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Sebadoh, Sean Lennon) and is surely the most elaborate Apples production to date. Clocking in at 53 minutes, the limited edition double gatefold LP pressed on 180 gram vinyl will include a 12x24 inch poster, an exclusive bonus track, 25 songs (including 12 "link tracks") and an Apples first -- their newly invented "Non-Pythagorian Music Scale." New Magnetic Wonder includes such fist pumping anthems as "Can You Feel It," the 70's AM radio-esque "Same Old Drag," and the Mellotron majesty of "Energy." It's The Apples in stereo doing what they do best -- it's a New Magnetic Wonder. -CP
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label:Simian / Yep Roc
Genre/Style: Pop / Psychedelic
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CD: $15.98
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Neko Case
Live From Austin, TX
Neko's star is still rising and her artistry knows no bounds.
This debut ACL performance on August 9, 2003 captures songs from her three seminal releases at the time.
Combining elements of country, gospel and punk for a very unique sound... Which is a good thing. -CP
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label:New West
Genre/Style: Country
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CD:$8.98
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Das Oath
Self-Titled
One their most superb effort to date, Das Oath plow ahead on their destructive path, ascending to the furthest reaches of intensity to emerge as the forerunners of classic modern hardcore. With some of their most unpredictable chord progressions and relentlessly chaotic song structures yet, the band has somehow managed to intensify their noise-drenched compositions to belt out one mind-blowing anthem after another. Those familiar with the band's history may find themselves startled by the record's unthinkably lovely and intricate song structures steeped in hooks and chock full of dense musical innovation.-CP
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label:Three One G
Genre/Style: Punk / Hardcore
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CD: $7.98
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Foxhole
Push/Pull
Intricate melody. Searing emotion. Intense reflection. Unbridled joy. It's instrumental music, but it's so much more. Hailing from the southeastern corridor of these United States, the Foxhole sextet has spent the past six years delving ever deeper into the well of human experience. Yet theirs is no navel-gazing, art-rock foray - rather, it is a shared calling of expression in its purest form: climbing heights where words fall short, exploring the rich depths of love, of loss, and of those things in between. -CP
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label: Burnt Toast
Genre/Style: Instrumental
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CD: $7.98
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Holy Molar
Cavity Search
The latest installment of the holiest of molars is finally here to boot. For the band, it was like pulling teeth to get this new EP recorded. However, it sure the hell happened and it's the band's best work to date. For those unaware of this dental quintet, it is comprised of members of The Locust, Das Oath, Some Girls, Get Hustle, Head Wound City, Antioch Arrow, and Charles Bronson. To top it off, this EP has some amazing art by Mark McCoy. -CP
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label: Three One G
Genre/Style: Punk / Hardcore
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CD: $7.98
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The Magic Lantern
EP
Krister Mörtsell was in a hardcore band called Soapbox from Umea, Sweden, home to Refused and a burgeoning hardcore punk scene. The Magic Lantern began as an improvisation project with Krister and several friends recording live directly to minidiscs. They began to release a series of limited edition cd-r releases capturing their improvisations and these quickly sold out. This self-titled debut was recorded with six musicians in a Umea apartment. Improvisation is still a main force is the composition of new material, but the songs have solidified and developed from that initial point. Influences range from post-rock, kraut rock, and spacerock to experimental noise, ambient, and even industrial music. -CP
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label: Burnt Toast
Genre/Style: Rock
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CD: $11.98
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A New Dawn Fades
I See the Nightbirds
A New Dawn Fades (yes that is a Joy Division reference) are a two-piece from Richmond Virginia, who has been kicking jams out for a while. The Guitar player P.J. Sykes loops mathy riffage reminiscent of Slint and Cancer Conspiracy, over each other, to form walls of sound. His ability to write those slightly discordant/oddly melodic riffs that sound amazing and you can’t figure out why, just mock you because you know you can never write something so good.
He also plays bass, trumpet, piano, and percussion on the album to fill out the sound. The drummer Nathan McGlothin is plain and simple, a pure beast on the drums. Whether he is pounding out a simple beat to, or a complicated polyrhythm on some instrument you’ve never heard, he is always sounds like he is banging everything out with 1000% conviction and a force that makes you wonder how he doesn’t break everything he sets his hand off.
The new album I Can See The Nightbirds, is nine-track, 23-minute adventure through to two member’s minds. The album covers more ground than most bands can hope to do in 5 albums. From song-to-song melodies transform from mathy buildups to looped ambience to post-rock like crescendos and peaks. Every riff and idea on the album develops and changes with deliberation, nothing is played for too long or too short, and all the songs flow into each other, distinctly their own while being connected still. Nothing is played for its own sake; every note has a musical purpose. When people say an album is “mature” I think this is what they are trying to say. Although I’m not sure if the album has a story, but it sure feels like it. The album ends with an acoustic guitar and violin played Melissa Sunderland slowly dancing around each other in lament of the end of the album, like a story coming to an end, and a somber funeral being held. To conclude, it’s one of the most original and listenable records to come out in a long time, from one of the most original and listenable bands to come out in a long time.
Buy this record it’s amazing, and P.J. and Nathan are some of the nicest guys I’ve ever met…..and see them live, it is mind-blowing. I promise. -DB
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label: NFI / Alond
Genre/Style: Experimental / Post Rock
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CD: $9.98
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The Popo
Self-Titled
The PoPo have already been credited with inventing the "post-hip hop" genre, and are indeed the style's premier band. That's quite a feat considering "The PoPo" is the group's debut release. Based out of Philly, PA, USA, EARTH, their sound is a complex interpretation of popular music in the context of a corrosive, post-modern future. The 4 members of the group: Pops Ghostly, Fullscreen, Blue Bishi, and Hamstar, fuse together lo-fi punk, hip hop, and world music to create a dramatic sonic landscape suffused with myth, mysticism, and mystery. -CP
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label: Buddyhead
Genre/Style: Punk / Hip Hop
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CD: $22.98
LP: $17.98
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Sally Shapiro
Disco Romance
The Swedish disco princess Sally Shapiro with her debut album Disco Romance! She became well-known in disco communities earlier this year with 'I'll By By Your Side,' which was rated 4.5 out of 5 by the highly acclaimed U.S. Pitchfork Media and was called an 'utterly perfect slice of italo synth-pop' in Vice Magazine. Sally (whose real name is a secret) is so shy that she refuses to record a music video, perform her songs live, let herself be photographed by someone she doesn't know, or even let her producer be in the same room when she's recorded. I still haven't heard her sing one single song from the album live. I was outdoors mowing the lawn when we recorded the vocals, Sally's producer Johan Agebjrn says. Actually that's all not important the deal is that we have an album full of italo disco inspired pop anthems! Obviously the sound is inspired by Italian '80s disco, and it's in the circles of I-f, Metro Area, Serge Clone, Daniel Wang, Glimmer Twins, Lindstrøm she'll find her fans. -CP
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label: Diskokaine
Genre/Style: Disco House / Pop
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CD: $7.98
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Sloan
Never Hear the End Of It
One of the most successful Canadian bands of the last fifteen years, Sloan has now finished its eighth studio album, Never Hear the End of It -- the first on new US label Yep Roc Records. Yet another Sloan serving of august and finely crafted rock, Never Hear the End of It is also thirty tracks long. You heard me. Thirty. From pop masterpieces like "Who Taught You to Live Like That" (which clocked the highest number of first week downloads in iTunes history upon its Canadian release), to the unforgettable "Listen to the Radio," this album could, for any other band, be close to three perfect records. Throughout their critically lauded career (including a recent tour with The Rolling Stones), Sloan has managed to share songwriting duties between all members and never have a single change in line-up. Records like Never Hear the End of It are the reason Sloan have remained valid for so long. -CP
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label: Yep Roc
Genre/Style: Rock / Pop
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CD: $7.98
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Soporus
Atomove Elektrarne
Atomove Elektrarne is thematically influenced by Stone's childhood growing up in Cental PA. The events at Three Mile Island on 29 March 1979 are interwoven in family folklore. His father was working in Harrisburg, PA and was sent home with an evacuation seeming likely. His family lived less than 5 miles away at the time. Stone was only a year old at the time, but his interest in the nuclear power and accidents continues. The song titles are all connected to nuclear reactors that have experienced accidents. Soporus ambient music draws a parallel to these nuclear themes, tightly harnessing music of powerful energy and concentrating it in a beautiful, subtle package. -CP
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label: Burnt Toast
Genre/Style: Ambient / Post Rock
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LP: $12.98
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Unwed Sailor
The Faithful Anchor
The Faithful Anchor is Unwed Sailor's most popular release to date. The initial limited edition vinyl issue is now out of print, but this classic is offered now on audiophile 180g vinyl. With the help of producer Daniel Burton, the band captured its trademark melodic, instrumental energetic sound, mixing in Eno-esque ambience and adding just a hint of experimentalism. Ford adds vocals to the final track, "The Quiet Hour," further stretching the boundaries of Unwed Sailor's sound. -CP
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label: Burnt Toast
Genre/Style: Post Rock / Ambient
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CD: $16.98
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Various Artists
Grime
Groundbreaking 2004 compilation, repressed! First major compilation of this breaking new UK underground scene. Post-drum'n'bass, way-post-UK-Garage, 'Grime' is intense and mindblowing. And no, Plasticman (one of the three featured artists here) is not from Canada. Features numerous tracks each from three of the main developing producers in this scene: Mark One, Plasticman and Slaughter Mob. "Grime. Sublow. Dubstep. It's Music. Different people call it different things, depending on when they discovered it. In the 80's, maybe it was House, Techno and Electro. In the 90's it was UK-G, Drum and Bass, Breaks or whatever. Now there are so many terms for it that the journalists can't pigeon-hole it any more. This is a good thing -- it's music. Moody music, multifunctional, multifaceted music created by Humans with Brains, Hearts, Machines & Electricity. Music that's great for dancing to in clubs, or submerging yourself within your headphones, your car, your home, wherever. It's instrumental dance music, but it's the perfect forum for the best MC's and vocalists. We at Rephlex call it Grime to publicize to the people at large, outside of the specialist world of its producers. The purists might debate the name, but while they do that, crews around the globe are uniting in this strong & fresh dance movement. In this age of Information Technology, people are able to easily find real quality that they actually want, without being spoon-fed compromised product. Now, it is a time of change and the soundtrack is Grime. -CP
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label: Rephlex
Genre/Style: Dubstep / Garage / Grime
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CD: $16.98
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Various Artists
Grime 2
2005 follow-up, repressed! Featuring Kode 9 /Loefah/Digital Mystikz. "Grime, dubstep, eightbar, sublow whatever....We're back here again but this is a new story. The artists we've chosen for our second Grime showcase have a paradigm shift in perspective from the world of angry grime MC's, instead of 'this is my reality of the world and I can't do anything about it except portray and repeat the anger', their stance doesn't accept the here and now as all there is. The artists involved evoke a quietly positive, mystical, dubwise, global sonic scavenging, anti-gun stance, change your perception and change around you is but a logical consequence, aggression carefully honed into a fine art. But don't let this talk fool you; the music they make is deep, and dark, it's a sound that's always moving forward, into unknown and possibly dangerous territories. -CP
Release Date: 01/09/07
Label: Rephlex
Genre/Style: Dubstep / Garage / Grime
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CD:$18.98
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ESG
Keep On Moving
The legendary ESG return with their first new album in nearly five years on Soul Jazz Records. The new album features their trademark stripped down punk/funk style that has spawned a whole generation of fans and bands thirty years on from their first release, Moody EP on Factory Records (and the infamous 99 Records in America). First produced by Martin Hannett, ESG were instantly accepted into the worlds of punk/new wave, hip-hop and dance music -- a unique position which still holds true today. From playing at the opening night of Manchester's legendary Hacienda to the closing night of Larry Levan's equally legendary Paradise Garage in New York, ESG have remained one of the all-time cult-bands. Their track 'UFO' is one of the most sampled tracks in the history of hip-hop (Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J, Marley Marl) which lead them to record 'Sample Credits Don't Pay Our Bills' in the 1980s. Courted by the punk/new wave community they played with groups such as The Clash, A Certain Ratio, Public Image, Gang of Four. Through 99 Records in New York, they also became associated with the No Wave groups such as label-mates Liquid Liquid and others such as Mars, DNA, James Chance and The Contortions. The amazing history of ESG begins in the South Bronx where they grew up in the tenements. Four sisters, Renee, Valerie, Marie and Deborah Scroggins, encouraged by their mother, began playing music together as teenagers as a way to keep themselves out of trouble with neighborhood gang life. Taking their name from their birthstones -- Emerald, Sapphire and Gold -- this was soon shortened to ESG. Thirty years on and ESG remains a family affair with sisters Rennee, Valerie and Marie along with Renee's daughter Nicole and Valerie's daughter Chistelle. -CP
Release Date:07/04/06
Label: Soul Jazz
Genre/Style: Hip Hop / Pop
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CD:$14.98
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Flin Flon
Dixie
A drums and bass heavy trio with a pop sensibility. Rhythmic. Occasionally danceable. Mark was in UNREST and AIR MIAMI. Nattles was a member of COLD COLD HEARTS. Matt (M.D.) still rocks with Charlottesville, VA's TRUE LOVE ALWAYS. All three members lived in New Jersey when they were younger.
-CP
Release Date: 03/21/06
Label: Teenbeat
Genre/Style: Pop / Rock
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CD:$13.98
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Our Brother the Native
Tooth and Claw
Our Brother The Native's music is a thrilling, beautifully jumbled rush and gush of ideas and emotions. With their campfire clap-alongs and skewed vocals, and the use of circuit bent children's toys, Our Brother might at times come on like the kid brothers of CocoRosie or Animal Collective, yet this is far from a derivative record. The band's fusion of disparate sounds, influences and approaches forms a unique whole that is very much their own. Rather than being based around regular verse / chorus structuring, songs instead sprawl out and unfurl with their own particular logic, sometimes drifting and cutting across one another; sometimes locked down in focused rhythms, or sometimes just in simple but beautifully harmonised ballads. They also have the ability to shift gear and turn on a dime. Performing a neat balancing act between the prettiness of their songs / melodies and the self-inflicted damage of the noise threatening to spew out from its seams or peel back / melt its edges. Tooth and Claw is a very free and loose-sounding album, with a wealth of detail for the listener to explore and get lost amongst. -JP
Release Date: 07/25/06
Label: Fat Cat
Genre/Style: Psyche Folk
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CD:$15.98
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Pit Er Pat
Pyramids
After the release of Pit Er Pat’s first album, Shakey, I read a couple of reviews likening the band’s sound to Blonde Redhead, but without the guitar (singer Fay Davis-Jeffers’ keyboard plunks out the melodies for the band). I never really thought about it until sitting down to review the new disc, but now I can’t think of a more accurate way to describe their sound - it’s gloomy pop played with art-rock aesthetics, strange rhythms, and off-key vocals, a description that could almost fit Blonde Redhead.
One of the best things about reviewing records is getting a chance to discover bands that might have otherwise been completely under your radar. When I first got Shakey for review I loved how original Pit Er Pat sounded. Using only keyboards, drums, bass, and guy/girl vocals the band created this vivid picture in my head, like of drawings out of a children’s book, but instead of being colorful with smiling faces and hand-holding, the images I picture are in black and white and comprised of children with sullen faces while dead trees with evil-looking crows lurk in the background. This, the band’s second full-length, hasn’t strayed too far from their sparse, almost childlike melancholy pop sound displayed on the first record with the exception of a bit more experimentation with a couple of weird sounds interjected every few minutes, so their new songs still conjure up those old images for me.
With discordant melodies and a minimal (if not total) lack of chords, Pyramids isn’t much of a grandiose record in the way of most traditional rock. Their songs might be more suited to chronicle life at it’s most mundane: getting caught in the rain, locking your keys in the car, driving to and from your stifling job in silence because your car CD player has been broken for months. Really though, I think we have enough “Beautiful Day” songs - thank you very much U2 - so when a band like Pit Er Pat comes along and drops tunes titled “Rain Clouds” and “No Money = No Friend” with lyrics and music so sad it literally caused me to picture Edward Gorey drawings in my head I say “right on". -KM
Release Date: 10/10/06
Label: Thrill Jockey
Genre/Style: Pop
MP3 Solstice
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CD: $16.98
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Various Artists
Rio Baile Funk More Favela Booty Beats
After the wildly successful international bombast of Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats, here comes another round of mutant hip-hop, raw grooves and mad breaks that will transport you to another imaginary party with big speakers in some hot and hidden Rio slum. It's been a while since the DJs from the black music balls in Rio started cutting and pasting Miami bass beats, African drumming, samba, Bahia carnival tunes and incredible sampling from Front 242 to Dire Straits. Blended with lyrics about crime, love, guns, faith and everything else, this is music that didn't need TV or radio to become popular. More Favela Booty Beats illustrates the changes that have occurred in Rio favelas ever since the first edition grabbed global dancefloor attention. One of the first tracks on this CD, "Rap de Caxias," by MC MDY, gives a good introduction: over some beats that sound like a cross between musical heritage of Miami, Rio and Salvador, he names the stars of the funk carioca and the favelas they belong to with celebratory abandon, from Rocinha to Vidigal to Jacarezinho. Then, Mr. Catra, the James Brown of the booty beats, represents with two of his strongest tracks: the overtly sexual "Vem Nha Nha" and the claim for loyalty "Cabelo Voa." If he had a women's counterpart, it would be Deize Tigrona, who comes in collaboration with Edu K, with a new version of "Sex-O-Matic," remixed by DJs Mavi and Sany, two of Rio's best kept funk secrets. Mr. K delivers AGAIN on this mix with "Hot Mama," another track from his album Frenétiko, which gets an insane remix by Bonde Do Rolê, whose reckless crossover of booty beats and rock will draw everyone's attention. There's MC Sabrina, the young diva who provides beautifully-sung vocals on her track, and MC Cula with country and western and Brazilian folk music samples, praising the joys of having sex in the horse-riding position. It's the Kama Sutra with beats! And there's still more music to keep you busy: "Vascão 2000," by Dennis DJ is a curious reworking of a football team hymn with mutant Miami bass beats, and the rhythm-fuelled "Jiu Jitsu," "Catita" and "Dança do Dedinho" with gunshots making the breaks will bring to life the REAL Rio. All these tracks paint a vivid and colorful picture of what is like to be inside this big, exciting, and often paradoxical party called Funk Carioca. And now get that booty started! -CP
Release Date: 09/24/06
Label: Essay Recordings
Genre/Style: FUnk / Hip Hop
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