Bis Aufs Messer weekly News 02 December 2021
hi. Welcome to another newsletter for December!! Thank you so much for all your support in the last couple days. We could raise more then half of what we need to pay the fees. I hope we have it all settled this month. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!
A bunch of records arrived that were on long journeys and stayed warm in various customs offices like new Feel It titles and restocks. The new ALIEN NOSE JOB LP is one of them and also restock of the Sweeping Promises LP and more. Also a bunch of new titles and restock of the always great BLACK SWEAT records arrived like the ARCHIE SHEPP MEETS KAHIL ELZABAR - Conversations DLP, DON CHERRY - Om Shanti Om LP, FUTURO ANTICO re issues and more, the long over due of the MOLLY NILSSON – These Things Take Time DLP on Night School, a few ULLA - Tumbling Towards A Wall LPs, JOSH KIMBROUGH - Slither, Soar & Disappear LP on Worried songs. TERRY GIBBS & ALICE COLTRANE – El Nutto LP, a bunch of Dischord restocks (One Last Wish, Gray Matter, Nation of Ulysses on colored vinyl etc), WASTED YEARS - s/t LP and more
Also restock of the BEATE BARTEL / GUDRUN GUT / BETINNA KÖSTER - M_Dokumente Mania D., Malaria!, Matador BOOK and some other Ventil titles like the VIVIEN GOLDMAN - Die Rache der She-Punks Eine feministische Musikgeschichte von Poly Styrene bis Pussy Riot BOOK
And last but not least a bunch of 2nd hand titles are in the store now and also on our Discogs
https://www.discogs.com/seller/XMESSERX/
Thank you for your support in those difficult times
We are also back on the store MONDAY TIL FRIDAY from 11 °° - 19°° and SATURDAY from 11°° - 18°°
Norman & Robert
mailorder@bisaufmesser.com
www.adagio830-records.bandcamp.com
LP
AL DOUM & THE FARYDS - Freaky People LP (black sweat - Al Doum and the Faryds continue their journey toward a New Direction. Now, they live in a futuristic Garden of Delights, inhabited by strange bright bubbles, golden wheels, water secrets and mysterious plants. From their home of Love & Nature, they set out to travel the Universe to forge a new Being together. Their typical blend of Spiritual-Jazz, Psychedelia and Afro-Latin Rock remains on the same wave, accentuating the collective rite of liberation and expansion of the spirit. There's certainly a greater lightness and airiness, expecially in the most immediate and direct arrangements to convey the message of brotherhood; because the absolute weapon lies in female voices and choirs. These chants are incisive gospel and soul sermons and their narration magically permeates throughout the album. Everything is always supported by the balance between robust and biting guitar riffs, raga-rock incursions, tribal rhythm sections and impregnable and captivating sax drifts; and echoes of the soft lysergic sound of the 60s cannot be missing. This is music of multiple forces, a sacred harmony to overcome barriers, which sees no enemies and breaks down egos. It's the playfulness and the power in making music together, the true magic recipe of these Freaky People: we are what the Universe wants! Co-produced with brother Legno and digital sister La Tempesta.) 22.00
ALIEN NOSEJOB - Paint It Clear LP (feel it -One of the most familiar faces in the busy Melbourne music scene; Jake Robertson (who you may remember from such class acts as Ausmuteants, Hierophants, School Damage, et al) returns in full-fledged form with another unruly record from his solo alter-ego ALIEN NOSEJOB. Thirteen months on since the hardcore-punk inspired concept album, ‘Once Again The Present Becomes The Past’, Alien Nosejob turns the ship back to front and sails in a new direction, yet again. Paint It Clear mixes sounds of classic 80’s new wave and post punk whilst sprinkling in the occasional disco track on top. But don’t let these descriptions throw you off - it still carries Robertson’s classic screech of cheeky yet witty lyrics and sharp songwriting hooks.) 23.00
ARCHIE SHEPP MEETS KAHIL ELZABAR - Conversations DLP (black sweat - ** 2021 Repress ** If Conversations celebrates the memory, the artistic and spiritual heritage of bassist Fred Hopkins -- a historical member of the revolutionary Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians of Chicago -- who died in January 1999, it also marks the amazing collaboration between the Ritual Trio of Kahil El'Zabar (with Ari Brown and Malachi Favors) and the intrepid veteran Archie Shepp, the great voice of the '70s Afro-free-jazz. Being a tribute that invites to an intimate memory, almost an antidote to exorcise the loss of a brother, the music is a spiritual hymn to life. Between ballads, hard-bop, and free-improvised accents, blow winds of vibrant pianistic chiaroscuros, which are reminiscent of the best McCoy Tyner in the great blinding quartet of John Coltrane in the '60s. Furthermore, when an angular rhythmic base decisively follows the typical hypnotic ostinato of the ancient tribal rituals, the voice is expressed in the purest black spirituals (Big Fred and Brother Malcolm), pervading some moments of that "Holiness" culture dear to the dawn of Afro-American identity. Here, Shepp brings back the flaming shivers of the golden age, when his message of freedom resonated the true spirits of primordial Africa.)
DEXTER GORDON - Body & Soul LP (org - Tenor-saxophonist Dexter Gordon was in peak form when recording at Copenhagens Legendary Jazzhus Montmartre in 1967. A portion of that recording would later become Body & Soul, an album originally released by Black Lion Records, which has been out of press on vinyl for almost three decades. Now, just shy of fifty years after the performance was recorded, the album finally receives the audiophile treatment it deserves with this 180gram vinyl reissue, pressed at Pallas in Germany.) 32.00
DON CHERRY - Om Shanti Om LP (black sweat - An amazing document of the life experiment that was the Organic Music Society. This super quality audio, recorded by RAI (the italian public broadcasting company) in 1976 for television, documents a quartet concert focused on vocals compositions and improvisations. Here, Don Cherry and his family-community’s musical belief emerges in its simplicity, with the desire to merge the knowledge and stimuli gained during numerous travels across the World in a single sound experience. Don's pocket-trumpet is melted with the beats of the great Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, the Italian guitar of Gian Piero Pramaggiore, and the tanpura drone of Moki. A pure hippie aesthetic, like in an intimate ceremony, filters a magical encounter between Eastern and Western civiliziations, offering different suggestions of sound mysticism: natural acoustics in which individual instruments and voices are part of a wider pan-tribal consciousness. A desert Western landscape marries Asian and Latin atmospheres. Indigenous contributions with berimbau explorations find fossil sounds of rattles and clap-hands invocations. Influences of Indian mantra singing are combined with eternal African voices or with folkish-Latin guitar rhythms , while flute and drums evoke distant dances. In the Organic Music everything becomes an act of devotion and love, an ecstatic dwell in the dimension of a sacred free-rejoice.) 26.00
FINE PLACE – This New Heaven LP (night school - Fine Place is a new duo comprising Frankie Rose (Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls) and Matthew Hord (Running, Pop. 1280, Brandy). Based in Brooklyn, NYC together they’ve crafted a crystalline full length of nocturnal, electronic pop music that charts a way out the post-global, cyberpunk dystopian environment it was crafted in. Their debut album This New Heaven drenches minimalist song structures in post-industrial washes of six-string delay and gothic post-punk synths. Presiding over it is the most evocative, emotive vocal performance Frankie Rose has committed to tape to date.) 23.00
FUSIONE - Fusione LP (black sweat - What is this? Who are them? Free jazz? Psychedelic? This album has been recorded by jooking faryds folks that came up in the middle of June 2015 at the space-time door Guscio Studio, Milan. At the very beginning there was no plan to release this jamming jam until a birthday present changed their minds.) 22.00
FUTURO ANTICO - Dai Primitivi All'Elettronica LP (black sweat - An outstanding raga-like drone lp with a distinctive cosmic vibe, Futuro Antico was a short living collaboration between the two italian Walter Maioli (Aktuala), Riccardo Sinigaglia and Gabin Dabiré (from Burkina Faso). The synthesis between ancient, ethnic and analog electronic music is just perfect, the minimalist repetition with slight changes gives associations of a slow growth; cyclic repetition gives the listener an opportunity to discover the sounds, to meditate, to go into the music, join the same journey trough ancient, primitive cultures and modern electronic soundscapes.Originally released in 1980, the sound is completly analog and warm, this reissue maintain the first tape artwork + info and photos) 22.00
FUTURO ANTICO - Futuro Antico LP (black sweat - For the first time on vinyl and CD this obscure gem of the italian project Futuro Antico, released just on tape in 1980, this record contains the hypnotic session of Walter Maioli (Aktuala) and Riccardo Sinigaglia. Analog and warm sounds, a perfect mix of drone synth and ancient flutes (found in oriental countries) gives you the idea to fly on a spaceship towards some exotic sites. This records terribly remember the astonishing live Köln jam of Terry Riley and Don Cherry, the comparison fits!This reissue maintains the first tape artwork + info and photos in the innerfolder.) 22.00
FUTURO ANTICO - Isole Del Suono LP (black sweat - Unreleased high quality recordings of the italian experimental trio Futuro Antico. The sound experience it's a mysterious synergy between the elements of Nature, a magical encounter between different souls but with elective affinity. Maioli’s ancient and ethnic wind instruments are the breath of the Air, Sinigaglia’s electronic spirit produces liquid sequences of the Water, while Dabiré’s african percussions materialize the voice and rhythms of the Earth. The result is a total creative Fire, a foamed core of perceptions and multiple sensory universes of distant memory. The dialogue between archaic and futuristic already investigated in the historic "Dai Primitivi All’Elettronica" sees here another bright episode in this unreleased live, the music recorded on tapes directly by the mixing console is the result of the memorable performance held in Bologna at the festival Isole Del Suono on 17 July 1980. The secret harmony between sounds is complete but at the same time brings out the expressive specificity of the three individual personality: the subtlety of reiterate sonic textures; waterfalls of minimalist piano; Sufi atmospheres supported by sequence of organs that reinterpret the frequencies of harmoniums lost, the solemn gait of an African balaphone absorbed in electronic vortices endless...these are some of the coordinates of a musical and cultural poetics that after years continues to wonder for his source of formal purity and multiplicity of stimuli.) 22.00
GRETA LINDHOLM - Rhythm Voice LP (black sweat - Greta Lindholm is an absolutely unique personality in the contemporary dance scene. She toured in India, Mexico, Japan, Scandinavia, Italy and France, during the '70 and '80 making known her synthetic and experimental approach in the choreographic field. Her art explores new boundaries and is essentially pure celebration of the body language and voice in its intimate relationship with the fluidity of movement. Using mainly foot drumming and vocal rhythms, she makes her body the only instrument of continuous exploration, halfway between traditional songs and rhythmic-gestural improvisation. Greta seems to treasure different vocal cultures and give them an avant-garde reinterpretation: from Scandinavian folklore to jazz scat singing, from baroque arias to the African Pygmy. Particular influence is given by the metric-vocal spelling of Karnatic and Hindustan music. All these differents suggestions serve to reinforce and accompany her plastic movements. Greta's performances are studded with imaginary phonemes, onematopeic patterns, rhythmic phrasing, phonetic articulations, breathing, spiral structures, frenetic drifts, clap handings or feet like timpani or snare drums. In this way her dance becomes "silent music" and can have analogies with other noteworthy vocal explorations, such as those of Meredith Monk. For the first time an audio document is a available on LP and CD, a co-production with our beloved friend: Sing a Song Fighter.) 22.00
GRUPPO AFRO MEDITERANO - 1972 Blues Jazz Session LP (black sweat - Unreleased recordings of the future members of Aktuala and I.P. Son Group. The history takes us back in the alternative Milan of the early 70’s, to the flavour of the first jam-blues of that era when musicians from different parts of the world (India, Africa or South-America), of disparate background and culture were used to gather to experiment just with an authentic sense of stay together. In these four tracks seem to retrace the path of that spirit with which great pioneers such as John Mayall and Alexis Corner ferried from overseas the essence of the Afro-American music masters. Here, the devotion to the blues roots remains strong but leaks in the compositions an aerial and wandering component that is coloured as if by magic of exotic and spiritual accents. Hypnotic patterns of guitars flowing almost like raga-grooves slowed, free-jazz horns blowing winds of the ancient seas of the south, while voices and percussions span distant horizons now Latinos or Africans. Gruppo Afro Mediterraneo throws his eye on a cultural dimension more extensive and composite and therefore constitutes a fundamental historical document for a crucial period of Italian underground.) 22.00
JOSH KIMBROUGH - Slither, Soar & Disappear LP (worried songs - Inspired in equal parts by fatherhood, nature and quietude, ‘Slither, Soar and Disappear’ was born on Josh Kimbrough’s back porch in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as his young son rested, where the bucolic intimacy of the natural world found its way into his nylon and steel string guitar playing, resulting in this cycle of beautiful compositions. Accompanied by a roster of talented musicians, Josh’s guitar work is accompanied and complimented by banjo, flute, strings, mandolin, double bass and drums, the results bringing to mind a host of artists from Jansch, Drake and Fahey, to the Penguin Café Orchestra and Mike Hurley. “Fatherhood,” Josh reflects, “I was finding, forces one to abandon parts of the self--a heavy proposition in a society that emphasizes individualism. Cultural critic, farmer, and novelist, Wendell Berry in his book, A Native Hill, muses: ’In order to know the hill, it is necessary to slow the mind down to the hill’s pace.’ This principle applied to me at the time as I was adapting to a new speed of life and striving to be present as a father. On the deck, as my mind slowed down to take in the chirps and wind gusts, these songs began to blossom.” ) 26.00
LYSOL - Soup for My Family LP (feel it - As we break free from the days spent at home, and as the vapid live streams begin to dwindle, the desire for a loud, fast, and loose rock'n'roll sound has never been greater. Well look no further folks, LYSOL are more than just a flammable aerosol cleaner, they're the sonic catalyst for destruction. A frequent fixture on the Seattle and Olympia scenes, Lysol have steadily made a name for themselves - not only through a stack of previous singles and demos, but as an exceptional live band.) 23.00
MIKE COOPER - Spirit Songs LP (Spirit - Originally released in 2005 on Cooper's Hipshot Cd-r label, and reissued here for the first time on vinyl, Spirit Songs deserves to be regarded as a true rediscovered gem, remixed and remastered by Mike Copper himself! Spirit Songs comes as a highly organic form of Ambient-Folk-Blues with Cooper reordering material to create an immersive listening experience. A stream of cut-up lyrics inspired by Thomas Pynchon's writing slide across multiple electronic layers and masterfully fingerpicked acoustic guitars combining into a moving tide. This is deeply inspired music from a unique artist: Mike Cooper the so called "icon of post-everything music” a true sound explorer constantly pushing the boundaries of genres and styles, Folk, Blues, Free Improv, Exotica, Ambient, Electronica…) 21.00
MOLLY NILSSON – These Things Take Time DLP (night school - 2021 pressing of the long sold out debut album by Molly Nilsson, These Things Take Time, on clear with black smoke vinyl and for the first time on CD. As a significant cultural artefact of the underground pop movement that bubbled up in the early 21st century it's an important landmark. In Molly Nilsson's herstory it remains one of her most adored works“) 30.00
MONOLORD - Your Time To Shine LP (relapse - Swedish power trio MONOLORD return with their highly anticipated new album, Your Time to Shine. Recorded by MONOLORD drummer Esben Willems at Studio Berserk, Your Time to Shine sees the trio looking inward, cultivating the elements that take their monstrous, heavy riffing to new heights with a darker edge. A five-track journey that spans across crushing doom rock to more spacey, groove laden opuses, Your Time to Shine is MONOLORD at their most unfiltered and focused. Out of the gate, MONOLORD kick-off a wild ride with the soaring, fist-raising opener “The Weary” and its insanely catchy melodies. Elsewhere, the stop/start switch between sweetness and abrasiveness of “To Each Their Own” showcases a new element to the band’s repertoire. MONOLORD embraces the power of the riff with pulsating chugs on “I’ll Be Damned” and the mind-expanding title-track, whose final section brings back some of the band's spaced-out rock n’ roll beginnings. Everything culminates in their new epic, “The Siren Of Yersinia”, whose lonesome call can be heard in each feedback-ridden note and in each pained, buried vocal line.) 25.00
PERSONA -som LP (black sweat - What is the object with the most sensational magical and alchemical properties, if not glass? A permeable membrane that filters the real through the unconscious, an access portal with divinatory and therapeutic qualities, the glass has always been seen as the guardian of daring allegories and symbols. Aware of this, the artist Roberto Campadello conceived "The Game of Persona", in the context of an installation for the XII Biennale of Sao Paolo in 1973. Discovering the visual properties of gilded glass, he investigated the effects of the overlay of images, a mysterious moment of transparency in which two single people melt into the reflection of the image, creating a single fantastic person. Thus, his "Casa Dourada", also became the space for “Intro-nautical Journeys”: meditations and cosmic dances. The history of this LP (originally published in a 10’’ box set, in 1975) starts right to support those collective initiation sessions. Each track is inspired by an I Ching element (Mountain, Heaven, Earth, Water, Lake, Wind) which represented a primary source of inspiration for Campadello. The dreamlike and occult sound not only suggest the atmosphere of that experience but still reveal the echoes of the best season of the Brazilian rock and Tropicalismo. The music has been composed and played by Roberto Campadello and the brazilian super-star guitarist Luis Carlini, the leader of the Rita Lee's band Tutti Frutti. Fuzz guitars, dirty percussion, Echoplex delays, are the perfect elements for the final trip into your own consciousness. The edition comes with two unreleased tracks, an amazing booklet and the poster; also available the box set special edition with the reproduction of the game, including the magical mirror. Co-produced with nossos amigos Nada Nada Discos. ) 25
ROBERTO LANERI - South Of No Border LP (black sweat - Roberto Laneri's works always convey a clear artistic certainty: a total composer with an eclectic cultural background. In this latest adventure it seems to propose a kind of weird and curious Exotica music; his Mediterranean ragas release glows and shadows, but the music plays more the plateaus of the Maghreb than the Indus Valley. Like a sorcerer piper, the sax shapes alchemy and hypnotic phrasing become: vague dances of camels, ecstatic progressions of an aboriginal vortex or a mystic arabesque tropicalisms. He doesn't neglect his training as a jazz clarinetist, with gentle and smooth orchestral veins that are decidedly retrò and old-style; remembering the dreamlike compositions of Nino Rota for Fellini's movies. There is no lack of esoteric voices from distant islands, Amazonian soundscapes, or rocking Brazilian moods. Laneri filters hidden traces of different traditions, creating unknown geographical syntheses without borders, furious extrapolations of compositional elements and famous themes misrepresentations. A visionary gaze, but also a good dose of ironic plaesure and fairytale humor. Not surprisingly, the original cover-art of Noura Tafeche does nothing but suggest the idea of a tasty psychedelic fruit-salad.) 22.00
SHUN - Songs From The Centrifuge LP (this charming man - Songs from the Centrifuge is the debut LP from SHUN. The neo shoegaze group from Münster have made a name with their previously released four-song tape Nothing Quite As Heavy, playing shows across Europe with bands such as Slow Crush, Odd Couple and 80s heroes The Psychedelic Furs. The debut album now finally brings us new material from the band, showcasing their evolution into higher spheres. Featuring some heavy, distorted, yet swayingly dreamy shoegaze for fans of Nothing or Slowdive, the lead single “Centrifuge” shows only one of many dimensions that SHUN incorporate in their style. Other songs like “Dreaming in Color” and “Heavy Reverie” see the band leveraging irresistible dream pop and indie rock vibes, while everything is tied together in a somber space-gloom that is probably felt at its harshest in „RPM“. Shoegaze purists will find that Songs from the Centrifuge is much more than just another shoegaze record, with influences from space rock á la Spiritualized and more beat-driven arrangements from the likes of DIIV or The Chameleons. Production and engineering duties were fulfilled by Pogo McCartney of Messer fame, Christian Bethge threw in his legendary mastering skills, while the stunning artwork was contributed by Benny Druckwelle (The Tidal Sleep, Spirit Crusher), all of which managed to capture the retro futuristic essence of Songs from the Centrifuge perfectly.) 18.00
SÓLEY – Mother Melancholia LP (Lovitt - Known for her delicate compositions, soaked in dream-like surrealism, Icelandic musician Sóley has attracted a huge following since launching her solo career back in 2010. Her 2012 single ‘Pretty Face’ went on to generate an enormous amount of buzz, and quickly became a viral sensation. Now, with three solo LPs under her belt, Sóley is preparing to debut a completely new sound via the release of her new concept album, Mother Melancholia, on October 22nd. Described by the artist as "Nosferatu meets Thelma and Louise in a vampire church under the watchful eye of David Lynch", Mother Melancholia is the soundtrack to the end of the world as we know it. As a self-confessed news addict, Sóley became obsessed with the idea that the world is ending. Having surrounded herself with real-life stories of global warming and patriarchal politics she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was going to die. This feeling was so all encompassing that it sparked the idea for a new project. Could there be a soundtrack for the last days of humans on earth? How would that sound? “I read books about possible dystopian worlds and started writing poems about irrational and in love characters who live in gray and cold imaginary loneliness. In each other’s burning arms. Walking in circles with no way out” she explains. “After all, the album reflects our life here and now. Our life and reality is a kind of dystopian world.” Whilst writing the album, which serves as a tongue-in-cheek eulogy to our planet, Sóley began reading about ecofeminism, a branch of feminism which uses the concept of gender to analyse the relationship between humans and the natural world. Ecofeminism emphasizes that both women and nature must be respected but also separated. Since the beginning of time, the natural world has been synonymous with female identity, phrases like Mother Nature are commonplace. “The patriarchy views women as volatile and hysterical. Earth and women are either our saviours or our destroyers,” explains Sóley. “It’s so easy to abuse the earth, like the patriarchy has abused women since the dawn of time, then ask for forgiveness afterwards and promise they´ll never do it again”.) 24.00
SWEEPING PROMISES - Hunger for a Way Out LP (feel it - back in stock - Straight from the depths of an unused Boston-area concrete laboratory comes the debut of Sweeping Promises. Written and recorded with a patented "single mic technique" just before quarantine, "Hunger for a Way Out", is a post-punk leaning gem of unpolished DIY sound. The title track kicks things off in absolutely classic fashion, full of spirited hooks that echo the early Rough Trade sound. Angular guitars and sharp synth notes float atop a raw rhythm section, while Lira Mondal's effervescent vocals truly define Sweeping Promises' sound. There's something simple yet otherworldly about these tracks - you have the DIY prowess of Kleenex/LiLiPUT and Girls at Our Best!, a brooding new wave-y minimal synth sound woven in, and an undeniable pop-leaning appeal captured in vibrant monaural glory. It's hard to mistake these ten tracks of naturally urgent and driving post-punk for anything other than sheer brilliance. Sweeping Promises deliver in spades on "Hunger for a Way Out". ) 22.00
TERRY GIBBS & ALICE COLTRANE – El Nutto LP (Before joining vibraphonist Terry Gibbs’ quartet in 1962, Detroit-born pianist Alice McLeod played intermissions at the Paris Blue Note and appeared on French TV with saxophonist Lucky Thompson, reaching Gibbs’ attention in a duo with vibraphonist Terry Pollard; in the quartet, she became the perfect foil for Gibbs, her understated piano making room for his intense improvisation, stepping up with her own expression when needed. El Nutto, their third LP, captures Alice at her best in this setting, as heard on the reveries of ‘El Flippo’ and the title track, this solid set of Gibbs originals showing her virtuosity, composure and curiousness, which would soon reach more cosmic highs, once she became Alice Coltrane.) 20.00
TRIIGROUP - Interest In Music LP (stroom - Venturing forth in his discreet, unobtrusive style of ambient-pop, Stocklosa is flanked by the wider TRIIGroup to express his ‘Interest In Music’ over 14 hazy and endearingly open-ended works that dovetail beautifully with what we’ve come to expect of Belgium’s indomitable Stroom label. The Cologne-based singer-songwriter-artist operates at an alluring level of liminality throughout the album, with drums landing more as ghostly impressions rather than punctuation, underlining the plasmic sensuality and lowlit but lofty spaces of his sound and gently buoying the vocals in smoky dimensions.) 20.00
TSOL - Revenge LP (org - T.S.O.L.'s fourth studio album, Revenge, is now in its 30th year. What better way to commemorate the 30th anniversary than to bring the record back to vinyl? Originally issued on Enigma Records in 1986, the album has now been out of press for decades.) 27.00
ULLA - Tumbling Towards A Wall LP (experience - Repress, black vinyl edition of 400 copies Anxiety-sink ambient spongiforms from Ulla, debuting on Experiences Ltd - the new label run by Special Guest DJ (uon, Caveman Paradise) - with a residual follow-up to her collab with Pontiac Streator for West Mineral Ltd., and celebrated tracks on the cult bblisss comp and Quiet Time Tapes - Diary-like and drift-away oneiric, ‘Tumbling Towards a Wall’ is a beautifully user-friendly and gently keening batch of dematerialised atmospheres and lilting rhythms bound to lull listeners into hypnagogic states. In eight low-lit and fuzzy parts they feel out smudged textures flecked with iridescent, gauzy melodies and habitual, stream-of-consciousness keys that toe the finest line between enervated and ember-like. It’s a proper, cockle-warming sound that says its piece with measured modesty and a glowing sense of soul that resonates with Dominique Lawalrée and Ryuichi Sakamoto just as much as Ulla’s peers, such as Special Guest DJ and Pendant. The sort of record that may leave users struggling to even get up and flip the sides, such is its soporific pull, ‘Tumbling Towards a Wall’, enacts a sort of slow motion collision with all the sensuality of knackered Ballardian pillow-talk. Each track here teases the senses with a range of frayed, fractured and breezily unresolved structures that exert an ideal ambient sleight-of- hand primed to lead listeners’ thoughts off on their own woozy tangents between the music’s mix of syrupy/brittle rhythm and elusive atmospheric clag. On the A-side the sounds all remains detectably electronic, but for those who manage to keep their lids over half-mast, the B-side blossoms with sampled acoustic textures between a scudding choral cut-up that’s surely worth the entry alone, and in the closing thread of rainy day piano keys that perfuse and wilt in the heart- clutching closing piece. For solitary reflection or post-party couch slump with friends, Ulla’s first mononymous release is a gorgeous record that mellows and balances any physical or mental space it comes into contact with.) 32.00
WASTED YEARS - s/t LP (Hyper melodic punk from Cologne / Germany. Feat. peeps of Short Fuse, Force of Change and I Recover) 15.00
WHY BOTHER? - A Year of Mutations LP (feel it - In the heart of the heartland, a mere ten miles from where the airplane carrying Buddy Holly crashed into a frozen cornfield, lies Mason City, Iowa. A town so small that it's pre-pandemic punk scene (with 20+ bands) went almost entirely unnoticed. That is, until the music of WHY BOTHER? and the "Punk on the Plains" compilations (curated by WB? drummer Paul), were made available by Tremendo Garaje - one of YouTube's most obsessive gateways into contemporary underground punk music. WHY BOTHER? is Terry on vocals + synth, Speck on guitar, Pamela on bass, and Paul on drums. Their sound takes the classic Midwestern punk approach of The Zero Boys and Toxic Reasons, adding in warm layers of synth and sci-fi thematics ala The Spits and darker post-punk moments in the vein of early Joy Division. Yet there's so much more to this band that defies comparison, for WHY BOTHER? are truly a singular experience. ) 22.00
WYNTON MARSALIS - Black Codes (From The Underground) LP (org - One of the hardest swinging and best-loved of his 1980s recordings wraps listeners in the astonishing group sound that defined Wynton Marsalis. Firey performances by the players jazz writers dubbed “The Young Lions”: saxophonist Branford Marsalis, the “Doctone” – pianist Kenny Kirkland, the “Net Man” – bassist Charnett Moffett, drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, and of course Wynton himself on trumpet.) 40.00
BOOKS
BENJAMIN BERTON - Dreamworld Oder: vom fabelhaften Leben des Dan Treacy und seiner Band Television Personalities BOOK (London 1977. Daniel Treacy schmeißt die Schule, in der er sich zu Tode langeweilt. Mit Freunden nimmt er dank ein paar Pfund Sterling, die ihm seine Eltern geliehen haben, einige Songs auf und schickt die fertige Single an den legendären Radio-DJ John Peel, der sofort hellauf begeistert ist – die Television Personalities sind aus der Taufe gehoben … Im turbulenten Leben von Daniel Treacy treffen wir auf Jimmy Page, Bob Marley, Alan McGee, David Gilmour, Wham!, Nico und Kurt Cobain. »Dreamworld« ist die sehr reale, sehr verrückte Geschichte eines Genies der Musikgeschichte, dessen Bedeutung nicht selten mit der von Mark E. Smith von The Fall verglichen wird. Angereichert mit reichlich Szene- und Zeitkolorit aus dem britischen Pop von den 1960er-Jahren bis zur Gegenwart, erzählt »Dreamworld« von allen Höhen und Tiefen einer Legende, die sich selbst einmal ironisch (jedoch völlig zu recht) in einem Interview als »Godfather of Indie-Pop« bezeichnete.) 22.00
VIVIEN GOLDMAN - Die Rache der She-Punks Eine feministische Musikgeschichte von Poly Styrene bis Pussy Riot BOOK (Ventil - Punkgeschichte aus feministischer Perspektive - Da die Geschichtsschreibung von Punk eine überwiegend männliche ist, war eine »Rache der She-Punks« längst überfällig. Verfasst wurde diese feministische Abrechnung von keiner geringeren als der Post-Punk-Pionierin Vivien Goldman, die aufgrund ihrer Arbeit als Musikerin und Musikjournalistin eine Insider-Perspektive besitzt. Entlang vier Themenfeldern – Identität, Geld, Liebe und Protest – begibt sich die »Punk-Professorin« auf die Suche nach empowernden Momenten, die Punk speziell für Frauen birgt.) 20.00
