Bis Aufs Messer weekly news September 01 2021
Hi. Welcome to another newsletter for September. First off all thank you to all of you that came out last weekend and made our little birthday party beautiful. It was a great Saturday and we are more then grateful to have you all around us. Thanks also to Ghost Bag & Julia Blair for playing two beautiful sets. THANK YOU
Besides getting a bunch of restocks (Songs Ohia, The Sound, Mountain Movers, LLOYD MCNEILL QUARTET - Washington Suite repress etc, UNWOUND) We also got a bunch of killer new stuff like the amazing new LOW - hey what LP, The new AMYL & THE SNIFFERS LP, JAN JELINEKS new LP, WHISPERING SONS’s new album, HALA STRANA - fielding DLP restock, ALI FARKA TOURE restocks, DEAD MOON restocks, JACKSON C. FRANK - s/t LP restock, CINDY LEE restock, RUTHANN FRIEDMANN - Hurried Life: Lost Recordings, 1965-1971 LP re issue
We also started taking pre orders for the upcoming THE REMEMBERABLES - breathe LP which is co release between Adagio830 & Head2Wall
Check out the first single and the new video here
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
AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS - comfort me LP (rough trade - Australian pub rock sensations Amyl and The Sniffers follow their acclaimed eponymous debut with ‘Comfort To Me’. The band cast their net wider to haul in influences this time. 1970s rock bands such as AC/DC and Motorhead, hardcore bands such as Warthog and Power Trip and classic Australian bands such as Coloured Balls have fed into this defiant and energetic rock ‘n’ roll statement. ) 25.00
GNOD - Easy to Build, Hard to Destroy LP (rocket - ‘Easy to Build, Hard to Destroy’ by Salford’s uncompromising underground rockers GNOD gathers together loose ends from their early days. The record includes previously-unreleased songs, tracks that were only ever available via MySpace (they're that old) and various other obscurities. These tracks generally started out with the emphasis on jamming, so you can bet they're all sprawling and stuff. Frenetic, psychedelic, heavy, fast and loud) 30.00
HALA STRANA - fielding DLP (Desastre and Worstward Recordings present the first vinyl issue of Hala Strana 's second full-length album "Fielding". Originally released in 2003 on the Jewelled Antler label, "Fielding" is the sprawling, epic leap forward from Hala Strana’s self-titled debut full-length—a psychedelic collage of traditional music, field recordings, and sonic landscapes. Started in 2002, Hala Strana was the summation of Steven R. Smith's interest in the traditional folk music of central and eastern Europe. By incorporating the melodies, scales, and instrumentation of the village music from areas such as Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Albania, Steven pushed his music into yet another new territory. This marks the first vinyl issue of Fielding, re-mastered and presented as a 2-LP set housed in a deluxe gatefold sleeve including all the original liner notes and images from the original 2xCD edition. Limited to 300 copies.) 29.00
JACKSON C. FRANK - s/t LP (Antarctica starts - JACKSON C. FRANK is the highly regarded debut and the only official album he ever released, produced by friend and fellow musician PAUL SIMON in England and released on Columbia Records in 1965. Jackson has been called the most famous folk singer of 1960s that no one has ever heard of and his influence was felt more in England, where his album was a hit, rather than in the U.S., where his record was a commercial failure at the time of its release. His most famous song “Blues Run The Game” has been covered by scores of musicians including Simon and Garfunkel, Counting Crows, Colin Meloy, Bert Jansch, Laura Marling, and Robin Pecknold, while Nick Drake also recorded it privately.) 28.00
JAN JELINEK - The Raw and the Cooked LP (faitiche - Faitiche releases an album version of the radio piece Vom Rohen und Gekochten (The Raw and The Cooked) originally composed and produced by Jan Jelinek for the state broadcaster SWR2. The album The Raw and The Cooked brings together five sound collages that deal with the consistency of material and its mutability. Solid, raw, boiling, powdery, liquid, broken and folded - categories which describe the nature of material. They can also be read in a chronological sequence: solid becomes broken becomes liquid becomes powdery... Material tells of its essence as it drifts through its states, always in correspondence with external energies. The Raw and The Cooked observes the artists Thomas & Renée Rapedius as they design their paper and metal objects and the artist Peter Granser as he ritually prepares Japanese tea, it shatters glass, bends metal and burns wood. The resulting audio documents capture processes of material transformation as sound. The Raw and The Cooked was created with the help of ITO Raum Stuttgart and Thomas & Renée Rapedius. Originally produced for radio broadcast on Südwestrundfunk in 2020 it contains a variation of the collage Zwischen/Raum that was made with funding from Musikfonds. Many thanks to Eckhart Holzboog and Beatrice Theil, as well as Frank Halbig/SWR.) 25.00
KIRK LIGHTSEY AND RUDOLPH JOHNSON WITH THE ALL STARS - Habiba LP (outer - Never released outside South Africa, and out of print even there since its original release in 1974, Outernational Sounds presents one of the most sought-after international jazz exclusives ever to appear on South Africa’s famous Gallo imprint – the funky, spiritual and outward bound Habiba. As the archives of South Africa’s premier record labels steadily give up the treasures that were hidden in the darkness of the apartheid era, the incredible heritage of South African jazz is gradually finding the international audience it always deserved. And while most of the laurels are naturally for South Africa’s own overlooked musicians, the South African discography contains a few sparkling, nearly unknown jazz sessions by visiting players. Habiba is the greatest of them – a raw, impassioned set led by bop pianist Kirk Lightsey, who had been a regular sideman for Chet Baker and Sonny Stitt, and saxophonist Rudolph Johnson, a key player at the storied West Coast indie Black Jazz. Visits to the apartheid state by respected Black musicians were hardly a common occurance during apartheid’s darkest years – so how did a crew of crack American jazz players end up in the Gallo studios? ) 26.00
LOW - hey what LP (sub pop - Not many bands make their most critically acclaimed record twelve albums in but that appears to be what has happened with Duluth trio Low and 2018's 'Double Negative'. Therefore 'HEY WHAT' (their capitals and lack of exclamation mark) is highly anticipated. We are promised layers of distortion and textures with Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker's ever glorious harmonies breaking through the murk. You can always trust these guys to keep coming up with the goods and that old adage about The Fall could as easily apply - always different, always the same. ) 22.00
LLOYD MCNEILL QUARTET - Washington Suite LP (OXBLOOD RED - New edition of this very rare deep spiritual jazz album (currently £400 on Discogs for an original!) first released as a private-press album in 1970 on flautist Lloyd McNeill’s own Asha Record label in Washington, DC. First reissued on Soul Jazz Records’ Universal Sound sub-label in 2011 (long deleted) and now available again. Lloyd McNeill is an African-American flautist, painter, poet, and photographer born in Washington, D.C., in 1935. His multi-disciplinary creative life led to encounters and friendships with Nina Simone, Picasso, Eric Dolphy, Nana Vasconceles and other legendary cultural figures. Lloyd McNeill’s hypnotic ‘Washington Suite’ was originally commissioned as a piece of music for the Capital Ballet Company, in Washington, DC. McNeill grew up through the era of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and his life and work is a reflection of those ideals. In the mid-1960s he moved to France where he became friends with Picasso, working with a number of émigré-jazz musicians whilst living in Paris. In the late 1960s he taught jazz and painting workshops at the New Thing Art and Architecture Center in Washington. In the 1970s he travelled throughout Brazil and West Africa studying music and taught music anthropology in the US. ) 29.00
RUTHANN FRIEDMANN - Hurried Life: Lost Recordings, 1965-1971 LP (Tomkins square - ‘Hurried Life: Lost Recordings, 1965-1971’ is a compilation showcasing the work of American songwriter Ruthann Friedman, a cult hero to 21st century folk artists like Devendra Banhart. She’s perhaps best known for writing The Association’s 1967 folk-pop hit ‘Windy’, but this collection of demos, home recordings and assorted archive material demonstrates a very different sound, more in common with the Laurel Canyon sound.) 29.00
THE SOUND - Jeopardy LP (1972 - 2021 Repress, incl. insert - Formed in 1979 and fronted by the mercurial and troubled Adrian Borland (he would commit suicide in 1999 after years of battling depression), The Sound are one of the most unjustly neglected band of the ’80s. They may not be as well-known as their contemporaries Echo & the Bunnymen or Joy Division, but their contributions to the first wave of English post-punk are equally unique and influential. Fed up with its simplistic structure and rote posturing, Borland cut ties to the punk movement after fronting ’77-era group The Outsiders. Not unlike Magazine’s Howard Devoto, whose similar inclinations led to his leaving The Buzzcocks, Borland wanted to create a sound that relied more on atmospheres, tensions and instrumental interplay while harnessing the urgency of punk’s spirit. With the release of Jeopardy, The Sound turns this inspiration into a nearly perfect debut. Featuring rough-edged production fitting its £800 recording budget, Jeopardy is a caustic rush, full of songs with hooks and emotional impact that never resort to histrionics. The album’s opener starts off minimally, until the nervy guitars of the chorus rip through the song. This auspicious beginning only hints at what’s to come. Every song that follows builds on the momentum of a complex pop masterpiece. Borland’s lyrics also prove him to be one of the few post-punk songwriters whose words are worth poring over and analyzing. The album received extremely positive reviews, with NME, Sounds and Melody Maker all bestowing their highest ratings, and influential British DJ John Peel welcomed the band into the studio to record a session. All of the critical praise heaped on the band makes it hard to explain why The Sound never rose to the prominence of the two bands to whom they received the most comparisons—but one only need to listen to Jeopardy to hear Borland’s perfect combination of Joy Division’s dark, tortured angst and Echo & the Bunnymen’s accessible glam/art-rock fusion.) 25.00
THE SOUND - From The Lions Mouth LP (1972 - For The Sound’s sophomore LP, the group decided to work with producer Hugh Jones (Echo & the Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, Bauhaus). The resulting album is more richly layered than their debut, fusing the band’s atmospheric, affecting sound with a set of accessible yet invigorating songs. At the time, From the Lion’s Mouth gained great marks from the British music press, but did not break the band beyond its devoted cult of fans. Now it is considered a post-punk classic. A relatively restrained but vital follow-up to the charged and ragged Jeopardy, From The Lions Mouth proves that The Sound’s critical stature among the post-punk elite was no fluke. A more robust recording budget allows them to explore a fuller, more cohesive sound, while Adrian Borland’s lyrics are even more introspective (a jarring turn after the often political bent of Jeopardy). However despondent the singer’s words became, the tone, as pointed out in the original NME review of the album, never descend into “pessimistic wallowing.” Tracks like “Sense of Purpose” and “Contact the Fact” still feature a sweeping urgency and highlight the tension between Borland’s grim worldview and his knack for a hook. The bleak nature of the lyrics would be the first true displays of Borland’s mercurial nature. While he waged a tragically losing battle with depression for the rest of his life, it’s hard not to view this album as an enduring and fascinating document of the beginnings of madness.) 25.00
TAMAR APHEK - all bets are off LP (exec - ORANGE VINYL Formerly the guitarist with Carusella and Shoshana, Israeli artist Tamar Aphek created her debut album with The War On Drugs/DIIV producer Daniel Schett. Embracing quietness and atmosphere as much as the noisy carnage with which she’s previously been associated, ‘All Bets Are Off’ is a diverse first solo outing from Aphek.) 24.00
UNWOUND - Repetition LP (col. vinyl) (numero - Dead-eyed post-punk from Olympia’s reigning noise-niks. Repetition rejects the major label signing spree of the mid-’90s entirely, training its hulking focus on haircut hardcore, white belt Jiujitsu, and frenzied feedback. The soundtrack to a fantasy Halloween candy heist, now on vinyl for the first time since 1996.) 26.00
UNWOUND - Challenge For a Civilized Society LP (numero - Unwound’s paranoid and pulsating sixth album, Challenge For a Civilized Society explores the pre-Y2K technological dread of modern punk living. Producer Steve Fisk threads Justin Trosper’s stabbing, discordant guitar in and around Sara Lund’s consolidated drum attack and Vern Rumsey’s relentless, throbbing bass. A vicious and sinister penultimate LP from the ’90s most misunderstood band.) 26.00
WALTER SMETAK - smetak LP (buh - HIGHLIGHTS An emblematic figure of the Brazilian avant-garde and a key part of the cultural climate that made the rise of tropicália possible, Walter Smetak was a Swiss musician and inventor of instruments who developed his career in Brazil. "Smetak" (1974), his debut album, was produced by Caetano Veloso and Roberto Santana, and had the support of Gilberto Gil. It sums up a personal universe that combines Afro-Brazilian ritual traditions, theosophy, microtonal studies, collective improvisation and the use of unconventional musical instruments. Liner notes by Caetano Veloso. DESCRIPTION Walter Smetak was a Swiss cellist, composer, inventor of musical instruments, sculptor and writer who developed his career in Salvador, Brazil, and became an emblematic figure of the Bahian avant-garde and a key part of the cultural climate that made the rise of tropicália possible. Since 1969, he has carried out various workshops of experimental music at University of Bahia. His music was materialized in two albums: "Smetak" (1974) and "Interregno" (1980). "Smetak" was produced by Caetano Veloso and Roberto Santana, with the support of Gilberto Gil. There he unfolded a radical sound universe, based on the investigation of Afro-Brazilian ritualistic traditions, microtonality studies and collective improvisational open processes, always under the influence of theosophy, which he discovered in Brazil, and which allowed him to generate a symbolism represented in the construction of his own unconventional instruments, many of them of a sculptural nature, made with unusual materials such as PVC pipes, pumpkins and polystyrene foam, which he called plásticas sonoras. Around 150 instruments were created by Smetak, many of them in a surrealist style. They have been exhibited on various occasions in museums and galleries. His music was often based on graphic scores, many of them of great beauty. In addition to Smetak, Caetano Veloso and Roberto Santana, musicians such as Gereba, Tuzé Abreu, Djalma Correa, Capenga, among others, participated in the recording of this album. The author of one of the most important studies on Smetak, Marco Scarassatti, has written on the work of the Swiss-Brazilian artist: "His original and metaphysical work goes beyond any mysticism created around his figure. He investigated the relationship between sound and light, space and form, microtonality, collective improvisation, as a sound alchemist, a multimedia and unplugged prophet-visionary. While transforming matter, Smetak transformed himself and many of those around him." This reissue reproduces the much sought after original 1974 edition, published by Phillips. It includes the catalog of instruments used, adds a brochure with new photos and presents the remastered audio. The liner notes were written by Caetano Veloso. This project is part of Incidencias Sonoras: COINCIDENCIA experimental music & sound art platform, by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.) 38.00
WHISPERING SONS - several others LP (Pias - ‘Several Others’ is the second LP by Whispering Sons. ‘Several Others’ is an LP of propulsive post punk driven by synths and choppy guitars. If you ever wondered what New Order would sound like if Ian Curtis was around to front them, then the lead single ‘Surface’ may provide the answer. ) 25.00
WHISPERING SONS - endless party LP (WOOL E - Whispering Sons is a Belgian post-punk/new wave band. The group's very atmospheric sound is dark and ominous and breathes desperation and nervosity.) 20.00
V/A - Eccentric Disco LP (numero - Ten independent and private press, dance floor ready dive bombers from disco’s all-to-brief heyday, previously swept under rug by the whitewashed glitz and glam of the era. Chugging grooves, bubbling synths, soaring strings, and sonorous voices are guaranteed to light up your night, on living room rugs and dance floors alike.) 26.00
