ON SMOKEY DAAAAARRK PURPLE WAX!!!
Our friends at Moniker Records have released a supreme split LP from two of modern times most unique synth based artists and we have been spinning it non-stop round the shops. Get the full monty direct from the label lovelies:
"Laura Callier and Dania Luck will tempt with ethereal vocals and blissful pop, but their lure works best for the dancefloor on their aggressive electronic split. Gel Set and Stacian combine forces for the first time on their Moniker Records 12", translating eternal, lucid longing into catchy synth riffs and repetitive oblivion. That tempting sound: it's so easy to call this outer space, or otherworldly, but these grooves are better on earth. Stacian sets the tone with immediacy and urgency. This synth cadet is refueling, tarnished and returning to battle. Fragile layers shine through relentless beats. Gel Set veils this urgency with the inviting fallout, stripping Stacian's layers to core beats and synth excursions. Yet, those vocals tempt, again and again, luring listeners with a simple urge: dance.
If you're tempted to dismiss synth pop as space-age posturing, Stacian and Gel Set answer with a left turn back to earth. Here, their beautiful language translates into an electronic fantasy: Keep spinning this, keep dancing." - Moniker Records
Both acts put their best foot forward here, showcasing searing synth work, body rockin' beats and slithering vocals tying the tracks together. We've been long time fans of both Stacian and Gel Set (both acts have played the Chicago shop!) and this powerhouse split LP is further proof of the time and effort these two groups put into creating fantastic music. This LP clearly shows two distinct personalities at work here, but fret not cuz both sides will have you dancing while the remote replication takes hold! SUPER RECOMMENDED.
In preparation for their upcoming US invasion, Saturno Records is reissuing Ausmuteants first album, 2012's "Split Personalities" and pressing it to wax for the very first time! FUCK YES!!!! This our friends is exciting news cuz these Aussie punks are one of our faves from the current down under RnR scene. So read on for the intro, if you need it -
"Sure you've heard about AUSMUTEANTS! They are the new punk sensation coming from Geelong, Australia. Their first LP as a four-piece band, 'Amusements' (Aarght / Goner, 2013) is getting all the attention, and they're about to tour US after playing in the upcoming Gonerfest.
Now we'll tell you a secret: they ruled before that pitchfork and vice said that they rule. Yeah, even before than Jake Robertson were interviewed about literature and meaning of life by trendy magazines.
One year before that, Ausmuteants were just Jake (The Frowning Clouds, Wet Blankets, Hierophants… 6'5 feet of pure talent. Black Hair. He plays synths and guitars in this record) and Billy Gardner (the wonderkid behind The Living Eyes and label Anti Fade. Unlike Jake, he's blond and blue-eyed. He's the drummer). Both fellows spent a lot of time together, obsessed with avant punk bands like Chrome, The Screamers and let's not mention Devo, trying to record their avant-punk-bedroom-masterpiece. … And you can bet they did it! Split Personalities was originally released as cassette tape and CD in 2012 on Anti Fade Records, and it sounds better than any punk thing you've heard in the 21st century.
And now, for the first time… in vinyl! On the A side, all keys. On the B side, all guitars. Limited edition of 333 copies. Grab your copy today or you'll cry tomorrow!" - Saturno Records
If you know or have their self titled lp on Aarght / Goner, you better be running to the shop STAT, cuz this is more of the same synth damaged, art bent punk goodness they we've come to love and need from Ausmuteants. If not, get ready to get hooked! "Split Personalities" is more than just a stripped down, bedroom version of what the band became on their second lp (when they expanded to a four piece), more than just yer lo-fi demo first try, this album catches Blake and Billy working through their collective demons and love of Urinals, Lost Sounds, Weirdos, Clone Defects, Fall, 80s synth pop and KBD / Bloodstains oddities, as well as the aforementioned obsession with Chrome, Devo and the Screamers. One side filled to the brim with synth mayhem, the other side the most off kilter snotty punk you've heard since '82! No Joke. This is some chaotic, raw and catchy punk! "Split Personalities" will quench our thirst til their new lp drops this September via Goner and probably beyond! And like they said before "100 Austmuteants Fans Can't Be Wrong!" WE AGREE! RECOMMENDED L.A.M.F!!!!!!!!!
LP - King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - Float Along - Fill Your Lungs / Oddments - $22.99 - BUY
- LISTEN 
- LISTEN We scored a batch of this monster double LP by this Aussie psych act King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Not to be confused with Count Quizard and the Scissored Blizzard. The Flightless Records folks who released this have the full story here:
"King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard crank up the fuzzbox and set the Memory Man delay on infinity, assembling a cosmic force field that draws their sonic creations of the recent past into one unified, throbbing whole. Housed in a gatefold jacket for special release in the USA, this compilation features the truly intergalactic Float Along – Fill Your Lungs (dateline September 2013) together with its sister album Oddments (dateline Match 2014). The Melbourne, Australia, seven-piece just finished their maiden North American tour, including a run of club dates along with appearances at Austin Psych Fest, Canadian Music Week and a slot at Northside Festival alongside Thee Oh Sees, Mac Demarco, Omar Souleyman and more. The remainder of King Gizzard’s American vacation saw them holed up in Sky Lodge in the Catskills for a month, recording what will be their sixth LP (tentatively scheduled for early 2015 release). They have also just recorded their fifth LP at Daptone in Brooklyn, due out at the end of 2014. The band return to Australia for the rest of the summer before heading back Stateside in October to open a White Fence tour, and then a European tour in November, including a slot at the Iceland Airwaves Festival. In short, there is no slowing this band down. Float along and fill your ears."
KG and the LW start things out with the blistering 15+ minute epic acid scorcher Head on/Pill before spiraling into some Stones-y psych swaggerers. This deluxe package supplies you with both the Float Along-Fill Your Lungs album and the Oddments album all in one place! If you dig the trippy vibes of the Flaming Lips, Night Beats, Ty Segall and the like then grab this tube clearing double platter right now. You're gettin' hours of fried out, reverb drenched psych rock splendor from this seven member strong army of down under heads, so puff, puff, pass this on to all yer amigos pronto!
ESSENTIAL unreleased recordings of this Adelaide, Australia band who existed from the late-Seventies into 1980-81 and evolved alongside the emerging Aussie punk movement! These dudes are definitely sewn from a different cloth than yer Scientists' and Radio Birdman's, but we're gonna let Wallaby Beat Records take the mic for a split-second to fill you in:
"Ten jaw-dropping, previously unreleased songs from the Ulsers in full-band mode. Same mayhem, bonus drums, shouting and electricity.
Over the years, our obsession with the Ulsers has bordered on the pathological. Their Remember Them EP is such a perfect storm of OCD-inducing elements, we've sometimes felt that they made it just to torment us. A whirlwind of one-finger acoustic guitar, cardboard-boxes-as-drums, harmonica and sax, its four songs are so wilfully, uniquely obnoxious that those who "get" it can't help but be equally awed and amused. Putting it over the top are abstract, profane and hilarious lyrics, all delivered by a truly unhinged vocalist yelling as if the vocal mic was in the next suburb. Who the hell were these lunatics?
Conceptual greatness aside, the other factor that had us repeatedly washing our hands and touching every second fence post was Remember Them's utter obscurity. Adelaide scenesters and seasoned record collectors alike were unaware of it; those who knew of its existence had no clues to the Ulsers' identities. Years of solid detective work amounted to nothing. And then, as is so often the case, a stroke of pure luck brought results. An autographed copy of the record landed in our laps, yielding three legible signatures (and one illegible mess). "A Hitler" and "Dick Ulser" proved to be unwise Google search terms. We'll be forever thankful that principal Ulser Terry Wilson chose to scribble his real name."
This is PRIMO deconstructed punk skronk, knee-deep in the "anything goes" hippie aesthetic of bands like Holy Modal Rounders or Fugs and mutating it to the savage "anything goes" punk aesthetic of bands like The Fall & Flipper. We'll even throw in the general societal malaise of San Francisco misanthropes Icky Boyfriends too - willfully inept musicians wallowing in the freedom of their ineptitude. Wasn't that what punk was all about? We're spinning this one hardcore - possible contender for top ten reissue of 2014? Maybe so, if only for the 'WTF' factor! RECOMMENDED!
OFFICIAL reissue of this Aussie DIY platter - the only thing released by these Adelaide misanthropes in their actual existence! Reissued by Wallaby Beat Records, read on for the particulars:
"Deluxe reissue of this DIY masterpiece. Up there with early records by SPK and the Slugfuckers as one of the most original and creative statements of Australian punk.
Over the years, our obsession with the Ulsers has bordered on the pathological. Their Remember Them EP is such a perfect storm of OCD-inducing elements, we've sometimes felt that they made it just to torment us. A whirlwind of one-finger acoustic guitar, cardboard-boxes-as-drums, harmonica and sax, its four songs are so wilfully, uniquely obnoxious that those who "get" it can't help but be equally awed and amused. Putting it over the top are abstract, profane and hilarious lyrics, all delivered by a truly unhinged vocalist yelling as if the vocal mic was in the next suburb. Who the hell were these lunatics?
Conceptual greatness aside, the other factor that had us repeatedly washing our hands and touching every second fence post was Remember Them's utter obscurity. Adelaide scenesters and seasoned record collectors alike were unaware of it; those who knew of its existence had no clues to the Ulsers' identities. Years of solid detective work amounted to nothing. And then, as is so often the case, a stroke of pure luck brought results. An autographed copy of the record landed in our laps, yielding three legible signatures (and one illegible mess). "A Hitler" and "Dick Ulser" proved to be unwise Google search terms. We'll be forever thankful that principal Ulser Terry Wilson chose to scribble his real name."
WAY looser than the recordings on the LP (which feature a full "rock band") the "Remember Them" EP shuffles and shakes as it unshackles itself from the constraints of proper music. Reminds us of the free music offerings from folks across generations like The Shaggs, Icky Boyfriends, Happy Flowers and Mad Nanna that transcend the need for "talent" and "rehearsal" that end up creating something true and lasting. So bad it's good? Not sure, but we think it's pretty fucking great - grip this one ASAP. Pressed in an edition of 500 copies (at least that's DOUBLE the original pressing), recreating the original, superfuckingrare picture sleeve these will NOT last long. RECOMMENDED.
After blowing our collective noodles with the Jack Ruby reissue, the folks over at Feeding Tube are back AGAIN this time with this limited reissue of an privately pressed ("promo only") album from Bostonian Owen Maercks! The Feeding Tube is cocked and loaded with a real banger of a recommend from Byron Coley, so read on for a spell, wouldja?:
"Owen Maercks' Teenage Sex Therapist LP is one of the forgotten twisted pop masterpieces of the 20th century. Owen had been in Monster Island with Henry Kaiser, who proposed he do a solo album of his songs. Henry had moved back west by this time, so Owen went out and recorded this album there. Henry produced, and added amazing horn parts by Jon Oswald, Larry Ochs and John Gruntfest. The album was mixed, pressed and distributed exclusively to radio stations, record labels and the like, in the hopes of getting Owen signed. The music didn't fit any extant pigeonhole, however, so no deal was in the offing. About the only note of its passing was made by an A&R guy at Elektra, who swiped the arrangement (and lyric rearrangement) of "Little Black Egg" (originally by the Nightcrawlers) for use by his protégées, The Cars. Well, fuck them. Teenage Sex Therapist is ripe with jaw-drop moves. Flashes of Eno, Beefheart, Lou Reed, the Bonzos, and various of Owen's other obsessions, fight each other for air-time. And everyone goes away a winner. If this one doesn't make your teeth wiggle, you need a new jaw." --Byron Coley; LP comes with a download card."
We're gonna go ahead and say it - YOU NEED THIS RECORD. Holy guacamole!!! Maercks was live and on the scene in Seventies/Eighties Boston, collaborating with Henry Kaiser (in Monster Island) and recording his own tunes on the sly, but the world would have to lie in wait for this double-barreled monster to truly see the light of day. Part avant noise-rock (with guitar from pal Kaiser) and part post-punk/glam moves (Pere Ubu, Roxy, Eno, etc) 'Teenage Sex Therapist' slithers off the turntable like a drunk python, squeezing you ever so slightly, and before you realize it, "Nancy Calls Collect" rockets off the B-side and - it's too late. You're doomed. This reissue's CRIMINALLY limited to 600 copies in hand-pasted jackets and features remastered audio too! BUYER BEWARE: a reissue of this quality WILL NOT stick around for long, so snatch this one up QUICK. This one's a "Top Tenner" FOR SURE! We'd even say it's A REVELATION. (It's RECOMMENDED too, duh)
The mighty Telephone Explosion label has reissued a P-Rex fave with Bruce Haack's Electric Lucifer Book II and here's the information they're supplying via Adhoc:
"The albums of Canadian synth wizard, BRUCE HAACK, might not have gotten the widespread love and attention they deserved upon their initial releases in the '60s and '70s, but they've nevertheless proven immensely influential and timeless, despite their use of dated technology. Even with various reissues of his work in the past decade, though, a lot of Haack's work is still hard to come by. The sequel to his now-revered 1970 LP Electric Lucifer, Electric Lucifer: Song Book II first arrived in 1979 but hasn't been very available on western shores since then. Telephone Explosion, a label from Haack's native land, is rectifying that dilemma, having announced a nice new pressing of that Electric Lucifer: Song Book II. The record treads similar sonic ground to its predecessor, but Haack had clearly processed the music of the '70s when he made it, filling this sequel with some deep funk, prog, sound collage, and jazz fusion tidbits."—Adhoc" - Telephone Explosion
This follow up to the legendary Electric Lucifer furthers the far-outness and fine tunes all the aspects of minimal electronic music that we love. You'll find vocoded vocals and gurgling synthesizers for days here and just like the first one, this is Supremely Recommended.
