Format: lp

Mount Maxwell - Only Children ()

LP Co-Release with Cardinal Fuzz / Hotham Sound. Edition of 350 Pressing Heavy Black Vinyl. Bandcamp. $23 Mount Maxwell continues his run of 1970s themed releases with a full length meditation on the perceptual experiences of children born in the wake of the 1960’s cultural revolution. Highly ambivalent in tone, ‘Only Children’ marks a departure from earlier MM releases both in its use of acoustic instruments and in a newfound sense of criticality towards its subject matter; the back-to-the-land optimism of tracks like ‘Nature ID’ in uneasy proximity to the skeptical disquiet of ‘Weird Places’ and ‘Nomad’. A beautiful, emotionally complex examination of the ‘Me’ generation’s dubious decision to treat children like adults, and a haunting continuation of the Mount… Read more »

Mount Maxwell - The People’s Forest ()

LP Co-Release with Cardinal Fuzz / Hotham Sound. Edition of 350.Pressing Heavy Black Vinyl. Bandcamp. $23 ‘The People’s Forest’ is packed with micro-earworm moments, nourishing synths and playful crunchy percussion. It’s got a skyward gaze and nostalgia for futures never realized, packing a kind of childlike optimism inside an arpeggio-laden, hermetically sealed little sound world. When the loose, hip- hop fueled drums kick in over warm synthesizer pads, you’ll probably feel the same warm sense of familiarity I picked up. Music for fans of Boards of Canada, sure, but Mount Maxwell has a wide open pastoral landscape and identity all its own. – Optimistic Underground Composed of seemingly small sounds, ‘The People’s Forest’ has an oddly natural quality to it despite being… Read more »

Louise Bock, PG Six - All Summer Long Is Gone ()

LP Edition of 400. DL included with LP. bandcamp  $23 Finally a vinyl edition of this amazing instrumental pandemic album recorded by a somewhat unlikely duo. There was a cassette version released a while back as a stop gap, but here now is the REAL THING! PG Six (aka Pat Gubler) is based in the New England and is known for his mastery of many stringed objects. He has appeared on six earlier Feeding Tube LPs, the most recent of which is the great PG Six Live at the Tavern (FTR 556). Louise Bock (aka Taralie Peterson) is a multi-instrumentalist long associated with both the Midwest and Spires That in the Sunset Rise, but she has other axes in the… Read more »

Abronia - Map of Dawn ()

LP Edition of 500. Co-Release with Cardinal Fuzz OUT OF PRINT For their great third LP, this Portland OR sextet heads deep into the scalding sun of what feels like the Sonoran Desert. There is an edge to the fried guitar and the ever more massive drumming that evokes a parched ritual of psychedelic worship. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact initial rehearsals took place outdoors, during which time the Pacific Northwest was on fire (both in the forests and on the streets). When you know this fact, you can begin to appreciate the smoke as a compositional component.  Abronia’s line-up has not changed since 2019’s The Whole of Each Eye (FTR 498), but their sound keeps… Read more »

Loren Connors - 9th Avenue ()

LP 180 Gram Vinyl Edition of 300. Co-Release with Carbon Records A few copies left on the FTR bandcamp…. For me, this is the blues. Utterly wailing “solos” over a base of thick distorted guitars, Loren Connors’ music conjures up scenes of lonely streets, dark nights, but also hopeful and joyful mornings. 9th Avenue is the first vinyl reissue of a CD Loren released on his Black Label in 1995, a view into his mid-90’s heavier electric guitar era, back when he was going by his Loren Mazzacane Connors moniker. 9th Avenue fits right alongside releases from that same time period, such as Long Nights (Table of the Elements) and Crucible (Black Label, with his partner Suzanne Langille), as well… Read more »

Macula Kuru - Macula Kuru ()

LP Edition of 195. Download included with LP. Only available through mail order. BANDCAMP OUT OF PRINT Amazingly psychedelic quartet session by two Japanese players (Junzo Suzuki and Mitsuru Tabata) and two Belgians (Bart De Paepe and Jan D’Hooghe.)  Originally this was recorded as a trio, while Junzo was touring Europe in March 2020, but he passed the tape to Mitusri (his partner in the gorgeous acid folk duo, 20 Guilders) to add bass. And we’re glad he did, ’cause the low-lunar notes Tabata generates kinda keep the music from floating off into space. We’d been trying to do something with Bart (who runs the Sloow Tapes concern, among many other projects) for a while. And we flipped out when… Read more »

Human Adult Band - Slog Quest Crosstime ()

LP Edition of 200. OUT OF PRINT For the last two decades or so, The Human Adult Band, led by T. Penn, has been at the vanguard of New Jersey’s sub underground scene. Sometimes there are a lot of them, sometimes there are only a few, but the size of the scumball their music generates is always quite gigantic regardless of their number.  Slog Quest Crosstime is a monstrously pleasant example of what the band does. Their LOUD free rock dynamism is a classic example of how to move things from point A to point B without even peeking at a sonic compass. They do have some similarity to bands you might know, but I can’t think of any truly… Read more »

Dimples’ - Soul Chateau ()

LP Edition of 250 Co-Released with Laughable Recordings $22 No shortage of dune buggy up the canyon honey slide action here. The first tinges of sonic solvent action provide a loosened effect, but just as the tongue gets lazy, the swagger is spat gently from the tip as clarity bursts into the room with the urgency a hungry baby. Delicate without feeling soft. Brash without feeling harsh and at times Dimples’ swing fucking hard, like JJ and Leon without forcing it one bit. But if you don’t like “new music” this might not be your cuppa. ‘Soul Chateau,’ isn’t an updated prettied up throwback, it’s all here and now, in the present time’s glory, gore, majestic beauty, and glimmering perpetual… Read more »

Double Wig - Double Wig ()

LP Edition of 300. 180 Gram Vinyl. Co-Release with Carbon Records.      Bandcamp $25 Double Wig’s debut s/t LP opening with excellent, and aptly titled Harmonium, which then leads right into the propulsive jammer Broken Cup, completed with total-Neu vibes. When Your Mask, a total curveball, is creepy and disturbing in the best possible way. Is this a Lord of the Rings thing? I saw the cartoon version in like 1981 or something. I’m more of a Watership Down person but whatever… Gone Circling closes out the A side, sounding like KARP slowly sinking in quicksand. The B side opens with Tarantula Hill (named after the venue it was recorded at), a secret C.B. radio broadcast of earth moving… Read more »

Dan Melchior - CB Odyssey ()

LP Edition of 400 Co-Released with Sophomore Lounge. $20 One of the great joys of the ever-evolving catalog of Dan Melchior is hearing where in the spectrum of styles that he has mastered each record falls. From studio recordings to lo-fidelity home experiments, full band rockers or plaintive solo excursions, fans never know what they are going to get until the needle drops. Those of us who have followed Dan on his prolific pathways are ready for anything but always assured that the spirit of the artist himself, one unique enough to be its own in any form, will deliver and somehow deal with the ramifications of an increasingly maddening world. Dan’s first full length of 2021, CB Odyssey, (co-released by… Read more »