Format: lp

Niko Karlsson - Valosta Valoon ()

LP Edition of 300. Dusted  Still-Single The Answer Is In The Beat Viewed from the American sub-underground (aka our headquarters), the Finnish scene always looks like a haven of freaks. Surely there are lots of dull rock, pop and rap outfits from this chilly and heavily forested country, but they don’t get exported, so we don’t have to hear them. The Finnish bands we’ve known and loved are psych, prog, hardcore, free jazz, and post-form monsters of all shapes and sizes. A new name to add to the list of Deadly Finns (thanks, Eno) is Niko Karlsson. Well, not entirely new. He had a few very good and different bands called Navigations, Orange Hora and Altaat (all of whom have recordings… Read more »

Men & Volts - A Giraffe Is Listening to the Radio ()

LP Edition of 300. Men & Volts was one of Boston’s great bands, and I was sorry to see them fold up their tent in 1993. I had always known they started as a combo dedicated to playing the music of Capt. Beefheart & the Magic Band, but I was not in Beantown during this era, and thus missed the few shows they played in their original format. Over the years I have bugged David Greenberger (who I knew through his work with The Duplex Planet, etc.) about tapes of this material, but he always claimed it was not really up to snuff. Eventually, however, I wore him down and he turned over various audio recordings of Men & Volts… Read more »

Manas - III ()

LP Edition of 300 Cover Art by Bill Nace Still Single Review OUT OF PRINT Unlike World War 3 II, which referred to the second album by that thuggish UK band, or Manfred Mann’s Chapter III, which referred to the third outfit led by Mr. Mann, Manas III is neither the third album by Manas, nor the third iteration of the band. Rather, it refers to the number of participants on the second album by this spectacular Asheville NC unit, previously known primarily as a duo. The two main actors in question are guitarist, Tashi Dorji, and drummer Thom Nguyen. Tashi’s earliest recordings were largely acoustic abstractions, lauded by everyone from Ben Chasny to William “Bill” Nace. Thom’s drumming has… Read more »

Tarp - Tarp ()

LP Edition of 300 In the world we inhabit (the world of the underground), one of the easiest ways to categorize people who fall into our gutter is by analyzing their motives and history. Viewed by this light, people are either lifers or careerist fucks; dedicated to the cause now and forever, or stupid moths attracted to the occasional flashes of light that emanate from the pit. By this measure (and all others), Tarp are lifers. The duo, Conrad Capistran and Joshua Burkett (look up their glorious histories on line), began early in the century, during the ascendance of the plumbers’ crack noise revolution. But even then, they didn’t feel compelled to show their butts to the audience. They’d just… Read more »

Donkey No No - Tandoori Chicken (The Neverending Story) ()

LP Edition of 300. Bandcamp $21 Second boss LP by this bossest of Western Mass trios. Comprised of Jenifer Gelineau on violin & electronics, Omeed Goodarzi on guitar, and Edward “Ted” Lee on bowed cymbal, Donkey No No create the sort of instrumental hallucinations you’d expect to hear in the background of a film by Jodorowsky or Arrabal. It’s very cool, because they use the very instruments you’d hear in some shitty Ken Burns documentary, in order to play music that would make Ken’s sallow head explode if he tried to wrap his noggin around it. With sometimes scratchy violin as the ostensible lead instrument, theoretical comparisons to old timey music are inevitable. But Donkey No No’s sound is old… Read more »

Viewer - True Friend Record ()

LP + Download. Edition of 200. Bandcamp $19 There can be no denying that Shannon and Beverly Ketch are as dedicated a pair of freaks as you’ll run into in a month of Sundays. Indefatigable supporters of the Western Mass sub-underground, they’ve done backwoods music festivals, run a DIY club and gallery, and make music that emerges straight from the earth on which they live. Previous ensembles include Bunwinkies, Jow Jow, and many more, but Viewer is (at least as of this recording) a totally homegrown duo project. The music is quiet throughout, but manifests itself in a wide variety of ways. There are lightly surging tracks where Bev’s vocals and the mood recall Kendra Smith’s work with the Guild… Read more »

Sex Tide - Possession Sessions ()

LP Edition of 300. No Download Included. Down to the last box of records…    Bandcamp. Great Black Swamp  Eddie Flowers’ Vulcher Review  Third record, following a pair of amazing 12” near-LPs, by this Columbus howitzer. On their debut, Flash Fuck (A Wicked Company, 2013), they were a trio, but they subsequently dropped a guitarist. By the time they cut Vernacular Splatter (Superdreamer, 2015), they has found their true shape as a duo. With Aurelie on drums and vox, and Chris Corbin on guitar, they had pared their shit down to a tight-packed near-perfect two-person howl. For Possession Sessions they have retained that format, although legendary producer Mike Rep, can’t keep from making his guitar a deep deep part of… Read more »

Nudge Squidfish - You Cant Have Aliens Without The Squid ()

LP Edition of 300 Nudge Squidfish is one of the singular figures to emerge from the Columbus sub-underground rock scene of the 1970s. He was a member of The True Believers (along with Mike Rep & Tommy Jay). He cut a single for the New Age label in ’82, and couple of odd solo LPs while he was living in Nashville later in the ’80s. He was a member of V-3 (along with Jim Shepard) after that. He also released a bonkers full-length cassette on Old Age that was subsequently vinylized by Columbus Discount. More recently, he has become a highly regarded disseminator of UFO videos (Google it). The music Nudge does is all over the place, and his new… Read more »

STEVE BACZKOWSKI / CHRIS CORSANO / PAUL FLAHERTY - The Dull Blade ()

LP Edition of 400. OUT OF PRINT More than a decade since their first (and last) trio album, Dim Bulb, “Buffalo Steve,” Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty are back on the attack. The three recorded as part of a larger ensemble on the Open Mouth LP, Wrong Number, but they have a certain way of creating focused trio dynamics that makes babies talk in tongues and old men drool. The line-up is a bit unorthodox — two saxes (one a goddamn baritone) and drums. You might almost be tempted to call the format European. But it’d be a canard to try and place this album in the Euro free music tradition. I mean, yeah, there is some massive outsider brawling… Read more »

EEEE EEEEE - EEEE EEEEE ()

LP Edition of 300 There is a certain genius in curating and archiving if it’s done in the right way. Boston’s Phil Milstein is a master of this art. His projects recontextualizing “found” material are as inventive and original as anything you’ll run across. Another maestro of the form is Maine’s Skot Spear (aka id m theft able). We already vinylized one of the projects he uncovered, The Weeny Man LP (FTR 037). And now it’s time for another. Originally released by Skot in 2002 as a CDR on his own Maang-Disc label, EEEE EEEEE documents a cassette he found in the basement of a friend’s house late in the last century. The music is a solo set recorded by… Read more »