HUGO RACE AND THE TRUE SPIRIT; Rue Morgue Blues
LP (1987), Used
Rue Morgue Blues is a perfect title for the tenebrous kind of Gothic blues Hugo Race performs on his debut album. But among the many that play Gothic rock Hugo Race occupies a special place – he’s on the avant-garde top of this high and bleak crag. And every song is a tiara shining with its own unique jewels. Saxophone opening “Rue Morgue Blues” is magnanimously fabulous and the song itself is no less than public flagellation. Murky, industrialised gothic blues a deeper shade of dark than anything The Bad Seeds ever quite managed. Music to hide bodies to.
PURLING HISS; Lounge Lizards
12", Limited Edition, Numbered (2011), EP
With 'Lounge Lizards', Purling Hiss has tapped into a trashy aesthetic that's part of rock'n'roll's DNA. They have got introspective druggy tunes and riff-heavy party songs, both of which romanticize the brilliance of a scuzzy rock burnout. But "burnout" is as good a word as any to convey their brand of rock grit, which is slathered in cruddy production and with a hard emphasis on shredding.
Lounge Lizards' six tracks serve as a logical follow up to the bands previous release 'Public Service Announcement' which was also a meeting of catchy hooks and awful production quality. Of course, the sound is presumably intentional and serves a few purposes on the EP, it dampens screams, accents enormous guitar solos, adds density to an already dark song, and muffles instruments' sounds so they bleed together. The effect defines Purling Hiss' sound.
PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT; Golden Oldies
LP (2009), New
Psychedelic Horseshit at times recall the early Pavement singles later collected on Westing (By Musket and Sextant)-- snide charm and crappy sound figure heavily into the success of both. As with 'Westing', Golden Oldies, is a collection of CD-Rs and other small-batch material that predates their 2007 LP debut Magic Flowers Droned, and Shitgaze Anthems, a collection of would-be B-sides from the aforementioned Hits LP.
ORTHRELM; Asristir Vieldriox
Single sided 12" EP (2002), Used
Asristir Vieldriox is an EP released by the avantgarde band Orthrelm, released in February 2002. Despite having 99 tracks on it, each one is only 5 to 15 seconds in length, therefore making the entire release only 13 minutes long in total. Due to this it cannot be classed as an album but an EP instead. B-side etching of Mick Barr's line drawings. The last song on this release is the second half of the 19th song on Orthrelms first demo.
MY CAT IS AN ALIEN; The rest is silence
Double Gatefold LP, Used (2003)
My Cat Is An Alien are one of the most prolific groups in the international experimental music scene, with more than 100 records in their first 13 years of activity.
Tony Herrington, editor-in-chief & publisher of The Wire magazine, wrote:
Roberto and his brother Maurizio are the highly advanced lifeforms crewing the mysterious starship that goes by the name of My Cat Is An Alien (MCIAA), plotting a quixotic course through three millennia of cosmic music, from the celestial drones of the Pythagorean monochord onwards, to land up in the gravity-free realm of the No-mind
GANG GANG DANCE – Glass Jar / MindKilla
LP (2011), New
Gang Gang Dance's first release for 4AD. This double A-side 12” "Glass Jar / MindKilla". Recorded with long-term collaborator Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Zola Jesus, Beach House and TV On The Radio), "Eye Contact" 's opening track "Glass Jar" begins with the brief declaration "I can hear everything. It's everything time", and then morphs effortlessly into an audacious eleven- minute slow-burner. The anthemic "MindKilla" offers a more melodic and succinct Gang Gang Dance, led by the distinct vocals of Lizzi Bougatsos. Released as a special edition 12” in deluxe sleeve.
ROBIN FOX; A Small Prometheus
LP, New
Melbourne based experimental producer Robin Fox released this six track LP on 'Editions Mego' in 2015. An album of music created to soundtrack a dance piece developed with choreographer Stephanie Lake. As the label explains, A Small Prometheus explores “themes of combustion and heat dissipating in various physical systems,” using a synthesis of electronic and acoustic sources.
LIQUID IDIOT / IDIOT ORCHESTRA; Liquid Idiot / Idiot Orchestra
LP, New
Prior to forming Liquid Liquid in 1981, the band members were in two other groups: Liquid Idiot and Idiot Orchestra. While these ensembles sounded more experimental than groove-oriented, the beginnings of Liquid Liquid's spatial / conceptual framework can be heard here.
Liquid Idiot started at Rutgers University in the late '70s and soon relocated to NYC where they performed at various lofts and clubs including Tier 3, Mudd Club and CBGB. Idiot Orchestra was an offshoot that included a dozen or more players (clarinet, sax, trumpet, violin, cello, synth, bass, marimba and drums) resembling a No Wave version of Raymond Scott's big band.
This split archival LP collects two rare 7-inches from 1978 and 1980, both of which were originally pressed in hyper-limited editions and self-released by the bands. Through 'Superior Viaduct'.
EAT SKULL; Sick to death
LP, Used
By subjecting their trashy art-punk/fuzz-garage songs to cheap, trebly, hyper-distorted production, this LP by Portland's 'Eat Skull' sounds right at home on the Siltbreeze label. Sits wonderfully alongside art-noise contemporaries such as Sic Alps, Times New Viking and Psychedelic Horseshit. Lo-fi?.... this record sounds like it was mastered by a deaf person.
THE FALL; Totale's Turns (It's Now or Never)
LP, 2008 (New)
Given The Fall's penchant for iconoclasm, it's no surprise that they decided to say goodbye to the '70s with a series of gigs at Northern England's gruffest halls. The band's formidable live show was met with even more derision and disorder than customary during these late '79 and early '80 performances, and they skillfully amplified such sentiments back at the crowd. Totale's Turns, The Fall's first live album, was released on Rough Trade just prior to their pivotal third album, 1980's Grotesque.
FCKNBSTRDS; Slam Pampers
LP, 2003 (Secondhand)
Record Sleeve is one-off handmade cover art.
The FCKN’BSTRDS are basically a bunch of misfits from the margins of the Dutch music scene… Obscure hometapers, rancid performers, bad mutants, crap artists and borderliners with a tendency for chaos and noise. It is nihilistic primal punk, it spits in the eye of professionalism and perfection. It is an insult to good taste. It celebrates the failures and defects and mistakes on which this world is built, and that made us into what we really are: TRASH.
DUMB AND THE UGLY; Dumb and the ugly
Mini LP, 1990
Early 1990s Melbourne instrumental/exploratory supergroup made up of Michael Sheridan (guitars), Dave Brown (bass) and John Murphy (drums), laying down chunky chugga-chugga rhythms. This 12″ 45 vinyl was released in 1990. Comes with poster.
