Heavy Rotation

Here are some MP3s from albums we've been listening to around WSJR HQ lately:

SR Picks:

Bruce Haack, Electric Lucifer: Bruce Haack was an electronic music pioneer who never quite fit in with similarly distingusihed artists such as Silver Apples and White Noise. Primarily a producer of children's music, Haack began his career in the late 50's experimenting with music concrete and building homemade synthesizers for dance productions and children's educational albums. In the late 60's, Haack developed an interest in psychedelic rock and the Vietnam protest movement, culminating in his 1970 anti-war concept album Electric Lucifer. The record delves into styles and statements that Haack had previously explored in only a peripheral manner, and the results are often striking. The songs on Electric Lucifer are quite dark and strange for sure, and due perhaps to Haack's association with highly expressive theatrical children's productions, the entire record takes an overtly narrative approach to songwriting and performance, focusing as much or more on telling a story than on presenting songs as individual pieces of music. The listener can hear the strong psychedelic influence throughout the record, but more impressively, the influence that Haack has had (indirectly or otherwise) on American and European electronica is pretty apparent too, leaving one wondering whether discovering Haack's music just might have been one of Suicide's secret weapons. Or maybe it was just their sunglasses....

"Incantation" LINK

The Pastels, A Truckload of Trouble: 1986-1993: Ok, so sue me-- for the past couple of weeks I've been wimping out to C86 era sensitive Scottish twee pop bands, and damn it I'm not ashamed. At some point during one of my hundreds of spins of Orange Juice's Glasgow School last year, I guess I decided that I could use a little more guitar pop in my life, and along with a pretty sweet "best of" collection from The Chills, The Pastels have been the band that I've turned to for my fix time and time again. Truckload of Trouble, a singles compilation, has been my record of choice, showcasing the best of the band's mid period material and most of the really great singles they released during the heyday of their existence. A lot of the songs rock quite a bit harder than one might expect from a group that has garnered the "twee" label, falling somewhere between the aforementioned Orange Juice and the beloved Vaselines, a band that I first started listening to when I was a kid because Kurt Cobain had their t-shirt or something. Managing to strike a balance between self aware, rough around the edges DIY amaturishness and a romantic rememberence of classic pop rock song structure, The Pastels are a pretty refreshing listen in a climate where such influences are something less than in vogue.

"Nothing to be Done" LINK

Plastikman, Musik: Hey, you know that super hip minimal/german/glitch/dubstep/new acid/Villalobos whatever disc you've been rockin' ever since you found out about it on Boomkat? Well, I'd wager that your record wouldn't sound exactly the same if it wasn't for the contributions of underappreciated 90's minimal producer Richie Hawtin, aka Plastikman. Kicking off his career as a DJ in the early/mid 90's, Hawtin concentrated on acid house as he began to dive into the depths of the dark, robotic minimalism that could be found in much of the Detroit techno and Chicago house that inspired him. The following track off of his acclaimed 1994 album Musik is one of its shortest, but the textures are fantastic and the mood is only slightly more striking than how ahead of its time it sounds-- a lot of today's fashionable techno clearly seems to be borrowing from his approach.

"Kriket" LINK

High Places, various singles and Myspace tracks: If you've ever wished that the Blow sounded more like Gang Gang Dance without losing the pop, you might be interested in High Places' sweet, psychedelic beach sound. I honestly don't know a whole lot about these Brooklynites (don't hold their home base against them), but with the blog success of bands like Beach House and albums like Person Pitch, I wouldn't be surprised if these folks started to get a little more attention in the coming months for their haunting vocals and Brian Wilson on heroin production choices. Very nice stuff.

"Golden" LINK

Psychedelic Horseshit, Magic Flowers Droned: In a year that has brought us a surprisingly large number of excellent hardcore influenced noise/rock records, Psychedelic Horseshit's fuck all new LP Magic Flowers Droned has become one of my favorites. The obvious influences of Velvet Underground, The Fall, Homosexuals, Butthole Surfers and Cleveland proto-punk are all there, but this is the kind of music demands you think less and freak out more, and you'll probably be happy to comply. The track I've posted here isn't the most song oriented nor the most freaked out of their material, but it'll give you a pretty good idea of what you're in store for if you pick this one up. It's kind of silly, but so am I.

"Can't Get Enough" LINK

Various Artists- Milky Disco Compilation: A pretty nice collection of quality cosmic disco tracks from the likes of Lindstrom, Luke Vibert (as Kerrier District), Studio, Black Devil Disco Club and more. This album has been in rotation for a while in my car, and I've decided that one of my favorite tracks comes for the seductive Sally Shapiro--

"Spacer Woman" LINK

DL Picks:

Pylon- Chomp: Though the DFA's recent reissue of this group's first album, Gyrate, is a welcome surprise, I'm already hoping that they'll release their less celebrated second record. The scratchy guitar and disco rhythm aesthetic is actually more fully realized on the sophomore effort and might actually do more towards making the point that the group was predicting the future the way DFA would have you believe. They are right of course, since Jame's Murphy's taste and ideas are often superior to his actual music. I have a couple of versions of this, so it might be a vinyl rip, unless it was taken from a compilation, so please excuse any fidelity issues. Those of you using one of Wes Anderson's favorite Ipod/Fisher Price speaker setups probably wouldn't notice anyway.

"Yo-Yo" Link

Blue Orchids- Greatest Hit (Money Mounatin): I accidentally discovered Blue Orchids when I realized that a Slovenly song I really liked was originally performed by them. Since it was one of my favorite Slovenly tracks, I was immediately intrigued and set out to find the album of origin. It turned out that two members of Blue Orchids were founding members of The Fall, which is only obvious half the time. The other half is spent on winding, psyche-organ passages and some outright pretty melodies. This track tends to be the latter and a friend of mine remarked that it reminded her of Felt as well as The Kinks. The reissue of their first album along with some random 7-inch stuff is worth looking for, if only for a version of "All Tomorrow's Parties" that has the group backing up Nico and produced by Martin Hannett. How's that for being almost pornographically cool?

"Bad Education" LINK

...Of Death- Build A Bridge And Get Over It: A fixture of Texas Hardcore shows from 2000 until 2003, Fort Worth's ...Of Death would have been a great band just based on the completely unpredictable structures and intensity that tempered their spastic blast, grind and thrash attack. And then there's the issue of the vocals. So inhuman, to hear them is to feel as if you're being attacked by a sky full of hummingbirds with whirring power drills for beaks. That will make more sense when you hear this track. I say it's an issue because some people are bound to not understand the appeal of this, like all great art. Best local vocalist ever? Probably. I'd pay these guys two hundred bucks out of my own pocket to reunite for one show. The singer is now a DJ in Chicago and some of the remaining members are in The Chimeneas. I'm a total poser for always meaning to see them live and never actually going.

"Chewing On Tin Foil" Link

Slovenly- We Shoot For The Moon: Just for good measure, a track by the aforementioned Slovenly. They somewhat defy what one might think of when someone mentions 80's SST. Their melodic guitar noodling and hyper-literate lyrics sound like a logical lead in to Polvo and similar 90's acts that followed. We Shoot For The Moon is considered their best record by the seemingly few followers they have. It has a drive and focus not found on earlier efforts and then charmingly throws that all away for the unexpected cover (Neil Young, Blue Orchids) or a twenty minute extended medley of beautiful synth instrumentals, noise experiments and harsher live material. I've owned this record for years and it still surprises me.

"Running For Public Office" LINK

Lizzy Mercier Descloux- Press Color: This is a compilation of French born Lizzy Mercier Descloux's early work, including the confrontational No Wave she performed under the Rosa Yemen moniker. No matter how detuned or alienating, there is something very lovely about Descloux's vocals. This track simultaneously sounds like No Wave-era punk and 60's French Ye-Ye female vocalists. Her later work revealed her to be a worldbeat innovator, and though that material can border on cheesy, her voice usually saves it.

"Torso Corso"LINK