Oscillation III, Part 2

Part two of the Oscillation III CD series from Three Lobed arrived on Saturday with three discs. That leaves one final disc to complete the series.

The second set contains albums from Bardo Pond, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth fame and The Micheal Flower Band featuring members of Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sunburned Hand Of The Man. Will all the recordings they do, I expect a quality disc from Bardo Pond. Lee Ranaldo is always doing something different that's interesting. The Michael Flower Band is something I have no clue what it will sound like but a mix of those bands would be interesting. Time to get listening.

Bardo Pond's Batholith

Three Lobed Recordings has unleashed a beast of a new album from Bardo Pond. The material itself is not new but a new batch of recordings that never properly got released. Coming in a beautiful gatefold sleeve on heavy duty 180gram vinyl and a pressed CD, it's another impressive package from TLR. Pre-ordering it also got me a bonus disc with a 13 minute exclusive track.

Since it's more dated material, the tracks on here are a bit shorter and more "song-based" which is a welcome after all the jamming they've done in all their side projects recently (not that I'm complaining). I need some more listens for this one to sink in but after a spin the album flows nice as a whole and there's a good variety. It's been a good month for Three Lobed with this and part 1 of the Oscillation III series.

New Releases From Archive and Glass Throat Recordings

Some fantastic looking releases from Archive arrived yesterday in the post. Headlining the bunch is the 2 disc album collaboration between LSD March and Bardo Pond dubbed LSD Pond. The packaging for the release is top notch and includes a booklet for the first time ever for an Archive set. The second new one from Archive is an album from Chinese guitarist Li Jianhong whom I've never heard of before. There was lots of praise for the guy so I also picked up another album by him in the distro. Rounding out the new releases is the latest from Peter Wright. Also picked up from the distro a double live album from LSD March that is limited to 500 copies and comes in a nice heavy stock gatefold-like sleeve with the discs sitting on hubs.

From Glass Throat Recordings comes a double album from The Elemental Chrysalis that was just released on the end of 2007. The double CD comes in the now typical 6"x6" six panel case with the discs on soft hubcaps. After enjoying Ruhr Hunter's 2006 release, I decided to round out the order with the previous two full length Ruhr Hunter CDs.

Archive New Releases

Another batch of recordings from Scott Slimm's label has arrived. The lone studio recording this time around is from Alasehir which features members of Bardo Pond (the Gibbons brothers on guitars and Jason on drums) and a guest on electronics on a couple of tracks.

Guitarist Mason Jones, who I've never heard of prior to this release, jams with three different Japanese drummers under the moniker Numinous Eye. I have no clue what this will sound like but the description of "freeform droney psych jams" has me interested.

While Slimm has included 3" discs for several of his releases because of the time limitations of a regular disc, the Death Unit and Prurient double release (it's not a split nor a collaboration) on two 3" CDs is a first for the label.

I also picked up the first Suishou No Fune album from the distro items since I've yet to see it at the record shop.

Vinyl and Compact Disc

A couple of orders arrived today, both having a CD and LP. From Three Lobed Recordings came the second LP from Bardo Pond's Michael Gibbons under the moniker 500mg. Along with the nicely pressed 180 gram record came a CD featuring 15 minutes more of 500mg material. Just another fantastic release from Three Lobed.

The other order was yet another from Important Records. On black wax with a text-less black label and a black on black front cover attached to an all white sleeve is a recording from Eleh, who I know nothing about other than they dedicated the album to La Monte Young and there's a second volume coming in the future. The CD is yet another one from Vanishing Voice, this time a pressed disc of their vinyl and CD-R release Nordic Visions from a couple of years ago. I like the fact that ImpRec is reissuing rare CD-R and vinyl-only material like they have recently with Slomo, Vanishing Voice, Grails, Axolotl, etc on factory pressed CDs. I refuse to buy CD-Rs and have missed out on too much vinyl.

Three Lobed, Part 1

I received the Bardo Pond and Tom Carter collaboration from Three Lobed yesterda. For whatever reason they had a distributor return copies and I was lucky to snag it. I tried a couple of times to get it from ebay but the price was just too high.

At the same time I put in a pre-order for the new 500mg LP that comes with a bonus CD of more 500mg material. I'm very much looking forward to this.

Trip To Lou's

It's been awhile since I've been to Lou's Records and I had some Christmas money and a gift card to spend. So here is today's haul:

Vinyl
Steven R. Smith - The Anchorite 12"
Hush Arbors - Since We Have Fallen 12"
Wooden Wand & The Sky High Band - Second Attention 12"
Bardo Pond/Buck Paco - Split 12"
Crippled Black Phoenix - Sharks And Storms 10"

CDs
Bardo Pond - Selections: Volumes I-IV
Can - Future Days (2005 Remaster)
Comets On Fire - Field Recordings From The Sun
Comets On Fire - Blue Cathedral
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - The Good Son
Suishou No Fune - Where The Spirits Are
Victor Wooten - A Show Of Hands
Victor Wooten - What Did He Say?

Most of those CDs I have been putting off forever to buy so I'm happy to finally have them.