Jandek - Ready For The House LP Reissue

Jackpot Records has licensed the first Jandek album, originally called The Units, for reissue on vinyl. The original goes for hundreds of dollars on eBay so the reissue is a huge welcome for someone who has never heard a Jandek album on vinyl. They've done a great job with the release - it sounds and looks great. Apparently on request of Corwood Industries, this is a different version than what was originally released and from the 2005 CD remaster. So the track lengths are different as a result.

I'm curious to see if more of the early Jandek material will get reissued on vinyl in the near future.

Some 2008 New Releases

A couple of packages arrived yesterday with some new releases.

Germany's Colour Haze have released a monster of an album appropriately titled "All". It's lengthy album with quite a few tracks to show their range as a band. It's an album that will take several spins before it sinks in. The debut album from The Freeks has finally arrived. The Freeks are the "all-star" collective of Ruben Romano (Nebula / Fu Manchu), Scott Reeder (Kyuss / Across the River), John McBain (Monster Magnet / Wellwater Conspiracy), Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless), Lorenzo Woodrose (Baby Woodrose / On Trial), Jack Endino (Skin Yard / Earthworm), Jason Corbin (Bartenders Bible / The Casbah), John Cobett (Hammers of Misfortune / Ludicra) and Bernie Worell (Wizard of Woo & Woo Warriors / Funkadelic / Parliament). Should be interesting to hear what they come up with.

Another new release from Three Lobed Recordings is out. Matt Valentine and Erica Elder have a strickly duo LP that features songs with a heavy influence from India and surrounding areas. With the help of some non-Western instruments and a couple of Electro-Harmonix effects pedals, they create some interesting sounds. As a bonus, there's a full length CD that contains a collection of unreleased material from MV&EE with The Golden Road appearing on some of the tracks. As always the final is on 180g black vinyl and this time housed in a thick single pocket sleeve. The CD comes in it's own plastic sleeve with artwork. I'm not a huge fan of the duo but this a solid release.

Heavy Winged - Alive In My Mouth

The latest release from Three Lobed Recordings continues their trend of an LP on 180g black vinyl with a CD of the material with a bonus track. Heavy Winged have a previous release on TRL that featured material released on a pressed CD for the first time. That was my introduction to the trio. Since then I've bought their Archive release 'Feel Inside' and the vinyl-only 'We Grow' LP which I think is their best material to date.

Until now. Side A offers the familiar sound of Heavy Winged with a few new elements/textures to keep things interesting. Then comes Side B which contains the most crushing song they've yet to record. The first half the 16+ minute track is a wall of sound that comes crashing down half way through and then simmers until the end. The CD contains a third song clocking in over 17 minutes alternates between a frenzy of sounds and quieter, moody parts. Chalk up another stellar release from Three Lobed.

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.

Mailorder From Tequila Sunrise

After a long time waiting, an order from Tequila Sunrise has arrived. I ordered the LP-only 'A Symphony Of Sound' by The Velvet Underground but unfortunately it was out of stock and another could not be found.

What did make it was an import copy of Flower Travellin' Band's Anywhere on CD and Alexander "Skip" Spence's Oar on vinyl. A couple of old classics that I'm grateful to finally own.

Gown's 'For The Maples'

The first release of what promises to be an amazing year from Three Lobed Recordings has arrived. Gown, aka Andrew MacGregor, has teamed up with Sunburned Hand Of The Man for an album titled "For The Maples". Another fantastically produced album from Three Lobed. The LP is on black 180 vinyl and comes with a pressed CD of the vinyl material in a silk screened jacket. And for pre-ordering a bonus CD has been included with a 20 minute track.

Having just spun the record for the first time, I'm loving both sides of it. The first track has some vocals on it but it's nothing but some great jamming the rest of the way out. The second side-long track is a real psychedelic rock burner. Absolutely a fantastic way to start 2008 for Three Lobed.

20 Buck Spin Sale

20 Buck Spin has a sale going on and I just had to take advantage of it. Since I have a good chunk of the label releases, I bought only distro items that I probably couldn't get cheaper anywhere else. I picked a couple of Acid Mothers Temple ('Wild Gals A Go-Go' reissue and 'Minstrel In The Galaxy') and Circle ('Panic' and 'Arkades') releases. Apparently the 'Arkades' jewel was broken, so Dave threw in a disc from Ryokuchi as a freebie. I have no idea who that is so it should be an interesting first listen.

Also coming in the mail from Robotic Empire was the first full length LP from Behold... The Arctopus. The LP comes with a pressed CD of the album which is something I hope more labels will be doing in the future. And since it took so long to ship, they threw in the disc of the Torche self-titled album. I already have that album, but it was a nice gesture.

Week In Review

Lots of new stuff arriving this week in the post. First in was the latest vinyl release from Three Lobed Recordings. A 12" from Sarin Smoke (the duo of Peter Swanson and Tom Carter) along with a CD EP live recording is some mellow, "meditative" guitar duo work that works great as background music or something to relax to. Nice silk screened black and white artwork and thick heavy black wax make for another solid release from Three Lobed.

Coming from No Idea Records, who are mostly a punk rock label, was three albums from Atom And His Package ('Package' being his sequencer) and the second "lost" album from Floor. Atom is someone who I heard about years ago in college and I finally got around to buying some of his albums. I've not heard Floor's 'Dove' yet but hopefully it's as good as their self-titled album.

Forgetting that I was going to see them on Thursday, I made the mistake of ordering the deluxe edition of High On Fire's new album from Relapse. It comes with a "making of" DVD that hopefully is worth the few extra bucks. But I did finally order the latest full length from Zombi, who I saw live last year. The album is good but it doesn't match the experience of their live show. Also coming in the order is the remaster of Sun Dial's 'Other Way Out' psych rock album along with an outtakes disc titled 'Other Way In'. They sort of fit in with the Spaceman 3/Spiritualized side of psych rock.

Heavy Stuff

The latest batch of purchases focuses mostly on the heavy side of rock music. I picked up the new Baroness album simply titled 'Red Album'. A departure from their two EPs as the aggression has been turned down for more varied songwriting. Nadja's millionth release of the year is an EP called 'Guilted By The Sun' that is probably the heaviest thing they have done so far as well as their shortest release and individual songs. Valkyrie's self-titled debut album came recommended and after liking the first track I ordered the CD. I still need to listen to the whole thing.

For some older albums I picked up The Mystick Krewe Of Clearlight's self-titled album that has some fine southern-inspired (instrumental) swamp jams on it. For a freebie I got Stinking Lizaveta's album 'III' which I believe is all instrumental as well. The lone LP in the group is a reissue of Sleep's coveted second album 'Sleep's Holy Mountain'. Comes in nice gatefold sleeve with original artwork and lyrics. Nice to see this hit the wax.

Conifer & Ocean

Important Records has released a split 12" with new material from Portland Maine's Conifer and Ocean. Apparently both bands have shared members and are good friends, but also musically it makes sense to pair them up on a split. Both bands feature a single 20 minute track that explore many of the different aspects of heavy music. Full length albums from both bands are expected to hit next year and I will be looking forward to hear what they come up with.

TempResLtd

Finally the package containing some new and old releases from Temporary Residence Ltd. showed up in the post yesterday. On clear red wax comes the second collaboration between Hydra Head and TRL, a split 12" from Jesu and Eluvium. The other new release is from Maserati who make their debut TRL release with 'Inventions For The New Season'. The certainly will fit in on the roster along with Explosions In The Sky, Grails and Mono. I also picked up a couple of older CDs from Eluvium, 'Talk Amongst The Trees' and 'Lambent Material'.

Roundup Of Last Week

Last week saw the arrival of many packages in the post.

From Relapse came the reissue of the very hard to find Harvey Milk album 'The Pleaser'. Not only does it contain a bonus track, but also included is a second disc containing the rare live album 'Live Pleaser'. I also finally got around to buying High On Fire's 'Blessed Black Wings' in anticipation of their upcoming album.

Robotic Empire had a few new releases for order. A remastered and remixed version of Torche's debut album with a bonus track was reissued along with an EP of new material. Coming in gorgeous glossy gatefold sleeve is a colored 10" record in one sleeve and a CD in the left panel. Just a fantastic release by RE. The debut from Pygmy Lush also came out. It's one of those records that cannot be classified under one genre. The songs range from folk to punk rock, often alternating between styles through the tracklist.

From All That's Heavy the came the following CDs:
Solace - The Black Black (one of the better albums this year and that's saying a lot)
Tonerlow - Tonerlow (some doom mixed with psych rock)
Gas Giant - Mana (another album from Elekrohasch, the best label for heavy psych rock)
Suma - Let The Churches Burn (heavy stuff influenced by Kyuss, etc.)
Solarized - Driven (fuzz rock from Meteor City)

And coming all by itself was an officially released album from Beatallica. As the name suggests these dudes play songs by the Beatles in the style of Metallica with all new lyrics. The contains mostly older songs that have been re-recorded along with a few new gems. A rather bizarre listening experience if you've never heard them before.

Pair Of Important Records

Arriving in the post today was a pair of new releases from Important Records. The next in the Floating Frequencies/Intuitive Synthesis from Eleh comes on thick 200 gram black wax and is dedicated to Charlemagne Palestine. There's a warning that due to the low frequencies, side B must be played at a higher volume than side A. Side A reminds of the last record while side B has some nice low frequency pulses and gives the hi-fi a good low-end test.

The next release in their Arts & Crafts series comes from Barbez who I absolutely nothing about. It's a nice 7" on red wax with a nice instrumental on side A and apparently a sort of protest song on the flipside. Sounded pretty good on my first spin.

aRCHIVE + SL

The next batch of releases from Archive are out and include a couple of Khanate albums. The first live album (aRCHIVE 13) they did for the label was limited to 500 copies and quickly sold out so Mr. Slimm has reissued it (slightly remastered). The other Khanate album released is a live show they did in Stockholm in 2004. The third release is a live album from Galax who are the duo of Hiroshi Hasagawa and Keichi Miyashita with quest Hiroshi Higashi on a track. Can't wait to hear what this sounds like. For distro items, I picked up the new Destructo Swarmbots' CD.

My order to Southern Lord was for the LP-only release from Burial Chamber Trio (aka Greg Anderson, Oren Ambarchi and Attila Csihar), the latest from Earthride, the reissue of Thorr's Hammer's only album, the reissue of The Obsessed's Incarnate and the new Southern Lord compilation as a freebie.

The stack on my desk is huge, time to get listening.

AMT

The latest releases from Acid Mothers Temple on Important Records arrived in the mail today. The new CD is the second with their new female vocalist is being called the "cleanest" AMT album to date. The LP is a tour edition that contains a track from CD and an exclusive song not found anywhere else. Can't wait to give these a spin.

Fu Wax

The new Fu Manchu album arrived on clear vinyl yesterday. Seems like I pre-ordered it a long time ago from Century Media. The artwork has been changed to fit with the larger space and it's nice to see the lyrics we also kept. My only complaints are that there is a bit too much noise at the start of 'Sensai Vs. Sensai' and a weird bit of noise after the end of 'Knew It All Along'. Not sure if that's the pressing or limited to just my copy. Other than that, it's one of the finest Fu Manchu albums in awhile and sound great on the turntable.

Yet another order from ATH

That's right, another order from the All That's Heavy webstore has arrived. After getting the new Brant Bjork album 'Tres Dias' in clear yellow wax, I decided to also get it on CD. As a bonus they threw in a promotional postcard signed by Brant. Not wanting to pay the high tax and shipping fees of Southern Lord mailorder nor make a trip down to the record store, I also ordered the new CD/DVD release from Earth titled 'Hibernaculum'. The DVD is a documentary on the band's last European tour and the CD features some remakes and a different mix of their track on the limited Sunn O)))/Earth split LP. I also bought the 10" split from Hypnos 69 and Monkey3. Unfortunately the Monkey3 side is the Ennio Morricone cover from their latest album. But there are two new tracks from Hypnos 69 which might be the last material they'll release since they are no longer a band.

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.

Round Up

Since I was expecting a couple of orders to arrive and I planned on hitting up Lou's Records, I decided to do an end of the week round up of recently acquired records and CDs.

Middian - Age Eternal (CD)*
YOB - The Unreal Never Lived (CD)
A Silver Mt. Zion - Born Into Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upward (CD)
Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. - Myth Of The Love Electrique (CD)
Big Business - Here Come The Waterworks (CD)*
Blackfield - Blackfield II (CD)*
Do Make Say Think - Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead (CD)
Do Make Say Think - & Yet & Yet (CD)
Do Make Say Think - Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn (CD)
Do Make Say Think - You, You're A History In Rust (CD)*
Ghost - In Stormy Night (CD)*
Orange Goblin - Thieving From The House Of God (CD)
Brant Bjork - Tres Dias (LP)*

* 2007 release

As noted there are quite a few albums from this year. So far this year has had a much better start than 2006 did. Some fine releases in the first 2 1/4 months that will surely make the best of 2007 more difficult.

ImpRec

Important Records just put out a bunch of releases and I ended up buying them all. The samples varied from "this has potential" to "this sounds fantastic", so I took advantage of their deal to buy them all. I've yet to listen to any of them so it remains to be seen if I made a smart choice.

Here's the list:

The Bark Haze - Total Joke Era CD
The Bark Haze - LP
Rameses III - Honey Rose CD EP
Baikal - Baikal CD
Axolotl - Memory Theatre CD
Vanishing Voice - Stone Tablet CD
Vanishing Voice - Stone Tablet LP
Major Stars - Portable Freak Factory 7"