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ADDS 2012-01-23 ***HIGH PRIORITY RELEASE*** Sadly because this is a double I’m not able to get as many copies out as I did of the ‘Seven Stars’ EP but if your station doesn’t get a copy by the end of January get ahold of me and we’ll see what can be done. This is the third distinct release from the ongoing collaboration between Austrian sound-sculptor Christian Fennesz and notes Japanese composer/Renaissance man Ryuichi Sakamoto. Those of you familiar with the duo’s prior work might be surprised at what you find on these two discs, but the answer to the riddle is found in the birth of this fine work. During Sakamoto’s last tour of Japan, he opened 24 shows with 24 different piano pieces each in a different key. By the time he was done he had all 24 tonal steps of the western tonal system covered. He then sent these pieces to Fennesz for processing, and finally they met in New York to do a final mix-down. The resulting work is a solid step away from the magnificent “Cendre” disc that they did several years ago, but apples and oranges are at play here. This is other-worldly at times, almost haunted even; the ghost of Erik Satie hovers on a few of these tracks and this one will be sticking with you for a long, long time.
ADDS 2012-01-23 Albatrosh is the talented Norwegian jazz duo Eyolf Dale (Piano) and Andre Roligheten (saxophone). This is their third overall release but surely their highest-profile one to date. This disc has a nice mixture of playfulness and sophistication. Even though the credits on your cardsleeve holding this disc last only piano and sax for instrumentation, they sure do get a lot “more” sound out of most of these tracks than what one might have expected. During late summer of 2011 the Pirtle family was in Stonington, Maine for their annual jazz festival and this disc is very, very evocative of Matthew Shipp’s performance at the Stonington Opera House one blustery August night (though to be precise that evening had William Parker on bass and Mat Maneri on strings… still, the vibe is stunningly similar). If you like the more challenging jazz stuff on ECM, or perhaps the less challenging stuff that was coming out in Emanem last decade then you’d be well rewarded to check out this fine effort.
ADDS 2012-01-23 This work results from the duo’s residency at SCANZ in New Zealand back in January of 2011. Their participation in the residency culminated in a performance in the dark with a multi-speaker arrangement and some video projection. The field recordings spaced out among the four tracks of this release are subject to minimal processing – and it shows. Somewhere between ‘The Weather’ (as in Chris Watson) and some never-existing past of minimal analog chamber-synth (maybe Spire meets Wendy Carlos and/or Mike Oldfield conducted by John Cage) lays the more ‘active’ sections of this work. Your friends at Pirtlegimp reviewed this one through headphones and it got three straight listens – just for the sheer pleasure of (semi-)deep background listening.
ADDS 2012-01-23 Back in December a small box containing 8 copies of this disc showed up at Pirtle headquarters; sometimes labels/artists will send two boxes of promos for me to get out to you, one full and then the other half (or less) full – the lighter one usually gets to me quicker so I merely moved this small box to a corner and didn’t bother even opening it until the other box showed up… which it never did. So whilst a new package was getting rounded up I finally opened this small box to find all of 8 copies of a disc with no information. After some Googling I think we are safe to say the artist is Fresh Arcade and the release is “Secondhand Shakes” – and stylistically this is all over the place – but it in a really, really good way. What do you call something that would blow away most fans of witch house and the like but it isn’t witch house in the least? In fact, that could also be said with the insertion of several other genre tags (hip-hop, 8bit, glitch house, etc). I have no idea who sent this but it was labeled Pirtlegimp Promotions which means that whoever sent it wanted you to hear it. In this case, by ‘you’ I mean only 8 stations though so if you have this in your package you are much loved round these parts.
ADDS 2011-12-13 Chris Watson was a founding member of Cabaret Voltaire but not long thereafter his interests gravitated towards the art, and really the science, of (usually (exotically) site-specific) sound recording. He’s enjoyed a long and brilliant career, and I urge you to check out his website and past works for Touch. This new disc will be contending for a spot on my top ten list for the year, easily. The theme of this disc motivates from time that Watson spent making field recordings of the train that connected Los Mochis to Veracruz, Mexico – a line no longer in operation. What we get on these ten tracks is the sound of a world, and some might say a way of life, fading into nothingness. There are of course lots of recurring sounds relating to the railroad and its operation, but this disc goes way farther and does so much more than just ‘document the end of a rail line’ – I first heard this entire work on headphone and it was a deeply compelling listen. This is truly a high point in the career of a man who has the bar set higher than most – and if you happen to catch this disc at the right time of day (or night), it just might try and nudge its way into your top ten list for the year as well.
ADDS 2011-12-13 Illuha is the duo of Corey Fuller and Tomoyoshi Date; this disc was recoded in Bellingham, WA and Tokyo. The duo has done an incredible job in seamlessly melding elements of the analog and digital worlds. Indeed this disc is almost a friendly challenge to the listener – where does the real end and the virtual begin? If you like the small world created by the likes of Peter Broderick and Julien Neto, then I urge you to place this beauty at the front of your ‘to review’ pile.
ADDS 2011-12-13 Fresh off their recent full length for Slumberland, Crystal Stilts bounce right back with this nice EP for Sacred Bones. As usual, the band is striking a nice balance between reverb-soaked pop and spacious light psychedelia. Basically, their first self released single for ‘Shattered Shine’ set the tone and they’ve not mis-stepped since.
ADDS 2011-12-13 Pimmon has been making quality experimental music for over a decade. The name is well-known to the more hard-core devotees of experimental music and IDM, but for some reason he’s never gotten ‘up there’ with the likes of Fennesz and Tim Hecker. If you work your way through this disc, you may find yourself asking the obvious question that music of this quality raises with regards to its sonic contemporaries. I guess that’s where you, the radio programmer enters the equation, right?
ADDS 2011-12-13 This release is actually available in the Touch store, which is where we Pirtlanders originally came to hear if it, but is not officially on Touch. That said, and not to be reductive, if you or any of your DJs are fans of all the fine content that is released by Touch, then you’d be well advised to look into this up and coming artist. There is a hesitation to give a list of RIYLs here, because there are a few components to this guy’s sound and they really should be considered distinctly – but since the promoter’s job is to provide some quick context, here goes. The parts of this disc that might resonate the fastest with MDs/experimental DJs out there are the parts that might work well with the work of Leyland James Kirby (aka The Caretaker). The Caretaker’s early work combined beauty and tension, chaos and order – and there is a little of all of the above to be found here. This is not exactly like any artist making ‘The Wire’ music today, but surely this needs to be heard by that demographic.
ADDS 2011-12-06 This is a recently released 7” vinyl single, but Wierd wanted to get it out to you as this handy easy to use CDR promo. Plastic Flowers is the label’s newest signing, and they mix light new wave with hints of synthpop and post-punk with maybe just hints of coldwave. The nice thing about this EP is that you get a clear nod to the eighties and yet there is no way anyone would mistake this for a lost classic. RIYL Cult of Youth meets mid-period Cabaret Voltaire with dashes of early OMD.
ADDS 2011-12-06 Well, never let it be said that this record was named incorrectly. For those of you that go back a ways with Psychic Ills, you may be a tiny bit surprised at the sound here – not that there isn’t a precedent, but still. This is a fine piece of psychedelic pop; it is a hazed dream as the title promises. RIYL Greg Ashley, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Warlocks, Speck Mountain, Spacemen 3, etc.
ADDS 2011-12-06 Gene Tyranny has a long list of impressive session credits to his name over his long career (I’ll let you look it up for your review that you’ll tape to the CD booklet). For this disc, his idea was to create a piano-based pop record. There is a fine point to be made here regarding this; we’re not talking about a ‘classical’ solo piano record – because that is not at all what you have in your hands here. We are also not talking about ‘new age’ or ‘easy listening’ or any of that sort of thing. Strangely, this record infuses elements of each into the mix, and in doing so comes up with just a wonderful listen. I have to admit that I was very impressed with my first listen to this disc; I sent some of you Tyranny’s previous effort on Unseen Worlds and it could be more different than this disc. RIYL Ryuichi Sakamoto’s piano work, Summer of ’42 soundtrack, Nils Frahm, etc.
ADDS 2011-12-06 These are beautiful and carefully-paced sonic miniatures from Minamo. If you enjoyed the work of Takagi Masakatsu and Orgurusu Norihide for Carpark from about a decade ago and can imagine a slightly more acoustic-based frame of reference update of said sounds, then you’ll probably want to jump on this gorgeous effort.
ADDS 2011-10-24 All of you reading this were sent Antonymes stunning debut CD from AAM a few months ago; I hope you caught that and it didn’t ‘fall through the cracks’ as they say in the parlance of our MD times. For this limited edition EP, Antonymes took one song each from four releases of the band Slow Dancing Society and gave the songs the remix treatment. As the retail edition of this is hand made and super limited, Hidden Shoal went out and had manufactured this special promo edition just for you, the fine stations of the Pirtlegimp empire! Hopefully this isn’t your introduction to Antonymes, but if it is please treat this more as an introduction to the remix skills and then pay *real* close attention the next time a studio release comes out – trust me. RIYL drifting, Eluvium, Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm etc.
ADDS 2011-10-24 If you have ever wondered what it might sound like if Frank Tovey/Fad Gadget merged with Alan Vega/Suicide, wonder no longer. That though just jumped out the speakers here at Pirtle headquarters as these eight new tracks floated throughout the premises. The balance is so perfect it is almost uncanny actually; both sonically and ‘vibeically’ this is almost a perfect union.
ADDS 2011-10-24 This label sampler was not assembled just for the world of Pirtle, but we were able to snag some copies to get to most of you on the servicing list. Some of these tracks are from recent Pirtle-serviced titles, but there is a good bit of new material for you to enjoy as well from dream pop over to more experimental-based sounds and textures. There are people who just automatically pick up every release that a label puts out; 12k is one of those type of labels and if the name is new to you this fine compilation should explain everything.
ADDS 2011-10-17 ***Priority Release*** I’ve written and deleted now three different write-ups for this new Fennesz EP. He’s easily the most recognizable name in ‘experimental music’ and your Uncle Pirtle had a chance to see him play live at Big Ears 2009 – believe the hype, because the live show is absolutely on par with the studio material. The bottom line here is that Christian Fennesz is an Artist – note the intentional use of the uppercase there. There’s no pretension here, which can sometimes be a misconception. This only fails on one level: it clocks in at just under twenty minutes, which is a shame. You longtime fans might notice a subtle aspect to this EP that Fennesz himself might not have intended. The disc opens with a clear homage-yet-update to the tones and chromaticity of the now decade-old classic ‘Endless Summer’. The middle two tracks are a sort of nod to his work between ‘Venice’ and ‘Black Sea’, inclusive. Lastly, with the help of Locrian’s Steven Hess on drums, the closing track opens a new front in Fennesz’s sound – live drums. Let this be an appetizer for his upcoming collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto – and yes I’m going to try and get that masterwork (I’ve heard it and it is simply stunning front to back) in as many of your hands as possible.
ADDS 2011-10-17 ***Priority Release*** With this triumphant full length, Xeno & Oaklander have surely established themselves as the preeminent act in minimal synth slash coldwave slash new wave slash whatever the hell you want to call it. One of the pitfalls of making music with any component that could be referred to as ‘retro’ is that you might not get it ‘just right’ according to the present day interpretation of what that past was supposed to sound like. It seems that X&O simply side step this discussion by sounding a little bit like almost every one of the influential 80s synth acts – there’s no need to run down the list we all know it by now. One thing that might stand out to you MDs is how this record doesn’t quite ‘stand out’ – they didn’t overdo it here and (pardon the near pun) in doing so have come up with an even more impressive effort. There is a trick to being cool without appearing to be trying to be cool – they’ve pulled that off with plenty of room to spare here.
ADDS 2011-10-17 This introduction to the Ohio-based experimental label Experimedia was assembled just for the stations of Pirtlegimp – please give some feedback if you enjoyed one/some/all of this disc as it will help us get you future Experimedia titles in the future. You may be familiar with a few of the names on this disc from previous Pirtle mailings, specifically Lawrence English and Celer, but be sure to dig in and dig deep into the wonderful and varied sounds on this compilation. RIYL labels Dragon’s Eye, Kranky, Type, Touch, Soleilmoon, Room40, 12k, etc.
ADDS 2011-10-11 One thing that is interesting about rock music from places that usually don’t produce a whole lot of it is how the bands in these countries end up processing and combining influences. Norway’s Hedvig Mollestad Trio, at its core is a progressive rock band – in truly the most literal sense. There are fleeting moments when you will pick up on the fact that their ‘musical education’ has a unusual breadth, and even more apparent is that their set of influences aren’t weighted down by ‘cultural tags’ like what is or isn’t hip. To wit, I’d say reviewers of this disc will mention some or all of the following names: King Crimson, Santana, John Mayall, Black Sabbath – and the thing is, the influences might not even be intentional. This particularly unique sounding rock record is going to confuse the hell out of those who have to have their genres straight – but those with a wider sonic-receiving palette may really appreciate and enjoy what this trio is up to.
ADDS 2011-10-11 You may not know the name, but you have some of Lowman’s work in your libraries without a doubt. In the past, he’s been a side man for the likes of The Aluminum Group, Edith Frost, and L’Altra (all excellent); he’s also one half of the mostly criminally overlooked duo Bosco & Jorge. This is not his solo debut but it kinda is in the sense that Atavistic is a big step up from the label that did his previous solo effort. This is an incredible album of instrumental music. In fact, this record may define a new genre: post-post-rock. This is a great and very nicely composed mixture of post rock, jazz, and ‘easy listening’ though I don’t mean that the way most people will interpret it.
ADDS 2011-10-11 This piece of work serves as a sort of companion piece to the book of the same name written by J.A. Baker. The actual work is a vinyl-only release, but Experimedia has made a very special promotional CD package for Pirtlegimp stations. Each side of the LP is presented here in full form, but there are also two radio edits per side, giving you four ‘shorter’ sections of the work for those DJs who are afraid of tracks that pass the fifteen minute mark. There is a nice sonic texture to each piece that begs for a full listen, though it must be said that the edits are so well done that you’d almost think this really was a six-song release. This amazing work serves as a nice appetizer for our next package, which will contain a very special Pirtlegimp-only Experimedia compilation and the new release from Fennesz. If you liked English’s CD for Touch from a few years ago, you will be blown away by this one.
ADDS 2011-10-11 In 2008 the quartet of Akira Sakata (sax), Jim O’Rourke (gtr), Darin Gray (bass), and Chris Corsano (drums) ran through Japan laying down some blistering jazz in a series of live gigs. This two disc set lifts five pieces from that tour, and if you are a fan of Lost Exit, Sun Ra, Peter Brotzmann, or perhaps John Coltrane’s later more out-leaning explorations, then this will be of great interest to you (and your listeners).
ADDS 2011-10-11 Dragon’s Eye label head Yann Novak offers up a great new piece here for UK label Hibernate. This piece originated as a sound performance at an event in June ’10 at the Torrance Art Museum. The original performance used a mixture of recordings taken with a cell phone of sounds that altered ones perception. These recording were then digitally enhanced to illustrate their unique sonic characteristics. This piece straddles the line between lowercase sound and the more minimal aspects of things you might have heard on Kranky before they started opening up their spectral palette release-wise. This review had this piece on repeat and must have sat through it ten or more times the past few weeks – in fact this should have been in your last package but every time the piece got started the world of Pirtle went into hibernation (aka non-copy-writing) more; this is a complement, fyi.
ADDS 2011-10-04 Alan Bishop was one-third of the Sun City Girls – that’s good enough for several musician’s worth of careers you’d think. Somehow, he still has the time and material to release solo work under the name Alvarius B. and this elaborately-packaged book/CD you see before you is his newest work. This is a collection of skewed, avant-pop tunes that range from an amazing opening bossa nova number to a Bond Theme cover and the best version of ‘God Only Knows’ not involving anyone named Wilson. This record has a nice way of being simultaneously disjoined yet cohesive; if you need one last selling point the noted Evyind Kang guests on three tracks.
ADDS 2011-10-04 While this is Humcrush’s fourth release, it is their first to feature talented vocalist Sidsel Endresen. What the team-up comes up with is a futuristic retro (or do we have that backwards) trip through a word-jazz space – except you can’t call it word jazz – this is word-avant-jazz. While being reductive usually short-sells an artist’s efforts, music directors need them for a quick way to orient their ears, so here goes: RIYL the members of Matmos acting as conductors to a mostly-unplugged Supersilent while a speaking-in-tongues-shamaness has control of the only microphone in the room.
ADDS 2011-10-04 Loren Connors is one of those artists that is loved and respected by other musicians (especially guitar players) and critics, yet usually he ends up below the radar. He’s been releasing material since the late seventies so we’re not holding our breath at this point. That said, your friends at Pirtlegimp were jumping for joy when confirmation came down that we’d be able to send you Connors’ newest offering. It would be impossible to classify his career in such a short space, but for the sake of argument let’s say he has ‘soft’ and ‘crunchy’ modes of operation. The ‘soft’ ones can get deep down in your soul, while the ‘crunchy’ ones make you wish you were in the same room to see it come down in person. For this disc, bassist Margarida Garcia lends a hand and the tracks usually drift towards the airy and lightly tonal side of things. There’s a hint of something more aggressive if you dig around in there, but the pieces that stand out on this fine effort are contemplative and will sound great any time of day (but let’s start with dusk).
ADDS 2011-10-04 SWCK is the interesting name taken by Chicago-based duo Brad Gallagher and Ashur Kando. With the help of a few friends (one ex-US Maple member among them), SWCK has made a psychedelic record based around the Jew’s Harp. The theme of the record is that ‘Unicorn Chasers’ is the folk music of a neo-native people who hunt and fight unicorns in a post-apocalyptic world. Now, this reviewer didn’t quite pick up on this until he read it from the label – but in a weird way that description is absolutely fitting to this record. RIYL Raymond Scott and John Fahey sneaking into the Mothers of Invention and staging a Jew’s Harp-based tribute to Harry Partch.
ADDS 2011-10-04 Pirtlegimp isn’t in the business of lying to you folks – this is the hardest CD any promoter will have to ‘work’ this year. That isn’t to say this disc is the worst – far from it, but if you don’t know the term this might be a good moment to check out ‘lowercase listening’ on Wikipedia or something. The duo of Lucia H. Chung and Martin J. Thomson record as Mimosa | Moize, and this recording is an outgrowth of a gallery performance at which the notion of a moment through sound was explored. If you happened to tune into the live broadcast from the Temple of Dendur on 9/11/11 there was a moment when The Wordless Music Orchestra had finished the piece and nothing happened for about two whole minutes (an eternity – count it off). Sitting through this disc made me flash back to sitting there straining to catch anything out of the aether for those inexorable two minutes until the crowd finally broke in a wave of emotion. There’s not a whole lot of ‘sound’ happening on this disc, but hey I think we all know of that real famous case where there was ‘no sound’ for 273 seconds – well, there’s more sound than that here but this makes Eno’s ‘Music for Airports’ sound like a NYC subway car passing close by.
ADDS 2011-09-26 This was the first cae-sur-a release that Pirtlegimp got a chance to hear and that first listen is why you are now getting cae-sur-a titles. These guys aren’t the ‘usual’ Pirtlegimp sound, but they are quality through and through. This has a raw, barely-past-the-studio-door grittiness to it that evokes a young, hungry Crazy Horse with slight acid/stoner rock tendencies. I sent a few of you some Muler release(s) recently, and while the bands don’t ‘sound similar’, vibe-wise they make a great pairing. This is simple rock and roll but done oh so right.
ADDS 2011-09-26 Those stations who were with me since the beginning (January 2007 – can you believe it?) already have some of White’s work in your libraries; he was/is a member of Louisiana’s version of Animal Collective, Wilderness Pangs. When he records solo material though, a different component of his work comes to the forefront. He’s got a little Neil Young in his vocal delivery on most songs. I’m certain that he isn’t doing it on purpose… it just worked out that way. Musically, this is a very lo-fi, mostly acoustic ‘folk rock’ record that should appeal to everyone from fans of acts like Six Organs of Admittance and Ariel Pink to labels like Woodsist and Soft Abuse.
ADDS 2011-09-26 One of the ‘pitfalls’ of making experimental music slash field recordings is that some artists can sort of end up in a ‘safe zone’ where they know they will come out with a nice finished product almost every time. There’s really nothing wrong with that; I mean for those of us that like it – we like it, right? One noticeable facet of this new Baldruin tape is that they know where the sweet spot is; they know where the comfort zone is – then they walk directly away from it. This disc almost intentionally doesn’t quite hang together – when they lean you one way next thing you know you are pointing in a different direction. I guess if you wanted your warm blanket you could grab the songs on here that sound like that stuff we’ve all known and loved for years and just play those over and over, and even though maybe all the other sonic experimentation doesn’t quite always come together just right every time – the effort and the willingness to (pardon the pun) experiment has to be respected.
ADDS 2011-09-26 It really is just a matter of saying ‘if you like Stars of the Lid then you will most likely enjoy this’ – even though we all know SOTL has different ‘phases’ of their output. The first of these two tracks relates more to the newer SOTL/Dead Texan line of material, while the second track is more of an ambient-skewed nod to the earlier (especially pre-strings) SOTL days.
ADDS 2011-09-19 *Priority Release* This northern Florida/southern Georgia-based quintet is quite a mixed bag of delights. The particular way they assemble the components of their sound might throw you off for a minute actually – because what they are doing is very cleverly not-clever (and that’s not meant to disparage). Over deceptively simply arranged songs is a wide sonic palette – in fact, this is possibly what Cerberus Shoal would sound like if they were from Florida and not Maine – there’s some more blood pumping through these songs is my point. There’s also a sense of (pardon me Sun Ra for stealing your word) languidity here that recalls the likes of Mountain Man, Faun Fables, and Speck Mountain. The reason no one is going to ever confuse Jane Jane Pollock for any of the names above is, again, because of the (as they might say in the film world) composition of these songs. Speaking of composition, I’d bet money that someone in this band has heard a little Harry Partch at some point in their life, whether they realize it or not. This is an unexpected little gem just waiting for your DJs to discover (and love) – and aren’t those the best ones? Oh, and I should also warn you – parts of this disc might cause you to feel like you’ve moved to Twin Peaks.
ADDS 2011-09-19 This genre-bending Chicago trio may take a little longer than average to find their niche – but there is a very good reason for that and there’s no negativity implied. This new release for FSS (a few of you are getting the actual 7”, while others will get a promo CDR containing the same material instead) has more variety in just 2 songs than most albums you will review this week. The ‘A Side’ comes across like a slow-burning, borderline visceral heavy psych version of the Charalambides. On the flip side, we get an eye-of-the-storm fury that brings to mind what could happen were Thou to attempt to pay tribute to the whole ‘My Love is Rotten to The Core’ EP from Tim Hecker all in one song. Also of note: Locrian features Steven Hess, who works on the upcoming Fennesz ‘Seven Stars’ EP that will be in one of your upcoming Pirtlgimp packages!
ADDS 2011-09-19 Here’s the second single ahead of the much-anticipated full length from minimal synth’s premier duo, Xeno & Oaklander. The ‘A Side’ of this one is on the upcoming record and is a great cold fusion (no pun intended) of Cabaret Voltaire and dare we say early Berlin. The ‘B Side’ is unique to this EP and will not be on the full so don’t just toss this aside people!
ADDS 2011-09-19 Jen Marquart records here as [n.] for upstart Rochester cassette-only label cae-sur-a. If you like immersive, wall of sound type material but also more structured sounds that you might here from one of the laptop-using acts on say Kranky or Type, then checking this out would constitute a very wise use of your time.
ADDS 2011-09-05 The cornerstone of Case Studies is talented singer-songwriter Jesse Lortz. These tracks were recorded earlier this year in the PNW. He keeps the arrangements very sparse here, though once the vocals are factored in you won’t find the finish product minimal in any sense. This is a pretty personal and inward-looking record, but that said it isn’t really raking any particular ‘emotional position’ as it were. This is the sort of record that a too-bust music director will sadly ‘miss’ because of the never ending deluge of music that passes across our desks each month. On the other hand, reviewers who give it that one extra listen may find that this gem quickly opens up to reveal a personal, quality ‘indie folk’ record worthy of repeat listens.
ADDS 2011-09-05 Hatakeyama has a ton of releases out there if you dig around for them – this is solid stuff but I don’t think this is representative of his earlier works… which just means that he’s doing some evolving here on this new disc for Australia’s fine Room40 label. These pieces sort of walk the line between light drone and modern composition, and all under the framework of ‘new experimental’ you might say. No one would confuse this for IDM, but it certainly doesn’t have that ‘academic’ feeling that permeates a lot of the electro-acoustic stuff that you might hear at a SEAMUS conference. I think, in terms of Wire subscribers at least, that this disc could/should have a wide appeal, but be prepared for some different experiences when you start to work through CH’s back catalog (and you should).
ADDS 2011-09-05 Moon Duo started out as a side project of Ripley Johnson of Wooden Shjips, though by now they certainly don’t need to take second billing and it is pretty clear that Johnson is making wonderful and significant music with both acts. The sounds here sort of come across as an almost pop-leaning missing link between the less guitar based Spacemen3 work and the Sp3-related post project Experimental Audio Research. These songs stretch out and certainly ‘psych out’ – but they also flirt with pop structures in a big way. I’d not be at all surprised if some writer out there puts the words Velvet and Underground in their review of this fine disc, even.
ADDS 2011-09-05 This is an older EP from Muler – I sent 10 of you their brand new vinyl only LP so please give that all the attention. This is straight ahead yet laid back working class indie rock, and fans of older Guided by Voices/Cobra Verde should like this a bunch.
ADDS 2011-08-29 This is a tricky new one from your friends at Sacred Bones. It isn’t sixties sounding in the least (more on that in a moment), but it is definitely sixties feeling for at least half the record – and I don’t mean the sanitized version of the sixties on its nth repackaging by mass media. The sound here comes across as some sort of amazing and near-perfect mix of early Entrance (band) and (an American and acoustic) Throbbing Gristle (when the music gets messy). This one needs and earns repeat listens, so dig in and dig deep Pirtle nation.
ADDS 2011-08-29 Chris Watson is the pre-eminent site-specific field recorder in the world; his previous releases have had almost universal acclaim (one of them even made the Guardian UK’s top 1000 LPs of all time which is pretty damn cool). This disc has two long tracks. The first is a compression of a full day’s worth of field recordings made in the Kalahari Desert by Watson. The second features Watson/Davidson exploring the harmonies between humans and bees in the hives of York, England. These are both excellent pieces and if you aren’t familiar with Watson’s prior work I urge you to seek it out.
ADDS 2011-08-29 This is gorgeous and chromatic experimental pop music from Australian Andrew Tuttle. His sound falls almost exactly between the work of Ogurusu Norihide and Six Organs of Admittance, so if you like either of those cats (or ideally both), I’d say you will like or even love these seven tracks.
ADDS 2011-08-29 Ralph Steinbruchel is a musician and graphic designer based in Zurich. The focal point of his new release for Room40 is the title track, a twenty minute piece of slowly evolving atmospherics that will definitely please fans of Rosy Parlane, Fennesz, BJ Nilsen, and the like. For those stations lacking a modern composition/experimental specialty show, RS appends five shorter pieces that derive from the title track and all hover around four minutes each.
ADDS 2011-08-16 *Priority Release* Brooklyn-based band The Men seem to be hung with the post-punk tag, and I guess if one is to take it literally then we might agree. The ‘problem’ is that over the years the term ‘post punk’ has ended up with a certain meaning (or set of meanings) that don’t include what you will hear on this record, I suspect. This is a nice mixture of and angular attack of Polvo, but buried under more cacophony than those boys from NC ever even thought about generating. And call me crazy, but there’s a little Spacemen 3 in this sound as well; actually no need to call me crazy because at one point during one of these songs they directly cover Spacemen 3 for a few bars (and a handful of lyrics). If I was in charge of this musical world, I’d put them on the stage with Les Savy Fav and Fucked Up and then just get the hell out of the way.
ADDS 2011-08-16 If you the sort to make top ten lists, then at least you only need nine more releases for your list of the ten best EPs for this year. These five new songs from The Fresh & Onlys have only one flaw: there’s only five songs. When this is over you will be hitting play again reflexively – try and play this just once. I know every time I put it on the lowest number of full plays that ended up happening was three… and the highest was embarrassing so let’s leave that number out of the discussion. RIYL near perfect indie pop.
ADDS 2011-08-16 This isn’t the first release to use old 78s from the 20s and 30s as source material, but the execution of the idea here is distinct from the way you have heard this done from labels such as Type or some of the work of The Caretaker. On this disc, Mathieu constructed a specific (almost experimental/academic) set-up to capture the source material and process into these drifting, warm, chromatic pieces of modern composition. I don’t think that you can really align this with the acts who use old 78s as their source material, because that camp makes sure to stay close to the source material when all is said and done, whereas this has taken you someplace new (and wonderful).
ADDS 2011-08-16 Don’t let the title fool you (as it did me). This isn’t a somber collection of gentle pieces of acoustic tomfoolery. No, this is electric and all over the place – the suicide is in progress people. These tracks would be quite at home on Sonic Youths SYR imprint, but Moore decided to use them here as part of Carbon’s 15YR series of releases. Only the heartiest dissonant DJs among you will want to venture to the business end of this release, where a near fifteen minute meltdown awaits; better to stick to the (comparatively) gentler ‘singles’ at the front of the bus.
ADDS 2011-08-16 This is yet another installment of the Carbon 15YR series. Century Plants is an ad hoc band featuring members of Burnt Hills, Transcendental Manship Highway, Rambutan, and Fossils From the Sun. When they come together as Century Plants, they offer up nice dirgy pieces that evoke Alan Vega/Suicide mixed with a much kinder, much gentler Wolf Eyes. If the right fans of experimental music hear this release, Century Plants could garner quite the following. The first track is pretty long but it is worth ‘excerpting’ if you have an in-house tech director who is good with editing… or DJs who like to thrown down 20 minute space jams – either way.
ADDS 2011-08-09 *Priority Release* Cult of Youth blends several disparate styles and comes up with something that is quite unique. One writer said that their sound was what might happen if Joy Division and The Pogues were ever to combine forces. There is something post-punk about this, though it isn’t exactly post punk. In fact, you can repeat that sentence with any number of genres plugged in there and it would be true; they nod of aspects of mostly forgotten bands at times (Spear of Destiny, Wolfgang Press, etc) but to 2011 ears, this will sound very, very current (which it is). I can see a lazy writer/blogger name dropping Murder by Death at some point in their write up… if they do – stop right there because the reviewer didn’t put any effort at all into their work.
ADDS 2011-08-09 Detroit’s Human Eye makes a wonderful mess with their new record for Sacred Bones. The sound here is a pure fusion of punk, post punk, prog punk (a new genre?), and synth punk; for most of this record the band is one the edge of control and losing the fight. There is a vibe here that might evoke Ian Svenonious from time to time, but only if Ian was fronting an ad hoc group made up of members of Brainiac and The Stooges. This is a mess, but what a gorgeous mess it is to behold.
ADDS 2011-08-09 This is a live recording of a very special evening of musical collaboration at the rustic Trinity Cathedral in San Jose, CA. For this evening, the quartet of Molly Berg (clarinet/voice), Steve Roden (lap steel), Stephen Vitiello (guitar), and Olivia Block (electronics/field recordings) came together for some amazing and inspired improvisation. This single piece is a micro-constructed, slowly evolving work that invites you in and helps you get happily lost among the tones. It is worth a careful listen on headphones, but as usual with longer pieces it can also be excerpted into a more radio-friendly manageable length of say 6 to 8 minutes.
ADDS 2011-08-09 Burnt Hills is a psych rock band from Albany, NY – they’ve got some other stuff out on other labels from what I could gather but this is their first release for Carbon (as one installment of Carbon’s 15YR series of releases). This is one hour-long psych/stoner jam that never quite gets too out of control but will still ring your bell if you like some or any of Dead Meadow, White Hills, Acid Mothers Temple, Pontiak, Crazy Horse, etc.
ADDS 2011-08-09 This release is from several years ago, but the Carbon records folks and I realized hat we hadn’t promoted it back then so I wanted to get this in your hands now. If you are a fan of the ‘airs’-side of Loren Mazzacane Connors work, then I urge you to explore the work of Andy Gilmore. He’s cut from the same cloth, though Gilmore leans a little bit more on dissonance and in general his music has a slightly more ‘approachable’ undercurrent to it. As a bonus for all you time-conscious MDs and DJs out there, this disc has tons of shorter tracks full of nuanced guitar and piano work for your radio show needs.
ADDS 2011-07-19 This digital-only single (made into a special CDR for the Pirtlegimp family by the fine folks at Weird) is the first taste of Sean McBride & Liz Wendelbo’s new material that will culminate in a new full-length later this year. The “A Side” of this single is a briskly-paced minimal synth winner that has ‘hit’ written all over it. Be sure to check the link on the splash page of the Pirtlegimp website for the great video that accompanies this track.
ADDS 2011-07-19 This is a posthumous release; sadly Danielle Baquet-Long (who recorded solo as Chubby Wolf as well as with the husband/wife duo Celer) passed away in the summer of 2009. By the time I had discovered that piece of information of the Dragon’s Eye website, I had listened to this disc four times - and the last piece of the puzzle snapped into place. This album, moreso than almost any record I’ve ever heard, tries to purposefully recede from every plane of existence. There are tons of records that are quiet, spacious, ephemerail, ambient, environmental - we could keep going and that’s even before we get a thesaurus involved. But this particular record has a feel to it that, to my ears, is unique: I am not sure how to say it but it almost seems to me like what Baquet-Long managed to do was to make a record that amplified every other sound that was in range, except her own - something is going on here more than just ‘this is a quiet record’ - though this is a pretty quiet record. This is not haunting, though; even with the added information of loss of life, which is always tragic and too soon regardless of a person’s age, there is nothing about this record that evokes or underscores loss. They say it is hard to write about music, and of course that is true. The strange thing for me is that part of me feels like I could write for a long, long while about this disc… but if you asked me to be succinct: this is the sound of an art studio that contains only blank canvases.
ADDS 2011-07-12 ** High Priority Release** Norway’s Geir Jenssen (Biosphere) should need little to no introduction to the music director of a station getting Pirtlegimp servicing - his body of work stretches back over two decades and you folks know your music. The inspiration for a new record was provided by Japan and its postwar economic successes; this led after a while to a focus on the country’s distribution of power via nuclear facilities. His intent was to make an album inspired by the architecture, design, and locale of said plants - but also to perhaps pose a ‘sonic question’ about the possible radiation dangers associated with natural disasters. For timelines’ sake, all of the above was happening in February of this year. Then, a month later, well we all know what happened. Inadvertently and of course unfortunately, this work resonates with a little extra meaning at times. If you’ve followed Jenssen’s work over the years, you may find that this record nods to almost his entire back-catalog (specifically the Touch releases, post ‘Substrata’) but the transmission lines that connect this source of energy to our personal grids bring more than just a sort of sonic-summary, as it were. Parts of this disc reveal new paths on a terrain that was previously thought to be fully mapped out. So, with this inaugural Pirtle/Touch pairing, let us all step towards the past… and end up in the future.
ADDS 2011-07-12 Okay, if you fans of abstract electronica/IDM want to be reductive, you can possibly write your review of this disc for your station in one sentence. That sentence would be highly complementary and no doubt your DJs would discover this little gem, but don’t sell Fourcolor short here, people. As Fourcolor, Keiichi Sugimoto is certainly treading some well-worn ground in terms of IDM - but what he did with the ‘same old’ constituent parts is quite a sight to behold, er, behear. This disc takes the lilting moments of Mum’s early work and folds it into some of the ‘quieter’ moments of early Remote Viewer and then just adds a pinch of classic Chain Reaction type sounds (used out of context here) - but this only gets us a little more than halfway to the finish line. There’s real instrumentation hidden in there if you dig around enough, and you can’t miss the vocals of the sublime Mosquito (especially on the time-stopping eighth track). Actually, and I have this conversation about once every few months with fellow music lovers: it doesn’t matter what ‘genre’ you are working in (or out for that matter)… a good record is a good record. And, hey, here’s one now. When you write your review, you may find the words ‘warm’ and ‘chromatic’ helpful too - I know I did in the review I wrote for my station.
ADDS 2011-07-12 This is noise rock, through and through. I’m not talking about your little sister’s noise rock, the kind where everyone at the show looks hot and/or hip. No, this is the other kind (some might say the ‘real’ kind but who are we to judge?). One these two longish tracks, we get taken through a maze of distorted guitars that have never found resonance in their lives, junk percussion that makes Harry Partch turn over in his grave, and vocals that come from beyond the street one street over from the graveyard. This won’t win you any points with the guy/gal you are trying to impress on your next radio show… unless they know who Wolf Eyes is, that is.
ADDS 2011-06-28 The one sheets that were provided with this release call Stina an Australian avant-songstress. Being a music director myself, I was expecting vocals - don’t make the same mistake that I did here people. This is a personal, almost quiet record that evokes a wonderful collaboration between Mum circa the early 2000s and Sylvain Chauveau. This disc has one major flaw, though: it is over way too soon. The micro-world created by Stina with these ten songs needs to live on far longer than the album’s short running time. That’s okay though; it just means we have something to look forward to, namely her next release.
ADDS 2011-06-21 *PRIORITY RELEASE* New Orleans-based Kindest Lines is benefiting from buzz as of late, which can have its plusses and minuses as you all know; as music directors our job is to evaluate the musical content to see if the buzz is justified or not. Luckily in this case, a little buzz is appropriate for these talented newcomers. Kindest Lines keeps most of their songs pretty simple structurally, which is interesting because when you hear them you get the sense that there is quite a bit going on in the mix. The basic ingredients are classic 80s minimal new wave, early goth (before goth got overly dark and dramatic), and maybe a hint of post-punk. Often you will get RIYL lists, and in this case it should be emphasized that there is no implication that Kindest Lines sounds like any of these acts, but if you slipped them into a set with some of these bands, you’d be working on a pretty damn good radio show. RIYL An April March, The Cure, Esben & The Witch, White Ring. |
© 2011 Pirtlegimp Promotions
Fennesz/Sakamoto “Flumina ” (
Albatrosh “Yonkers ” (
ÆLAB “Riding ” (
Fresh Arcade “Secondhand Shakes ” (
Chris Watson “El Tren Phantasma ” (
Illuha “Shizuku ” (
Crystal Stilts “Radiant Door ” (
Pimmon “The Oansome Orbit ” (
Skjølbrot “Maersk ” (
Plastic Flowers “Strange Neighbors ” (
Psychic Ills “Hazed Dream ” (
"Blue" Gene Tyranny “Detours ” (
Minamo “Documental ” (
Antonymes “Meets Slow Dancing Society ” (
Frank Alpine “Frank Alpine ” (
Various Artists “12k Sampler ” (
Fennesz “Seven Stars ” (
Xeno & Oaklander “Sets & Lights (Full-Length) ” (
Various Artists “Experimedia Label Sampler ” (
Hedvig Mollestad Trio “Shoot! ” (
W.W. Lowman “Kumquat May ” (
Lawrence English “The Peregrine ” (
Akira Sakata & Jim O'Rourke “...And That's The Story of Jazz ” (
Yann Novak “Presence ” (
Alvarius B “Baroque Primitiva ” (
Humcrush with Sidsel Endresen “Ha! ” (
Loren Connors “Red Mars ” (
SWCK “Unicorn Chasers ” (
Mimosa | Moize “Hear One Near and Think of The Other ” (
Velvet Elvis “Favorite Horses ” (
Brandon White “Everything a Weapon ” (
Baldruin “Schatten & Lichter ” (
throuRoof “Feathers & Blood ” (
Jane Jane Pollock “Jane Jane Pollock ” (
Locrian “Dort Ist er Weg ” (
Xeno & Oaklander “Sets & Lights ” (
n. “Ein Klagelied Fur 3f ” (
Case Studies “Thee World is Just a Shape to Fill the Night ” (
Chihei Hatakeyama “Mirror ” (
Moon Duo “Mazes ” (
Muler “Motelbibleschool ” (
Amen Dunes “Through Donkey Jaw ” (
Anonymeye “Anontendre ” (
Steinbruchel “Narrow ” (
The Men “Leave Home ” (
The Fresh & Onlys “Secret Walls ” (
Stephan Mathieu “A Static Place ” (
Thurston Moore “Suicide Noteds for Acoustic Guitar ” (
Century Plats “Copper Visions ” (
Cult of Youth “Cult of Youth ” (
Human Eye “They Came From the Sky ” (
Moss “Moss ” (
Burnt Hills “Alpha Seven ” (
Andy Gilmore “Lord, Hold My Hnd While I Run This Race ” (
Xeno & Oaklander “The Staircase EP ” (
Chubby Wolf “Los que No Son Gentos ” (
Biosphere “N-Plants ” (
Fourcolor “As Pleat ” (
Tumul “Writing in Tongues ” (
Stina “Summers in Mariana ” (
Kindest Lines “Covered in Dust ” (