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Current
Projects
ADDS 2010-06-03 This is, ironically, somewhat of a rarity for Jandek – ironic because up to say 15 years ago this is all you would have gotten out of him. These tracks are mostly just acoustic guitar and voice and tend to be sparse, like his classic earlier works.
ADDS 2010-05-26 *PRIORITY RELEASE* I’m very pleased to be able to bring you the second Hurray for the Riff Raff release; most of you got the first one about a year ago or so. These New Orleans kids are easily the best unsigned band in the country right now. In fact, if I had a label I would have signed them about 10 seconds after their time-stopping opening set for the New Orleans Jandek show last year. The thing that will get your attention first is the voice: Alynda Lee Segarra’s every intonation is pure joy, so much so that even if this was an acapella record I suspect most people would be all over it. The accompaniment is pretty damn good though; they’re mixing bits of Tin Pan Alley with classic early American music and all this is fed through a ‘New Weird America’ filter. They’re touring soon out west, so I’m making sure all my west coast stations get this one and please, if you see they are playing within 100 miles of you, GO SEE THEM! Also if they’re playing in your town and you want to have them come down to the station for an interview/play a song or two, please check the included one sheet for contact information.
ADDS 2010-05-26 This is a live recording from May 2006, still relatively early in the playing out live phase of Jandek’s existence. These tracks are sparse and slightly psychedelic with moments of implied dissonance; out of the live shows that I’ve sent you guys over the years this one might be the one that most closely approximates some of the recent studio stuff.
ADDS 2010-04-05 This is perhaps slightly an out of character release for Type. Chicago’s Zelienople is a trio making patient music that has in the past been linked to the likes of Talk Talk, Labradford, Bark Psychosis, and Slowdive. This time out though, I’d point you towards this excellent release if you were enamored with the more ‘pop’ releases that come out on Hapna. Another very clear point of reference to me may seem more of a stretch to you fair reader: this reminds me very much of what would happen if Speck Mountain ended up with a male singer and the whole lot of them came down with a slight case of a cold disinterest (in emotional matters). This is a very good record, but it might require that extra second of attention span.
ADDS 2010-04-05 This is the final release of the noise duo (Peter Swanson and Gabriel Mindel) known as Yellow Swans. The sprawling soundscapes found here represent the culmination of their long partnership, and this is possibly their finest moment. The uneasy ambience found on this disc recalls the likes of Tim Hecker, Svarte Greiner, and that excellent William Fowler Collins disc we sent you last year.
ADDS 2010-04-05 This is, as the title suggests, a current snapshot of the musical scene in the town of Tallahassee Florida. They’ve got an amazing radio station with a long history of top-notch programming (WVFS) so it should come as no surprise that there is a good amount of quality rock on this disc.
ADDS 2010-04-05 This is a special radio-promo-only CD of the upcoming release from Kahn/Mueller. The retail version consists of a set of art prints and a digital download of the one track ‘Phases’ – but unless (as some of you do) you have a show where a 39 minute experimental piece will fly, the good folks at FSS have made up a special 3 minute excerpt just for you. The sonic textures here strike a nice balance between tension and release, and this will surely please the people out there who renew their subscription to The Wire each year.
ADDS 2010-03-29 Indonesia’s Zoo plays spastic herk-and-jerk deconstructionist proto punk. In short, if you are a fan of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Fantomas, Boredoms, etc, then this will really hit the spot for you.
ADDS 2010-03-29 This is why Pirtlegimp Promotions even exists – this disc right here. Richard Skelton’s new effort for Type is a masterpiece that words will never fully describe, so no attempt will be made here. It will, however, grace the upper echelons of Pirtle’s Top Ten of 2010.
ADDS 2010-03-29 This is an excellent collection of Elodie auten’s piano works, many of which saw release on her Cat Collectors label back in the eighties. If you like avant garde / modern composition then surely this is your pick of this round of Pirtlegimp releases. This is definitely going to be good for fans of Philip Glass, Stephen Drury, and Matthew Shipp (solo), but you might also note that both Arthur Russell and Peter Zummo make appearances on this excellent and rewarding collection.
ADDS 2010-02-08 This single piece had its origin as a live cinema performance commissioned by the Leonard Cohen International Festival in 2008 up in Alberta. Using Cohen’s voice as a point of departure, Clinker deconstructs and reassembles Cohen’s voice into dreamlike soundscapes. There really isn’t any traceable aspect of the voice left here; we’re talking about stripping the voice down to its component parts – in academic terms the sum of many different sinusoidal harmonics. This piece has a very diverse spectrum depending on where you drop the needle, er, laser, and if you are up for grabbing a five to seven minute section of this for your show you have quite a bit of variety to choose from here.
ADDS 2010-02-08 This disc serves as a wonderful example of how far we’ve come with so-called laptop music in the past fifteen years or so. The semi-newly minted genre of ‘modern classical’ was a solid attempt at capturing a new sound that combined ambient soundscapes, field recordings, laptop constructions, and eventually actual classical instrumentation – and all of that is eventually brought to bear on this disc. By the time you make it to the stunningly beautiful closing track, you can’t help but think about how great it is that music has evolved since the first time we heard Oval or The Rachels all those years ago. RIYL Takagi Masakatsu, Stars of the Lid, Carter Burwell, etc.
ADDS 2010-02-08 This is a side project of two members of Geisterfahrer (you might recall I sent you their disc earlier this year and several of you charted it). The songs here are a lot of things, but the thing they are most is ephemeral. You can call them folky, haunting, languid, pastoral, quiet, patient, slow-burning, and probably lots more if there is a thesaurus handy – but the thing I have taken from my four complete listens to this disc is how fragile the whole thing is: these songs almost literally disappear in the air right before your eyes. The light instrumental touches and hushed vocals very much bring to mind the criminally overlooked alt-country band Tarnation – but only if their entire catalogue was produced by Hush Arbors’ Keith Wood and a mellowed Angelo Badalamenti. The Tarnation reference in particular might resonate with some of your listeners when the female voice here is heard – the similarities to Tarnation’s Paula Frazer are obvious. There is a stunning Low cover on here waiting for your discovery (Throw Out the Line) too. In fact, let’s stop right there on that word stunning because I struggled with its usage. This is an amazing record (I’d say that even if I wasn’t the ‘promoter’) – but ‘stunning’ is a bit over the top usually and nothing about this record is over the top. You need to hear this work alone and in a part of your day that exists out of time – and if you don’t have such a part of your day not to worry – this record will carve it out for you. RIYL Speck Mountain, The Juniper Meadows, Freakwater’s most mellow songs, etc.
ADDS 2010-02-08 The second of the two Meadmore reissues to hit your desk might be a little easier to, ah, pigeonhole. This time out we get a gay-country-synth themed record – how’s that for a new genre even in today’s oversaturated genre market. Back in the day the opening track ‘I’ll Teach You to Steal My Man’ was somewhat of a minor hit on my station (WTUL New Orleans). This record is the more cohesive of the two, and in fact I think I personally played every track on this record at one time or another back in the day.
ADDS 2010-02-08 Some of your fine Pirtle-associated stations have more Marc Hannaford work in your library than you might realize; he’s on those nice Antripodean Collective discs that I sent out in limited quantities last year. Hell, limited? Only ten stations are getting this one. These are solo piano pieces – but don’t play these with the piano stuff I sent you on Kning Disk in the fall. These pieces are spacious, but have a somewhat deliberate counterpointy vibe – but I’m no music theorist and I never claimed to be. I can tell you that if it was my radio show I’d play this right in-between a John Lurie soundtrack piece and maybe some Ryuichi Sakamoto. If your station has a modern classical show you might direct that DJ to the longer pieces on this disc.
ADDS 2010-02-01 For you MDs pressed for time and need the short version: this one will be for the Mitchell Akiyama / Time Hecker / Fennesz kids out there. Okay, now that we have that out of the way here are some detailed comments. Hunt’s newest release for the fine DE label may be his best work to date. The aptly-named ‘Sunshine Noir’ is a world that is painted in cinematically-hued grays (lots of them). This disc evokes a future that was not thought of in the likes of Blade Runner and The Matrix, though in each case it sounds like they got some of it right – and that explains the ‘noir’ part of the title. The ‘sunshine’ comes in where the disc nods toward Hunt’s previous efforts. His work, moreso than that of any other artist today, creates life through sound. The word ‘organic’ has long been applied to acts like O Yuki Conjugate and Tortoise, but there are moments in Hunt’s work where you feel something is alive in the most literal sense of the word. Those of you who played his last two records will note the nostalgia on the opening track, but from there you will be treading new ground save for fleeting sections of tracks.
ADDS 2010-02-01 Laurent Jeanneau is part ethnomusicologist and part experimental musician, and those two aspects of his life converge on this excellent new effort for Atavistic. The source material for these tracks consists of ethnic minority music of India, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China, etc. It’s interesting how both aspects of this sound can exist so distinctly on these tracks – yet all the while the sounds congeal into a great finished product. This is a lot less ‘electronic’ in nature than the similarly vibed ‘Audiotourism’ disc from Freeform a decade or so ago; those of you who dig both the labels Touch and Nonesuch (especially the Explorer Series) will just love this.
ADDS 2010-02-01 This is the third Parodi release I have sent out since starting the Pirtlegimp radio world empire. One the one hand this is easily the most radio-friendly of the three – because almost all of the tracks are manageable time wise. On the other hand this is by far his most challenging disc of the three. Readers of publications like The Wire have what you might call a ‘trained ear’ and that is certainly called for with this disc of free experimental composition. There are basically three pieces on the disc, divided up into seventeen tracks total. If you are a fan of Martin Tetrault, Iannis Xenakis, Morton Subotnick, Jim O’Rourke, Christian Marclay, or hell throw Stockhausen in there – then check this out. This isn’t ‘challenging listening’ per se, but this is certainly not the disc to use to try and introduce someone to the wide and expansive world of modern music.
ADDS 2010-02-01 This is the first of two reissues from performance artist (remember that term?) Glen Meadmore. These two records were originally released around 1989/90 by Amoeba Records. The expansive musical palettes of even casual listeners make this disc a different experience now as compared to back then. Even now I am somewhat at a loss for words when I hear this disc, but let me instead tell you this anecdote. When Amoeba sent me a promo of these 2 records for review back then, there was an 8” by 11” color glossy of Glen in full drag and it was autographed ‘Haul off an love me, Glen’ There appears to be an extra track on this reissue that I don’t recall as having been on the vinyl, a ten minute instrumental that you might slip in during your next experimental show. RIYL Peaches, Gonzales, Taylor Savvy, etc.
ADDS 2010-02-01 This is a three way split release. Forum’s contribution is a very sparse piece for Mark Rothko. This piece can eerily evoke what it is like to sit in the Rothko Chapel in Houston – I speak from experience. The Shinkei piece is also quite sparse, but in a different way. This one makes use of field recordings and feels less ‘composed’ overall. The Luigi Turra piece completes this trio of spaciousness, and might be a good choice for you if you like some of Rafael Toral’s work.
ADDS 2010-02-01 This is a single piece of music clocking in at well over an hour – but don’t let that dissuade you. For stations with a modern classical, experimental, or ambient show, feel free to play this whole thing. During ‘regular programming’ I would just excerpt a seven to ten minute section of the work. RIYL Nurse with Wound’s ‘Salt Marie Celeste’ or Gavin Bryars ‘Sinking of the Titanic’ and Gier Jensen’s release for Touch under his own name.
ADDS 2009-10-21 This is a collaboration between two giants in the early avant/out rock scene: Hans Joachim Irmler and Z’ev. Irmler was a founding memeber of Krautrock masters Faust for over three decades and Z’ev is well known to a small but rabidly devoted core of followers. These sonic experiments range from primal post-prog to uneasy/ghostly tribal-ambience.
ADDS 2009-10-21 Here’s yet another fine and strong effort from your friends at Type. This disc is almost a catalog raisonne of modern ambient music; at times you can hear shards of Stars of the Lid, Brian Eno, and Sigur Ros among many others. The word ‘majestic’ isn’t quite right here because this is understated, but as far as understatements go this sure is a bold one.
ADDS 2009-10-21 The beautiful picture that serves as the cover art to this fine release sets the tone before the needle, er, laser ever hits the disc. Ian Hagwood’s fine and expansive new disc is almost a musical representation of that nature scene: you can pick and choose from several different (but related) scenes of beauty, but all roads lead to the same place. Parts of this disc reminded me of what would be left over if you took the crunch and hum away from Fennesz’s most recent disc – though in the end that would be like comparing apples and oranges. This is a very nice piece of experimental ambience, and once again let me say that Dragon’s Eye is surely putting out some of the best music in this genre lately.
ADDS 2009-10-21 This is the other disc in the Kning Piano series that I am sending you (after last months Peter Broderick ‘Docile’). At their best, these pieces are revelatory; I was strongly moved to think that this is what would have resulted had Erik Satie arrived in the future and absorbed some of the piano work of LaMonte Young and Keith Jarrett – there is a clear avant-side to this but a more personal side pops up here and again.
ADDS 2009-10-14 Dokaka is probably best known for his involvement with Bjork’s ‘Medulla’ album from several years back, though this is his first release of all original material. Using no instruments other than the multi-tracked human voice, Dokaka comes up with an aurally compelling listen that will fit in well with a set of borderline-cacophonous out rock.
ADDS 2009-10-14 This is patient and pretty laptop folk from Swede Rickard Javerling. This would fit somewhere in-between Ogurusu Norihide’s fine Carpark releases and The Books Tomlab output – then throw in just a pinch of Sufjan Stevens and a dash of Six Organs of Admittance. The core of the record is acoustic folk music, but that would never accurately describe the fine and sonically rich effort that you are (hopefully) about to hear (and love).
ADDS 2009-10-14 This is the soundtrack to the film of the same name. Most of this disc is modern composition-based, but if you are looking for ‘a single’ then proceed directly to ‘Non Ursae’ which is track seven. The best point of reference I can give you here goes back a ways; a few centuries in one case. If you combined Gabriel Faure’s Requiem with Morricone, Yann Tiersen, and Johann Johannsson, I suspect the finished product would somewhat approximate the amazing and other-worldly sounds found here.
ADDS 2009-10-14 If you enjoy the likes of SunnO))) along with the rest of the bands mentioned in your subscription to The Wire, then Wrnlrd’s new one (seventh release overall) should hit the spot. Of course the big riffs stand out first; how could they not right? But when the smoke clears, you will find that there is a lot more happening than one quick phrase can describe. Some have likened this to Jandek, The Eraserhead soundtrack, Tim Hecker – as you can see it’s all over the place. After all, how many doom metal records list accordion, piano, field recording (!), dulcimer, trumpet, music box, xylophone, and French horn among the instrumentation? This is forward thinking but still visceral; don’t just pass it off to your loud rock director, though I guess that is a good plan B if you need one. The last track could be lifted straight off of an old Nurse With Wound record; Automating I or II if you want me to be specific.
ADDS 2009-09-28 Sylvian’s career stretches back to the late seventies, when he was the young front man for the band Japan. Since 1984 he’s had a fruitful and consistent solo career – a career that has seen him explore new sonic territory time and time again. This new disc fulfills the promises made on his previous effort ‘Blemish’. With the help of a veritable honor roll of Wire magazine all stars, he’s turned in one of the years top efforts. Guests on these tracks include: Fennesz, Otomo Yoshihide, Keith Rowe, Evan Parker, Werner Dafeldecker, Toshimaru Nakamura, John Tilbury, Tetuzi Akiyama, and others. This is a patient and meticulously constructed effort with wonderful moments of controlled improvisation.
ADDS 2009-09-28 I could (and have) gone on and on about Noah’s talent. He is/was a member of The Best Thing Ever, an irreverent but unquestionably talented ‘anti-folk’ group, but he also performs solo and in other acts as well. This is lo-fi and mostly acoustic, so you should know that going in; the thing is, with a careful listen I trust that you too will see the serious talent on display here. Noah is a (sometimes too) smart (for his own good) singer-songwriter, and that cleverness is the kind that nine times out of ten rubs you the wrong way (he’s the other one out of ten though so it’s not a problem). Some of his older classic cuts are on here, and if you happen to be able to play profanity then do not miss ‘Got MLK?’ but there are also new songs to be found here. If you like Jeffrey Lewis, Moldy Peaches, etc, then you might like this – but to be very honest I think Noah outshines the lot of the so-called anti-folk movement with room to spare – and I like all those other acts.
ADDS 2009-09-28 These songs may have been recorded on a four track, but you may be surprised at what Peter Broderick is able to come up with on this amazing new disc for Type. Of course you get some of Broderick’s trademark aural beauty, but what you might not be expecting is the other stuff here. I might not go all the way and call some of this New Weird America(n), but there is surely some nice picking going on here in a few spots. Between this and the other Broderick material that is coming out recently/soon, I’d say this is his year.
ADDS 2009-09-28 This is a mini-album’s worth of solo piano recordings from the multi talented Peter Broderick. I sent you his previous Type release and this is one of two Broderick records I am working at this time, the other being his new one on Type. These short pieces are delicate it is true, but this is not quite as delicate as the material found on ‘Float’ for the most part – though this is far from meaty or even forceful. These ten tracks were written over the course of a week and recorded in one hour – sometimes it just comes together like that.
ADDS 2009-09-21 This is part of the ‘newer’ component of Type’s sound that might have been more at home on Southern Lord – okay I said that for shock value but it really is kind of true. This is a fusion of experimental, ambient, and dark metal that fits in well with the Svarte Greiner release I sent you earlier this year and also recent SunnO))) output. Actually, if you darkened the corners of the most recent Tim Hecker release, you could slip this on and few (more like none) would complain. RIYL William Basinski and early Earth. |
© 2007 Pirtlegimp Promotions
Jandek “What Was Out There Disappeared ” (
Hurray for the Riff Raff “Young Blood Blues ” (
Jandek “Camber Sands Sunday ” (
Zelienople “Give It Up ” (
Yellow Swans “Going Places ” (
Various Artists “Tallahassee Compilation ” (
Jason Kahn and Jon Mueller “Phases ” (
Zoo “Trilogi Peradaban ” (
Richard Skelton “Landings ” (
Elodie Lauten “Piano Works Revisited ” (
Clinker “On the Other Side... (for L. Cohen) ” (
Corey Fuller “Seas Between ” (
Sketches of an Amorous Window “Sketches of an Amorous Window ” (
Glen Meadmore “Squaw Bread ” (
Marc Hannaford “Polar ” (
Wyndel Hunt “Sunshine Noir ” (
Kink Gong “Electronic World ” (
Claudio Parodi “The Mother of All Feedback ” (
Glen Meadmore “Chicken & Biscuits ” (
Forum / Shinkei / Luigi Turra “Clean Forms ” (
Jamie Drouin “A Three Month Warm Up ” (
Fauz't “From the Frozen South ” (
Ramses III “I Could Not Love You More ” (
Ian Hagwood “Snow Roads ” (
Nils Frahm “The Bells ” (
Dokaka “Human Interface ” (
Rickard Jarveling “The Valleys ” (
Erik Enocksson “Man Tanker Sitt ” (
Wrnlrd “Myrmidon ” (
David Sylvian “Manafon ” (
Noah Britton “Suicide: The Best of Noah Britton ” (
Peter Broderick “4 Track Songs ” (
Peter Broderick “Docile ” (
William Fowler Collins “Perdition Hill Radio ” (