Broadcast and The Focus Group

A title like Investigate the Witch Cults of the Radio Age seems full of dark and decadent promise and quite frankly just the type of thing we've come to love about Broadcast. Still, though the album might not conjure the haunted blood trials of The Liars' foray into the occult, it does act as one of the greatest distillations of the duo's post BBC Radiophonic Workshop obsessions and their experimental psych-pop hangovers. Trish Keenan's voice still hangs lost in time, somewhere between Dorothy Moskowitz of The US of A and lost Stereolab b-sides. With the aid of Ghost Box label founder and longtime Broadcast graphic artist Julian House (aka The Focus Group) the group have finally completed their excursion into psychosomatic soundscapes. The mini-album shifts like a convoluted dream, first crisp and cinematic; then suddenly sense is lost, absolutes dissolve and shift until another picture emerges and the first is forgotten in the ensuing burst of colors. Broadcast have always been pop innovators but this new piece seems to cement them as one of the 21st century's hidden treasures.

Warp's a bit skittish with the full downloads (and that's cool) so check out their mini mix of Witch Cults of the Radio Age below and House's gorgeous video for the album.




Download:
[MP3] Broadcast - Broadcast and The Focus Group Trailer

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE.

	Walter Wegmüller - Tarot Kind of the crown jewel in the Krautrock and more specifically Komische movements. Wegmüller was a Swiss painter who had spent five years hand crafting his own Tarot deck while his compatriots Klaus Schulze, Manuel Gottsching,
Hartmut Enke, and Walter Westrupp were forming the backbone of the Komische movement under the banner of Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser's label system. Kaiser helped bring these players all together for a sonic exploration of the Tarot that grew into a sprawling double album of excess and psychedelic bliss. After meeting Timothy Leary, during the Ash Ra Temple/Leary sessions for Seven Up Wegmüller was inspired to further his obsession with the fortune telling cards he's spent years devoted to by crafting an ode to each of the 22 cards of the major arcana. With the help of this stable of musicians he gave a distinct musical personality to each character moving from stately drones to folk and blistering rock over the course of the album. Somehow, despite what one would expect, this actually seems to work as a concept and the album is a captivating mass of twists, turns and synthesizer crescendo laden wonder. Wegmüller didn't really go to do more musically but the session members from Tarot eventually formed the much fought over Cosmic Jokers that ushered in the downfall of Kaiser's labels. This album, though, stands as the culmination of an extraordinarily progressive time and place. Download: [MP3] Walter Wegmüller - Der Herrscher [MP3] Walter Wegmüller - Die Gerechtigkeit [MP3] Walter Wegmüller - Der Teufel Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Hornet Leg

One of the most fun shows I've seen when I first hit NYC was C.O.C.O. busting lo-fi dance grooves to a room of maybe 15 while their friend/dancer tore it up like a robot shaking the DT's. After the show the club promptly turned into some sort of leather fetish DJ night and we awkwardly shuffled away. Sutton's works following C.O.C.O. and Dub-Narcotic have yet to recapture the perfect immediacy of that night…until now. Rocking a stripped-down and ramshackle brand of garage blues that culls from the best tendencies that bruised genre has to offer Sutton gives pop a noogie and the two run away laughing on his debut album as Hornet Leg. No-fi vocals ramble until they suddenly lock in groove with stutter-chugged drums, breaking stride in beautiful moments of jangle pop choruses. This is the kind of record that can spread a crooked smile on your face within the first two minutes and leave it plastered there for the next 30 minutes. This is a record that drives like an engine till the gas needle hits E. This is a smoldering, staggering shot in the arm. This is a welcome reminder just why K Records exists.

Download:
[MP3] Hornet Leg - Wait
[MP3] Hornet Leg - Night of the Phantom

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE.

A long while ago, round about the time Raven was just revving up, we covered the beautiful songs of White White Quilt and then they all but disappear. Now though they've disbanded they've left behind one essential document of their short existence and they've brought the brightness of Joseph Childress with them.

	Joseph Childress/ White White Quilt – Split (Water Tower) 7" Recorded inside a three story abandoned water tower, these two tracks are stunning examples natural reverb and location specific field recordings. On one side White White Quilt lay down their swan
song, steeped in the same high plains lonesomeness that Brightblack Morning Light have long been able to tap into. The cavernous surroundings match the Quilt's candlelit reverberations perfectly and this is quite possibly the best way they could have taken a bow. On the flip Joseph Childress proves that he wont' be taken lightly, recording a stirring version of his song "Leaving the Barren Ground". The track is giving amazing weight both through Childress' haunting delivery and from the epic percussion created by members of White White Quilt throwing their bodies against the walls of the water tower during the recording. Definitely one of the best singles to be released this year. Gorgeous doesn't begin to explain these recordings. Ltd to 500 copies. Download: [MP3] Joseph Childress - Leaving the Barren Ground Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Rameses III

London's Rameses III have consistently eked out their own niche traversing the realms of amorphous ambient and delicate folk music. Mixing in organic instrumentation and spectral clouds of shimmer and radiance, the band gradually transports the listener to a plateau of serenity laced with a touch of longing for things left behind. The breadth of emotion that this trio is able to consistently imbue into their music is nothing short of staggering and it seems that each release brings them closer to the precipice of bliss. They've made the rounds of great labels from Important to Digitalis to 267 lattajjaa but find themselves recording for the venerable Type records yet again with I Could Not Love You More. The title in this case seems more than appropriate, the music evoking the kinds of emotions that can't be put into words and bursting with an overwhelming sense of wanting to share it with all who step near to the epicenter. Absolutely one of the most gorgeous releases of the year.

Download:
[MP3] Rameses III - The Kindness In Letting Go
[MP3] Rameses III - Accross The Lake is Where My Heart Shines

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

The Mantles

Taking a few pages out of the mid-80's jangle pop underground. pre-grunge Midwestern ruckus and the Flying Nun-era New Zeeland crew, The Mantles are one more reason San Francisco's staying vital. Eschewing a some of their contemporaries leans towards lo-fi fuzz in favor of a trebly ring of strings and faded Kodachrome production courtesy of Greg Ashley, the band stomps, swings and shuffles aloofly smoking cigarettes in the corner booth. They might not be treading the most original of waters but they seem to have found just the right balance of past lives to inhabit on their Siltbreeze debut.

Download:
[MP3] The Mantles - What We Do Matters
[MP3] The Mantles - Don't Lie

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Cursillistas

Matt Lajoie releases yet another limited slice of shamanic folk, swirling with traces of mysticism and forest floor incantations. Les Biches was originally available as a limited run CD-r and cassette recorded in 2006 and has since been lovingly reissued as a joint venture by Time-Lag and L'animaux Tryst. On one side Lajoie's dense loops and divined melodies ache with a psychedelic burn that was evident on his earlier Digitalis release but has now blossomed into a full flame witch trial sound. The burn turns sweet on the next side, roping in the gentle strains of warm hillside folk refracted through tiny prisms. Les Biches stands as a tipping point for Cursillistas, the entry to a fully formed sound that puts Lajoie at the forefront of the acid-folk ranks. And it seems already Matt has great things on the horizon, including another LP on Digitalis and a just released split with White Light. Les Biches is housed in letter pressed sleeves with transparent insert and a bonus CD, sold out at the label but a few distros have copies so don't hesitate to pick up this beautiful piece.

Download:
[MP3] Cursillistas - Bag of Feathers
[MP3] Cursillistas - Fawns Into Does

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE or HERE.

	A.R. & Machines - Echo One of the first songs that really drew me to psych as a kid was Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan". Something in the washed out vocals and phased guitar lines tapped a part of me that knew all music didn't have to stick to stomping
riffs and chugging beats. Achim Reichel's second album Echo shares space on the temporal plane with "Planet Caravan". It's awash, as the title would suggest, in echo and much of it seems to be happening in a glutinous wormhole somewhere in space. On an international scale Reichel's name may only be familiar to serious collectors but in his native Germany he was well known as being part of the Rattles (who has opened for the Beatles on their early tours there) and as a pretty boy solo artist. Echo may be an oft overlooked part of his canon but it's a welcome door to the Komische movement that swept through on the wings of Ash Ra Temple, Klaus Schulze and the like. What sets A.R. and Machines apart from those transcendental drones is Reichel works in a constant battle with groove and the nebulous effects of pedals available at the time. The album was envisioned to be a struggle between man and machine, hence the moniker. Reichel's work would never quite touch the experimentation of Echo before or after this album, making this a very essential album in the history of German psych. Download: [MP3] A.R. & Machines - The Echo of the Present Support the artist. Buy it: HERE (some creative googling should turn this up in digital form as well)

Hush Arbors

Ever since Landscape of Bone Keith Wood has snuck his way alongside James Jackson Toth and Matthew Valentine as one of our favorite American guitar slingers around here. Initially shrouded in such a wash of reverb that words melted together in pools of gauzy ambience, Wood as with his compatriot Toth, has wrestled his psych-folk into a bare Americana that feels more in touch with the bare dirt realities of the heartland than modern country could ever hope to capture. That he has made his most heartfelt and honest album with J. Mascis at the controls seems a case of strange bedfellows, but perhaps its more natural than it would seem. The two seem to compliment each other nicely, with Mascis adding a bit of hard grit to Wood's newer sense of melancholy. He even lends guitar to the album, taking Hush Arbors further into the garage territory that I would have ever thought possible. Certainly Yankee Reality is the best Hush Arbors album to date and in a year of relatively high water marks in music, its another triumph for all things good in '09.

Download:
[MP3] Hush Arbors - Coming Home
[MP3] Hush Arbors - Day Before

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Slumberland continues their rep as the premier purveyors of indie pop that makes you bubble. Champagne Socialists don't disappoint in that respect.

	The Champagne Socialists – Blue Genes 7" Bubbly is just the beginning for this duo as they ride fizzy guitars and perky drums along the same roads that made their C86 predecessors so fun to listen to. The A-sides all wrapped in a kind of post-teen
coolness that feels aloof in the most gloriously wicked ways. Then the B-side kicks in and fumbles the act just a bit, letting on the faintest traces of unsure angst. As usual pretty quality stuff from the land of Slumber. Download: [MP3] The Champagne Socialists - Blue Genes Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Factums

Still plenty of cold, gritty ambling on this second Sacred Bones release for Factums but this time the throw in a few hot tipped, fuzz encrusted shots at rock as well. Rock of the 'n Roll variety, must be the influence of The Intelligence boys rubbing off on them. Don't go thinking the Factums have gone soft on us now, though. Flowers is just as scathingly antiseptic as any of their releases, cut throughout with industrial noise and dour ambience to keep you from smelling those flowers they seem to be talking about in the title. Another great packaging from the folks at Sacred Bones, contrasting some pink on grey in standard library motif, just as essential as any of the SB LPs.

Download:
[MP3] Factums - When
[MP3] Factums - Split Screen


Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Eternal Tapestry

Storm clouds gather over Portland as the men of Eternal Tapestry pare down and toughen up for The Invisible Landscape. Scaling back their psych army to a raw core of the Brothers Bindeman and Dewey Mahood, they've taken the power trio aesthetic for a rough and fuzz blasted ride through the lowlands of analog flaying rock. Amps are pushed until the air sizzles with the smell of melted wires and burnt tweed. Drums swell and retract, rumble and chug with a power that's driven to the point of exhaustion and comes running back for a fourth wind. Just another day in the lives of Eternal Tapestry and another great notch in the belt of Not Not Fun.

Download:
[MP3] Eternal Tapestry - Cosmic Dream

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	Morgen - Morgen Steve Morgen and crew released this lone album on ABC Records' short-lived imprint Probe, home to Soft Machine, The Litter and a few more trespassers in the realms of psychedelia. Morgen himself isn't the world's most evocative singer
but he does bring with him a healthy dose of fuzz and a few strands of the most potent psych. Drop that on top of pounding drums, rolling bass and a total disappearance of the band after one record and there's a serious lost classic on your hands. The band did seem to vanish after radio failed to pick up their two singles which seems strange for players of this caliber but I suppose once burned by the industry, not all are so willing to go back for more. Shortly after the Morgen release Probe itself shut its doors as well making it years before anyone would again hear the likes of Morgen and his band of psych warriors. Thankfully though this has now seen a few proper reissues that restore the brilliant fuzz to its rightful place. Download: [MP3] Morgen - Welcome To The Void [MP3] Morgen - She's The Nitetime Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

The Fresh & Onlys

Frisco's dark garage powerhouse, Fresh & Onlys returns with another full length and the promise of much more on the horizon. Grey-Eyed Girls feels darker than its predecessor, moodier and wrapped just a little bit tighter. This isn't the loose cuffed band that popped up on their earliest 7"s but the shift in coloring doesn't let them stray from Tim Cohen's lock-tight vocals and distinct persona. Lyrically he's still the same as ever and no matter how much studio polish, how dark the guitars or how loose the strum, Cohen remains an engaging central figure. The interplay between Cohen's style and Sartin's psych aesthetics seem to be hammering out a dark pop that's just a bit blurry on the edges and perfectly crisp at the center. This marks their starting point towards a more studio heavy album and it seems that this is a band that can use that environment to their advantage. Can't wait to hear what's next.

Download:
[MP3] The Fresh & Onlys - Invisible Forces
[MP3] The Fresh & Onlys - D.Y.

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

There is great evidence that if they wanted to, Woods could wander deep into the roads of affecting alt-country, crafting sweet and earthen odes that captivate crowds in the same way that Ben Bridwell has been able to. Though perhaps its that little bit of strangeness that they never quite let go of that keeps them dear to our hearts.

	Woods – Acoustic Family Creeps 12" This 12" is proof that the band can climb the spine like the hushed ghosts of rain when the spirit strikes them. Over the skeletal remains of selections from their recently released Songs of Shame,
Jeremy Earl's voice soars in just the right colors of crimson and orange, settling like dusk over the band's unhurried pop. The acoustic versions give a bit more tenderness to Earl's already haunting songs proving that if they were to delve down the road to bittersweet alt-country the band would undoubtedly take the Sub Pop set by storm. Though I'll always hold a hope for the occasional curdle of squelch and the unnecessary unhingedness of the psych splattered jam, there's no denying the power of songs that bring a smile to both the last drink before bed and the first rays of morning. Woods have that kind of power and the future is wide open. Download: [MP3] Woods - To Clean Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Wet Hair

Reed and Garbes slip back in the lab for another strange and frothy take on noise, drone and the scalp scraped memories of music boxes churned through lawnmowers in the distance. The opening séance gives way to a delicate bubbling that flickers through the murk like loops of sunrise on faded Super 8. The album acts as a perfect companion piece to Dream, folding refracted squelch further through a pop ripple and squeezing it until it seems to be laughing as much as it's writhing. But where its predecessor floated in and out of a sleepy haze, Glass Fountain builds up a steady stream of tin soldier beats to propel its glazed pop gyrations, making it seem like the daytime equivalent to the former's dream torn night. The further they delve into the persona of Wet Hair the more they seem to be finding a real voice and Glass Fountain is by far the most interesting and engaging album they've done yet. Slotting themselves into a class right alongside Cameron Stallones' Sun Araw as a new frontrunner in drone-psych bliss.

Download:
[MP3] Wet Hair - Stepping Razor (to Heaven's Door)

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Grass Widow

Four more great tunes from Grass Widow on this S/T EP from where else, Captured Tracks, who seem to be scooping up talent left and right these days. Just as captivating as their Make a Mess debut, with more tightly sprung tracks that still seem to have as much bounce as they have airy beauty in their vocal interplay. Such a short release leaves a thick taste your mouth for more from this trio and not a lull in the bunch. This bunch seems to knock each release up to higher expectations and hopefully they'll come into proper acclaim for their efforts soon enough.

Download:
[MP3] Grass Widow - Black Hole

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

Help Fund Julianna Barwick's Florine on Vinyl

RSTB fave Julianna Barwick has set up a Kickstarter page to fund a vinyl version of her beautiful and captivating Florine EP. The EP was one of our faves of the first half of '09 and it's probably one of the releases I've heard this year that is most deserving of an LP pressing. So... make Julianna's and my dream come true and help her fund the project. The vinyl will be limited to 200, hand-signed (if you'd like) and on white vinyl. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. Make it happen!

Click HERE to pledge.

Look for more news in the appropriately labeled News section. I'm going to make more of an effort to updated this section of the site. This one just seemed too important to be missed.

All right it's about time for another RSTB Jukebox. Gathering up the best of lost garage blues, psych stompers, fuzz tones and more. Just like you like it.

[MP3] The Del-Vetts - Last Time Around
Thick and sinister with a huge swath of fuzz ripping through the steady thump of bass. The Del-Vetts may not have had the legs for a career but they're certainly showing they have a mastery of garage-pop for at least 2 1/2 minutes on this one.

[MP3] Jagged Edge - Midnight To Six
A chunk of rhythm kicks Jagged Edge into this garage-blues stomper. Snotty and salty with a nice lick of harmonica peaking through the strangled string work. Impossible to sit still with this one playing in the background, that's for sure.

[MP3] The Shag - Stop and Listen
Just in case you were worried about a lack of fuzz, The Shag kick it through a psych filter, heavy and crimson. Chugging and thumping but with that wistful jump into the chorus. Despite the questionable name, The Shag seem to really bring it here.

[MP3] Grains of Sand - Going Away Baby
Distorted strums and a reckless rhythm section drive this thumper straight into the wall at 60 mph. Kick in an organ bridge and you've got a pretty sweet slice of garage that does more that satiate the need for snotty teenage kicks.

[MP3] The Gentlemen - It's A Cryin' Shame
Diving once more into the think end of the fuzz pool, The Gentlemen stomp and chomp then stop for a little bit of harmony before tearing the strings apart once more. Crunchy and

Tickley Feather

As excited as I was to hear Annie Sachs' debut, the release left me with a feeling that something was missing. It had a number of great tracks but lacked some sort of glue that held it all together. Sachs has most definitely found the psychedelic adhesive to hold together Hors D'oeuvres and though it goes by quickly, the album is a sweet ethereal blast of atmospheric gauze and pop charm. Her high vocals flutter easily above the hiss and duct taped beats that push through layers of fogged memory and half woken dreams of summers past. She seems to have inhabited a world that is chillily humid, somehow feeling thick like the last moments before drunken sleep and distant like the lingering remnants of the next morning's memories of the night before. Its a cracked picture of childhood with only the faintest memory of the back row of adults. Sachs' songs seem more than content to stretch out languidly on the floor waiting for someone to carry them back to the car.

Download:
[MP3] Tickley Feather - Sure Relaxing
[MP3] Tickley Feather - Trashy Boys

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

David Daniell and Douglas McCombs

With beginnings as part of Rhys Chatham's Die Donnergötter band and collaborations with Loren Connors, Thurston Moore, Greg Davis (Daniell) and Tom Ze, Azita Will Oldham, Yo La Tengo, Calexico (McCombs); the level of talent on display here should be self-evident. However the duo seems to find a collaborative valley that is both expected given their past and surprising given their typical strengths. With McCombs moving away from his usual role on the bass and instead joining Daniell on guitar and more notably Lap Steel, this sounds like a recipe for a Jack Rose styled pick-a-long. Much to the contrary, the duo work in clouds of delicate feedback and icy string work, stirring a constant swell of emotion from what began as a rather fragmentary approach. The band laid the tracks live then cut and arranged the final pieces of Sycamore from the nearly seven hours of original tapes. The end result is a twisting, scraping, explosive and delicate tale of two artists finding the joy in the sonic tapestry.

Download:
[MP3] David Daniell and Douglas McCombs- The Deshabille

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

White Rainbow

There are quite few words that spring to mind to describe Adam Forkner's work under the guise of White Rainbow, but honestly, boogie isn't usually one of them. Yet that word pops up in two titles on his latest album New Clouds. Don't get scratch your head with wonderment just yet, the Rainbow hasn't gone all T. Rex on us just yet. Perhaps in the rarefied air that surrounds the White Rainbow universe, boogie takes on a whole new meaning. Maybe slowed down and shot straight through the quark's core there is a certain slow groove that forms around Forkner's shuffling transmissions. New Clouds runs slow motion Krautrock to the precipice of consciousness, grabs sine waves by the hands and then pushes them down a hill, rolling in repeated waves of dizzying swells. New Clouds is a melt into the couch kind of record, stuck for the entirety to your spot for fear that the euphoric reverberations will cease. Hardly the kind of record that inspires from the hip gyrations but then again maybe you need to redefine how you boogie. Exactly what we were hoping for in a White Rainbow record.

Download:
[MP3] White Rainbow - All The Boogies In The World (edit)

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE

	The Carolyn Hester Coalition - The Carolyn Hester Coalition After spending some time peddling folk of the Joan Baez variety, Carolyn Hester took a stab at psychedelia. Though the results don't exactly run to the most original avenues, Hester takes a nice stab at the softer side
of psych. Largely noted as being one of the first to make steps towards the commercialization of folk, the career move doesn't seem particularly unnatural considering a burgeoning emphasis at the time on the hippie movement in general. The songs that stand the strongest are those that stray from Carolyn's straight folk path. She seemed to take naturally to the pop psych format and you know I'm a sucker for a good dose of fuzz when it comes my way. This was to be the beginning of the end for Hester's career and until recently the CHC albums were fetching mild amounts on the collector's market due to limited availability. A nice shot of sunny psych but not really touching the heights reached but Linda Perhacs, Affinity, The US of A, etc. Download: [MP3] The Carolyn Hester Coalition - Be Your Baby [MP3] The Carolyn Hester Coalition - The Journey Support the artist. Buy it: HERE