the of mirror eye

* antena: camino del sol (5 mb) | to climb the cliff (4.5 mb) | the boy from ipanema (4 mb)
from camino del sol : numero group : 002

wow. i haven’t been this enchanted with a record label in a long time. i suppose this happened when i first started getting into indie music in the mid ’90s. i quickly latched onto a couple of great indie labels. thrill jockey, matador and touch and go/quarterstick records and eagerly sought out their records. the second time this happened in the late ’90s when i started getting into avant/improv/psych music and learned about these great labels, aum fidelity, eremite and psf records. these were labels that i associated with quality releases. releases that i would buy (back when i had more money) even if i didn’t know who the artists were, simply because i trusted those labels.

numero group is another such label. this label specializes in dredging up long neglected music from the past and exposing them to a whole new audience. the albums are wonderfully designed and impeccably researched. antena were a french group formed in 1981 out of love for electronic sounds and latin rhythms. they were met with indifference in france, but quickly found a label home in brussels.

at the heart of all this lies antena. critically ignored in their time, the group might have found greater success if they were more like their english contemporaries. while they shared a love for analog synthesizers and drum machines, they split away at the crossroads of dance music, opting instead for more of a saturday evening dinner party sound than the friday night pop of pills and pints. antena were the sound of margaritas and a deck of cards; for charads and bellini; for impromptu bathing-suit-optional pool parties.

(from the liner notes)

this is fantastic music. for a point of reference, they sound almost like stereolab or the high llamas, but with an ethnic flair and a lighter touch. i encourage everyone to seek out this release and you can order it from their website if you can’t find it in a brick and mortar establishment.

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- i actually did go and see why should the devil have all the good music? and it totally ruled. it was a great portrayal of christian rock and was at times funny, frustrating and informative. great stuff!

- hallelujah! jandek on corwood is finally released on dvd. this is a movie that i’ve anticipated so much that i’m recommending it without having even seen it. this is a documentary based on the life and times of jandek. only he doesn’t actually appear on the film. until recently, no one even really knew what he looked like, as he refused to give interviews, live performances, etc. his only connection with the outside world was his label, corwood.

the longest-running, weirdest, loneliest enigma in popular music is a guy from texas who calls himself jandek. 25 years, 35 albums and not a single live show orpublic appearance. the documentary film jandek on corwood definitively explores the most intriguing mystery in modern music. featuring revealing interviws, evocative imagery and one of the most bizarre and compelling soundtracks in film history, jandek on corwood will challenge the viewer’s conception of music, art and the nature of celebrity.

at any rate. he recently had a live performance! only, in typical jandekian(?) fashion, there was no publication of the event and no one knew he was performing. even if you have no idea who this fello is, this is a must have movie.