the of mirror eye

* The Pine Valley Cosmonauts: I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive (Rosie Flores) (3 mb) | The Snakes Crawl At Night (Janet Bean) (4 mb) | Sing Me Back Home (Edith Frost) (4 mb)
From The Executioner’s Last Songs Vol. 1 : Bloodshot Records : BS 074

The addendum to the rest of the title reads: The Pine Valley Cosmonauts consign songs of Murder, Mob-Law & Cruel, Cruel Punishment to the realm of Myth, Memory And History To benefit The Illinois Death Penalty Moratorium Project. Whew! Now that’s a mouthful of a title, but it pretty accurately describes what this album is all about. The Pine Valley Cosmonauts were brought together by Jon Langford who might be better known as one of the founders of the genre defying country/punk band known as The Mekons.

The Cosmonauts are one of the leaders of the new/old school country. Fairly traditional sounding country music emanates from their instruments, but with a little more of a punk edge to it. For this benefit album, they’ve invited some of the finest singers (country and otherwise) to lend their vocals to songs about death and murder. So, for your listening pleasure, we’ve got a selection of the female vocalists that grace this excellent album. First up is Rosie Flores, who I know next to nothing about. But she chimes in with an incredible cover of a classic Hank Williams song. Next up we’ve got Janet Bean, otherwise known one of the singer/guitarists with Freakwater. And last but not least, we’ve got Edith Frost who lends her considerable vocal talent to an excellent Merle Haggard song.

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It’s pretty much official. The Animal Collective put on one of the best shows that I’ve ever seen. Definitely one of the top ten for me.

* Sakarin Boonpit: Kotmorn Yoop Yap (All Shook Up) (3.5 mb)
* Suda Chuenbarn: Funky Broadway (4.5 mb)
* Pairote: Tee Makhuea Pok (Your Cheatin’ Heart) (5.0 mb)
From Thai Beat A Go-Go Volume 2 : Subliminal Sounds : subcd13

I was so blown away by the first volume in this series of Thai rock ‘n’ roll (read this) that I immediately rushed to my local record emporium when I found out that a second volume (with a third one on the way!) had been released. As I was unwrapping the shrink wrap on the CD, I was trying to imagine what new sounds were going to be spilling out of my speakers. I also wondered if this volume would be able to meet my sky high expections considering how much I loved the wild psychedelic rock sounds that Subliminal Sounds had collected for the first volume. I mean, I imagine that there’s only so much Thai rock ‘n’ roll from the 60’s to be found and I was worried that they had run out of the good stuff already. Never fear though, this volume is an incredible compilation and quite possibly surpasses the first one.

The amazing Thai Beat A Go Go vol 2, concentrates on exotic female pop and rock vocal numbers, beat, a go-go, psych and some very weird tracks, extreme sensuality and emotions, surreal and groovy, all with a totally otherworldly Thai flavor. Experience the blossoming Bangkok night club scene with the exotic bar and lounge go-go bands! There is a lot of work and effort behind these comps and they have taken a long time to compile. Records with Thai 60s-70s rock/pop a-go-go bands are incredible hard, if not impossible, to find as there is no Thai tradition of saving native artifacts from the 1960s.

(from the website)

So, this time around we’ve got a bunch of cover songs for you. Sakarin Boonpit starts us off with All Shook Up. It’s kind of disorienting to hear the verses sung in Thai with the chorus in English. Next up, Suda Chuenbarn delivers with an incredible version of Funky Broadway. Definitely a wonderfully awkward sort of soul/funk track. And last but not least we’ve got Pairote with an absolutely fascinating version of Your Cheatin’ Heart. Listen carefully at about a minute and forty into the song where things get extremely weird.

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I have no idea where/when my obsession with Wisconsin started. But for further proof of my thesis that Wisconsin is a magical wonderland, check out the Land of Evermor. It’s quite possibly one of my most favoritest places on this planet. Pictures don’t do this place any sort of justice though, you’ve really gotta go and visit this place in order to appreciated the magnitude of Dr. Evermor’s vision. An absolutely breathtaking place.

* Lau Nau: Kuula (4 mb) | Puuportti rautaportilta (4 mb) | Kivi maurenee jolla kavelee (4 mb)
From Kuutarha : Locust Music : Locust66

So it went something like this: A couple of months ago, I walked into my local record emporium. The owner looks at me as I approach the counter and lifts up a box of cds onto the counter, indicating that I should browse through all the cds that have just come in. I rifle through them, pausing at a new Henry Flynt release. I thought about getting that one, but decided against it because I’ve got a bunch of his stuff that I haven’t really gotten to listen to yet. But as I continue through the box, this release by Lau Nau caught my eye.

And it was then that the owner says, “You’ll probably want that one”. I looked at the cover, with it’s weird line drawings of “exotic” instruments and it’s alien language song titles and asked, “What is it?”. “It’s Finnish psychedelic folk”, he replied. My interest was definitely piqued, but I put it back and started browsing through the rest of the store. I found a couple of other things that I’d been looking for, but for some reason, was really only thinking about the strangely compelling idea of “Finnish psychedelic folk”. I kept wondering what that must sound like. So I went back to the counter and bought it. And it’s had a steady rotation in my cd/mp3 player ever since.

This whole album is stunning. Simple as that. These songs are deceptively simple, but there’s alot going on there. The melodies are hauting and the addition of various stringed instruments maintain a sense of otherworldliness. I could bore you with details of the emerging Finnish free folk scene, of Laura Naukkarinen (Lau Nau herself) and her involvement with various bands in the scene. Of their commitment to the DIY aesthetic, homemade analog recordings and combining various aspects of Indian raga drones, minimalism, experimental and native folk into their music. But I think that would just get in the way of enjoying the music. So just sit back and allow yourself to revel in the mystery and sense of “other” that this lady brings to the table.

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* William Parker - In Order To Survive: For Robeson (7.5 mb) | Holiday For Hypocrites (11.0 mb)
From Compassion Seizes Bed-Stuy : Homestead Records : HMS231-2

For longer than I’ve been alive, William Parker has been pouring his heart and soul into making some of the most important free jazz sounds out there. He’s played with an incredible number of gifted/brilliant free jazz musicians. In fact, if you want to seek out more about this genre, all you have to do is follow the path that William Parker has blazed.

I first heard about Mr. Parker from an interview he did with the totally excellent, but sadly defunct zine, Tuba Frenzy. Luckily, I just happened to read that interview during a particularly impressionable period in my musical searchings. I’d just started to get into jazz, but was kind of bored with the traditional stuff. I knew that there had to be more out there but just didn’t know where to look. Luckily, Tuba Frenzy pointed me in the right direction by introducing me to the wonderful sound world of Mr. William Parker.

William Parker is involved in so many different groups that it’s hard to pinpoint a favorite. In Order To Survive though, is perhaps my favorite group of his. It’s a quartet that features some of the most innovative/genius free musicians out there.

In Order To Survive is the name of the ensemble. It draws its name from the words, “In order to survive we must sometimes die many, many times in one lifetime.” Those in the music business say this music can only be so successful. I say there is no limit to what we can do for each other as human beings.

The music uses an invocation system as a base. Melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic phrases are used to create [the] compositions….The musicians on this CD - Rob Brown, Cooper Moore, Susie Ibarra - are spontanteous composers in the true spirit of creative music.

(from the liner notes)

To many people, free jazz is not a pleasurable thing to listen to. Most of the people I’ve talked to about it say that they just don’t really understand the music and that it sounds like a bunch of noise. Honestly though, this music is so hard to describe/explain that there’s pretty much no point in attempting to do such a thing. My best advice is to just listen with an open mind and be ready to receive some of the most exciting sounds out there.

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Apparently, this album is out of print, but The Peach Orchard on Aum Fidelity (which is a great label to get all your free jazz goodies), is a readily available document of this incredible group.

* Konono Nr. 1: Kule Kule (5.5 mb) | Mama Liza (13.5 mb)
From Congotronics : Crammed Discs : Craw 27

I forget which audio blog first introduced me to wild, mulit-layered sounds of Konono Nr. 1, but I’m definitely glad that they did. This group is a wild trip through the city streets of the Congo. They make sounds that, while utterly foreign, still sound strangely familiar. The main core of this group are a trio of electric metal thumb pianos called the likembe. The likembe is a series of metal rods connected to a resonator. The rest of the group consists of makeshift percussion, dancers and singers. It’s a riotous affair that threatens to fall into chaos but never does.

The most intriguing part of their sound is a result of their use of DIY/homebrewed electronics. They make everything - sound system, mixers, instruments, etc - from old magnets and discarded car parts. The result is an incredibly distorted sound that they’ve incorporated into their overall aesthetic.

…these are musicians who left the bush to settle in the capital and who, in order to keep fulfilling their social role and make themselves heard by the ancestors (and, more concretely, by their fellow citizens) despite the high level of urban noise, have had to resort to do-it-yourself amplification of their instruments, and to the megaphones (conical speakers), which they call “lance-voix”, i.e. “voice-throwers”. This makeshift electrification has provoked a radical mutation of their sound, and accidentally connected them with the aesthetics of experimental rock and electronic music, as much through the sounds they use as through the sheer volume of their performances (they play in front of a wall of speakers) and their merciless grooves.

(from the liner notes)

So, crank that stereo up to 11 and be prepared for the earth shaking grooves that are about to come pouring out of your speakers.

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Apparently, our fair city (Chicago), has been blessed by the appearance of the Virgin Mary on the side of an expressway viaduct. Wow, is all I’ve got to say about that.

* Animal Collective: 02 (unknown) | Leaf House
From Live At The Bowery Ballroom : Aug 15, 2004 : New York City, New York

With band names like Panda Bear, Avey Tare, Geologist and Deakin, you’d maybe expect the Animal Collective (here and here) to sound like a bunch of aging hippies in a percussion circle surrounding a camp fire. But that would definitely be the wrong way to think about this collective of brooklynites. Their sound, while firmly planted in the psychedelic free-folk genre, manages to evolve from song to song. And along with their traditional instruments, they also incorporate glitches and washes of electronics into their cacophonous sound. One of my favorite aspects of this band is the childlike naivete in their approach to music. I can totally picture a bunch of wide eyed/bushy tailed kids, amazed at the sounds they can produce.

Their sound is everywhere and nowhere. Informed by the psychedelic freak-outs of 90s west coast isolationists like Caroliner and Sun City Girls, the emotional hooks and bursts of punk, the textures and structures of minimal techno (a la the Kompakt label), the earthiness of sixties utopians Amon Duul and Can, and the organic looseness of the best of the free and improvised music world, the Animal Collective simply cannot be pinned down.

The Animal Collective are creating the new spiritual music for the 21st century: music that is aware of tradition without being tied down to it; music unconcerned with borders and definitions. Here Comes the Indian promises transcendence, intensity, articulation, and the sublime. A passionate and mind-altering new narrative has been unleashed.

(from the Paw Tracks site)

This group has been around for awhile, but I’ve only just now become hipped to their sound. I’d heard about them before due to the incredible amount of underground press that they’ve generated but, being the contrarian that I am, avoided hearing them because I couldn’t believe that they were that good. But boy am I ever glad that I got over that and finally listened to them. They’ve consistently blown me away and everytime I listen to one of their albums, I experience something new. These tracks are from a beautifully recorded concert from last year. And if this is a typical Animal Collective concert, then I’m totally preparing to have my mind blown when I see them later this week.

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