XMAL DEUTSCHLAND
GIFT: THE 4AD YEARS
2CD / 3LP
[CD] 01. Qual / 02. Geheimnis / 03. Young Man / 04. In Der Nacht / 05. Orient / 06. Hand In Hand / 07. Kaempfen / 08. Danthem / 09. Boomerang / 10. Stummes Kind / 11. Qual / 12. Sehnsucht / 13. Zeit
[CD2] 01. Mondlicht / 02. Eiland / 03. Reigen / 04. Tag für Tag / 05. Augen-blick / 06. Begrab Mein Herz / 07. Nachtschatten / 08. Xmas in Australia / 09. Derwisch / 10. Incubus Succubus II / 11. Vito
[3LP] A1. Qual / A2. Geheimnis / A3. Young Man / A4. In Der Nacht / A5. Orient / B1. Hand In Hand / B2. Kaempfen / B3. Danthem / B4. Boomerang / B5. Stummes Kind / C1. Mondlicht / C2. Eiland / C3. Reigen / C4. Tag für Tag / D1. Augen-blick / D2. Begrab Mein Herz / D3. Nachtschatten / D4. Xmas in Australia / D5. Derwisch / E1. Incubus Succubus II / E2. Vito / F1. Qual – 12” Remix / F2. Zeit / F3. Sehnsucht
Label: 4AD
A package containing both studio albums (Fetisch & Tocsin) and EPs (Qual & Incubus Succubus II) that came out via 4AD from 1983-1984. Accompanied by a 24 page photo booklet with images from Kevin Cummins, Sheila Rock, Paul Slattery + more. This edition has been remastered at Abbey Road and the artwork has been designed by Timothy O’Donnell based on the originals by v23.
The extraordinary impact Xmal Deutschland had upon British audiences in the early Eighties is difficult to convey forty years on. A spell was cast by the staccato rhythms, unmediated channels and mysterious (to us) language of their music, and by the vision and strength of the women involved. Their breakthrough support slot with Cocteau Twins and first two albums with 4AD dazzled and dug deep, speaking in tones and temperatures unlike any band before or since. “And at some point, it seemed to people we just…disappeared”, muses singer Anja Huwe. “So this myth of Xmal Deutschland just got bigger and bigger over the years…”
Gift, which will fascinate newcomers just as it feeds the faithful, is brimming with presence. And if the word “gift” in German slyly relates to a kind of poison, nobody said this music was all sweetness and light. Even if its radiance resonates, four decades later. Xmal Deutschland’s 4AD years were a bold and bewitching boomerang. The magic’s back.
Transparent red 3LP + 24-page booklet.
BRANDON
BEFORE YOU GO
CD / LTD LP
01. You Look Like Love / 02. Right Back / 03. Serotonin / 04. 2 Good / 05. Incomplete / 06. Miss u / 07. The Sun / 08. September / 09. You / 10. Seeing Stars / 11. Her Too
Label: SECRETLY CANADIAN
Following the success of Coming Clean and Blush, Brandon’s debut album with Secretly Canadian, is both deeply personal and sonically ambitious.
Written and recorded entirely in his home studio, some of the songs on Before You Go incubated for years while Brandon’s talent and resources caught up to the visions in his mind. A first-ever trip to his family home in Trinidad proved formative as well. There, Brandon’s worldview became more relaxed, more peaceful, and his music followed suit. “I learned to take my time,” he explains, “to look at life differently, and to look at people without the transactional mindset.” The result is a collection of songs that aren’t afraid to be confidently understated.
Lead single “Right Back” embodies Brandon this, with bright, minimal acoustic guitar underneath Brandon’s warm, romantic vocals. The song opens at the intersection of folk and R&B (think early Frank Ocean or Steve Lacy) but it cracks open into something bigger – a windows-down, major-key floater with wistful lyrics, a feather-light syncopated beat and an irresistible, anthemic feel.
First pressing on clear blue vinyl.
MICHAEL GRIGONI & PAN AMERICAN
NEW WORLD, LONELY RIDE
CD / LP
01. New World, Lonely Ride / 02. Sun Morning Sun / 03. Omni Country / 04. Dream of Someone / 05. Silver Streams / 06. Black River Song / 07. Mirage/Afternoon / 08. South Canyon / 09. Blue Tears Never Dry / 10. Baritone Boderlands
Label: KRANKY
Michael Grigoni and Pan•American present their first collaboration. The album’s title, New World, Lonely Ride, gestures toward its meditative orientation. The duo offers a series of reflections on the zeitgeist of our present moment, the spirit of our age: the isolation and loneliness that continues to echo in the wake of the pandemic; the fractures that mar our political discourse; the uncertainty that has stamped itself on the future of democracy. The vast geography of America and the absence of a common ground, a shared political vision, have contributed to the affective landscape of contemporary American life—of what it feels like to live in the United States today.
Using instrumental voices and textures drawn from the traditional American forms of folk, country, bluegrass and blues, and informed with a modern sense of ambience and space, the sound is both contemporary and deeply rooted. With New World, Lonely Ride, Grigoni and Pan American join countless American artists who have drawn upon this landscape—physical and affective—giving it a voice and shape, listening to its character. And in starting there, with listening, offer a response for
the future.
KIM GORDON/IKUE MORI/DJ OLIVE
SYR5 (REISSUE) 2LP
2LP
01. Olive’s Horn / 02. International Spy / 03. Neu Adult / 04. Paperbag / 05. Stuck On Gum / 06. Fried Mushroom / 07. What Do You Want / 08. Lemonade / 09. We Are The Princesses / 10. Take Me Back / 11. Take It To The Hit
Label: SYR
“Donald Duck, kill Minnie!” These words, ordered with urgency against a circular series of drum strikes and manipulated guitar/electronic textures, come over three fourths of the way through the album known as SYR 5 (aka “Olive’s Horn”). While the words and sounds taken on their own may shock, their appearance within this collaborative effort between Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth, Body/Head, solo efforts), Ikue Mori (DNA, solo) and DJ Olive (We, solo) by this point in the album are not surprising.
Taken on whole, SYR 5 sees its creators’ respective histories forged in the 80s downtown noise scene, No Wave zone and Marclay-inspired club collide head on to create the audio equivalent of a slow- playing J.G. Ballard novel. Starting from the album’s initial impressions where shimmering tones are interrupted by the sounds of winding clocks and bird calls before giving way to a cinematic sweeps of percussion, alien samples and blown out wasteland subs, the listener is constantly taken on a guided journey through a waking dream state where anything is possible. It is a world where dub samples, gurling beats and plaintive vocals (as only Gordon can deliver) fit together like the final locking puzzle pieces, the only elements needed to fully grasp a new reality.
Re-appearing on vinyl for the first time in 25 years, these sounds have proven to be jaw-droppingly timeless.
BILL CONVERSE
TRUST LP
LP
01. Live Track / 02. Key Pump / 03. Final Act / 04. Two One Three / 05. Romance / 06. Knob / 07. Wrong Again
Label: DARK ENTRIES RECORDS
Cult icon Bill Converse trots back to Dark Entries with Trust.
Converse has honed his craft since the early days of the Midwest rave scene, absorbing lessons from luminaries like Claude Young and Traxx. His skill as a producer has been cemented with releases on labels like Dark Entries, Fit Sound, and Obsolete Futures, and his prowess as a DJ has been witnessed on floors worldwide. In recent years, Converse has also pushed audiences to their lysergic limits with his sinewy and kinetic live sets, which pair classic analog boxes like the Roland TB-303 with cutting-edge modular synthesis techniques.
The 7 tracks on Trust pick up the wild energy of these live hardware explorations, channeling the splayed beats of Chicago’s Relief Records, the acidic grit of Midwest techno like Woody McBride’s Communique Records, and the hypnagogic hooks of Artificial Intelligence-era IDM. According to Converse, the abrupt changes and off-kilter rhythms are “an effort to facilitate or express trust-making in the listening experience. I want some degree of give and take with the listener.” This process makes Converse’s sound truly singular, the kind of aural landscape that can only be conjured through a lifetime of crate-digging and analog abuse – just check out the untenable funk of “Live Track” or the otherworldly groove of “Romance.”
Trust comes in a sleeve featuring artwork from Sonya Rapaport from 1986 featuring images generated with an MS-DOS computer. Converse says “I think there’s also a muscle-to-love vibe with this one.” We can trust him.
CHAT PILE
GOD’S COUNTRY LTD GRIMACE LP
There’s a sick irony to how a country that extols rhetoric of individual freedom, in the same gasp, has no problem commodifying human life as if it were meat to feed the insatiable hunger of capitalism. If this is American nihilism taken to its absolute zenith, then God’s Country, the first full length record from Oklahoma City noise rock quartet Chat Pile is the aural embodiment of such a concept.
Having lived alongside the heaps of toxic refuse that the band derives its name from, the fatalism of daily life in the American Midwest permeates throughout the works of Chat Pile, and especially so on its debut LP. Exasperated by the pandemic, the hopelessness of climate change, the cattle shoot of global capitalism, and fueled by “…lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of THC,” God’s Country is as much of an acknowledgement of the Earth’s most assured demise as it is a snarling violent act of defiance against it. Within its over 40 minute runtime, God’s Country displays both Chat Pile’s most aggressively unhinged and contemplatively nuanced moments to date, drawing from its preceding two EPs and its score for the 2021 film, Tenkiller. In the band’s own words, the album is, at its heart, “Oklahoma’s specific brand of misery.” A misery intent on taking all down with it and its cacophonous chaos on its own terms as opposed to idly accepting its otherwise assured fall. This is what the end of the world sounds like.
Limited grimace purple coloured vinyl.
