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Updated 9/31/02 Release dates [among other things] subject to change. Our mailorder pages feature all the titles below-- and more-- sorted by release date at the following links:
9/30/02
10/14/02
10/21/02, and
10/28/02.
Our September 2002 new release page can be found here.
 ABDULLAHGraveyard Poetry (METEORCITY MCY026) CD Released the week of September 30th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder During the last three decades of rock, the most resilient bands have either found a sound early on and made it their own, single-mindedly delivering on that stylistic promise and nothing more, or else engaged in exploration of new sounds and styles, certain of never growing stagnant or possible to pigeonhole.
Graveyard Poetry finds Abdullah heading in the latter direction. The resonating, melancholy darkness of the first album is still here on tracks like "Pantheistic," "Salamander," and "Secret Teachings of Lost Ages," which continue Abdullah's sovereignty in the former kingdom of Sabbath and Vitus. But beyond the familiar melodic-doom mastery, listeners will also hear the band casting out into other frontiers: "Strange Benedictions" resurrects the raucous ghost of Thin Lizzy in their prime; "Deprogrammed" and "Guided By The Spirit" extol the virtues of NWoBHM stalwarts Diamondhead; and "They, The Tyrants" drinks deeply from the dense aggression of Venom.
No one can anticipate when a talented and already accomplished band will veer toward the riskier, more experimental path that rock icons from Pink Floyd to Fugazi to Wilco have embarked on before them... but as fans, nothing is more exciting than to recognize it happening, and to reap the kind of rewards Graveyard Poetry offers.
Full of brilliantly haunting expositions which suggest Abdullah are more than capable of holding their own with the Queens Of The Stone Age, or even (ulp!) Radiohead. One of the year's greatest finds. --Metal Hammer
There is something extremely comforting about Abdullah's hazy blanket of laid back, melodic doom-rock ... demanding you nod off into its steady, morose grooves until it turns your blues black. Quietly brilliant. --Terrorizer
The arrangements are clean, the production is near flawless (sounds fantastic on a pair of Bose), the lyrics are among the best this doomhead has heard in the genre, and there is a clear-cut juxtaposition between beauty and dread in each soulful tune which makes the whole damn thing awfully compelling. --UltimateMetal.com
Released the week of October 14th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder
Over the course of four studio albums, The Aluminum Group has created a sound that's simultaneously futuristic and retro, a potent cocktail of atmospheric electronica, slinky soul and old-school easy listening. The band's lineup shifts subtly with each release, but the core is always brothers Frank and John Navin, who've had a strong idea of what they wanted the band to do since they started it-- manage song structures with a blend of traditional ideas and new interpretations with a revitalizing, contemporary feel. Only in the twisted, intelligent minds of the brothers Navin could such worlds collide. Swimming in lush orchestrations reminiscent of vintage Brian Wilson, Happyness is a pop album filled with melodies that work their way into the listener's brain. The ten new songs here benefit from contributions from some of the independent music world's most exciting artists: members of Tortoise, The Sea And Cake, Rebecca Gates of The Spinanes, and many more.
Released the week of October 28th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder
To say Devendra Banhart is unique is an absurd understatement. When I first heard the voice of this completely unknown, precociously talented 21-year-old songwriter, I could not believe it. His occasionally warbling falsetto is alternately bizarre, comical, and often a little frightening. Coupled with his advanced finger-picking guitar style-- which itself often veers schizophrenically from gentle grooves into jolting, non-rhythmic stabs and weird harmonic flights of chaos-- and the wildly surreal nature of his truly exceptional lyrics, each of the 21 songs on this CD (some of which clock in at about 30 seconds) contain their own special drama and immediately memorable melodies-- no mean feat when your instrumentation is acoustic guitar and voice, with only the occasional hand clap or whistle thrown in as "orchestration." In a popular music environment inundated with computer and electronically generated sound and sanitized ProTools mixes, it's a tremendous relief to hear something so ridiculously compelling, low-tech, utterly personal, and hand-made. The songs were recorded on various borrowed and usually broken 4-track cassette recorders by Banhart himself in various haphazard locations around the globe. These recordings were made solely for himself, and they're better for it-- devoid of any self-consciousness or artifice, just utterly personal and idiosyncratic, magically twisted and imaginative.
All kinds of comparisons that might be relevant in describing Banhart-- from Marc Bolan's pre-T. Rex recordings to Daniel Johnston, to Nick Drake's inner purity and pathos, to Karen Dalton (one of Banhart's idols).
--Michael Gira/Young God Records
Released the week of September 30th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder
Since his first self-released record at the tender age of sixteen, twenty-year-old college dropout and spastic wunderkind from Baltimore Cex has been breaking molds left and right, burning a path with his fiery combination of ambition, humor, and brutal honesty. After a year of almost non-stop touring, during which he perfected his uncanny synthesis of showmanship and intimacy, Cex (born Rjyan Kidwell) finally recorded his third full-length album. Cex's first two albums, Role Model and Oops, I Did It Again! are regarded as unprecedented classics among followers of ambitious left-field electronic music. Because of his penchant for complex beats and catchy melodies, Kidwell has garnered critical acclaim from mainstream and underground press alike for bringing daring pop sensibilities and sensitivity to a genre mostly frequently strapped for personality or accessibility.
His quick wit and bona-fide mic skills have delighted music fans of many persuasions: hip-hop heads, indie rockers, electronic music geeks, and even the occasional frat boy. After refining everything about his sound in the forge of the ultimate live show, the much-anticipated album version of Cex's unique blend of hip-hop, experimental electronic music, and pure pop is finally ready for the world to absorb and admire. And you know it will.
Released the week of October 14th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder
The first single off of Cex's upcoming full-length album Tall, Dark, & Handcuffed is a wicked little chameleon that escaped from the tangled brain of Rjyan Kidwell. "Bad Acne" is a bouncy hip-hop track perfectly comfortable with its beautiful blemishes, content to be a radio party jam, a radical manifesto, a venomous battle rap, and an emo ritual all at once. Cex duets with his hometown pal MC Height on "K-12 Days of Hell," a song breaking down the frightening and awkward experience of grade school. "Ghost Rider" got fifteen-hundred people in Spain shouting "Get on your bikes and ride!" at the Sonar festival (and we all know that many Spaniards can't be wrong). People may debate whether this is cutting-edge underground hip-hop, an abrupt return to the old-school attitudes, the antidote to weak, early '80s hard-rock revival nonsense, or some kind of incoherent satire, but while the dickheads argue, Kidwell will be making more tracks that move asses to the dancefloor. Or he'll be watching MTV. One or the other.
Track listing:
1. Bad Acne Released the week of October 28th, 2002
order from Midheaven mailorder DFI is nothing if not an enigma. Unlike busily touring contemporaries the Fucking Champs and Orthrelm (both of whom DFI have performed with on various occasions), DFI has largely been a private affair, focusing on a dedicated following that is organically growing in number. DFI's performance at last year's Honey Bear Records' South By Southwest showcase at Sound Exchange in Austin was a highlight of the show and one of the best performances of the whole event.
Each DFI release has been an exercise in perfecting the craft of intellectual metal. Dave Didonato's fretwork is immaculat-- far removed from entertainment and deep within the realms of mathematics and scientific experiment.
The bulk of this CD is made up of the highlights from DFI's first two now-out-of-print full length releases. For the first time DFI's music will be accessible to the many dazzled audiences who have seen him perform with the likes of Last of the Juanitas, Cherry Valance, Rye Coalition, Avail, Crom Tech, Cathedral, and many, many others.
Cover versions on this album include songs by Ulver and Human Thurma, and an incredible version of "Flight Of The Bumble-Bee." The cover art includes original art by Snake Pit comics artist, Ben White.
Released the week of October 28th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder From the mind and decks of the mysterious DJ Broken Window-- an unnamed longtime American IDM legend known for his plunderphonics who also releases electro on labels from the UK, Europe and the USA-- come pop song mash-ups that go far down the path forged by Evolution Control Committee and the early '8¯s dancefloor-pop-oriented Slingshot 12-inches. These are not lo-fi, chopped up, lobotomized collages of MP3s, but incredibly well researched, selectively re-layered entire songs-- vocals and instrumentals-- from tracks pulled from the rare and clean vinyl in Broken Window's ridiculous and massive record collection.
Unbelievably smooth tunings and compositional alignments are in effect as Broken Window finds entire instrumentals and a cappella songs that fit together. In other words, every verse and chorus line up because the songs have exactly the same structure-- to freaky and hilarious effect, not to mention seeming like uncannily legit collaborations by artists who are generations, genres, and continents apart. For example: R&B vox over late '60s moog classics; Miami rap over obscure Canadian synth-pop; '60s garage-psych over '90s Detroit electro; Tahitian islanders sing and chant with techno lock grooves; children sing over commercial hip hop club tunes; IDM meets prog-rockers-gone-pop.
Beyond this, there are numerous conceptual links connecting the elements Broken Window chooses for his mash-ups. He truly raises the bar on the whole art of making boots. Avant-musicology inside jokes aside, Parallel Universe Vol.1 keeps on course toward the real checkered flag-- pop music for dancing at your next house party.
Released the week of October 28th, 2002
order from Midheaven mailorder James Luther Dickinson is perhaps the best known unknown musician Memphis has ever produced. As a band leader, session musician and producer, his legacy stretches back to the early '60s, when he started out in garage rock bands like Flash and the Memphis Casuals. He developed into a session musician who was involved in recordings by a number of legendary artists at Ardent, Stax and for Sam Phillips. He played the piano on The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" and can be seen in the studio with the Stones in the film Gimme Shelter. In the late '60s he was part of amazing house studio band called The Dixie Flyers. Jerry Wexler, impressed by their ability to play just about any style, signed them to Atlantic to back various artists he'd sign to the label. During this time the Dixie Flyers backed Aretha Franklin, Sam and Dave, Lulu, Delaney and Bonnie and many others. Wexler decided to sign the Flyers on to do their own album so that they might become a band in their own right and begin touring, something in which the Dixie Flyers had no interest. Dickinson convinced Wexler to allow him to do a solo album instead. The resulting album was Dixie Fried-- nine tracks of pure southern fried boogie. Dickinson got the cream of local talent to participate on this album, including Dr. John and Charlie Freeman. The album has been out of print for decades and fetches a high dollar in collectors' circles. Dickinson later went on to be involved in the careers of Alex Chilton (he produced and played on the legendary Like Flies On Sherbert album and Big Star's final album), as well as producing and playing with such notables as Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, Mudhoney, Spiritualized, and Jon Spencer, among others.
Fads and movements come and go, but The Fall remain one of life's great constants-- for many, a guiding light, even a comfort-- which might strike a non-subscriber as pretty odd, so coarse and unfriendly is the noise they make. It's more than just difficult, it is wrong, ill-fitting, obtuse and alienating. Not only that, their singer can't, and doesn't, sing, it all sounds the same, and you never get lyric sheets with their records. It's nothing so glib as not being able to pigeonhole The Fall-- every band in the world claims to elude classification. It's just that they refuse to bow down and become a known quantity. It is their defiant, beautiful eccentricity that keeps even the most ardent observer guessing, and the band's membership constantly ticking over. Such is the depth and insatiability of Mark E. Smith's vision, every time The Fall loses a limb, another one grows in its place.--Andrew Collins, New Musical Express
Pretentious, preposterous and some say perfect, The Fall have defined willful obscurity from the outset. Initially dismissed as "students" by their juvenile peers, The Fall were a band concerned more with art than attrition-- the chaos and controversy employed by McLaren's Sex Pistols played as forgone conclusions to the truly literate. Yet even amid erudite peers such as Wire and marquee-mates Joy Division, the Fall were singularly aloof. If punk were ever about self-determinate idealism, Mark E. Smith reigns unchallenged as its king. Tone deaf and ghoulish, Smith was, in a sense, the first genuine successor to punk forefather Iggy Pop. Few performers before or since have so thoroughly confounded and antagonized an audience. --Chris Ott, Pitchfork
Released the week of September 30th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder
[Originally released in 1991, Shift-Work reinvents] The Fall as easy listening. Smooth, almost non-existent guitar lines, gentle puffy production, dance-y drumming, Mark E. Smith actually singing.... Smooth dance and pop, most of it really pleasant. "Idiot Joy Showland," "Pittsville Direkt," "High Tension Line," and "You Haven't Found It Yet" are my dreamtime companions, but "The Book Of Lies" is ... like Tom Jones or something.... The mood is a truly relaxing one.... More cohesive than Extricate, and a very interesting way to handle the post-Brix crisis. Never released in the U.S. --markprindle.com
Released the week of September 30th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder "Like Shiftwork, but not quite as easy-listening. "The Birmingham School Of Business School" ... with that shimmery metallic sample..., "Free Range" and "Return" are punky (yet smooth) and memorable. The rest is more sedate ... like a dentist's office. The last song is a bunch of drunken profanity, and nothing in this whole wide Christian world beats cussing." -markprindle.com
Released the week of October 21st, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder "The Fall's second album, recorded over a period of three days during August 1979... full of the sort of angular atonality and shouty obstreperousness that The Fall's music was packed full of back then (and, to be fair, is not exactly bereft of these days), best demonstrated on classics like "Psykick Dancehall" and the lurching "Muzorewi's Daughter." Like just about nothing else on Earth..." --The Past Archives
A dark experimental recording, with strange tempos and a wide range of influences. Smith's lyrics are full of outrageous rhymes and complex images reeking of hatred, injustice and fear. At the time NME called the band "influential, arrogant, accurately hypercritical of rock apathy."
Released the week of October 21st, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder "An immediate Fall album; cosmetically impressive, even on first spin, it grabs your lapels and itches your feet. Inevitably, as you gently open your ears to its host of subtexts, you'll find the specifics equally as satisfying. Mark's suffering was obviously worth it. Three different producers-- Coldcut, Adrian Sherwood and Craig Leon." --NME
When Brix divorced Mark E. Smith and left the Fall in 1989, it marked a shift back to the darker, more chaotic (though "boldly dance-oriented") sound of their early albums, as shown on this first post-Brix album from 1990.
Released the week of October 21st, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder "A move away from supposed overproduction ... that went into Hex Enduction Hour.... To differentiate this one from those before it, Mark E. Smith forced players to sit out the recordings of certain tracks and kinda had the others go at it without telling them what the songs were supposed to do.... As a result, a few of these tracks seem disturbingly directionless.... No problem-- the songs are still great. They're tighter, less abstract, and more traditionally one-drum-kit-sounding than the Hex tunes, and sort of (in a way) more accessible." --markprindle.com
Released the week of October 21st, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder Compilation of singles dating from 1990 to 1992.
Released the week of October 21st, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder "During 1978, Mark E. Smith replaced The Fall's bassist with Marc Riley and the keyboardist with Yvonne Pawlett because they wanted to make the Fall more accessible. The new lineup recorded the band's first full-length album, Live at the Witch Trials, which was released in 1979." --Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
This classic album ... firmly placed The Fall at the screaming edge of rock. Eleven songs, recorded in one or two takes, that contain elements of what were to be many of The Fall's recurring themes: realism, surrealism and paranoia. The band describe Live at the Witch Trials as "head music with energy."
Released the week of October 28th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder
Originally written as a follow-up to The Drama Of Alienation (Honest Don's / Fat Wreck Chords, 1997), this is the album that was sideswiped when J Church imploded after a year of touring. Leader Lance Hance's subsequent hospitalization completely sealed the fate of these songs until now.
Before he started writing about heart medication and dying, Hahn's songs dealt with Wim Wenders, the Jazz Butcher, and the revolution. Much of the music dates from a pre-Drama era when he was still working as guitarist for Beck. The open tunings, naïve slide guitar work, and harmonic melodies can all be traced back to that happier time when J Church was toying with the idea of signing to a major label (which explains the occasional long, drawn-out, Neil Young-inspired solo).
The original tracks are joined by a handful of other unreleased songs, some updated vocals and covers of "Blasé" (Archie Shepp) and "Not Proud Of The USA" (The Mice).
Brainy and melodic but not wimpy DIY punk rock. --Giant Robot
Quality emo pop punk. --Maximum Rock'n'Roll
One of the great unappreciated treasures of San Francisco. --Hit List Possibly the most literate lyrics I have ever heard in a punk context. --Skratch
Released the week of September 30th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder
A collaboration between Kid606 and celebrated New Jersey hiphop trio Dälek, known for their constant touring, highly gifted lyricism, stream-of-consciousness rhyming, forward-thinking, bomb-squad rhythms, and Big Black-inspired clusters of noise. Alternately moving between languid arrangements reminiscent of vintage Amiri Baraka fronting free jazz ensembles to synth-driven glitch hop and Chain-Reaction-meets-digital-hardcore, Kid606's contributions evoke a sense of darkness and confrontation (in place of his customary in-your-face rhythmic assaults or clouds of blissful ambience). If the swirling sax-like sounds of the original "Ruin It, Ruin Them, Ruin Yourself, Then Ruin Me," and the faux-sitar processes don't defy your expectations, the gorgeous CD-only track, "Vague Recollection" will knock you flat with austere, distorted allusions to an overheated Hammond organ.
Track listing
1. Ruin It, Ruin Them, Ruin Yourself, Then Ruin Me (Dälek remix)
*denotes CD-only tracks
Released the week of October 28th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder
Kid606 goes to Miami for some serious bass knowledge, full-on, hands-in-the-air, balls-out ghetto jam hardcore-style. Underground break-core rising star Xanopticon takes his 250-bpm demon-induced sonic warfare (think Venetian Snares meets Richard Devine and you're close) a couple steps further with a little help from a special guest.
Released the week of September 30th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder Henry Frayne, a man with a delay pedal, a wall of reverb, the passion to record a wide range of ambient space and a trusty guitar, recorded Sands' rough tracks on his own over the course of several weeks, turning on the tape machine when the spirit moved him and going wherever an interesting chord would take him. Additional drum loops and vocals bring the songs' ethereal melodies to the forefront. At times, this primarily instrumental album harks back to early psychedelic sonic washes a la Pink Floyd. Other times, there's a sense of traveling forward into the future where music has become the fully fleshed-out animal that current songs only hint at. In any case, it is always intended to serve as a soundtrack to whatever movie the mind might conjure. No true genre need apply.
Frayne issued the first Lanterna release in the early 90s as a handmade, limited edition cassette box. Label interest led to a Parasol Records release in a special letter-pressed package by Bruce Licher (IPR, Savage Republic, Scenic). Rykodisc issued an album with a special photo-book in 1998 to glowing reviews and a swelling cult audience. In 2001, Badman released Lanterna's Elm Street, which was met with 4-star reviews and supported by a US tour.
The Lanterna sound is ideal for a drive down some lonely highway late at night. It's a guitar sound that conjures up the soul of the night, not in a spooky way, but in portraying nighttime's quiet and empty spaces
Released the week of October 14th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder
The Sound Interface Device 6581 chip (aka SID) was developed for the Commodore 64 in 1981 by Robert Yannes. Its three tone oscillators (plus limited sampling) were responsible for some of the most memorable video game music of the '8¯s. But what most of us don't know is that lurking just beneath the world of video game music, a network of underground producers began composing dance tracks for the SID chip. Committed to pushing the SID 6581 to its limits, these producers made extreme and extremely catchy electro, drum'n'bass, and some twisted kind of gabber, all forever committed to 8-bits. The tracks on this compilation range from classy electro-pop to hilarious cover versions of '80s and '90s favorites to full-out knuckle-dragging, head-banging Lode Runner-core. This nearly hour-long SID Party Massive, continuously mixed by DJ Brotha P Touch (aka longtime sonic terrorist Lesser), delivers a home-computed punches to the groin and the funny bone, while serving as both a history of the do-it-yourself-ness of electronic music and the future of dancing your ass off.
Released the week of October 14th, 2002
order from Midheaven mailorder The structure of Lysine appears to be one of utmost simplicity. Sunny-day synth stabs maintain a syncopated three-note pattern almost constantly throughout the title track, while sweet daytime-radio female vocals (courtesy of Ben Jacobs' sister Becky) deliver a witty tribute to the benefits of the eponymous amino acid. It is testament to Jacobs' subtlety as the composer, producer and instrumentalist behind this apparently straightforward pop song (from which highly complex and unconventional elements emerge upon repeated listens). Careful attention to the detailed drum programming reveals that there is not a single repeated pattern throughout the song's four minutes. Even when the vocals recede to place this layer of the music center stage, the aggression that usually accompanies such carefully designed percussion is restrained in order to allow the dominant riff the supremacy that good pop sense dictates. The result is therefore rewarding to both the casual and the discerning ear, as Max Tundra finds yet another way to blur the distinction between lightweight pop and inventive exuberance.
The single's unusual combination of restlessness and restraint is taken to another extreme on the aptly titled "Souse!," a jaunty stomp without the jaunty stomp. Its compelling sense of implied rhythm makes the extreme delicacy of the percussive layer all the more remarkable.
Jacobs eschews percussion altogether on the closing ten-minute piano work "Our Syllabub." This taut, ambitious composition prepares the listener for the full length Mastered By Guy at The Exchange, where Jacobs employs his instrumental as well as his electronic abilities.
Released the week of October 28th, 2002 order from Midheaven mailorder
Anything even remotely blues-influenced was thought to be pretty much beyond the pale until a short while ago. Dan Melchior has been playing his own twisted and driving take on barebones rock'n'roll for several years now, making appearances on over 20 commercially released recordings while constantly honing his own lyrical attack and idiosyncratic way with a tune.
Influences as disparate as Creedence, The Fall, and William Blake blend seamlessly, especially in his most fully realized work to date, Bitterness, Spite, Rage and Scorn, the second album on In The Red Records by Melchior and the Broke Revue. With Bruno Meyrick Jones on guitar, Brad Truax on bass, and Greg Anderson on drums holding a rock-steady yet fluid groove behind him, Melchior holds forth with an uncompromising and extremely articulate vision and voice. The playing of the band is suberb, disciplined yet funky. Longtime collaborator Jones really shines on this recording, while Truax and Anderson shift effortlessly from one muscular groove to another.
The engineering expertise and general sonic know-how of Mike McHugh helps the band push their sound into unexpected avenues, resulting in eclectic but cohesive album, delivered with the intensity and fire In The Red fans have every right to expect.
Like his buddy Wild Billy Childish, Dan Melchior plunders elderly American musical styles ... and then rams 'em back home to us as outpourings of some eccentric and curmudgeonly Brit weirdo who's sorta like an overamped Doc Boggs.... Melchior ... freely combine[s] second-hand Delta blues with .... grimy murder ballads from England and Appalachia, and update[s] them thru the Toe Rag studio school of crooked-teeth charm.... His voice sounds lots like Childish or mebbe like Ben from The Country Teasers, and the Broke Revue sounds like the Headcoats playing an all-request covers set at Junior Kimbrough's blues joint the night the place burned to the ground. -Jon Sarre, Lollipop
Released the week of October 28th, 2002
order from Midheaven mailorder On Maximin, the music of the seminal minimalist composer Charlemagne Palestine is reconfigured and reiterated by David Coulter and Jean-Marie Mathoul, in full co-operation and collaboration with Mr. Palestine. Coulter and Mathoul have taken previously recorded works of Mr. Palestine and-- with the full respect due these often transcendent and sacred works-- have interwoven new and/or found sounds, drones, and unexpected textures into an ever-shifting flow that brings new light to these deeply soulful, sonic-sculptural emanations. Recontextualizing the pure and spiritual force of nature that Mr. Palestine's music represents could be a risky musical undertaking, but Coulter and Mathoul pull it off beautifully, inspired solely by their love of and respect for the original works themselves. The mixes have an authentic, handmade sensibility, and even when electronics are occasionally introduced, retain an organic feel.
David Coulter is an experimental, forward-looking UK composer and multi-instrumentalist whose history includes working in various capacities with the Pogues, Test Dept., The Kronos Quartet, Marc Ribot, Yoko Ono, Roger Eno, and many others. He has recently contributed sounds to, and has orchestrated a children's choir for the new Angels of Light album, in progress.
Jean-Marie Mathoul is a sound manipulator and collagist who sometimes collaborates with Coulter. He lives in Brussels, Belgium.
-Michael Gira / Young God Records
Tracklisting
1. Jamaica Heinekens in Brooklyn revisited #1
Though Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and La Monte Young are hailed as the pioneers of minimalist music, the portfolio of Charlemagne Palestine is equally reductive, relentless, and compelling.... Not to be confused with vacuous New Age pabulum, Palestine's work offers sonic sculptures to be thoroughly inspected and savored at every moment. --Dean Suzuki, www.wired.com
There's a transcendent timelessness about Charlemagne Palestine's music that makes me feel as if it will always be around.... Like Phill Niblock, Tony Conrad, Philip Corner or Yoshi Wada, Charlemagne Palestine ... is one of minimalist music's unjustly neglected figures, known to the lucky cognoscenti but perhaps too austere to survive the commercial crossover of late '70s minimalist music... --Brian Duguid, www.hyperreal.org
Released the week of October 28th, 2002
order from Midheaven mailorder Shunting aside all pretense of retro-rock irony and designer furniture store etiquette, Swedish postpunk techno misfit Dwayne Sodahberk gives us a seventeen-song collection of excitingly memorable songs painstakingly composed and improvised with just the right balance between egghead super-collider DSP impacts and raw drum machine beats, twisted modular synth stabs, the occasional glitch, and melodic guitar workouts.
With a handful of EPs for his own Stuporsonika label and appearances on numerous compilations under his belt, as well as the occasional Absolut Vodka or Saab advertisement, Sodahberk has been quietly making a name for himself since 2000 with driving techno pieces that incorporate ambient elements and bursts of noise similar to the sounds championed by labels like Force Inc., Perlon and Kompakt. But Sodahberk is more than just a fresh face on the minimal techno scene, and this first album is a fabulous debut full-length full of dramatic dirges and delicate processes. Deeply inspired by all forms of music, he cites diverse influences-- from Unsane, Blonde Redhead, The Seeds, and Velvet Underground to Autechre, Super_Collider, Fennesz and Mike Ink. Quite possibly the most mature and promising long player to date for Tigerbeat6, Sodahberk's debut will receive a lot of recognition for its eclectic, daring, carefully composed electronica.
Released the week of October 14th, 2002
order from Midheaven mailorder Eleven tracks of pure musical reinvention and rebirth by these Providence, Rhode Island, ex-pats-- orchestral in scope but punk at heart; forsaking ambience for drums; turning down the synths and pads and turning up the guitars and samples. Freshly inspired by relocation to Austin, Texas, Stars As Eyes composed these songs on piano and guitar (without completely ignoring samples), from minimal to psychedelic to IDM to krautrock to electro to Providence rock. It's a stellar change of pace from their debut CD Freedom Rock-- heavier, thicker, more intense, yet cognizant of their emo-IDM roots. Songs like "The French Method" and "Suspension Days" contain a subtle, sustained beauty unequaled by their previous output, with melodies that would make Mum, To Rococo Rot or Boards of Canada proud. "Important Youth Movement" is a slice of inspired electro-kraut with off-kilter, deadly guitar stabs, pounding drums and searing synth lines that build to a fever pitch and land in a soothing bed of soft breaks, piano, and a lullaby of strings worthy of Aphex Twin. Like a third of Flying Saucer Attack and half of Autechre stuck in a rehab center with a computer.
Released the week of September 30th, 2002
order from Midheaven mailorder To celebrate five years of releasing honest, intelligent, moving music as an antidote to today's hyper-commercialized musical landscape-- and that means five years of working with truly remarkable, iconic artists like Red House Painters' Mark Kozelek, Hayden, and Rebecca Gates (of The Spinanes), to name a few-- The Badman Recording Co. offers Badman's Bedtime Maladies, a special, low-priced CD sampler of highlights of label's talented roster. It includes previously released songs by My Morning Jacket, Rebecca Gates, Paula Frazer and Mark Eitzel, and also features selections from current and as-yet-unreleased albums, including Hayden's double live CD, James William Hindle's second full-length, The Posies' Ken Stringfellow (covering Bread), and many others. With a focus on songwriting that, above all, moves the listener, this sampler's the perfect companion for those late-nights when you just can't fall asleep.
Tracklisting
1. James William Hindle Slumberland (album coming 2003) |
Click the titles below for details on specific new releases.
October 2002
ABDULLAH
ALUMINUM GROUP
DEVENDRA BANHART
CEX
DJ BROKEN WINDOW
JIM LUTHER DICKINSON
THE FALL
THE FALL
THE FALL
THE FALL
THE FALL
THE FALL
THE FALL
J CHURCH
KID 606 / DÄLEK
KID 606/XANOPTICON
LESSER/VARIOUS
MAX TUNDRA
DAN MELCHIOR'S BROKE REVUE
PALESTINE/COULTER/MATHOUL
DWAYNE SODAHBERK
STARS AS EYES
VARIOUS ARTISTS
September 2002 new releases
Coming "soon":
dates subject to change
BLACK DICE
HUNCHES
MANITOBA
MAX TUNDRA
PIRANHAS
WARLOCKS
VARIOUS ARTISTS
AWOL ONE AND FATJACK
BUSDRIVERS AND RADIOINACTIVE AS THE WEATHER
CRACK:W.A.R. (WE ARE ROCK)
THE FALL
THE FALL
THE FALL
FROM QUAGMIRE
GUIDED BY VOICES
YOUNGS/BOWER
VARIOUS ARTISTS
The releases above and on the left (as well as over 17,000 other
independent-label and import titles) can be purchased online at Midheaven Mailorder.
Revolver USA Distribution's umbrella shelters an extended and charmingly
dysfunctional family of manufactured / distributed labels. Most of these companies
handle their own publicity and promotion, some have their own websites,
and most have bustling, nearly-organized mailorder operations of their own.
Our exclusive label roster appears below in the form of links to our Midheaven mailorder database. We carry many, many other labels on a non-exclusive basis.
REVOLVER USA EXCLUSIVE LABELS and their merchandise can be browsed by clicking the links below: AMMP
Are you the buyer for an established retail store that is currently purchasing direct from Revolver USA? Would you like electronic access to our wholesale catalog, where you can browse our inventory and submit online orders directly
to your Revolver salescuckold? Can do. Email us and type the words "B2B Fetishist" in the subject line. We'll do the rest.
Likewise, if you're a U.S. or overseas store, distributor, or online music fullfillment service, and would like to deal with Revolver USA on a wholesale basis, email us. We don't bite. Much.
Only complete dunderheads don't scam MP3s, right? We've now made it very easy for non-dunderheads to access downloadable files under the Midheaven domain. Simple visit our Downloads Browsing Kiosk for a list all our titles featuring MP3, RealAudio and RealVideo files.
Also consider paying a visit to our Midheaven
Jukebox. RealAudio-enabled users can hear over 1500
30-second song excerpts from releases by hundreds of artists, all
randomly arranged for our visitors who rely upon dependable
unpredictability from their RealAudio experience.
Want the inside track on developments at Revolver USA, Midheaven
mailorder and the Communion label? Me too. But we'll both have to
settle for midheaven.com's News page.
If you have a Frequently Asked Question you'd like to pose, check out
our FAQ first. We may
have an answer all prepared for you. Our exclusive label list can be
found there (and below), as well.
Occasionally bands affilliated with Revolver USA and its exclusive labels perform live. No, it's true. You can be in the same room with
these bands, but it involves leaving the house (life is full of
trade-offs, isn't it?). Keep up with Revolver USA-associated artists' in-the-flesh forays
by visiting our tour dates
page.
Where can you find detailed webpages regarding the Communion label's
most recent releases? On the Communion label
homepage, claro que si. There you can browse every existing
release on the Communion label, listen to RealAudio samples,
download free MP3s, and zero in on recent (and otherwise) gorgeousness by
Ben Kunin,
The Tower Recordings,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Village of Savoonga,
Alles Wie Gross,
Idyll Swords, Mia
Doi Todd and Barbara Manning. And don't forget to drop in on those Folk
Implosion pages.
We have also set aside very special pages for other very special releases:
Bananafish 16 (new!)
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ALUMINUM GROUP
DEVENDRA BANHART
CEX
CEX
DFI
DJ BROKEN WINDOW
JIM LUTHER DICKINSON
THE FALL
THE FALL
THE FALL
THE FALL
THE FALL
J CHURCH
KID 606 / DÄLEK
KID 606 / XANOPTICON
LANTERNA
LESSER / VARIOUS
MAX TUNDRA
DAN MELCHIORS' BROKE REVUE
PALESTINE / COULTER / MATHOUL
DWAYNE SODAHBERK
STARS AS EYES
VARIOUS ARTISTS
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