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Updated 10/8/01 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:
9/10/01,
9/24/01,
10/8/01,
and
October 2001 new releases can be browsed here.
 SWANSSoundtracks for the Blind (YOUNG GOD YG01) 2xCD Released the week of September 24th, 2001 order from Midheaven mailorder Michael Gira has always been good at establishing finality. Each successive Swans release would have made a spectacular tombstone or constituted an epitaph for which other groups would have killed. Soundtracks for the Blind is no exception to the rule, but this time around even by his own high standards and compared to his low-end excursions of yore, Gira has exceeded himself. As dramatic excursions go, Soundtracks equals the best. Running over two CDs and two-and-a-half-hours, this would be a grueling enough listen even without the bejeweled brilliance of the ten actual songs nestled among the found-soundscapes, ambient decompositions and twisted electronic noises that constitute the album's remaining sixteen fragments. What is hard to convey in print however, is the flow of the album as a whole, the manner in which a vocal track alternates with an instrumental, the carefully crafted ordering which, ultimately, does so much to gloriously disorient the listener. Soundtracks' sheer length and immensity are its own best explanation. At least a dozen other groups have essayed similar ventures in recent years: Total, Final and Ice's isolationism; the Cold Meat Industry roster's dark industrial ambience; Merzbow and other Japanese artists' harsh noise... But these artists' collective resonance and weight don't compare; their 60-minute limited-edition, two-track CDs seem insignificant next to this. Rather, it's more accurate to compare the Swans and Soundtracks for the Blind to the legacy of the Velvet Underground as they should have been, and not as they were bowdlerized by the Jesus and Mary Chain; to the drone language developed by La Monte Young that was such an influence on the Velvets; to "Venus in Furs" and John Cale's Music for a New Society. Soundtracks is the perfect wake for a band whose impact on music has yet to be calculated: Swans' out-and-out noise may have now receded into quietude and somnolent landscapes, but this monster of an album will leave ripples pulsing out for many years to come.
 SECRET CHIEFS 3Book M (MIMICRY WOM006) CD Released the week of September 10th, 2001
order from Midheaven mailorder Descriptions of Secret Chiefs 3 habitually begin with the main selling point - the Mr. Bungle tie-in - since four members from that band are involved, and who are we to flaunt convention? Though it's true that thrown-together side projects and uninspired avant-garde supergroups can attract respectable business, the Secret Chiefs 3 is anything but one of those. An instrumental odyssey, Book M features full string sections, an assortment of Persian, Turkish and Arabic stringed and percussion instruments (played by people who actually know how!), microtonally altered synthesizers, organs and guitars, innovative compositions and truly off-the-map production techniques. The album is deceptively focused and deliberate, making the out-of-control aspects seem perfectly natural. Even moments of violent aggression are merged with the tenderness and subtlety of the band's blatant otherworldly passions. It is a drama of dizzying complexity played out even more explicitly in the glowing artwork and textual rants of the impressive 16-page booklet.
Present still are the unmistakable genius of violinist / Sun City Girls collaborator / Tzadik recording artist Eyvind Kang, percussionist William Winant (who has played and recorded with everyone from John Zorn to Yo Yo Ma to Thurston Moore to Anthony Braxton to John Cage), and the cast from Mr. Bungle (drummer Danny Heifetz, bassist 30-second RealAudio excerpts: Knights of Damcar Released the week of September 10th, 2001
order from Midheaven mailorder The instrumental follow-up to their critically acclaimed self-titled debut, Elm Street transcends rock and "new age ambient" and instead simply allures with it pellucid beauty. In the hands of delay-pedal master Henry Frayne (Moon Seven Times, Area), the guitar is a "magic lantern," lighting the path into the deep corners of the mind, projecting road movies in slow motion. Although Lanterna travels the instrumental vistas that Friends of Dean Martinez and Scenic have both scoured with their music, Lanterna's projection of the Wild West is far more expansive with its splashes of ambient guitar, drums and bass.
Not content with mere pretty soundscapes, Lanterna conjures a mixed bag of styles, mostly spare, spicy, spacey, quiet, ambient Talk Talk, Pink Floyd moods, but also haunted, saddened Spaghetti Western and dreampoppy, delay-vistas that clutch one's heart strings. 30-second RealAudio excerpts: Elm Street Released the week of September 10th, 2001
order from Midheaven mailorder Demonstrated and proven and beyond the point of deniability, New Jersey is a premier breeding ground for heavy rock. The world at large may blame the Garden State for exporting some of the most annoying late-'80s hair bands known to civilization, but hard rock fans know that in the past several years, the region has yielded some of the jamminest loud rock acts whose sole pursuit is the almighty riff. And like any tight-knit music scene, the bands share fundamentals, evidenced in an obvious love for the likes of Mountain, Blue Cheer, Sabbath, Trower, and Hendrix, even as they each twist and squeeze these influences into utterly dissimilar sounds. But in this shared respect for the power and groove of late-'60s and '70s riff-rock lies common ground, from which a mammoth collaboration could be brought forth. Yea, fuckin' verily.
Scene Killer is a musical document of the incestuous New Jersey rock scene, an album of songs co-written and recorded by members of every important group in the region. As with the founders of the Seattle scene a decade ago, all of these musicians have been in and out of bands and projects together for years, so getting them back together for a record was a natural thing. The result is a collection of flowing riffs and fuzzed-out guitar blasts that unite as the unofficial soundtrack to the as-yet unmade sequel to Dazed & Confused. This is spur-of-the-moment greatness and unclaimed glory. It's loud, stony guitar rock like they made thirty years ago, and to hear it, you'd think these bands were there the first time around.
30-second RealAudio excerpts: Intro Released the week of September 24th, 2001
order from Midheaven mailorder Dan Melchior has collaborated with Billy Childish and Thee Headcoats and recorded and toured extensively with Holly Golightly of Thee Headcoatees. His solo releases draw from the work of maverick American folk musicians like Skip James, Fred McDowell, Dock Boggs and Robert Wilkins, while retaining a sense of adventure and passion lost in over reverent interpretations.
In his recent work with the Broke Revue - Greg Anderson, Bruno Meyrick-Jones, and B.L. Truax-- Melchior marries a love of country blues and R&B to a new sonic extreme, utilizing the misanthropic fury of '70s punk and the drive of classic '60s catalysts. Recorded at Jerry Teel's Funhouse studio in New York, this album ups the stakes, pushing Melchior's hard-driving minimalist approach into new places altogether. The result is vitriol-fueled rock 'n' roll with brains and big balls - or bollocks, if you will.
30-second RealAudio excerpts: Witch on Fire Released the week of September 24th, 2001
order from Midheaven mailorder James William Hindle made his American debut on the Mark Kozelek-compiled Take Me Home - A Tribute to John Denver. His cover of "Whispering Jesse," which brought him to the attention of Badman, was heavily praised throughout international press, making him one of the label's most curious artists.
Joined by Paula Frazer (Tarnation) and Tim Mooney (American Music Club), Hindle and his guitars - borrowed from Mark Kozelek - take the listener for a train-ride along the tracks of the New Acoustic Movement. This is British-tinged folk/alternative country delivered in an honest form that may remind one, not too incredibly, of the classic songwriting of John Denver (with an accent). The album also includes covers of Glen Campbell's "Less of Me" and the Bee Gees "I Started a Joke." The album was produced and recorded at Badman Recording Co. in San Francisco's Haight district by Dylan Magierek (Mark Kozelek's What's Next to the Moon, Shanti Project Collection 1 & 2, Erlend Oye [Kings of Convenience]) over a two-week period, far from Hindle's home of West Yorkshire, England.
30-second RealAudio excerpts: Down & Able Released the week of September 10th, 2001
order from Midheaven mailorder Estradasphere's Buck Fever is an album without boundaries. Their music is a fusion of Balkan, Gypsy, black/death metal, throat singing, Latin, surf, rock, jazz and more. Styles blend, exist in juxtaposition, or undergo penetrating simultaneous exploration. Imagine going to the dentist on the Discovery Channel naked.
Comprised primarily of saxophone, guitar, violin, bass, drums, and a home studio that gives them opportunity to expand their sound capabilities, Buck Fever incorporates 40 to 80 tracks of instruments on each song. Overkill? Most assuredly, all the better to reach the outer limits of home recording capability. No corner-cutting or loop/sample collage lameness here - the work this five-piece puts in is an unbelievably intensive labor of love, on par with the deep studio obsessiveness of Olivia Tremor Control or Mr. Bungle.
Buck Fever makes use of advanced dada-composition and thick orchestration and improvisation, both traditional and forward-reaching, so it's not surprising to find Trey Spruance of Mr. Bungle making several engineering/production appearances throughout the album.
30-second RealAudio excerpts: Buck Fever Released the week of September 24th, 2001
order from Midheaven mailorder After terrorizing the Euro noisecore underground for well over a decade, Germany's Yacøpsæ (pronounced "YA-cop-say") finally cast their nets into international waters courtesy of the U.S.S. Slap A Ham. Blasting away with their fierce brand of hyperactive thrash, this trio unites the sounds from many unrelenting, hi-octane wings of extreme music-- from punk and hardcore to grind and noise, these Berliners go ballistic on 37 devastating anthems of screeching blendercore.
The band was formed in August 1990 in Hamburg when Stoffel (guitar/vocals) met Pattex (drums) painting his room in a squat. After some small talk which included the demise of their respective bands, both agreed to start an ultrafast hardcore band together, inspired by giants of thrash such as Lärm, Electro Hippies, Vorkriegsphase, early D.R.I.-- hey, who isn't inspired by early D.R.I.? - Napalm Death and a bunch of others. After a couple months they chose the name Yacøpsæ-- the plural of Jakob with an unusual twist-- wanting to avoid to the usual cliché sickness-and-brutality monikers of their grindcore and thrash peers. Nothing wrong with sickness and brutality, of course; you just don't need to hit people over the head with it.
Eventually Pattex quit and was replaced by Emu (ex-Derider). Throughout the '90s the band toured, release several singles (including splits with Active Minds and Inner Conflict, on labels such as Rödel, Thought Crime, and Vomited Chunx), and made several noteworthy compilation appearances released by great Euro grind stalwarts such as Grinding Madness, Creative Network, Will-o'-the-Wisp and Gulli. Joined in 1996 by Frank (ex- Sargnagel), they released their debut full length in 1998, Fuck Punkrock... This is Turbo-Speed-Violence!, a massive slab that invited the world to kiss its ears goodbye.
30-second RealAudio excerpts: internetejakulator Plus 28 other sentimental favorites that will touch your heart & move your soul!
Click the titles below for details on specific new
releases.
September 2001
ESTRADASPHERE
LANTERNA
DAN MELCHIOR'S BROKE REVUE
SCENE KILLER
SECRET CHIEFS 3
SWANS
YACØPSÆ
(all dates subject to change)
BROTHER JT
CONSUMERS
LARSEN
HERSCHEL GORDON LEWIS
SWANS
ORNETTE COLEMAN
ALICE COLTRANE
BEN KUNIN
NOVEX
DON HOWLAND
INFINITE X's
L. STINKBUG
SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE
VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA
SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH
AWOL ONE
ETERNAL ELYSIUM
TONY JOE WHITE
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Bananafish 14
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LANTERNA
SCENE KILLER
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JAMES WILLIAM HINDLE
ESTRADASPHERE
YACØPSÆ
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