Applehead- Applehead de Applehead (Pre-Cert Home Entertainment, 2011)

*Second limited edition transmission from this Demdike Stare / Andy Votel orchestrated boutique imprint. 400 copies for the world*Pre-Cert Home Entertainment return from the vinyl pits of Manchester and much further abroad to present a compendium of clues exploring the semi-fictitious and quasi-symbolic qualities of Applehead. With sublime references to Roman Catholicism, Politics & Agriculture, corruption, fairy-tales, Horrotica, Post-war European Surrealism and fumetti/giallo crime fiction Applehead's first LP is presented within the aesthetic context of cold modernist-pop and Italian and Spanish horror film music featuring randomized spoken word segments and concrete compact tape experiments. It's a seriously absorbing trip. Their sonic seed trails lead to seemingly dead ends which turn out to have secret trapdoors into yet more catacombs of references to the belgian surrealism movement, the films of Lucio Fulci, the outrageous prog ideals of Franco Battiato and a hive of sounds homaging Carpenter, Oram, Massiera, Simonetti and Besombes among them. By the end of the record, when the miasma begins to recede you'll be clearer as to the essence of Applehead's macabre mediterranean folklore and his connections to the industrial North West. Until then, you're in the dark. Album features subtly disturbed artwork from Anworth Kirk and vinyl was cut at Berlin's D&M. Limited to 500 copies and highly recommended. (Boomkat)

Cinematic synth-driven esoterica with a creeped-out library/kosmische stream-of-consciousness flair. 2 tracks / 2 sides. An extremely limited sold-out style 2011 LP release from Mr Andy Votel & Co. Those cats are making big noise, friends....

DL: Applehead- Applehead de Applehead (Pre-Cert Home Entertainment, 2011) @256 kbps. All props to smallpaul- Big ups for the vinyl rip!

Wendell Stuart & The Downbeaters (197x, Elite ER-1006)

A top-shelf serving of mellow early-70s Bahamaian soul. Wendell Stuart's tenor tremelos are heartworn and intoxicating. I'd say he's reminiscent of an early Johnny Nash. The backbeats are smoothly understated and Solomon Frazer's sonorous lead guitar bounces and strums in a pleasingly Ranglin-esque mode. Plenty of winners here, with a charming bossa-like rendition of Sandie Shaw's Always Something There to Remind Me (later a hit for Naked Eyes in 1982)...



...Stuart's version of Tom Paxton's The Last Thing on My Mind is also something else, but my real favorite might be this slowburning rendition of the Supreme's "My World Is Empty Without You", which was recently included on Trans Air's excellent West Indies Funk compilation:



Highly recommended. 320 vinyl rip by yours truly.

Download Link: Wendell Stuart & The Downbeaters (197x, Elite ER-1006)

A1 Jude
A2 My World Is Empty Without You
A3 The Last Thing On My Mind
A4 Island Woman
A5 Yellow Bird
B1 Always Something There To Remind Me
B2 Island In The Sun
B3 Shame And Scandle In The Family
B4 Delilah
B5 From The Moment To Moment
B6 Mary Ann

Gray- Early Works (No Label/ Bootleg, 2011)

"Gray was the downtown "industrial sound" band started by Andy Warhol acolyte and avant-garde HipHop legend, Jean-Michel Basquiat. 'Early Works' is an astonishing collection of their first creations, reissued in a silk-screened sleeve bearing his distinctive crown motif (the same which adorns Ramelzee's classic 'Test Pressing' sleeve). Named after the medical bible, Gray's Anatomy, Basquiat, together with Michael Holman formed the group in 1979 and would later be joined by Shannon Dawson, Wayne Clifford, Nick Taylor and a young Vincent Gallo to operate at the core of New York's downtown scene, playing shows at the Mudd Club, CBGB's and Hurrahs amidst the likes of Talking Heads and Blondie. But Gray were quite a different proposition, playing ethereal, abrasive industrial "sound effects" music on scaffolding, synths and whatever machines they could lay hands on. One of the tracks here, the spectral, sloping, dread dubbed 'Drum Mode' has appeared on a number of compilations over the last decade, most notably on Gomma's seminal 'Anti NY' comp, but the rest are about as rare as a pube in the queen's soup. There's the echoic industro-dub collage of 'Wig' for starters, next to the ritualistic, Oriental workshop atmospheres of 'Eight Hour Religion' and a scratchy, lysergic episode of tape loops, free-psyche drums and textures in 'Figure It Out For Yourself', all assuredly ahead of their time. This music forms a vital chunk of art and music history and should be considered an absolutely essential purchase, we reckon." (Boomkat)


Fresh bootleg import, straight from the morning mail. Had to drop this last bit of goodness before I go off the grid for a few. See ya'll on the flipside of my cross-town move. 320 vinyl rip by yours truly. Enjoy...

Download Link: Removed by cordial request from the artist(s). And check this:

"Since the our record is a labor of love, I'm sure that I speak for Gray when I say that we want to give people what a record says it is. That bootleg is not "Early Recordings" of Gray. So it is not truthful in what it claims to be. We reserve the right to truly let people hear "Early Recordings" if we choose to do that. That bootleg is a fake. So, thanks for siding with the artist's." -Wayne Clifford

Broken Water: Peripheral Star

Feeling the Swirlies vibe on this new Broken Water EP.



You can buy the 12" here.

Howard Nishioka- Street Songs (Otaro, 1979) *320kbps

Street Songs (1979) is a secret leftfield voyage into Hawaiian psych unknowns. Just check the furious fuzz of the sample track below ("Carnivourous Dogaramus"). Nishioka's guitars cast a wide net from electric-detonated space solos to acoustic-led meanderings verging toward American Primitive territory. There is cohesion, though, in his essential looseness of delivery. Looks like Street Songs has become a real holy grail for a lot of folks. FYI- The following year, Nishioka laid-down one of the wildest 7"s of all-time as a leading member of that raw feedback-punk phenomenon, The F**kin Flyin A-Heads. 320 vinyl rip by yours truly. Big thanks to SH for the help.

Woo-Hoo:


DL: Howard Nishioka- Street Songs (Otaro, 1979) *Re-upped 7/20/12

1. Incresha 3:45
2. Ladies of the Seventh House 6:27
3. No Money, No Honey 4:05
4. Carnivourous Dogaramus 4:18
5. Fool's Paradise 5:09
6. Maria 8:21
7. Island Carol 6:27
8. Odyseas Over Seas 3:51
9. I'm a Pilgrim 3:33