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Mountain in Japan photo by Chris

Three new episodes for your listening enjoyment.

After two weeks off, we are back with three brand new episodes: three hours / 36 tunes.

Episode 697 features music from Beak>, Brothertiger, Kate Carr, Gnod, Taylor Deupree, FIN, Church Andrews & Matt Davies, Ortrotasce, Bill MacKay, Celer, Kaboom Karavan, and Ida.

Episode 698 boasts a lineup of tracks from Susanna, Nonpareils, KMRU, A Place To Bury Strangers, final, Coti K., Dalton Alexander, Akio Suzuki, The Shadow Ring, Filther, Aaron Dilloway, and Ghost Dubs.

Episode 699 is bursting at the seams with jams from Crash Course In Science, Chrystabell and David Lynch, Machinedrum, Ekin Fil, Finlay Shakespeare, Actress, Mercury Rev, Dave Brown / Jason Kahn, øjeRum, d'Eon, Jeremy Gignoux, and Shellac.

Mountain photo taken in Japan by Chris.

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SIMON FINN, "SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD"

Sunday, 12 June 2005

Jonathan Dean

Music

Perhaps as a little addendum to his full-length, Simon Finnsimultaneously released this five-song CDEP, for sale at the recentToronto shows. It's very much in the same vein as Magic Moments,just Finn and his guitar, more musings about the frustrations attendantto love, human communication, sadness and joy, longing for life anddeath.

BABY DEE, "MADE FOR LOVE"

Sunday, 12 June 2005

Jonathan Dean

Music

This three-track CDEP follows closely on the tails of Baby Dee's recent A Book of Songs for Anne-Marie, which was her first full-length since the double-disc masterpiece Love's Small Song.

JOHN CONTRERAS/ROSE MCDOWALL/NURSE WITH WOUND, "AFRAID 1 & 2/GEOMETRIC HORSEHAIR CAVALCADE"

Sunday, 12 June 2005

Jonathan Dean

Music

This CDEP contains three tracks, all featuring the skillful playing ofJohn Contreras, the handsome young cellist and recent Current 93 andCyclobe collaborator. The first and third tracks on the disc areadaptations of Nico's beautiful song "Afraid" (from her classic 1970album Desertshore,one of several collaborations with John Cale), with the singular RoseMcDowall lending her sweet, lilting vocals to the song.

SIMON FINN, "MAGIC MOMENTS"

Sunday, 12 June 2005

Administrator

Music

Magic Moments is the new album from Simon Finn. If someone wereto have asked me six years ago, when I first heard Simon Finn'slegendary 1970 album Pass the Distance, to assess the chancesthat such a thing would ever come to pass, I'd have rated theprobability a big fat zero. Simon Finn was one of the many late-60spsychedelic folk and progressive artists that released one obscurealbum and then seemingly disappeared into the aethyr, never to be heardfrom again.

The Body Lovers/The Body Haters

Sunday, 12 June 2005

Administrator

Music

Michael Gira's work under the Body Lovers and Body Haters names hasbeen reissued as a double CD with a few changes. Gone are the albums'original titles and the artwork from the original Body Haters releaseis absent. In their place is an extra ten minutes of music on the BodyHaters disc.

The Hafler Trio, "Exactly As I Do"

Saturday, 11 June 2005

Staff

Music

This is the second album in a series of three in which McKenziecollaborates with Jónsi Birgisson of Sigur Rós. The double CD comes inthe same style of package as the other Hafler Trio voice series, eachrelease consists of music made entirely from the voice of oneindividual (Blixa Bargeld and David Tibet being the othercollaborations).

Chrystal Belle Scrodd, "Belle De Jour"

Sunday, 05 June 2005

Staff

Music

CD reissue of Diana Rogerson's second record comes close to being accurately restored.

The Lucksmiths, "Warmer Corners"

Sunday, 05 June 2005

Joshua David Mann

Music

Seasons, lost loves, catch phrases and catchy melodies always seems to converge pleasantly on any given Lucksmiths' album. Warmer Cornersreliably exhibits all of these things and more, featuring an additional member, thus augmenting the trio to a quartet for the better part of the album.

Shadow Huntaz - Valley of the Shadow

Thursday, 02 June 2005

Matthew Jeanes

Music

Shadow Huntaz,"Valley of the Shadow"

http://www.skam.co.uk" target="new">Skam

Skam's hip hop ambassadors the Shadow Huntaz are back with another full length of trans-atlantic collaborations with their brothers-in-arms the Funckarma production crew. Shadow Huntaz Skam debut was a breath of fresh air that fused classic American hip hop with contemporary European electronica in a way that others had flirted with, but not quite achieved. The follow up Vampire EP was more of the same, but showed that when the Huntaz put their minds to it, they could create a truly brilliant track. With Valley of the Shadow, the team is once again mining the same basic well of sounds and lyrical topics that were covered in the previous two records, which makes Valley seem more like a continuation of Corrupt Data than a next-step in the group's evolution. The beats are all synthesized, featuring heavy kick drums and noise-pong snare and high hat patterns that mimic the rhythm of classic hip hop but interpret it in the mode of minimal techno. Samples are few and far between (at least samples that haven't been processed into blurry washes of filter noise) and that's what keeps Shadow Huntaz from sounding like other contemporary hip hop artists who are being sold to the Warp/Planet Mu buying public. While hip hop has always been a mash up of sampled grooves and synthetic ones--a world of producers and MCs-- the hip hop aesthetic itself has been diluted so much in recent years that collaborations such as this one tend to sound at times like a production team and a vocal team playing together, but not exactly on the same page. There's the hint of an all-too-convenient pairing of styles that smacks at times of a record executive's idea of capitalizing on the laptop generation's love of all things hip hop. I have no doubt that Shadow Huntaz are the real deal, and that they take this work seriously, but with a back catalog of excellent releases, this one just doesn't seem as exploratory as it should. Occassionally as on "Radically," Shadow Huntaz amaze with fluid, intelligent rhymes over simple beats that don't get in the way of themselves, and give the words room to breath. "Radically" is the reason to buy a record like this because it's a near-perfect synthesis of styles that doesn't step on any one sensibility, but focuses different ideas together to be something greater. The brilliant tracks like this though, have to be weighed against the filler tracks full of typical rap bravado and stories of sexual conquest, or the tracks that out-spaz themselves in mindless worship of the twitch. These tracks aren't risk-taking when one considers the success of other indie hip hop records that are pitched to the same audience. Shadow Huntaz as MCs have formidible skills on the mic, and Funckarma are studio wizards capable of slick, bouncing production, but by the end of "Valley of the Shadow," I get the sense that the two sets of minds have done all that they can do together. Hip hop is naturally progressive music, much like the digital cut up techno from across the pond, but we've heard all of this before, and while some of it is still great and will make it into many DJ sets, it just isn't pushing down walls the way it could be.
- <a href="/brain/contributors.html">Matthew Jeanes</a>