The semiology of a picture with five gentlemen in high school style talking to their teacher "yes we did it,should we go now and play?",leaves no room for error or misunderstanding.What would you expect really with a name like this?Shoegaze bubblegums or conservatoire afiocinados?Being proud
of their origins and influences,meaning sixties psych phantasmagoria and eighties garage revival,the Basements come from Thessaloniki,Greece and were formed in 2009.One year later,they released their "Shame On You" four track vinyl ep(LIT45-004).But, because of the fact that seven inches are not enough,they are back again with their debut album under the title "I'm Dead",released again on Lost In Tyme Records(LIT33-001).
Well,that’s it!Twelve raw and toxic tales from their basement,exposing strictly original material with a strong
desire for personal testimony.They serve a pure lysergic recipe for the unreperant cavepunk swingers,sure enough not only to satisfy the die hard garage lovers but to attract new listeners as well.The Basements have made a bet,to overtake the limits of the country and imprint their traces to the wonderful universal psychedelic jungle.As Sound Explosion remain in silence, you gotta see them driving and listen loud.Cheers guys!
The album receives a vinyl release of 500 copies(150 of them in purple wax) and also a limited run of 300 copies on compact disc for digital freaks.
Aaron Thomason introduces himself as 2econd Class Citizen since 2005 when he jumped into the music business train.The first time ever i heard about him was almost three years ago when my friend Andreikelos told me that "because you are a weirdo psych guy, you have to listen to this dj's project".And he gave me A World Without, Aaron's debut album.It was an apocalypse for me, a great mix a hip hop and psychedelia,well balanced into deep melodies and strong built rthythms.Still spins on my turntable.Now,i am listening to his second full length album,"The Small Minority",again and again.This second step is more difficult but more decisive as well.There is no anxiety at all for a wider audience to be approached(although "Liberated Lady" could be a massive pop hit, many rockers would like to have "Stay With Me" on their repertoire and many neopsych artists would kill for having compoded "Sail Eternal").
It is actually one step beyond,more mature than his first album,more esoteric and more explosive at the same time.Setting up brilliant soundscapes,this british guy invites us all to dive in his liquid universe where ethereal tunes meet sophisticated drum and bass lines.Fragile,dramatic and so much powerful at the same time,2nd Class Citizen proves that he is here to stay.Well,actually i think that he has not to prove nothing at all as his music will not be suitable for everyone...But i promise you that you will not get bored at all,this album is pure seduction... One of my loved ones here is still "Outside Your Doorway" that was released as a single few weeks ago."Stop To Wonder",as he sings.Listen to one of the best albums of the year already!
Kronos Records is proud to present for the first time ever on cd format the soundtrack to Fabrizio De Angelis 1984
action film Mad Dog (also known as Cane
Arrabbiato and Man Hunt) starring John Ethan Wayne, Henry Silva and Ernest
Borgnine. Music by the legendary Roman composer Francesco De Masi
(1930-2005).
The solo trumpet is that of Nello Salsa, a student
of Maestro De MasiI at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome where the latter
was Professor of Orchestral Practice. The young musician, many years later
performer of Benigni’s Oscar winning Life is Beautiful (1997) started out with
this soundtrack. The harmonica is played by none less than the world's most
famous harmonica player (at least among us lovers of the genre) Franco De Gemini.
The soundtrack existed up to now only as 33 rpm lp
released by Beat Records (publisher of the OST) and has become quite rare and
coveted by collectors. This cd release is the fair
recognition to one of Maestro Francesco De Masi’s most successful works of the
80’s, that truly deserved to be rediscovered in digital audio
format.
Front cover of "Mad Dog" on the vinyl edition (Beat Records/LPF066)
Κάπου μπερδεύτηκες ανάμεσα στο σεβασμό και το φόβο.
Έπαθες μια παράκρουση με τα διάσημα πλέον
αδιέξοδα της δημοκρατίας. Ύμνησες ξανά την αήττητη βλακεία. Η πανούκλα,
να σου θυμίσω, δε θεραπεύεται με παυσίπονα και ξεματιάσματα. Δε σου φταίει το
μνημόνιο ρε λεβεντόπαιδο για κάθε Τατιάνα Πλακομούνοβα που ανελέητα
διαπομπεύεις αλλά…μη σε αδικώ κιόλας, οι ελληνίδες εταίρες είναι ιερόδουλες ενώ
οι αλλοδαπές απλώς πουτάνες, σωστά;
Εξακολουθείς
να είσαι κι εσύ αγανακτισμένος εξ απ’ αποστάσεως και να σιγοντάρεις τα περί
εμπρησμού του οίκου ανοχής του κοινοβουλίου σου-για να στο πω κομψά- αλλά το
μόνο που κάνεις είναι να μου θυμίζεις κάτι γιαγιάδες που πετάνε την παντόφλα στην τηλεόραση μπας και πετύχουν την
κακιά του σήριαλ. Κάθε απόγευμα, σχεδόν. Για πες μου, έχεις δει σε πολλά
μαντριά το λύκο να φυλάει τα πρόβατα;
Προσπαθείς
να πείσεις τον εαυτό σου πως η ακυβερνησία της πατρίδας αυτή τη στιγμή είναι το
μέγιστο κακό. Ξεφτιλίζεις την ίδια σου την ιστορία νομιμοποιώντας τάγματα
θανάτου να αποδώσουν δικαιοσύνη εκεί που
θα ήθελες κατά βάθος να φτάνει το χέρι σου. Δε σε κατηγορώ αν είσαι αμόρφωτος
και δεν εννοώ πανεπιστήμια ειδικοτήτων
και τα ρέστα.Θα σε ήθελα λίγο πιο καχύποπτο. Αλλά, γιατί να ξεβολευτείς;
Ας πούμε
πως υπάρχει μια δημιουργική αγωνία πάνω από τη γη μας, πάνω απ’ το δικό τους
και δικό μας χώμα, πάνω απ’ της ίδιας της αγάπης αίματα, πάνω από μια
αδιαπραγμάτευτη τιμή και αξιοπρέπεια. Τη νιώθεις ίσως αλλά μάλλον είναι επώδυνη
και καταφεύγεις σε λάθος αφορισμούς. Παρελθέτω απ’ εμού το ποτήριον τούτο λες
και νομίζεις πως καθάρισες. Φυσικά, είναι και το μέλλον των παιδιών….Τα’ χουμε
πει και παλιότερα για τις κακοφορμισμένες πληγές, εσύ να ακούς τους
νοικοκυραίους. Να σου επισημάνω όμως πως αυτοί μιλάνε και γράφουν για τα λεφτά
τα δικά σου, των άλλων και ποτέ για τα δικά τους. Και οι εκλογές, μια χαρά
μπίζνα είναι.
Αν
πιστεύεις πως αυτός που σου γκρέμισε το σπίτι είναι και ο ιδανικότερος για να
στο ξαναχτίσει, είναι δικαίωμά σου. Εσύ πληρώνεις στο κάτω της γραφής. Εγώ να ξέρεις το τσαντίρι μου το έχω στήσει
εδώ και χρόνια ανάμεσα στην κόλαση και τον παράδεισο σαν το λοστρόμο του
Καρκαβίτσα. Τριγύρω, παιδιά της αλλαγής, νεκρόφιλοι κομμουνιστές, γιαλαντζί
αναρχικοί και ξεπεσμένοι αριστοκράτες μεταμορφώνουν ένα υπέροχο ψηφιδωτό που
πάει να φτιαχτεί σε μια ρυπαρή κουρελού και κουρταλούν τις πόρτες της
ματαιοδοξίας.
Ο εικονιζόμενος στη φωτογραφία που αρνείται να
χαιρετήσει λεγόταν August Landmesser και ήταν μέλος του ναζιστικού
κόμματος.Βρισκόμαστε στα 1936.Τα υπόλοιπα τα έχει γράψει η ιστορία.
The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project is following 2009’s acclaimed We
Are Only Riders collection with a second volume of the late Gun Club
leader’s previously-unreleased works-in-progress, brought to life by old
friends, collaborators and acolytes.Many songs started as nascent ideas captured on a cassette unearthed by
Pierce’s latter day collaborator Cypress Grove while clearing out his
loft. Harking back to the collective ethos of Pierce’s beloved jazz,
artists spill into each other’s tracks, reinterpreting or finishing
lyrical and melodic sketches while some chose personal favorites from
his catalogue. This time, the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project includes Nick Cave
(who also takes part in a return duet with Debbie Harry on ‘The Breaking
Hands’), Mick Harvey, Debbie Harry & Chris Stein, Lydia Lunch, The
Jim Jones Revue, Kid Congo Powers, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Mark
Lanegan and Isobel Campbell, Youth’s Vertical Smile, Steve Wynn (Dream
Syndicate), Warren Ellis, Barry Adamson, Bertrand Cantat & Pascal
Humbert, Thalia Zedek & Chris Brokaw, Hugo Race, Dom Beken and Kris
& Michelle Needs, sometimes in different combinations.
“The idea was that, these are not our songs, we merely interpret them,”
explains Cypress Grove. “This is not a tribute project, which usually
consists of third rate re-treads of an artist’s most famous work, but
brand new material from beyond the grave. In some cases the artists have
had to finish the songs, so there can be no nonsense about this not
being as good as the original version as these are the original
versions! It’s a musical collective of artists who have come together to
interpret or complete skeletal, unfinished material by Jeffrey. Where
possible we have used Jeffrey’s contributions, so he actually appears
posthumously on this album.“Also, many of the artists appear on each others tracks, like a true
collective, so it is not merely a series of individual tracks. For
Example, Warren Ellis appears on the Nick Cave tracks, but also plays
with Lydia and Bertrand Cantat. Lydia Lunch sings with Tex Perkins and
Barry Adamson, as well as doing her own track. Barry plays bass on
Lydia’s track and Nick Cave’s ‘The Breaking Hands’, and so on. I like to
think of it as being like Josh Homme’s The Dessert Sessions.”
Pierce and his ever-changing Gun Club lineups poured America’s roots
music forms into a blender of hard drugs and liquor, wrenching the
udders of America's bloated cow to spew out toxic, low-life hollers and
swamped-up songs of love and desperation.
He seemed to have located the dark main artery of the blues, loaded up
an overblown hypo and set the plunger to permanent stun as first the
group released seminal eighties classic albums including Fire Of Love,
Miami and The Las Vegas Story, then later solo works such as Wildweed
and Ramblin’ Jeffrey Lee & Cypress Grove. Jeffrey was infamous for
his hard-drinking, drugging and hell-raising, dying from a brain
haemorrhage in March, 1996. Since then, his influence has been
increasingly acknowledged on musical forms like blues-punk and
Americana. Those who knew him all have a tale to tell, seeing the
Jeffrey Lee Pierce Project as one way of marking their affection and
memories.
The album is released on German label Glitterhouse on both
CD and double vinyl, with 20 page booklet featuring memorabilia and
extensive liner notes by Kris Needs. Proceeds from the first volume went
to Amnesty International, but Pierce’s sister Jacqui is setting up The
Jeffrey Lee Pierce Foundation to help fulfil her brother’s long-standing
desire to provide musical instruments for under-privileged kids in LA.
A third and final volume called The Task Has Overwhelmed Us is already in production for release later in the year.
This volume features a broad selection of jazz record covers, from the 1940s through the decline of LP production in the early 1990s.
Each cover is accompanied by a fact sheet listing performer and album
name, art director, photographer, illustrator, year, label, and more.Special features for jazz lovers include a top-10 favorite records list by leading jazz DJs such as King Britt, Michael McFadden, Gilles Peterson, Andre Torres, and Rainer Trüby, as well as interviews with legendary jazz personalities Rudy Van Gelder (sound engineer who recorded for many labels such as Blue Note, Impulse!, and Prestige), Creed Taylor
(founder of many labels and one of the best jazz producers ever,
credited also for bringing bossa nova to the US and fusing it with
jazz), Michael Cuscuna (Blue Note jazz producer and catalog researcher, responsible for its most successful re-editions), Bob Ciano (designer at the CTI Label, founded in the 70s by Creed Taylor, and one of the greatest cover designers ever), Fred Cohen, (the owner of New York's Jazz Record Center store with an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz music), and Ashley Kahn (writer, critic, and journalist for jazz whose books include A Love Supreme, Kind of Blue, and The House That Trane Built).
This new edition features 2 volumes in a slipcase.
The author Joaquim Paulo
is a consultant for major labels and directs a number of radio stations
in Portugal. He started collecting vinyl at 15, and flies to London,
Paris, New York and São Paulo to enrich his collection of over 25,000
LPs. He lives and works in Lisbon and dedicates his free time to
recovering old and rare recordings. The editor Julius Wiedemann
was born in Brazil, studied graphic design and marketing, and was an
art editor for digital and design magazines in Tokyo. His many TASCHEN
digital and media titles include Illustration Now!,Advertising Now, Logo Design, and Brand Identity Now!( Hardcover, 2 vols. in slipcase, 30 x 30 cm, 560 pages,multilingual edition: English, French, German).
“I hope that this Saturday,the cd will
be in our hands”.That’s what Kostas(the nothing but support guy) told
me a few hours before that last vinyl record fair was about to open its doors
in Athens.”Well,I hope so because the
band is gonna play together with The Invisible Surfers this evening so it would
be perfect to sell some copies…”
Snails from Greece had
released a four track 7’’ single back in 2009 on Actions Records.Now,
after a lot of gigs,the time has come for an integrated project to be out and…here
it is!Their first homonym album,through the same label, has just arrived in cd
format.Long time waiting?Don’t complain,snails are really low speed creatures as
we know but they have the unique ability not to lose their destination no
matter what. And the band confirms the fame of their name by presenting a
collection of fourteen tracks(eleven of them self penned) through a blend of
garage kicks, sixties psych mythology and
punk insolence.
Keeping the faith of what they love,the band makes brilliant
covers in three classics:I’m Five Years Ahead Of My Time, Gypsy Woman(with vocals by Dimitris Beleniotis of the...Cardinals) and
Satisfaction Guaranteed without hesitating to give some “exotica” touch on
Haifa Nights and Surfazat.So, what is all about?Solid rhythm section,hell-fuzzed
guitars,haunted vocals and possessed harmonica.Some wyld childs are dancing
with the zombies…Their album is housed in a pretty trippy digipack cover(made
by Dimitris Megalios) in a limited run.Once more,satisfaction
guaranteed.Indeed.And my fave track?Universal Soldier!
By the way,the Snails cd came to my hands under a way
that will not be published here. And Kostas still owes me a fully signed copy
of their Heartbreaker ep.
