CHRIS SCHLARB IN NYC

March 11th, 2011 , by

Photo by Sott Friedlander

Chris Schlarb's Psychic Temple, like his debut album Twight & Ghost Stories, is highly collaborative. We're talking over two dozen different contributors. This sounds complicated, but you wouldn't know it from the way Psychic Temple slides into your ears so easily. On Saturday night Schlarb won't quite have the full ensemble, but you can expect just as full a sound at the Church of Advent Hope in NYC. Joshua Stamper and Aaron Roche are opening. Details are here. 

In other Schlarb-related news, his soundtrack for the critically acclaimed video game NightSky  is now out on iTunes. You can get it here. It's a gorgeous collection of music.

ALIAS PAIL REMIXES JULIANNA BARWICK

March 3rd, 2011 , by

Last week, we released Julianna Barwick's The Magic Place. New York production magicmakers Alias Pail went straight to work and remixed "Prizewinning" with some drums and impressive stop-and-starts. Very nice stuff.

You can listen to the remix on Pitchfork (who gave it Best New Music last week) right here.

YOU WANTED IT, WE PAID PEOPLE TO MAKE IT: NEW LIBRARY CATALOGS

March 1st, 2011 , by

"My computer crashed last night. Is there a soundtrack for that?" wrote Elenor Hilt, a teacher in Maryland. From Frank Edds, a landscaper in Miami, we received this request: "I am trying to remember where I was on August 22, 1997. I think a song might help. Can you make one?" 

We get letters like this all the time. We carefully take these letters, send them to our Department of Communique Statistics and Analysis, and wait. Six months later they provide a 600-page report detailing what kind of music to pursue next in our ever-growing Library Catalog Music Series. 
 
With Elenor and Frank and that 600-page report mind, we present Music for Troubled Machinery from Leb Laze, of Prefuse 73 touring band fame, and Music for Primordial Recollection from SUNY biology student slash glitch producer Infinitirock. We've thoroughly tested these on multiple focus groups, including primates, and the result is the same: betterment of life through background music. With each new release to the Library Catalog, we find another mood, temperament, and life situation that can be scored. These are no exception to that rule.
 
You can read more about Leb Laze's contribution here, and Infinitrock's here.

SUFJAN STEVENS TO TOUR EUROPE

February 23rd, 2011 , by

Sufjan Stevens at The Tivoli – Brisbane Australia 30th Jan 2011 – Photo by StephenBooth

Do you remember 2006? That was the year we lost contact with Pioneer 10, Italy won their fourth FIFA World Cup, and No 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock became the most expensive painting ever sold. Good times!

It was also the last time Sufjan set foot in Europe as a touring musician. And this year  (is it already 2011?) he will do so again, landing first in Norway, moving to Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Germany, France, Belgium, the UK, Ireland, Holland, Italy, and finishing in Spain and Portugal. 
 
Sufjan has toured the US, Australia, and New Zealand and the shows involved gratuitous amounts of dancing, neon gaffe tape, balloons, and DM Stith (in the US anyway). We imagine this tour will be more of the same, in a very, very good way. And yes, our own DM Stith will open!
 
We hope you can go. Tour dates and buy links are here.

JOOKABOX IS NO MORE. LONG LIVE JOOKABOX.

February 8th, 2011 , by

Jookabox has decided to throw in the towel, and The Eyes of the Fly is their last cryptic transmission. Now, this recording is the final chapter in the history of a band that is as bizarre, anxious, and confusing as the music it makes. A band whose imagery largely consists of ghosts, zombies, decay, and the afterlife, now writes its own epitaph, carves its own headstone, and sings its swan song. May the funky frenetic compositions of Jookabox rest in chaos as beautiful as that which they created…The living dead walk the earth on April 26th. In the meantime listen to a haunting sample singing forth from limbo.

“Drops” The Eyes of the Fly (Download)

JIB KIDDER AND B LAN 3 JOIN THE LIBRARY CATALOG SERIES

February 8th, 2011 , by

The latest installments of the Library Catalog Music Series are being unpacked from the manufacturer's shipping crates. They will be meticulously inspected and then distributed far and wide to the citizens of the world, for all of their listening needs. Volumes 11 and 12 can now be added to your shelf to complement your growing collection. We are pleased to introduce the talents of Jib Kidder and B Lan 3.

For his entry in the series Music for Hypnotized Minds, Jib Kidder (aka Sean Schuster-Craig) limited his sound pallette to the existing AK catalog, using only turntable manipulations, respatializing effects (echo, reverb, EQ) and splicing to create new mood-based shorts. As in the artist's past works, Music for Hypnotized Minds draws on the dream-logic ideas of hybridization, dislocation & temporal simultaneity. The results are the perfect record for meditation in motion like reflective, solitary walking or summer highway cruising with loved ones.

Volume 12 in the series, Music for Hunting and Mapping, comes from B Lan 3, a solo project by musician and visual artist Michael Diekmann. A resident of New York City, Diekmann also records and performs with the minimalist cold-wave formation Ike Yard, and the pioneering experimental hip-hop group Death Comet Crew. He has also composed or contributed to soundtracks for video and multimedia installations for multimedia artists including Gretchen Bender, Robert Longo and Marcello Mazzella; and also contributed music with Death Comet Crew to the audio book version of Neuromancer by William Gibson.

We invite you to sample these new audio delights:

“cruising 1,” Jib Kidder (Download)
“Peekskill,” B Lan 3 (Download)

HAPPY YEAR OF THE RABBIT

February 3rd, 2011 , by

Today, February 3rd, 2011, is the first day of the Year of the Rabbit. People born this year will be articulate, talented, and ambitious. They will be most compatible with those born in the years of of the Sheep, Pig, and Dog.

To commermate the Year of the Rabbit, we are offering Sufjan Stevens' Enjoy Your Rabbit for $5 in MP3 form for a limited time. You can buy it here. We hope you enjoy it.

JELLYFISH. FOAM. VIDEO.

February 2nd, 2011 , by

VIEW A VIDEO OF A VISUAL FROM EPSTEIN

February 1st, 2011 , by

SURPRISE! RAFTER UNLEASHES A QUIET STORM OF AN ALBUM

January 28th, 2011 , by


Surprise! A new album from Rafter?!? OH YES.

Rafter sprang Quiet Storm on us this week and we loved what we heard. He wanted it out and about, right now, pronto STAT. So we said, OK BOSS! And here it is! Take Rafter's yoga-like swagger, his pop sensibilities, then throw those out the ducktaped window of your 1987 Honda Civic Hatchback. Throwthe nearest unlabeled CO2 cassette in the car's $44 SoundATech stereo (and complimentary speakers!), turn the broken knob as high as it goes, and you will get Quiet Storm. Thuuunder!

Rafter, on Quiet Storm, which originated while touring for Animal Feelings: "we listened to a lot of black metal demo tapes in the car… it was really inspiring, extreme, blown out, ridiculous but heartfelt… i made this album, fed by those inspirations and a wave of existential freakout, human mind explosion. in my fantasy, it's like darkthrone meets the kinks meets lee perry…"

Stream the new record for free, and if you love it as we do, name a price ($0.69 or more) here. The rest of Rafter's catalog (here) is similarly you-name-it priced, for a limited time. If there was ever a day to indulge yourself in Rafter, today is that day. 
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