COMING 5/20/2008
After clearing the vaults with their previous album, Song Cyclops Volume Two, Doleful Lions return with a new lineup, direction, and wisdom. Their new album 7 represents the next step in the evolution of Doleful Lions, marrying their keen, classic pop sensibilities with an adventurous new sound. The usual folksy guitar strummings of their previous releases have been replaced with an eclectic mix of electronics, epic song structures and a focused lyrical intensity. Instead of striving for uniformity, 7 allows the Lions to give each song its own unique sound. “Magic Without Tears” plays like an Aleister Crowley fronted New Order. “Don’t Ever Hide Your Enchantment” is a fuzzed-out Michael Jackson track. “Winfield Walker” is champagne jam featuring a coked-out Giorgio Moroder producing the Flaming Lips. These pop masterpieces sit next to moody instrumentals like “Screams in the House of the Deranged” and mid-tempo burners like “Hazlehurst”. After the limited palettes of their previous albums, Doleful Lions have used 7 to explore new sonic horizons. Lyrically, much has changed in Jonathan’s worldview, but like the Voltron head, he’s still always on point. Having abandoned the monster movie motifs of The Rats are Coming! The Werewolves are Here! and the traditional spirituality of Out Like a Lamb, the Lions have embraced the occult as defined by the teachings of Theosophy and Freemasonry. “The Luminous Sons of the Manvantaric Dawn” describes the origins of the universe as taught in Stanzas of Dzyan, an ancient tome popularized by H.P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine. “Here Come the Star Nations” expresses a true desire for the long-awaited harmonic convergence promised by humanity’s first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence. 7 is a truly adventurous album in all regards; an album that has ventured further beyond any music created by the Doleful Lions in the past. It is their spiritual manifesto demanding a world filled with love for one another and the acceptance of all religions as the one true religion. It is a message that is needed now more than ever. Uncut Magazine: Sixties revisited by modern-day spacers. This is what the Beach Boys 20/20 might have sounded like if you heard it under sedation, from down a corridor, with the pitter-patter of light drizzle in the background… A must for wanderers, tender souls and those who like to look at the world with a lazy smile through a light layer of mist. Mojo Magazine: Kaleidoscopic pop kings, Doleful Lions are based around Jonathan Scott's conceptual vision, and his ambition to deliver smiles, vibes and harmonies. Gear Magazine: A beautifully bizarro indie-rock Narnia that dead-rings a lost Radiohead soundtrack to Dungeons and Dragons. Pop Matters: Innocuous, oh-pardon-me-while-I-blow-your-mind epics. Delusions of Adequacy: Indie pop never sounded so beautiful, and neither did lovely singer/songwriter material sound so strong and catchy… Jonathan Scott is truly a gifted songwriter.

COMING 5/20/2008
Genre: Indie-Rock-Electro-Psych. Gazelle is a new musical extrapolation from two Champaign-Urbana rock scene veterans: studio warlock Jeff Dimpsey (Hum, National Skyline, Honcho Overload, Poster Children) and vocalist Adam Fein (Absinthe Blind). Sunblown is their debut album, 10 tracks of overcast electro-rock, deftly wrought and serenely psychedelic. Sunblown features a guest appearance from Adam's sister Erin Fein, vocalist for Headlights (Polyvinyl).

COMING 5/20/2008
Hailing from the wooded coastal community of Felton, California, The Incredible Vickers Brothers have crafted a kind of music as familiar as the seasons and as unpredictable as the weather. Having honed their skills in apprenticeships with legendary California bands Cerebral Corps and The Orange Peels, brothers Rob and Bob Vickers decided the time was right to strike out on their own. Setting up camp with producer ALLEN CLAPP at Sunnyvale, California’s Mystery Lawn studio, they began concocting a unique stew of ’60s-inspired Brit-rock, Americana and ’80s pop with a dash of 1920s Vaudeville lunacy thrown in for good measure: a “Gallimaufry.”* Modest to a fault, The Incredible Vickers Brothers want nothing less than to take their place among the great brother acts of history! Influenced by the zany surrealism of the brothers Marx plus the yin-yang/love-hate relationships of Phil & Don Everly and Ray & Dave Davies, the Vickers Bros. aim to mix a myriad of ingredients, musical and otherwise, into the forever boiling pot of rock music.

COMING 5/20/2008
Hailing from the wooded coastal community of Felton, California, The Incredible Vickers Brothers have crafted a kind of music as familiar as the seasons and as unpredictable as the weather. Having honed their skills in apprenticeships with legendary California bands Cerebral Corps and The Orange Peels, brothers Rob and Bob Vickers decided the time was right to strike out on their own. Setting up camp with producer ALLEN CLAPP at Sunnyvale, California’s Mystery Lawn studio, they began concocting a unique stew of ’60s-inspired Brit-rock, Americana and ’80s pop with a dash of 1920s Vaudeville lunacy thrown in for good measure: a “Gallimaufry.”* Modest to a fault, The Incredible Vickers Brothers want nothing less than to take their place among the great brother acts of history! Influenced by the zany surrealism of the brothers Marx plus the yin-yang/love-hate relationships of Phil & Don Everly and Ray & Dave Davies, the Vickers Bros. aim to mix a myriad of ingredients, musical and otherwise, into the forever boiling pot of rock music.

COMING 5/20/2008
Done with the young and hungry rat-race of band-life, Joan of Arc now exists at the pace their real lives allow. By combining one week of studio time, a stack of songs and a sign-up sheet allowing participants to drop in whenever they could, each track on Boo Human is as wildly different and uniquely constructed as the groups who produced them. The combination of 14 musicians whose previous collaborations include Wilco, Iron & Wine, Bonnie Prince Billy, Beth Orton, and Prefuse 73 yields a truly diverse record that is as intense as it is intimate. Marked by intricate guitar melodies, non cognitive wailing and tense instrumentals, Boo Human is Joan of Arc’s most accessible, cohesive album since 1997’s How Memory Works. From the additively syncopated “Laughter Reflected Back” to the unignorable, poetic “9/11 2,” Joan of Arc truly proves that doing it their way is the right way.

COMING 5/20/2008
Vinyl! Done with the young and hungry rat-race of band-life, Joan of Arc now exists at the pace their real lives allow. By combining one week of studio time, a stack of songs and a sign-up sheet allowing participants to drop in whenever they could, each track on Boo Human is as wildly different and uniquely constructed as the groups who produced them. The combination of 14 musicians whose previous collaborations include Wilco, Iron & Wine, Bonnie Prince Billy, Beth Orton, and Prefuse 73 yields a truly diverse record that is as intense as it is intimate. Marked by intricate guitar melodies, noncognitive wailing and tense instrumentals, Boo Human is Joan of Arc’s most accessible, cohesive album since 1997’s How Memory Works. From the addictively syncopated “Laughter Reflected Back” to the unignorable, poetic “9/11 2,” Joan of Arc truly proves that doing it their way is the right way.

COMING 5/20/2008
Format: CD Digipack + poster (17.2 X 22.4 in). Pero ese olor en el cuarto del piano fue el primer perfume que necesitó en su vida is our modest homage to the Peruvian novel A world for Julius, by Mr. Bryche Echenique. Take it as an imaginary soundtrack to a book. Nineteen invited artists (from Latin America and Spain) appear on it with ambient, electronic and electroacoustic contributions. File under: Ambient, indietronic, electroacoustic. Tracks: 1. Sonatine - Souvlaki 2. Un caballo saltando - Caramelitus 3. Difícil - Posnormal 4. Snol - Balún 5. Silhouette sombrío - Polaroyd* 6. Los primos - Los nueva orleáns 7. ¿Y Johnny? - Sintecoraz 8. Si hay bulla no hay futbolín - Juan Stewart 9. Pequeño forastero (pueblos) - imi 10. 1981 - Carrie 11. Extraño esas praderas - 3antena 12. Candy Tucker - Arturo en el barco 13. Monika - Boom Boom Clan 14. Juguete de navidad - Felipe Moreno 15. El primer día - Jög 16. Sinara Aïssatou - Lise 17. Do, re, mi, fa, sol I kiss you - pequeña fiera! 18. Cascabelle - La rainbow toy orchestra 19. Desastre - dot tape dot

COMING 5/20/2008
El Rey - the first new album in over three years from The Wedding Present - was recorded in early 2008 in Chicago by Steve Albini. The band returned from an eight-year hiatus in early 2005 with the release of Take Fountain. This long-awaited album brought them back into the spotlight with all the style and sophistication associated with a legendary group, but fans were also pleased to see the band had lost none of the growling angst with which they had burst onto the scene with their 1985 debut, George Best. That intensity has been turned up even further for the new album, El Rey, The Wedding Present’s first collaboration with the legendary Albini since the renowned Seamonsters in 1991. Written while David Gedge was living in Los Angeles, El Rey burns with West Coast sunlight; Hollywood seen through the eyes of a gritty Northerner. Speaking about El Rey in Mojo magazine recently, Gedge said: “I’ve been living in West Hollywood for the last year or so, and while I’m not going to claim that this is my ‘L.A.’ album, there are some references. I suppose the themes are lust, jealousy, betrayal, regret, obsession, super-heros… the usual. We chose to record with Steve this time because the new songs were sounding very guitarry and quite dark. It’s been good. As you’d imagine, really; Albini knows his stuff”. The Wedding Present will be touring North America in Fall 2008 with the line-up of: David Gedge (guitar & vocals), Terry de Castro (bass), Graeme Ramsay (drums), and Chris McConville (guitar).

COMING 5/22/2008
Graced by the exquisite arrangements of Roberto Menescal, The Voice of Brazil combines Elis Regina s masterful 1968 LP, Elis, Como e Porque (Elis, How and Why) with recordings made a year later in London where Menescal teamed with Peter Knight (of Moody Blues fame). Although the flawless album she made in 1974 with Tom Jobim is regarded internationally as one of the great treasures of Bossa Nova, almost three decades after her death Elis remains one of the music world's best-kept’secrets, a truly great’singer who deserves to be recognised beyond her beloved Brazil. Stylistically, Elis Regina is part Dusty Springfield, part Blossom Dearie, considered to be part of the Tropicalia family.

COMING 5/22/2008
The Sound of Revolution combines Gilberto Gils brilliant 1968 and 69 Tropicalia albums, Frevo Rasgado and Cerebro Electronico; joyous, extraordinarily inventive pop music made against a background of terrible political unrest in Brazil and in the shadow of both imprisonment and eventually exile both for Gil and his friend Caetano Veloso. The 1968 album is electrified by the meteoric Os Mutantes and both sets arranged by Rogerio Duprat who contributes a range of totally original textures and orchestration much as George Martin did with Strawberry Fields and Sgt Pepper. Suffice to say, this combination of precocious talent achieves a magical and historically important result. Tropicalia-Os Mutantes-Rogerio Duprat-LSD-Revolution Gilberto Gil narrated recent BBC4 documentary about Tropicalia.

COMING 5/22/2008
Propelled by the extraordinary piano playing and arranging skills of Luíz Eça, Tamba Trio are characterized by their very original and highly attractive blending of left field Bossa grooves and almost sacred vocal harmonies. Our programme concentrates on the years between 1962-66 and finds the group at an eclectic axis of classical music, Bossa and Jazz and finding a brilliantly original vocabulary. An important landmark in the evolution of modern Brazilian music and far ahead of its time. Tamba Trio were the greatest Bossa Nova group: an institution in Brazil and now becoming better known internationally.

COMING 5/26/2008
Something Like Nostalgia is a film for your ears, a cinematic glimpse into the purity of everyday life. Written over 2 years time, these 15 scenes are like snapshots of daydreams, their soundscapes are their subtitles, and the origin is not so very foreign. Shoe-gaze, dream-pop instrumental.

COMING 5/26/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  Picture-Disc LP (limited 300). "Hasenlove" is the debut musical release of Hamburg visual artist Antonia Leukers. She's a founding member of "Institut Hasenbart", a 10-piece artist collective dedicated to a meta-scientific research of hares and related social, zoological and aesthetical phenomena in reference to the art world and pop culture. Leukers has previously created stitched, sewed and animated sculptures while casually growing cucumbers, working for a local in-vitro fertilization hospital and advising young people on erotic issues as a German Dr. Ruth for a popular Online magazine. Inspired by a journey to Island, hearing local travel guides spontaneously interweaving their narrations with sudden outbursts of folklore chanting and an encounter with Wolfgang Müller's (Die Tödliche Doris) strategy of transforming and combining his (pseudo-)scientific, documentary and social research into a musical and artistic performance she started to elaborate her fellow artist's lectures with musical renditions. As a passionate DIY home-recording artist she has soldered her own microphones, used cheap toy instruments, gameboys and minidisc recordings of kitchen sounds to create her very own bricolage comic universe. By recycling corny AOR mainstream Rock/Pop songs into some oddly disturbing and wonderfully weird rabbit love songs with newly-made German lyrics and combining these with some truly strange original compositions (ranging from freeform collage to distorted techno to deranged singer/songwriter stuff), she has created a musical love story in 7 parts. Spiritually influenced by (though not really sounding alike) German "Neue Deutsche Welle" artists such as Der Plan and theatrical and surreal performance bands like The Residents her versions of popular love songs sound like a teenage/female Andrew Lloyd Webber on bad acid. This 1-sided vinyl-only picture-disc LP is a strictly limited edtion of 300 copies. Both the gorgeous design and ornamental etching on the b-side have been done by fellow Hasenbart founding member Renate Nikolaus.

COMING 5/26/2008
Peering out between the mass of strings, hanging like vines, there must have been a spark of childish curiosity. From the giddy playfulness of youth all the way to the folk hinterland, Andreas Soderstrom has been surrounded by instruments, exposed to the sounds of his father’s bazouki factory – an extraordinary melange of clattering noise and metallic melody. That natural inquisitiveness has obviously paid off, and it surely can’t be a coincidence that a career in music beckoned. Trading under the pseudonym Ass – it stands for Andreas Soderstrom Solo – for more than a decade he has been the hitherto unknown man of Swedish pop, having played with the likes of electro-pop priestess Jenny Wilson, digital folk stalwarts Tape, offbeat folk-pop minstrel Blood Music, and Taken By Trees, the latest incarnation of former Concretes singer Victoria Bergsman. All that will change with the release of ‘My Get Up and Go Just Got Up and Went’, the second full-length album from Soderstrom under his Ass moniker. Soderstrom plays all of the instruments found on this quietly intoxicating 10-track record, the follow-up to his astonishingly assured, eponymous debut – both released on Headspin Recordings. It finds him hacking through the folk undergrowth, his fluid dynamic underpinning a stark melancholy which simmers throughout. From the Britfolk finger-picking of ‘I’ve Been Here’ to the austere ‘Cool Water’, the self-taught multi-instrumentalist wrings a plaintive beauty from his fingers; penning profoundly moving, largely non-vocal entities, augmented at various points by electronic gurgles, horns and an [accordion?]. ‘Wheels and Wings’, with its chiming guitar melody and horn counterpoint, is a rare vocal outing, Soderstrom’s subtle intonation adding a sweetness and warmth to proceedings. Harking back to his debut, the elegantly swooning ‘It Only Takes Minutes’ revisits the cyclical moments found on his previous outing, but there’s an atmospheric airiness infusing this record which leavens these near-macabre hymns. Minimal and majestic, the repeated melody patterns twist in every direction, wrapping and turning in on themselves like a maypole, before loping to a folk-stained climax. Daubing layer on top of layer on an intricately detailed canvas, Soderstrom’s sleight of hand in combining these varied textures is never more evident than on ‘Escape From NY’, which buzzes and throbs in unison with his rhythmic playing – there’s a sense of delicacy and wonder cloaked by a dark foretelling; a hushed but audible eeriness digging away at your subconscious, heightening that unease. The low-key majesty of Soderstrom’s gentle songs, like on closing track Vertical Spar, is here in abundance. Channelling a hypnotic style which is at times reminiscent of folk legends such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and John Fahey, his crisp compositions nevertheless have an ultra-modernist edge to them, digital elements seeping through and sounding perfectly at home, but with a softly engaging feel rather than the clinical hum of technology. ‘My Get Up and Go Just Got Up and Went’ is that rare kind of record; bewitching and thougth-provoking, comforting and challenging. It’s a real treat, and a chance to hear the whispered charm of a subtly disarming performer. To paraphrase George Clinton - free your mind, and Ass will follow…Very Limited vinyl Edition of 500 copies in thick cardboard stock, lyric insert and on purple wax.

COMING 5/26/2008
Chandeliers are a Chicago‐based quartet that represent a phenomenon of unclassifiable modern music. Comprised of multi‐instumentalists from Chicago's blossoming young avant‐rock scene, they have created a unique, and live, electronic sound. Adopting the collective spirit of krautrock bands like Can and Faust, the Chandeliers function as a unified whole, with no dominant members. This approach gives the band a more intuitive and unpredictable approach to composing. the sessions for The Thrush were overseen by Bablicon's Diminisher and Blue Hawaii at the Shape Shoppe and at Mahjongg's west‐side studio in Chicago. Its nine songs feature guests musicians from Bablicon, Icy Demons, and Mahjongg and includes 3 videos by filmmaker TJ Hellmuth. Believing that colour can exist in harmony with timbre, the Chandeliers pride themselves on their synaesthetic live performances: a non‐stop high‐energy show, augmented with dual projections of Brakhage‐esqe visual rhythm. Chandeliers bring the energy of a super‐live party to their cerebral synth interplay. An obvious reference is Kraftwerk, but with influences ranging from Burmese and Arabic melody, to the sonically dirty rhythmic propulsion of Konono no.1, and the crunked‐out psychedelic hip‐hop of J‐Dilla, Chandeliers always keep the listener on their toes. An album with the flow of a mix‐tape, the Thrush is at home bangin' in your trunk or hypnotizing on your headphones.

COMING 5/26/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  'nine lives causeway' is the much awaited follow up to last years ‘Galtrim’ CD. More lush Ambient tracks from one of Ireland's finest exponents of electronic music. Over the past year Ciaran has been gathering rave reviews from the likes of grand nubian, Mixmaster Morris and Irish synth pioneer, Roger Doyle. This promises to be another superb release on the prolific Psychonavigation label.

COMING 5/26/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  Hevoset is the duo of two of the most enigmatic individuals of the Finnish Underground, namely Jan Anderzen and Jani Hirvonen, both hailing from Tampere. Anderzen is ringleader of a mysterious multitudinous beast known as Kemialliset Ystävät (Fonal Records), a part-time member of Avarus and Islaja and records solo as Tomutonttu (Ultra Exzema, Beta-Lactam Ring Records) with a new album coming out on Dekorder this year (hopefully). Hirvonen is best-known under his Uton monicker with two LP's on Dekorder and a stream of releases on Last Visible Dog, Digitalis, Ruralfauna, Jewelled Antler, Pseudo Arcana and his own Ikuisuus label. While most one-off meetings between so-called experimental and improvising musicians often sound like bad excuses for a few beers and endless jams this is quite the opposite - a heavy weight championship finale of two like-minded whizkids cross-fertilizing each other with idea after idea, leading to some of the weirdest and quixotic recordings you will have heard of the two. Everything you loved about Kemialliset Ystävät, Uton and Tomutonttu is contained in Hevoset.....and more. Rural psychedelia, out-of-tune plucked and strummed strings, overloaded organs and effect pedals, Jani Hirvonen's sweet wordless vocals, ecstatic improvised drone collages, bells, backward loops, jungle percussion and tons of unidentifiable sounds and noises shaped into tight 4 - 6 minute tracks. Extracts from a Foxy Digitalis review by Brad Rose: "This is the music of people removed from civilization. It's like this is some kind of ancient artifact. It grinds on your skull, but feels so right. (Š) There are moments when the things that make Kemialliset Ystävät and Uton great on their own come together in forested harmony. In particular, on side A when Anderzén is droning away on a keyboard and Uton is massaging your spinal cord with masochistic feedback scrawl - it's hypnotic. These two artists are in a trance here, channeling the sounds in their head. It's so fucking good. (Š.)This is definitely a case where the sum is greater than the parts. Anderzén and Uton are in top form here and fans of either solo project will chew this up and consume it for months."

COMING 5/26/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  July Skies is the musical project of Antony Harding from Birmingham UK, assisted by members of the band Epic45 (Antony worked on their 2006 album May Your Heart Be The Map) who have both previously received airplay from the late John Peel and Rob Da Bank of BBC Radio 1 and also by Verity Sharp of BBC Radio 3. Both bands are part of the truly independent UK label collective Make Mine Music, who are heading towards their 50th release in autumn 2008. The Weather Clock is July Skies 4th album and the follow up to their critically acclaimed 2004 album The English Cold. Musically, think The Durutti Column, the sensitivity of 80’s indie bands like The House of Love, the guitar work of Maurice Deebank (Felt) or Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins), Harold Budd, or even a modern reference to British Sea Power if they ‘didn’t like rock music’. The Weather Clock is inspired by a lost post-war Mid-20th century Britain and a fixation with the design and architecture of the period. The beauty in the newly built regimented housing estates and clipped front gardens… It is the sound of the empty school hall once the summer holidays had commenced....faded branch line summers where steam met diesel.....the sound of the first swallows across the fields on fresh dew drenched mornings in May.....the nothingness of weekday afternoons with the lightness of a breeze through the window and billowing curtains….hearing the distant sound of children playing in fields far from the estate… the sound of BBC broadcasts closing down and displaying the TV test card for the afternoon whilst the country continued to work, play or learn....this is all the sound of The Weather Clock. The album is released in CD digipack with 1950’s period artwork by Andersen M Studio. The first 350 copies ordered from the Make Mine Music on-line shop come with a limited 7 track ep of exclusive and alternative tracks.

COMING 5/26/2008
An all new five-song EP of covers from Posies founder, esteemed solo artist, Twin Princess kingpin, REM sideman and Big Star reunioneer Ken Stringfellow, recorded at his home outside of Paris. He offers inviting interpretations of songs by (or made famous by) Judee Sills, Dusty Springfield, The Long Winters, Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn, and Bill Fay. Liner notes by Ken.

COMING 5/26/2008
New excellent two tracker by this rising british dubstep producer.

COMING 5/26/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  Maquiladora create songs from a sense of place. Eric Nielsen, Bruce McKenzie and Phil Beaumont (with occasional guests of Black Heart Procession, Modest Mouse and The God Machine) approach music from all sides, a sound which conjures up moods of the deserts and oceans providing a landscape that is both familiar and remotely distant. Acuarela is pleased to release a new take on Maquiladora's early works on St. Cecilia's Drowning - White Sands And Ritual Of Hearts Revisited. A re-mastered collection of songs recorded between 1995 and 2002, including nine previously unreleased songs, which present a graceful invitation into the musical journey of this reclusive band. This is the natural sound of the sands of Alta California aglow in warm sunshine and awash in the cool blue Pacific. This is the sound of the golden landscape, a buzz with honey bees, sea breezes, and the spirit of natives and first Californians who came to live and love here. Tucked in the southwest corner of the US is San Diego, a city bordered on the north by suburban trail to Los Angeles, to the west by the spirit of the Pacific Ocean, to the east by the vast dimension of the Borrego Desert, and to the sound by the cacophony of sites and sounds that makes Tijuana, home of the busiest international border crossing in the World. Why the geography lesson? Because all these are constant source of inquiry and inspiration for Maquiladora. The band's name comes from their birth in a warehouse ("Maquiladora" is the Mexican term for a sweatshop). Lyrics were written on travels both foreign and internal. Albums recorded in former funeral chapels, warehouses, school halls and attics that send a homing call to resonant sounds that travel to places both familiar and strange. Made up of a painter, a stage actor and an elementary school headmaster, these musicians play for the love of it and find time in their lives to present their music in special places, switching instruments between players from song to song, and making careful decisions on when and where to play live. St. Cecilia's Drowning compiles the re-releases of White Sands and Ritual Of Hearts with nine bonus tracks recorded during the same time period as the albums. Those two records forged the soul of a band that relied on their slow paced manners on following efforts such as A House All On Fire (Darla, 05) or their last recording 'til date, the half an hour plunge of The Gulf (Acuarela, 06). White Sands was recorded between the old Union and Beech warehouse and in the Corner Studio. It showed Maquiladora as a band who slowed down America's musical heritage to a dirge, inventing a new strain of Americana that sucked out all the twang and replace it with the expansion space of psychedelia. While White Sands journeys from the almost straightforward country of "Happy Day" to the creepy tinkling and eerie chants of "Termez 1936," the production suspends the songs in a wispy fog that lends cohesion and elegance to the record. Captivating, intriguing and moody, but ultimately accessible, this album has even been described as the perfect substitute for the unbalancing effects of drugs and dreams. Two years later, Ritual Of Hearts (originally released on Better Looking Records in 2002) founded welcoming ears where tasteful, somber depth used to be considered a coup. As Magnet's Magazine's Fred Mills, who also wrote liner notes for this newly re-mastered versions of the albums, puts it "on the second and third Maquiladora albums a sound as fully formed as I could wish from an artist. From White Sands opening strains, all rustic, country-folk-twang and elegiac vocal falsetto, to the shifting waves of tribal psychedelia that comes later on; from Ritual Of Hearts' minimalist, brooding blooze to its yearning, gospel-tinged drone-pop; from both records' invocations of everyone from Neil Young, Tom Waits, The Band to The Red House Painters, Giant Sand and Lambchop: Maquiladora's re-envisioning of the Americana form was profound, moving and utterly unique". There are many guest appearances on these 2 CD's including Pall Jenkins (Black Heart Procession and Mr. Tube), Tobias Nathaniel (Black Heart Procession), Lynn (The God Machine) and more. The bonus tracks were selected from 200 minutes of unreleased material from the time period. The menu of instruments that catered to these recordings stretches from the expected guitar, drums and bass to Hammond organs, piano, melodica, xylophone, accordion, lap steel, flute, gas pump, golf ball, lungs, throats and tongues. This two disc boxed package is released with a twelve page booklet of art done by the band and Joe Plummer. "Occupying a space between the desolate balladry of Cowboy Junkies' The Trinity Sessions and Giant Sand's backporch psychedelia, Maquiladora slow down America's musical heritage to a dirge. Just like how Codeine slowed down indie rock and punk to their base elements, Maquiladora play country ballads as if they were dusty Jimmy Rodgers tracks stretched out like taffy. Its as if they're inventing a new strain of Americana that has sucked out all the twang and replaced it with the expansion space of prog and psychadelia. While everyone else plies tired tales of whiskey and women, Maquiladora attempt to find new sonic and lyrical avenues for a music unwilling to shed its past." ALTERNATIVE PRESS "San Diego trio Maquiladora shares (Neil) Young's knack for infusing minimalist sketches with a cinematic, wide-open spaces vibe. Its third album Ritual of Hearts (Better Looking) has the same stark austerity that marked Young's Sleeps with Angels, it also contains Giant Sand's Chore of Enchantment brand of losing-control wooziness. This intersection of manic folk thrill and drunken psych- with piano, synth, melodica, mandolin and accordion darting like honeybees - proposes a craftsman's worldview that, likewise, is deeply passionate." MAGNET "Maquiladora's visceral music captures the ghostly feeling of deserts, or other otherworldly locales, through a unique sort of haunted country/folk/experimental music filled with atmosphere." ERASING CLOUDS WHITE SANDS: 1. Prostitute Song // 2. Julian // 3.Happy Day // 4. Little Miss R. C. // 5. Ankle // 6. So Far Away // 7. Itchy Song // 8. Termez 1936 // 9. Mr. Grey // 10. Bueno Mis Amigos // 11. Cousin // Bonus Tracks: 12. Light of the Rain // 13. Itchy Song (Live at VPRO) // 14. 12 Steps // 15. A/part // 16. After All RITUAL OF HEARTS: 1. The Secret // 2. Ritual of Hearts // 3. Heaven // 4. Sweet Afton // 5. I’m In Love // 6. A Vow // 7. Sound Of Rain // 8. Dream Of Snakes // 9. Chinese Girl // 10. Avow // 11. She’s More Beautiful To Me Than Water And Pure // 12. Static Hum // Bonus Tracks: 13. So Young // 14. Buddy // 15. Boatman’s Mantra // 16. Mexico D.F.

COMING 5/26/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  Mating rock guitar with electronic dance dance rhythms, Japan's The Sun Paulo can only be described as a musical roller-coaster, careering through impossibly-convoluted twists, turns and dazzling displays of kinetic virtuosity shot with rampant, crazed energy. Although musical reference points aren't hard to spot, the freewheeling, quite natural way they're gobbled up and spewed back out at often blinding speed makes for a listening experience quite unlike anything else on the planet. Leading the charge is guitarist and founder member Taiji Sato. He started the project in 2000 with DJ Really? who left in 2002 to be replaced by renowned session players Toshiyuki Mori on keyboards and drummer Takashi Numazawa. They've since played a host of major festivals, released their debut album After the Eclipse, soundtracked the movie Kalalu and started Tokyo's regular Wisdom parties in 2004 collaborating with noted DJs including Ken Ishii, Tsyoshi and Hiroshi Kawanabe. Electric Wisdom Sound System can switch gear several times during the course of one track, like "But We Want More", which eventually settles into a mighty slavering funk beast, or, even more extreme, the three part "Electric Western", which manages to straddle jazz, beatific piano-string ambience, belting techno and what sounds like the Mahavishnu Orchestra dry-humping System 7 at the Paradise Garage. Shards of 70s groups like Focus, the Allman Brothers, Santana and the Mothers flash past in what sometimes resembles an aural meteor storm, often colliding with 21st century electronica, all climaxing with an outrageous version of Burt Bacharach's "Close To You" which will carry you off to a higher plane altogether. This album is launch-pad, take-off and best part of one of the strangest trips anyone has had the skill or plain nerve to attempt in recent years. Tracklist 1...i against a speeeeed! 2...~but we want more 3...~another one 4...romanov's boogie 5...electric western part 1: fibre optics 6...part 2: everybody get down 7...part 3: da da da montuno 8...who i am 9...electric lady apple 10...close to you part 1: entrance 11...part 2: exit 12...turn on, tune in, 13...~i really really drop out

COMING 5/26/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  Limited 500. "Straight Edge XXS" is the 2nd vinyl album by Finland's Uton released in a strictly limited edition of 500 copies on the Dekorder label. It comes in a gorgeous full-colour collage sleeve assembled by Hirvonen himself. While Uton's last Dekorder album "Alitaju Ylimina" (and most of his other recorded works respectively) are hazy lo-fi drone masterpieces for the most part, this is a completely different affair. Recorded straight to tape within one month, right after returning from a 6-month trip to India, these songs (if you could call them songs) are completely out-of-this-world; very short and crazed sketch-like pieces sounding like a Nonesuch Explorer LP of long lost field recordings from an as yet unexplored continent. Or is it World Music from an unknown planet recorded by those Sublime Frequencies guys from mysterious short wave transmissions? Well, it is all that and more. It is pure ecstatic expression channelized through Psychedelia, Free Jazz, Noise and rural ancient Folk Music from all over the world in a completely naked, predominantly acoustic setting. One of the purest forms of music you could imagine; while all the familiar Uton elements remain evident in a hazy backcloth. Uton is the one-man project of Jani Hirvonen originally hailing from Tampere. Hirvonen is one of the most active musicians of the Finnish underground scene that has recently presented us the likes of Kuupuu, Kemialliset Ystävät, Islaja, Paavoharju and Lau Nau and a seemingly never-ending stream of beautiful and highly original record releases. Uton has previously released dozens of CD's, CD-R's and Cassettes on a myriad of labels including Jewelled Antler, Pseudo Arcana, Last Visible Dog, Digitalis, Ruralfauna and his own Ikuisuus. He has collaborated with Amon Dude (Avarus), Anla Courtis (Reynols), Antony Milton (Black Boned Angel), Ben Reynolds, Peter Wright, Phil Todd (Ashtray Navigations) and Jan Anderzen (Tomutonttu, Kemialliset Ystävät) among others. The latter collaboration (under the Hevoset moniker) is released on LP by Dekorder simultaneously.

COMING 5/26/2008
Vancouver trio, Winnings sophomore full length is as dour and uncomfortable as it is playful. Its a paradigm sprouted from the seed of improvisation, but nurtured from a dark and claustrophobic sentiment. Structurally, Could We Believe In Magic? has it's hands in a variety of extremes. It runs the gamut, from an apparent abandonment of traditional tempo and structure, to, at least comparatively, more conventional composition. Last year's, This Is An For Cigarettes, Winning's debut album, was a tangled and puzzling foray into rocks most experimental corners, abandoning rhythm, and structure almost completely; Only Magazine called it ...a clumsy acrobatic act beneath the Big Top of punk rock. And Magic is, no doubt, a logical continuation of such acrobatics; the most notable difference being much larger occurrences of coherency. Melody and structure are gestured at; sometimes completed, and sometimes spun quickly out of control. One may assume that these moments of melody (are we bold enough to call them 'choruses?'), would smooth out Winning's cumbersome disposition. But it is arguable that the exact opposite is true. Much like how one warm day will make the cold ones feel colder; these moments create a reference point for normalcy. The pop insinuations on Magic are equally as baffling as the free structured ones. Lyrically, Magic is confrontational and brooding. References to business politics and ethics are combined with uneasy sexual indications. Lyrics like 'Bank on notes because we're going gold' coupled with song titles like Fame Won't Bring The Ones We Love Back From The Grave suggest a deep bitterness towards the music industry and even hint at possible self-sabotage. It is unclear when business is a metaphor for human relationships and when it is the other way around. Blatant sex is used as a tool to illustrate deep sadness ('Oh, the lonely things we do to make each other cum'); a 180 degree spin from its usual purpose, culturally. The album art furthers this. Drawings of couples in the act of intercourse are presented as defaced monuments to unpleasantness. Yet, it is not all negative. Although the musical allusions might be somewhat effortless to spot (The free-improv / anti-rhythms of early US MAPLE and the haunting melodies of RADIOHEAD) it would be a mistake to call Magic a cocktail of various styles. It would be more accurate to call it a chemical reaction; a mix of substances that don't just combine, but actually react together to create something entirely new. Could We Believe In Magic? is being released simultaneously with Andy Dixon's debut solo album, The Mice Of Mt. Career as well as Andy's book of visual art. Besides the obvious, these three releases are tied together thematically as well as by 'Weird Weight', a song that is found on both albums and is also the title of the book. Each of these releases is fervent on their own, but they unite to create a powerfully focused yet mysterious vision. Track Listing: 1. Church Of Stuff 2. Taking Fort Somber 3. Fame Won't Bring The Ones We Love Back From The Grave 4. Voyager 5. Weird Weight 6. Wounded Knee 7. Hang Your Oldest Horse 8. I Was Naked Once. It Was Terrible 9. We're Dumb Mouths 10. They're Big Drugs 11. 3, 2, 1, Perfume 12. Our Queen Whom The Dogs Are Eating 13. Bank On Notes

COMING 5/28/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  This is the third, and last, of a trilogy of E.P.s the Clientele have recorded for Acuarela. They have always used the Acuarela E.P.s as a way to stretch out between albums, to create a through-the-looking-glass version of the band that shadows the better-known history of their albums. 'Ariadne' experimented with drones and minimalism, 'The Lost Weekend' stretched the foggy sound of their debut to epic proportions. In contrast "That Night, a Forest Grew' is the most commercial and -shockingly- danceable thing they've ever recorded. Part Bacharach, part Television, part Orange Juice, the E.P. shares the pristine clarity, light and shade of 'God Save the Clientele', but adds a new element of summer pop perfection. This is The Clientele as a hazily remembered 1970s cartoon series, all distanced off-key colours; imaginary summer hits, radio waves beamed in from a dream-discotheque.

COMING 5/28/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  Kieran, Diego, Jordi and Rubén used to be part of Migala, probably one of the best Spanish bands ever. It’s something they won’t try to hide. Now they are Fantasy Bar, whose debut album, Friday Afternoon Car, takes their music –and influences ranging from American Music Club to Nick Drake, Arab Strap to Neil Young…- into enchanting new territories. Friday Afternoon Car is an album of nostalgia and yearning for a brighter dawn; of harshness and tender feeling; of hopes and of fears. Its 14 stately, slow-paced rock songs are suffused with the beauty that lies just beneath the surface of existence. The careworn yet compassionate vocals of Scottish songwriter Kieran Stephen (ex-bassist with Los Planetas and Migala, bass guitar on El Hijo’s album “Las otras vidas”, live musician with QZIOS) speak of the emotions these four friends know so well: the persistence of memories; friendship and wasted love; the knowledge, throughout it all, that the good times can prevail. It’s there from the first moments of “Spiders”, which opens Friday Afternoon Car: the story of a bad dream called solitude, wrapped in gentle guitars and upbeat but delicate drums. The album was recorded at Rock Soul Studios in Madrid with the assistance of Carlos Torero, and features keyboards and guitar by Abel Hernández (El Hijo, former singer and guitarist of Migala) and electric guitar by Chris Bathgate (Sans Trauma, ex-Ganger, who also used to play bass with Arab Strap). It takes its name from an old British phrase that alludes to the belief that car-factory workers lose interest toward the end of the week: as the brief liberation of the weekend looms, everyday cares cease to matter. Friday Afternoon Car invites the listener to enter the universe of these songs: to discover a place to reflect and, above all, to feel. Fantasy Bar are: Kieran Stephen (vocals, guitars, bass), Diego Yturriga (keyboards, accordion and melodica), Jordi Sancho (bass, fender rhodes) and Rubén Moreno (drums).

COMING 5/28/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  Since 1995, Brisbane resident Leighton Craig has etched out a varied musical existence, from solo keyboard studies to an extensive body of collaborative work. His solo works, which span delicate ambient keyboard excursions through to site specific live documents and most recently song based explorations, have mapped out a focus of tone, duration and 'situations' for sound. On 11 Easy Pieces, his first widely available solo LP, Craig offers an intimate yet robust collection of works recorded on an array of cheap analogue keyboards, including his instrument of choice the Casio MT40. Recorded to cassette at the kitchen table between 2003-04, these recordings have been lovingly toasted by valve tubes during mastering to reveal not only a true sense of analog adventurousness inherent to Craig's mode of operation, but also his ability to unveil a rare tonal richness from his instruments. Leighton Craig casts out an audio net and collects together an essential haul of tonal gradients, phased rhythm and collapsed chordal interplays. 11 Easy Pieces (and two somewhat less 'easy' works), is a warm collection of distorted hymnals and blurred geometry - all of them visionary in their purity and timbral sensibilities. “This is more than Australian Music – this is Australia the musician.” Sean Rabin, The Australian “an organic exorcism of the trees…the music of the earth....” Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis. On Organ Notes “hazy minimal organ tones … feelgood mind-body static. Turn up loud and let it float.” Eddie Flowers, Slippytown.

COMING 5/28/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  Acuarela releases the original soundtrack of “Bajo las estrellas” [Under the stars] Félix Viscarret’s debut film (2008 Goya* for best Adapted Screenplay), starring Alberto San Juan (2008 Goya for best Actor) and nominated for best Soundtrack music by Mikel Salas with twilight western instrumentation. Surprising bonus track by Flamenco big star, Enrique Morente, who sings the standard classic "Stella by Starlight." *Goya is the equivalent of the Oscars for films in Spanish language. “Bajo las estrellas” starts, and we hear an ukelele, a xylophone; suddenly it bursts a fun rogue melody, with an ubiquitous banjo and a persistent rhythm, as if we were travelling in a ramshackle bus. We are entering the impossible city of Estella (in Navarra, Spain), more imaginary than real, a world fraught with losers who cling to any chance of leading a more ‘normal’ life. Mikel Salas’ music is that of iron, scrap metal and abandoned caravans, rusting, with twilight western instrumentation and lo-fi sound, a succession of instrumental landscapes, almost borderline abstractions that travel along with Benito Lacunza (actor Alberto San Juan) in his journey towards happiness, to the possibility of a remote happiness. In previous conversations between the director and the musician, it was much discussed Daniel Lanois, and, above all, his album "Shine". Félix Viscarret says that Mikel Salas likes to get into a project before even shooting. But the proper ‘revelation’ came when “Mikel faced the first editing of the film. That’s when we started talking about road music for our peculiar road movie à la navarra, an industrial western, the redemption story of an embarrassment guy, Benito Lacunza, who’s going to show us that behind his dirty appearance lies someone with a huge heart.” This is Acuarela’s first published soundtrack. But it’s also almost like any other release this label has got us used to. Almost folk, dark but flooded by rare cracks of light, intimate, warm, sometimes funny and sometimes bleak. Mikel Salas has written and recorded (by himself) the sound of how is traveling on roads filled with dust, deep into the mists of the north, or bordering small towns. And to conclude the record, a surprise: the voice of Enrique Morente and his amazing, magical version of Victor Young’s standard “Stella by Starlight, filling the sky with stars.

COMING 5/28/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  Ueno, along with his partner Saya, is one of the core members of Tenniscoats, who’ve released a number of fantastic discs of straight-up melodic to the core sing-songing joy. 2007 saw the release of Tenniscoat’s ‘Totemo Aimasho’ for ROOM40 and ‘Tan Tan Therapy’ for Häpna/Headz. In addition to his contributions to the Tenniscoats mothership, Ueno has released a string of solo releases, most of which explore his engaging approach to the guitar. ‘Two Things Always Happen Simultaneously’ released in 2003 on Majikick as a cdr and then re-issued two years later as a ‘proper’ cd on Commune-Disc lays the foundations. Whilst it is more explicitly a guitar record than whats goes down on Sui-Gin, the Fahey-esque finger-picking that would otherwise plant him firmly within the Takoma school (Ueno‘s cat is not called ‘Fahey’ without reason) is wilfully offset by Ueno’s technique of recording multiple overdubs without recourse to the original. There might be a little of that on ‘Sui-Gin’ (Japanese for mercury), too. Either way, there is an ongoing slippage between intention and accident in the complex mesh of notes, and Ueno sends himself further away from any superficial 12-string takoma purism by plugging his guitar into a moog ring-mod and completing erasing its original sound. What you hear on ‘sui-gin’ is 9 tracks of alien beauty that sit somewhere between Derek Bailey and Mouse on Mars’ ‘Instrumentals’ lp. Takashi Ueno plays 12 string acoustic guitar & Moog ring modulator. “For an instrument that when presented solo often brings to mind a clutter of reference points, Ueno Takashi’s playing is stubbornly his own and (((hasunosu))) suggests we are hearing but the first offerings of an increasingly vital proponent of contemporary Japanese guitar composition.” Signal To Noise.

COMING 6/2/2008
1999 was a special year for Hefner. The original Fidelity Wars reached number one in the independent album charts, with its accompanying single, cult favourite Hymn for the Cigarettes securing them the number one place in the independent single charts. It was also the year that saw Hefner working hard for John Peel, recording three sessions for his show and having five entries in the Festive Fifty for ’99. They reached numbers two and three in the chart, only beaten to the number one spot by the Cuban Boys! Fidelity Wars saw Hefner coming of age; the rawness of songwriter Darren Hayman’s earlier music and lyrics developing into a more intelligent, observational style. Hymn for the Alcohol, tells the tale of two alcoholics falling out of love, accompanied by the sweet pedal steel of new member Jack Hayter. The Weight of the Stars has the narrator memorising the contents of a roll of camera film, which was lost on a one-night stand. Don’t Flake Out On laments upon the lost friends of our early twenties, accompanied by the broken voice of ex-Raincoat Gina Birch and brass section. This re-release of Fidelity Wars contains the original album plus an extra 29 rare and unreleased tracks including deleted EPs, b-sides, and alternate versions. Darren Hayman and Jack Hayter play special evenings of Hefner songs at Manchester Manchester Ruby Lounge 11th June, Leeds, Brudenell Social Club 12th June, London Luminaire 13th June SOLD OUT, London 100 Club 14th June, SOLD OUT, Cardiff Ifor Bach 15th.

COMING 6/2/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  A tribute to one of the most influential and certainly one of the coolest rock chicks of all time. This tribute is a pure labor of love for the label and features indie-rockers from all over the globe covering Kim's impressive body of work. Songs Kim’s written for The Breeders and The Amps are covered with utter reverence here. Liner notes by Tanya Donelly (Throwing Muses, Breeders). Mastered by Sean Glonek (Frank Black, OK Go, Kristin Hersh, Dresden Dolls, Mogwai). Produced by Joseph Spadaro (Dig For Fire - a tribute to Pixies, Cinnamon Girl - Women Artists Cover Neil Young For Charity). Original album art by David Yurchuk. Limited edition pressing. Tracklist: 01. The She / WITCH HATS 02. Bragging Party / THE GERMAN ART STUDENTS 03. Cannonball / THE WHEELERS 04. Tipp City / TARA KING TH 05. Do You Love Me Now / MELISSA GIBBS 06. Fortunately Gone / JULIE PEEL 07. Off You / FRANCINE 08. Doe / RIZZO 09. I Just Want To Get Along / DESCARTES A KANT 10. Invisible Man / THE NUEVOS 11. Safari / THE DOUGLAS FIR 12. When I Was A Painter / LE TETSUO 13. Divine Hammer / THE MODIFIERS

COMING 6/3/2008
Dominique Leone wears many hats, only a few faces & has a hundred songs that you haven’t heard. And yes, he's a him. He’s a songwriter, producer, singer, lover, fighter... scratch that, he's one of a growing number of college-educated musical auteurs with more than a slight command of pop history & theory chops, and writing songs for joyous, infatuated people. Perhaps some of them are a bit over stimulated. Perhaps some of them just like good melodies & strange chord progressions that still seem vaguely familiar. The music is catchy but ambitious; crafted but not sterile; interesting but not pretentious. It’s just a lot of fucking fun.

COMING 6/3/2008
Hello Lovers has been producing a unqiue sound described as “southern gothic” baroque pop in a chamber group incarnation. The group itself has been referenced as a "String Chamber Group With Vocals". Lead by John King who writes & directs most of the arrangements & sings, the group features Masha Poloskova (Conservatory of Moscow) on violin, Molly Fischer (Conservatory of Kansas) on cello & Andy Hadaway (Spank Dance Co) on piano. Guest performers include members of ...Trail of Dead, Windsor for the Derby, Polyphonic Spree & others.

COMING 6/3/2008
Jazkamer is always dealing with different kinds of noise & noise-music. This album has 58 tracks and is 17 minutes long! This time the Jazkamers has gone as far with rock & punk as humanly possible. We guess this is their homage to Japan's noisecore & their love for early Boredoms, Melt Banana, Hanatarash & Zeni Geva. But we don’t know. Just listen for yourself.

COMING 6/3/2008
Nisennenmondai means “Year 2000 Problem'' and is an instrumental Japanese girl trio from Tokyo. Visits to Tokyo by Lightning Bolt, Battles & No Age and others have unearthed these three girls with the mammoth sound. With song titles such as This Heat, Sonic Youth & Pop Group, one understand which musical territory the band comes from, and if you ad Black Flag, DNA, Neu! & Pere Ubu you are pretty close to Nisennenmondais sound. It’s raw & repetitive (post) punk instrumentals, at the same time as they are wild groovy with a no wave/disco vibe to it. This is the first release outside of Japan & it contains the bands two EPs “Neji” and Tori” released as one album with new cover design by Kim Hiorthoy.

COMING 6/3/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  Vinyl only. Steven Hess (Pan American, Fessenden, Haptic and the Dropp Ensemble) and the experimental electronic composer Miles Tilmann (Consumer Research, Sub:Marine, Toytronic) come together to present Departures - their forthcoming vinyl-only release on Other Electricities. Hess creates a unique hybrid of improvised percussion and electronics, where Tilmann's deep bass tones and sublime waves of sound converse with Hess's intricate rhythms and textures: the sonic equivalent of a complex series of weather systems that assemble, unfold and disintegrate according to their own logic. Simultaneously intriguing and elusive through their manipulation of sound's depth of field, they successfully incorporate this often underused element, pressurizing shimmering pulses alongside chaotic decays. For Fans of: Fourtet/Kieren Hebden and Steven Reid, Andrew Pekler, Biosphere.

COMING 6/9/2008
EXCLUSIVE.  With her lunging rhythms and deliciously retro melodies, Akane Hosaka catapults us into a world of gleeful wallabies and drummer-boy monkeys. Her discovery of music came through song, and only later led to instrumental experimentation. References to her early influences, the 60s and 70s precursors of electropop, are deliberate, there for all to see: Raymond Scott, Perrey & Kingsley or Yellow Magic Orchestra. Nevertheless her true inspiration is from the visual world and lies in graphic forms and architectural fantasy: Keiji Ito, Archigram or Bruno Munari. For her, these images evoke music that she then sets about transcribing. Naturally reserved, she’s a perfectionist in her work. Seeing her in the studio is like watching a blacksmith in the smithy, as she bends her music into the required shapes. Her compositions are like pastel-coloured soap bubbles in extra-bright Super 8.

COMING 6/9/2008
Track Listing: Plumerai “Vacant Eyes”. The Brother Kite “We Can Never Be Friends”. LIMITED to 500 copies. Clear vinyl in see-thru package. An idea hatched during the recording of Plumerai’s “Without Number” CD out on Silber Records. The thought was to strip away the pedals and even electricity and release a record that would simultaneously draw upon the band’s ability to evoke emotions and utilize one of the band’s noted strengths; the intimacy and power of Elizabeth Ezell’s voice. After consideration they sought out The Brother Kite to record a track for the flipside. A Clairecords staple and another top-notch New England band known for their shoegaze influences, they seemed like a perfect match for the concept of stripping down their sound and writing an acoustic track.. Plumerai’s “Vacant Eyes” relies more heavily on orchestration and layering of instruments such as acoustic guitar, reed organ, violin (arranged and performed by Clara Kebabian) and bells to accompany Ezell. While The Brother Kite’s “We Can Never Be Friends” is a more basic track with acoustic guitars and a catchy vocal melody carrying the song. This stunning and beautiful record comes on coke bottle-clear vinyl and is limited to 500 copies. "Do credit (Plumerai's) Elizabeth Ezell for killing herself softly with this song. Her voice breaks gently on each syllable, creating a strange and soulful vibrato that communicates her anguish easily and gracefully, not unlike Karen O ripping her heart out, ballad-style." - Pitchforkmedia.com “The Brother Kite slip right past the sky on their guitars and into low orbit here, and it's a pleasure to join them there.” – Pitchforkmedia.com, Rating 7.6

COMING 6/9/2008
Limited edition of 300 copies in a heavy stock screen printed jacket. Numbered. A Zamuro is a dark South American vulture of great size. Zamuro is also a solo composition piece for portable synth and analog filter. Side A on this LP is a live realization of this piece recorded at the Compound in San Francisco in 2006 (Mastered by Lasse Marhaug). Carlos composed and performed this piece live on several tours in the US/Europe/Japan all trough out 2006 and