Revel in New York
A look at the city through its people
Essential Records
Best Albums of 2009
(in no order)
1. The Broadcast & The Focus Group
Broadcast & The Focus Group | Birmingham UK | Warp | Listen
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2. Om
Om - God is Good | San Francicso | Drag City | Listen (An album Goblin could have made)
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3. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart | Brooklyn | Slumberland | Listen
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4. Telepathe
Telepathe | Brooklyn | IamSound | Listen
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4. Cold Cave
Cold Cave | Philadelphia | Matador | Listen
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5. Nite Jewel
Nite Jewel | Los Angeles | Self Released w/ Human Ear | Listen
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6. Here We Go Magic
Here We Go Magic | Brooklyn | Secretly Canadian | Listen
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7. Kill For Total Peace
Kill For Total Peace | Paris | Pan European Recordings | Listen
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8. Moon Duo
Moon Duo | San Francisco | Sacred Bones | Listen
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9. Animal Collective
Animal Collective | Brooklyn, Lisbon, DC | Domino | Listen
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10. A Place To Bury Strangers
A Place to Bury Strangers | Brooklyn | Mute | Listen
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11. Pure Ecstasy
Pure Ecstasy | Austin | | Light Lodge | Listen
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12. Omar S
Omar S | Detroit | fxhe | Listen
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13. Martyn
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Best Reissues
1. Space
Space | Marseille | Nang | Listen
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2. Comet Gain
Comet Gain | London | Whats Your Rupture | Listen
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3. Prince Lasha
Prince Lasha Ensemble | Oakland | Dusty Groove | Sorry folk no gimmes here
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4. The Feelies
The Feelies | New Jersey | Bar None | Listen
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5. The 39 Clocks
39 Clocks | Germany | Bureau B | Listen
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6. Peter Walker
Peter Walker | Boston | Tompkins Square | Listen
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8. Bill Fox
Bill Fox | Cleveland | Scat | Listen
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9. Guru Guru
Guru Guru | Germany | Brain | Listen
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10. The Axemen
The Axemen | Aukland | Siltbreeze | Listen
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11. The Liverpool Scene
The Liverpool Scene | Liverpool | Esoteric | Listen
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12. The East Flatbush Project
The East Flatbush Project | Brooklyn | 10/30 Uproar | Listen
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13. J.T. IV
J.T. IV | Chicago | Drag City |
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14. Sperm
Sperm | Finland | Destijl | No Songs or video but excellent is understatement
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15. Margo Guryan
Margo Guryan | Los Angeles | Oglio | Listen
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16. Das Ding
Das Ding | Dutch | Minimal Wave | Listen
Deconstructing Panda Bear's Person Pitch
Panda Bear is the member of Animal Collective who made the nearly perfect solo record, Person Pitch. I was on his Wikipedia page and noticed all the sampling he did for this album and thought that highlighting some of these bits & pieces would be fun.
We begin with Agnes Montgomery. She's the artist who created the iconic album art (shown above) and the collages shown below. Agnes is based in Philly. Signed limited edition prints of her work can be purchased for $125 here.
Below are the songs sampled on the album:
Comfy In Nautica features a sample of Geino Yamashirogumi's song Tetsuo. Geino Yamashirogumi is a Japanese folk collective that could have over 70 singers and 100 members at any given time. The members consist of every day people that range from businessmen, doctors, students and everyone in between. The song Panda Bear sampled was a commisioned tune from the soundtrack to Akira. The picture below is taken from Julian Cope's website and shows some of the members performing.
Take Pills, the second song on Person Pitch, contains a sample from a Scott Walker's ballad, Always Coming Back to You (shown below) and The Tornados song, Popeye Twist (shown below that).
Track 3 - Bros - Contains the following samples:
Red Roses and a Sky of Blue by The Tornados
I've Found a Love by Cat Stevens from his album, Matthew & Son
Rub A Dub Dub by The Equals (Listen Here)
Track 4: I'm Not contains a sample from Rose, Liz, Printemps, Verdure by Guillaume de Machaut but performed by Gothic Voices
Track 5: Good Girl / Carrots contains the following samples:
Radio Calcutta #2 from the album Radio India: The Eternal Dream of Sound
Enter the Dragon by Lee Scratch Perry
Ananas Symphonie by Kraftwerk
Track 6: Search for Delicious is named after the book of the same namb by children's author Natalie Babbitt
...and that takes care of that!
Destination Out Takes You There
Destination Out is a good station to prepare for orbit. They deal primarily with Free Jazz but also No Wave, Experimental, Films, books, even shoegaze. The experience is a whole lot better if you're wearing a dashiki. Prepare for take off.
Essential Records - Edgard Varêse and Le Corbusier - Poême Electronique (1958)
Edgard Varese (1883-1965) was a French-born composer who was an innovator in the use of electronic music equipment. Varese's chaotic musical style has influenced later composers (John Cage & Karlheinz Stockhausen) and rock musicians (Frank Zappa & Chicago) alike.
Video sourced from mjsebit
Varese image sourced from Randall Packer
Zappa & Varese photomontage sourced from Victor Rebullida
Amazon
Essential Records - Wolfgang Dauner | Ouput
Don't let the cover fool you. This is not a post punk record. It's weird German jazz fusiony compositions.
Get Wolfgang Dauner from Mutant Sounds
Essential Records | Alan Vega "Jukebox Babe"
As many of you know, Alan Vega is a visual artist and one half of the duo, Suicide. In 1980 he released a self-titled solo record with his electo-rockabilly "hit" Jukebox Babe. This record, like a handful of his other output, is absolutely essential.
You may also like: Behind The Doors of 98 Bowery | NON Band | New York Club Flyers from the 70's & 80's | Thurston Moore's Top Free Jazz Albums | Edgard Varese & Le Corbusier | The Tube: A Day in the Night of New York | Wolgang Dauner
Essential Records | Best New Band | Kill For Total Peace
Essential Records | Billy Boyo
There were lots of rumors about this kid: The false story was this: As one of the "child" deejay stars of Kingston, Boyo emerged on the scene as 13 year old. He took jabs at some of the Kingston gangsters with his lyrics and ended up getting shot in the head and killed before he hit puberty. The Clash song "Wrong em Boyo" is supposedly about this incident.
The Real story is mostly the same as above except he was not murdered - he died of a brain tumor in Brooklyn.
Essential Records | Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
In 1981 Eno & Byrne teamed up and made a record that incorporates the sound both of these guys were into at the time. This may sound lame, but if you were describing a record to someone and said, "It sounds like a mix between Brian Eno and David Byrne", that would be this record. Some might think that's obvious but they could have made a record that sounded like anything right? ....ummm yeah. You can hear snippets from the 2006 reissue at Amazon and if you're savy enough I'm sure you can find the download.
While the majority of this site showcases the cultural interests of our video subjects, the Blog is our chance to present some of the things we find interesting.
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