ASA-CHANG AND JUNRAY - 2 SINGLES + 1 MINI ALBUM

JAPAN'S FINEST TABLATRONIC SAMPLEMANIA ETHOGRAPHERS OR SIMPLY SAID - THE FUTURE SOUND OF JAPAN
ARTIST``````````ASA-CHANG & JUNRAY
SINGLE 01`````KANA (2004)
SINGLE 02`````SENAKA (2004)
ALBUM`````````TSU GI NE PU (2003)
GENRE``````````ELECTRONIC, EXPERIMENTAL, POST-ETNO (HA?)

WHY?:
Extraordinary sampling techniques and brilliant beat-programming are trademarks of this Japan-based experimental band. Unfortunately, these 3 recordings are all I have. If anyone has their album/compilation "Jun Ray Sung Chang" please let me know because I simply cannot find it anywhere.

I don't understand one word they are singing (speaking mostly) but it somehow seems they are examining the Japanese language itself. I've realised that for people who don't understand their chopped-up lyrics, this album may even sound more interesting because the voices litteraly become rhytmic instruments just like percussions and sound textures they are using.

My favourite tracks are "Toremoro" from "Tsu Gi Ne Pu" album and "Kana" from "Kana" single.

This is strange, but their albums, EP's and singles are extremely rare to find on the internet and that makes this a must-must-have:)

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:
Based in Tokyo, self-taught tabla guru Asa-Chang spends his professional life touring with multi-million-selling J-pop acts - groups that make S Club 7 sound like Joy Division. Regarded as Japan's premier session percussionist, in his spare time this loveable eccentric makes music that might just blow your head off.

Asa-Chang & Junray is the name of the Asa-Chang experience, and comes from the 'Jun-Ray Tronics' soundsystem he uses. The word also means 'pilgrimage' - Asa-Chang is on a mission to take music to places it's never been.

All three recordings are packed in one zip file.

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Read an interview here: Asa-Chang & Junray feat. Kyoko Koizumi

BARK PSYCHOSIS - CODENAME: DUSTSUCKER (2004)

STAYING VITAL
ARTIST````BARK PSYCHOSIS
ALBUM````CODENAME: DUSTSUCKER
GENRE````POST ROCK, EXPERIMENTAL
YEAR``````2004

WHY:
I've been listening to Bark Psychosis for a long time now and that's a bit odd considering that they have - well...only 2 albums.

Since I've already posted their first groundbreaking album "Hex" which you can and must download here, there is no reason for not posting their second, not groundbreaking but simply mature and beautiful album - Codename: Dustsucker. Considering the amount of time it took them to make this album, it's a wonder how hey managed to contain that same, fresh and organized blurry emotional sound trip they had in 1994.

BAND BIOGRAPHY:
Despite a relatively small recorded output and little media recognition, Bark Psychosis was one of the most innovative artists of their era. From rather uninspired origins as a teenaged Napalm Death cover band, the British group evolved by leaps and bounds, moving from moody, lush pop to ambient soundscapes to taut, atmospheric experimental music; their work was so revolutionary, and so impossible to define, that noted critic Simon Reynolds even found it necessary to invent a new sub-genre -- "post-rock" -- simply to categorize their vision.



ALBUM REVIEW:
(from www.dustedmagazine.com by Adam Strohm)
For every Bon Jovi or Mission of Burma, who find success in their comebacks, there are the ill-fated attempts of countless bands whose quest for resurgence may never even reach the pubic eye (or ear), even on the level of independent music. Luckily, for Sutton and Bark Psychosis, this doesn't seem to be an applicable issue.

Augmented by a group of 14 musicians and vocalists, Sutton leads the group through nine dreamy numbers which don’t often vary from a formula that might be tired in 2004, but something that Sutton pulls of with a vitality that many others lack.

Before the lengthy construction of this album, Graham Sutton’s mind had been away from Bark Psychosis for a few years, but it’s hard to tell. ///Codename:Dustsucker is largely without missteps or ill-advised ideas; instead it’s a fresh look at the sound that he’d once eschewed. It’s nothing brazenly new, but there’s no need for it to be. The nighttime dream that is ///Codename:Dustsucker is enveloping enough that there’s not much need to worry about such minor squabbles, as, with this music, the details aren’t what matter in the end.

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You should also consider downloading their previous album "Hex" here.

PORNOSONIC - UNRELEASED 70'S PORNO MUSIC WITH RON JEREMY (2004)

IT'S THE PLUMMER!

ARTIST````PORNOSONIC
ALBUM````UNRELEASED 70'S PORNO MUSIC
GENRE````FUNK, KITSCH, SEX
YEAR``````2004 / 1970's Vintage Porn

WHY:
A true gem - sleezy soundtrack music that almost every comedian (Pablo Francisco?) pranked with at least once is here - remastered and carefully selected for your enjoyement. Inserted narattions by porno-super-tzar Ron Jeremy are gorgeously simple, awful, sleezy reminders of vintage 1970's porn movies with a "back-story haha" (hairy plummer suddenly appears at a half-naked-just got of a shower blonde's apatrment to repair her "pipes"). Simply said - wah-wah sex classic!


Ron Jeremy - the plumming legend

REVIEW:
by Jason Ankeny from allmusic

If the smiling visage of smut film icon Ron Jeremy that adorns the cover of PornoSonic isn't in and of itself enough to convince you to buy the record, then you need to seriously recalibrate your value system -- the Hedgehog is a veritable trademark of quality, and one listen to this collection of vintage porn music will no doubt prove enough to keep you coming back for more. These ten instrumentals are from the classic "boom-chicka-pow-wow" school of skinematic debauchery, loaded with funky drums, bone-rattling basses, and guitars that squeal and moan like starlets in heat -- best of all, the esteemed Mr. Jeremy contributes spoken material guaranteed to keep the ladies in the mood. Highlights include such theme songs as "Laying Pipe," "Sex Starved Secretaries," "Cramming for College," and "Prepare for Take Off."

SLEEZY TRACKLIST:
1. Dick Dagger's Theme [From Dick Dagger's Big Dick Dilemma]
2. Cramming for College [From Cramming for College]
3. Nice n' Sleazy Does It [From "If It Ain't Easy It Ain't Sleazy"]
4. Spiderpussy [From Spiderpussy]
5. Special Delivery [From a Happy Ass]
6. Sex Starved Secretaries [From Takin' Dictation]
7. Prepare for Take Off [From Mile High Club]
8. Her Magic Carpet [From Donna Does DeNise]
9. Laying Pipe [From Plumber's DeLight]
10. Spiderpussy (Slight Return) [From Spiderpussy 2: Caught in the Web]

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FELIX KUBIN - MATKI WANDALKI (2004)

(In Polish: Matki Wandalki = Vandalizing Mothers)
ARTIST`````FELIX KUBIN
ALBUM`````MATKI WANDALKI
GENRE`````ELECTRONIC, EXPERIMENTAL
YEAR```````2004

WHY:
After Bruce Haack, Felix Kubin is one of the strangest artists in the realm of electronic music. German madness and general disregard for enjoyable sound are his trademarks.

BIOGRAPHY:
Felix Kubin, one half of the Hamburg based futuristic noise band KLANGKRIEG, lives and works against the rest of the world. His activities comprise Sci-Fi Pop/Noise/animation films/radio plays/experimental broadcasting. As the messenger of exploding lungs he started his label "Gagarin Records" in 1998 and rules the "syndicate of counter-noise" since 9.9.1999. His experiences both in electroacoustic music and strange electronic pop (that he followed already in the early 80ies with his notorious band "Die Egozentrischen Zwei" — released as "the Tetchy Teenage Tapes of Felix Kubin" on SKIPP and A-Musik) induced him to launch a vinyl record label for all kinds of Dada-electronics on the edge of pop and experimental music.


ALBUM REVIEW BY Fritz Ostermayer:
Old School? New School? In reality, both are just a question of orchestral and sound preference. The freespirit, in this case, decides for No School: for only from the fragments of No (ie. No Wave in reference to No New York) new forms can originate. And, at best, No would also imply idiosyncratic wanking and autodidactic self-empowerment.
As 11-year-old pre-teen, this Gyro Gearloose of pataphysical sound Felix Kubin not only sought for self-satisfaction with his legendary child-band „Die Egozentrischen 2“ but also instigated the first folk synthesizer against its own instruction manual (of course in accordance with the „zeitgeist“ at that time). The result was an elevated monstrosity from a merciless rage-experiment with frightening precociousness. All at the peak of the Neue Deutsche Welle... Thank god that today, more than two decades later, there is no stopping this former „wunderkind“! Admittedly, the mischievous demolition of pop structures, which was once attributed to a juvenile Berserkerdom, has since then evolved into a more conscious Dada-Hooliganism. Or - to put it simple with the metaphor of the album title - it turned into the „Mothers of Destruction“ (in Polish: Matki Wandalki = Vandalizing Mothers).
The fact that the anaemic ghost of deconstruction doesn’t spoil the 13 tracks on this CD must have to do with Felix’ abstruse humor. Like his love of sounds, the hum of Kubin’s cosmos is powerfully distinct. It reminds (not only) me of tschechoslovakian animation films and – even further back – of the electro-acoustic sound experiments of the fifties avant-garde long before their development into pop,
Matki Wandalki unites several pairs of aesthetic contradictions. Abstract Darmstadt goes Pop. The result is „witty“ musique concrete and something that I can only interpret as „program-music“ without a narrative „program“.
That by such cheerful science he would also come out with a real hit for the possibleWeb-Nerds-Casting-Show (Hit Me Provider) is no surprise for me. On the conrtrary, it’s more than ever pleasing. With it Felix should finally be making the well deserved dough...As for me, I just can’t leave him out of Pop...No School? Better this: Own School! Class Kubin!

You can check him out here:
http://www.felixkubin.com/
http://www.myspace.com/httpwwwmyspacecomkubin

See this great video for "Hotel Supernova":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M4RIeePO48

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IRON AND WINE - OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS (2004)

LOW-FI SUBTLE ACOUSTIC BEAUTY FROM FLORIDA
ARTIST``````````````IRON & WINE
ALBUM``````````````OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS
GENRE``````````````INDIE ROCK/LOW-FI
YEAR````````````````2004
COMPILATION BY VALENTIN

WHY:
I first heard Iron & Wine on their excellent collaboration album with Calexico called "In The Reins" which i also recommend.

I intentionaly selected this album (not the debut one) because talented songwriter Samuel Beam (the guy with the beard) managed to keep his gorgeous, intimate living room sound while shifting from his home studio production to proffesional studio equipment. While some question this change in sound quality, I only see it as a normal reaction to a massive positive response to his music. Some new band members are added and this can be heard in small enriching details such as sampled Native Indian chants and simple percussion beats in the backround. The most important improvement on this album is Samuel's voice - it is recorded so well that sometimes it seems that he is singing right next to you.

Simple and emotional, this album has that tiny, intimate precision that lots of indie lo-fi bands today search for.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY AND ALBUM INFO:
Iron & Wine is the stage name for one Samuel Beam, a Florida native who made his name by releasing lo-fi tapes in Miami. The name Iron & Wine is taken from a dietary supplement named "Beef Iron & Wine" that he found in a general store while shooting a film.



On Our Endless Numbered Days, the follow-up to 2002's stunningly good Creek Drank the Cradle, the sound of Iron & Wine has changed but the song remains the same. No longer does Sam Beam record his intimate songs in the intimate surroundings of his home. Instead he has made the jump to the recording studio. As a result the record is much cleaner, less cocoon-like, certainly more the product of someone who has become a professional musician and not someone who just records for fun on a four-track. However, all Beam has sacrificed is sound quality. The sound of the record is still very intimate and simple, with very subtle arrangements that leave his voice and lyrics as the focal point. Luckily all the technology in the world can't affect Beam's voice, which still sounds like it comes right from his lips into your ear as if he were an angel perched on your shoulder. His songs are still as strong and memorable as they were on Creek, no drop off whatsoever in quality.
Our Endless Numbered Days is very subdued, thoughtful, melodic, and downright beautiful album and the new sound is more of a progression than a sudden shift in values, production or otherwise. Anyone who found the first album to be wonderful will no doubt feel the same about this one. Heck, you might even like it more.

DOWNLOAD IRON & WINE HERE

THE DEAD TEXAN - THE DEAD TEXAN (2004)

BEAUTIFUL, SLUMBERING COMPOSITIONS
ARTIST``````````````THE DEAD TEXAN
ALBUM``````````````THE DEAD TEXAN
GENRE``````````````SPACE ROCK/MINIMAL
YEAR````````````````2004

MY VIEW:
If you like Stars of the Lid as much as I do you should get yourself this fine album. Adam Waltzie (The Dead Texan in question) made only a slight departure from that famous Stars of Lid's drone minimal sound. A bit more guitars here and there and a tiny portion of recognizible voice layers make this album different enough.

A solid, wave riding piece of solo work.

ALBUM REVIEW:
The solo entry from Adam Wiltzie -- best known as one-half of Stars of the Lid -- comes under the nom de rock the Dead Texan and exists as less of a song cycle than an imaginary movie score. Accompanied with a DVD of seven videos made by filmmaker Christina Vantzos only asserts this notion, but Wiltzie's guitar-based art is equally if not better suited to stand on its own. Beautiful, slumbering compositions get peculiar titles like "The 6 Million Dollar Sandwich" and "A Chronicle of Early Failures." If the lush, piano-flushed "La Ballade d'Alain Georges" is the finest of the instrumental tracks, Wiltzie's two intimate vocal pieces (the organ-bolstered "Glenn's Goo" and the ambient shoegazer-ish "The Struggle") are easily the disc's highlights.

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GONZALES - SOLO PIANO (2004)

AN UNEXPECTED BRILLIANT ALBUM
ARTIST`````````````GONZALES
ALBUM`````````````SOLO PIANO
GENRE`````````````SOLO INSTRUMENTAL
YEAR```````````````2004

MY VIEW:
Short story - this guy got bored with the repetative club/dance/electro scene around him and decided to - play his piano. A truly awesome and personal piece of work.

ALBUM REVIEW:
Near the end of the old millennium, someone once rapped, "Being futuristic these days means being futuristic on your own terms," which is entirely fitting when said rapper records an album of solo piano instrumentals. (Perhaps less instructive is what said rapper went on to say: "Being futuristic means loving worms, saving your sperm, wearing your pubes in a perm.") The former Chilly Gonzales has a hint of Gershwin in his playing, an urbane, contemplative take on the blues that sometime turns into a wry smile. He also has a hint of Satie, the spare and haunted sound of a music box turning slowly to a halt as it comes to the end of its wind. But what he also has is entirely his own, which not only makes this the best album of solo piano instrumentals by a rapper extant but also one of the finest solo piano albums not by a jazz or classical performer.

Obviously, there's a duality to any man who lit up stages with Peaches but also played with and produced Jane Birkin and Charles Aznavour, but Solo Piano is a disarmingly wonderful record.

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DAVID CROSS - IT'S NOT FUNNY (STAND-UP COMEDY 2004)

HATING KIDS, HATING BUSH, HATING EVANESCENCE... DAVID CROSS LIVE AND NICELY RECORDED.
ARTIST`````````````DAVID CROSS
ALBUM`````````````IT'S NOT FUNNY
GENRE`````````````STAND-UP COMEDY
YEAR```````````````2004

MY VIEW:
One of his best performances. Good audio quality.

ALBUM INFO:
It's Not Funny is David Cross' 2004 stand-up comedy album, released on Sub Pop Records. The track titles, like those on his previous record Shut Up You Fucking Baby!, have no relevance to the bits Cross does on the album and are instead there to make fun of material performed by other comedians, either on the whole or targeted at specific comedians; e.g. the seventh track is probably a stab at comedians such as Margaret Cho, and track 4 is probably a stab at parody artists like "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Cross has said the album's title references children being laughed at by their friends while trying to tell them something important, only to reply, "Come on guys, it's not funny." Stand Up! Records also released a limited LP edition of 500 for this release, as they had for Shut Up You Fucking Baby!. Like the CD, it also contains a hidden track that plays from the label out to a locked groove. This edition is a single LP, unlike its predecessor.

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