Rock & Indie CD 562 Items

On Vertigo Days, the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany’s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they’ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.” It’s been seven years since The Notwist’s last album, Close To The Glass, and in that time the various members of the group have been busy with side projects (Spirit Fest, Hochzeitskapelle, Alien Ensemble, Joasihno), guest appearances, a record label (Alien Transistor), movie scoring, helping organise the Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie pop & running a festival (Alien Disko). Those divergent paths feed back into Vertigo Days in surprising ways, from its structure, built from group improvisations, with songs flowing and melting into one another in a collective haze, to its spirit, which feels refreshed and alive. There’s something cinematic about Vertigo Days too, reflective of the group’s time working on soundtracks, and reflected in the rich, moody photographic artwork by Lieko Shiga that adorns the cover. The first sign of this newfound openness was the album’s lead single, “Ship”, where the group were joined by Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats, her disarmingly hymnal voice sighing over a propulsive, Krautrocking beat. Elsewhere, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay sings on “Oh Sweet Fire”, also contributing “a love lyric for these times, imagining two lovers in an uprising hand in hand.” American jazz clarinettist and composer Angel Bat Dawid adds clarinet to the spaced-out dream-pop of “Into The Ice Age”, while Argentinian electronica songwriter Juana Molina gifts some gorgeous singing and electronics to “Al Sur”. Saya also reappears as a member of Japanese brass band Zayaendo, who guest on the album. Throughout, The Notwist also capture the openness of their live performances, too, where they mix and link their songs in unexpected ways. Indeed, what’s most impressive about Vertigo Days is the way it sits together as one long, flowing suite, the album conceptualised as a whole entity – it’s perfect for the long-distance, dedicated listening experience. This is also captured by the album’s lyrics, which Markus states, “feel more like one long poem.” The dimensions of that poem are multi-faceted, something intensified by the geopolitical weirdness of its times: “As the situation changed so dramatically, while we were working on the record, the theme of ‘the impossible can happen anytime,’ more about personal relationships in the beginning, became a global and political story.” But it also works at a level of poetic abstraction, such that each song gestures in multiple directions – the deeply private pans out to the global. The one certainty is that there is no certainty. “It’s maybe mostly about learning and how you never arrive anywhere,” Markus concurs. To sit within uncertainty is brave, but it’s also where we feel most alive, and Vertigo Days is an album that is brimming with life, with enthusiasm and love for music and for community, all wide-eyed and dreaming.

Adam Green and Kimya Dawson originally crossed paths at an open mic night in Mount Kisco, New York in the early 90s. From there they went on to record a surplus of home recordings with various friends under the moniker The Moldy Peaches, and eventually became staples in the NYC anti-folk scene of the late 90's/ early 2000's. After releasing several albums that gained traction in the U.S. and UK, the group broke into the mainstream when their song "Anyone Else But You" appeared in the hit indie film "Juno" (2007).

Origin Story: 1994-1999 is a collection of songs, unreleased demos, live tracks, and poems from the early years of The Moldy Peaches, and outline the tale of how the band came to be. Liner notes written by Adam and Kimya detail the stories behind each track and rare photos included in the packaging help to illustrate the life and times of the duo when they were young.

Japanese import CD edition. One long song recorded between May 2019 and May 2020.

The garage -psychedelic French duo The Liminanas straddles since 2009 the boundary between psychedelic, shoegaze,garage & French yé-yé up to cool vocals . Quintessentially French but first known at the start in the US before hitting homeland France. 7 studio albums so far, 2 rare tracks compilations, many Eps,some OST, collabs such as L’Epée with Anton Newcombe & Emmanuelle Seigner : time for a first time Best of, and actually more than a Best of : Double Cd , Ltd Triple Vinyl& Digital editions offer 12 exclusive bonus tracks -new songs + rare songs when they called themselves les Bellas, before The Liminanas-.
“Electrified” also includes 23 classics songs , with featurings such as Peter Hook, Anton Newcombe and French pionners Laurent Garnier, Etienne Daho & Pascal Comelade.
Features liner notes written by Iggy Pop, Peter Hook & Keith Streng (Fleshtones) : because it’s only rock’n’roll.

Lick is the third full-length album by the Lemonheads, and the last to feature founding member Ben Deily. It was the group's last independent label-released album before signing to major label Atlantic. An odd mixture of brand-new, and considerably older, sounds, 1989’s Lick brings together the output of several distinct recording sources: six brand new songs recorded with Minneapolis-based band friend and producer Terry Katzman, and a collection of older, B-side and never-released material originally overseen by producer and engineer Tom Hamilton.

Creator is the second album by legendary Boston band The Lemonheads. Still featuring the full original line-up of Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz, the album also includes John P. Strohm (of the Blake Babies, Antenna, and Velo-Deluxe) on drums.

Comes in large format duo-case with 60 page booklet. Osharaku is a traditional Japanese form of musical entertainment, featuring mainly voice, shamisen and percussion, with a repertoire of folk and popular songs, performed by farmers and fishermen for local audiences. This compilation, 28 tracks compiled by Riyo Mountains, is the fourth release in the EM Records/Riyo Mountains Japanese folk series. These recordings feature legendary Osharaku masters, recorded in their homes, brilliantly capturing the casual warmth and vitality characteristic of the style. Osharaku is unique in its use of shamisen, originally an “uptown” urban instrument, in a “downtown” non-urban setting. These joyous tracks, all recorded in the 1960s and 70s, are available as a 2CD set or a single 12” vinyl LP, with English translations and rare photos. Cover art by Shinsuke Takagi (Soi48).

Riyo Mountains are a Japanese folk song research team formed by Mood Yama and Takumi Saito. They are resident DJs at the renowned party "Soi48" at Be-Wave, Tokyo, featuring music from all over the world. They produced the Japanese folk song mix-CD series entitled "Riyo Mountains Mix" and also direct the reissue series of Japanese folk music on EM Records, including the releases "Yumi-kagura", "Sakai Ishinage Odori”, and "Kizaki Ondo”. Riyo Mountains have appeared as DJs at many events/programs including NTS (London) and Japanese Bon-Odori traditional dance festivals. Their articles about Japanese folk music are now published serially in the Japanese web magazine “boid".

Recorded June 5, 1970 • First official release • Includes the song “Someday Soon” that was only performed live 1. Intro/Adolf Hitler (Poem) 2. Roadhouse Blues 3. Someday Soon/Harvest Moon 4. Mystery Train/Train Coming Round The Bend 5. Break On Through 6. Five To One 7. Backdoor Man/Willie Dixon 8. The End 9. When The Music’s Over

Machine Gun Etiquette Was The Album That Brought The Damned Into The Charts And Opened Up Their Music To Millions More Than Hard Corp Punk Fans. Ironically The Massive Hit From The Album Was Smash It Up As Punk As You Could Possibly Get! But The Album Was Also Home To Another Two Hit Singles Love Song & I Just Can't Be Happy Today. After 25 Years The Damned (With Its New Line Up But Including Songwriter Captain Sensible And Front Man Dave Vanian ) Decided To Do A One Off Tour To Commemorate This Seminal Album . The Manchester Show Was Captured On Film With A Five Camera Crew And A Set That Also Drew In Other Damned Hit Singles Such As New Rose , Neat Neat Neat , Eloise, And The Epic Fan Favourite Curtain Cal...

Press releases are rubbish! The band who wrote the music don't write them, so some oik who didn't write the music is wheeled in and then, with a Thesaurus propped open on their lap, they attempt to describe sounds with words. As I said, rubbish! So I asked co-founder and frontman of The Cravats, The Shend, to describe 'Dustbin of Sound', their first new LP in 37 years. "As always, it's unique" he said enigmatically. The Thesaurus gave me, 'distinctive', 'individual', 'idiosyncratic', 'different', 'eccentric' and 'unusual' for unique (flipping writing itself this).
The Cravats have indeed always been all of those things, but 'unique' sums it up just fine. Okay, you may prefer to be dragged along the motorway under a rusty Land Rover than have to listen to that sax-riddled, bass-laden Dadaist weirdness again but you can't deny they're unique. And with 13 brand new slabs of peculiarity from these particularly peculiar people (even oscillator overlord, Simeon Coxe of Silver Apples pops up for a few seconds on 'Motorcycle Man'), DoS is still the Cravats that John Peel loved (4 sessions) back in 1978, but with an extra 35 years of life on Earth soaked into their bones.
The two critically acclaimed singles from last year, Blurred and Jingo Bells which Marc Riley, Gideon Coe and Henry Rollins amongst others, played a wad on the wireless are here, as well as songs involving buried cattle, hatcheting Toyotas, death ray vapourisation, the mud-soaked sibling of Neptune and, of course, atheist yacht-owning crocodiles. Er, help me out here, Shend. "Music should always be passionate, preposterous, atmospheric and above all entertaining. We fulfill the remit." They do. It's like watching 13 magnificent mini-movies at your local multiplex but you're eyeballing them with your ears. And talking of Thesauruses, who the hell uses words like, 'maliloquent' and 'predilection' in Pop songs? If Shakespeare, Max Ernst and Beefheart had a radio show, this LP would probably be on heavy rotation.