Andrew Graham & Swarming Branch

I woke up this morning and said to myself, "I want some eccentric, left of center, randomized goodshizza up in my eardurms." So I perused the card catalogue for something to fit the bill, of which Andrew Graham & Swarming Branch does in spades. Graham, at the ripe age of 24,

{I'll take a moment here to mention I've reached the age where I have some difficulty accepting the talent and success of those I tutt-tutt and think "...ah to be [insert # here] again." blarf.},

had already flexed his musical biceps with bands like RTFO Bandwagon, Pink Reason and, my personal favorite, Psychedelic Horseshit. Now he's doing his own thing with a rotating cast, aka Swarming Branch, on the Mexican Summer label. Bluegrass infused with some punk and plenty room to breathe, don't be hating on Kathy. At least she can dance.

Andrew Graham & Swarming Branch // Take It Easy On Kathy At Least She Can Dance

Radiohead - the Kings of my Limbs

At long last.
After much quiet.
Much anticipation and dreamings and hopefulness and mild disappointment after the elventhousandth time you looked them up since pledging your undying loyalty after you questioned your existence when you heard "How to Disappear Completely" for the first time while driving to Hardee's for a sweet tea. {gasp}

Radiohead's 2011 release, The King of Limbs. Blessed be, the lion flies and I can dance my way down a pulsing neon-aubergine thoroughfare of electronic transcendence right on up and across the brim of Thom Yorke's fedora. We're back in Kid A territory, somebody better drop the bread crumbs so we can find our way back.

Radiohead // Lotus Flower

Washed Out

To the esteemed Mr. Ernest Greene,

Mr. Greene - I'm writing to let you know that I am a m*th*f*ck*n fan. Ever since you came out with the Life of Leisure EP, you've made me wish I had been a little older to do more than drool and ask for a binkie in '84. Those music beds you've built with late '70s-80's sampling is an excellent choice.

Even better than highfructosecornsyrup sampling is the minimal lyricism modus operandi. Paired with your homemade bedroom-synth, it's like pb&J. Smooth or chunky, grape or strawberry - if you make that sandwich, you better believe people are gonna 'nom.

The fact you got me to say 'nom is ridiculous. But when you're dropping singles on Adult Swim, only one of the best visual assaults on the planet, that's what happens.

keep it stanky,
chirgo

p.s. Caroline Polachek sounds positively dreamy on this track. Maybe I'll buy the last Chairlift record to hold me over since you're taking your sweet-ass time with this late Fall release.
p.p.s. Did you seriously create the Chillwave genre? C'mon bro - that's pushing it.

Washed Out // You and I

Miwon

Continuing to swim around in the huge heap of Deustch sent to me by Forced Exposure. I feel like Scrooge McDuck.

Miwon hit up das Berlin club scene as a DJ for awhile but it seems he's more into his studio these days. He's been recording on a label City Centre Offices, based in Manchester y Berlin, with which I am heretofore not familiar but seems pretty tight.

This track, "A to B," is indeed the most accessible on the album. That's why I chose it. It takes from Fleetwood Mac with singers Maho Masuda, from Japan, and Sibylle Fendt, who also took the photo below. If you know Fleckfumie, their guitarist Nick Gloeckner is also on here, along with Galaktlan, who is from Estonia, on synths.



Miwon // A to B

Shitkatapult - Strike 100 compilation

Shitkatapult is the mostly electronic label out of Berlin started in 1997 by Marco Haas, who is also the artist T Raumschmiere. Sascha Ring, who is the musician Apparat, helped run it for a while but has gone back to strictly makin his own music.

Strike 100 came out at the end of last year to mark the 100th release by the label. It's 2 discs of ambient fuzz that alternates between soft and prickly with also some environmental sounds, though many of the songs do have annunciated beats, and vocals even.

Man it's really hard for me to decide what to upload.

Okay okay okay. One from each disc: Felix, for whom google turns up sparse info, at least in English, and Fenin, whose English isn't very good but who knows the word "homies." A lot of these guys seem to cite reggae and dub as influences, which I find interesting.


Flier for an Apparat CD release party. I might have died.

Felix - Outside on a Cold Day

Shitkatapult // Fenin - Lastkahn

B Fleischmann

From Vienna, B Fleischmann started out as a drummer, touring with bands all over Austria. In 1998 he turned into a laptop nerd, but he still uses real drums and other acoustic instruments, too.

This song is from his newest album, Angst is Not a Weltanschauung!, on Morr Music. The album includes a rework of Daniel Johnston's "King Kong" and vocals by Sweet William Van Ghost and Marilies Jagsch (in this track).



B Fleischmann // 24.12.

If you like this, B has more downloads on his site, plus links to some of his own favorite music.

Forced Exposure

The IDM boat draweth nigh, along with a bunch of other stuff. For real, WRIR got this massive shipment in from my favorite music distributor of all time Forced Exposure.

I won't bore you with the details, but my love for Forced Exposure is so great that I as an audience member once made David Day, another audience member and at the time Forced Exposure's college radio contact, stand up in a room of maybe 200 at a CMJ panel discussion to talk about his company.

In the 80s and early 90s Forced Exposure was a zine published out of Boston (on newsprint), focusing on punk and obscure music as well as literature, with contributers like Lydia Lunch, Mission of Burma, and Sonic Youth.

Now they distribute music, ranging from rereleases of 1920s fiddle music from Baghdad to the entire Shitkatapult catalog to re-pressed Norwegian psychedelia from the 60s to free jazz and composers and ambient noise to English warehouse bangers. Look at their index of releases for March. Dazzling.

Basically half my career as a music director has been spent begging FE to send me stuff. Incidentally, they supply a lot of the electronic vinyl to Plan 9, too.

So anyway I am fulfilled, and guess what, I consider it both my job and my pleasure to share my musical joys with you. My next several entries will all draw from this boomshower of sweetness that arrived in the mail last week.

So there, too, music distro isn't dead after all, is it? Just shitty music distro. Thank you, Forced Exposure.