Fulborn Teversham, Nalle, Need New Body, Bablicon, Chandeliers, Pop-Off Tuesday, Mass Shivers, Big Eyes, George, Daniel Johnston, Scatter, Farina, Oddfellows Casino, Now, Zukanican, Volcano the Bear, a.P.A.t.T., Dragon or Emperor, Marshmallow Coast, Butchy Fuego, The Doozer, Hassle Hound, The Go! Team, Phosphene & Friends, The Evolution Control Committee, 100 Pets, Mittens on Strings, Roy Moller, and many more besides
Sounds Like
quirky genius, bent tunefulness, noisy playfulness, jazz turmoil, inventive retro-futurism and downright emotional heart-on-sleeve belief, hope and passion
Three years in the making and clocking in at a more-ishly bite-sized 23 minutes, the title of ‘Animation’ fits in more ways than one. Early impressions suggest an almost cartoon energy to
Freeze Puppy's world and the hyper real, often poignantly flawed characters who inhabit it through Tom’s smart and concise wordplay (guest narrators include lovelorn drink drivers, imaginary friends, abject loners and serial gamblers amongst other skewed societal misshapes...). Yet listen on, and it goes further: as songwriter, producer and lyricist, Wilson works like the consummate stop-frame animator - hunched over his songs like they were tiny audio figurines, chiselling out their strange, fleeting little lifetimes over a series of acutely poised movements, drawing breath from them through colours, textures and melodies that, given half a chance, will pitch camp in your subconscious for what may prove to be decades. At once audaciously complex and eminently digestible, ‘Animation’ is pop created within limits, existing in joyous disregard of them. The very best kind.
'Animation' won't be in the shops until August 3rd, but is available now from Pickled Egg.
“Now are producing some of the best-but-as-yet-un-noticed art-pop in the country” [Artrocker.com]
"Pursuing their offbeat, off-kilter and occasionally off-the-wall mashup of lo-fidelity experimental pop music and uptempo kosmik grooves at the fringes of undergound and overground success,
Now continue to demonstrate the tireless heart of their being is something close to an unsung national treasure. Just like NOW's ever-changing live shows, the gumbo of influences and references which permeate 'Ooodipooomn' suffuse it with an almost naïve joy in its own existence. Adventurous and elliptical more than merely eccentric, 'Ooodipooomn' revolves around the core NOW trio and a parade of guests, buzzing vibrantly through sensational moments where shuddering analogue synth boogie morphs into avant skronk'n'roll before throttling back into hypnotic cello, somnolent beat loops and droning surrender. The six minute trance-inducing motorway chug of 'Hiway Code' seems more like a whole roadtrip thanks to its the sheer busyness, while the spacious sprawl of “Yellow Tent T-shirt” and the brazen churn of 'Ethnik Snack' both coalesce into wildly divergent epics, remoulding the model of jam-band ethnopsychedelia along the way" [Richard Fontenoy, Plan B]
'The Stumbling Block' is Zukanican's, second album and third release on Pickled Egg. Recorded in 2007-8 at The Kif in Liverpool the 8 track album mirrors the band’s live performances perhaps more than their other releases. The album was recorded and mixed by Zukanican and studio trickery has been kept to a minimum; what you hear 'is was'.
Here's what Rockerilla said of their last album: "Among the many influences declared by the last generation of rock musicians, no one is quoted as preposterously as Sun Ra, who inherited a record that was Stockhausen's own in the 70’s. This preamble is to say that the joyful Zukanican commune is conversely the legitimate daughter of the bandleader from Saturn, with their rhythmic exuberance, the tone colours of the woodwind, the spacey and ancestral essence of their music. Add to this a little subterranean Can-school kraut pulse, a tip of jazz-rock with early '70s Miles Davis' harmonies and the enthusiasm of some bantering psyche-heads, and you'll get a hint of the lifeblood flowing through the grooves".
'The Stumbling Block' is available now from Pickled Egg.
Pickled Egg Records are pleased to announce the release of ‘The Absence of Birds’, a four song EP by Oddfellows Casino, combined with a short film by Brighton-based film maker Toby Amies, which features an original soundtrack by Oddfellows Casino. ‘The Absence of Birds’ showcases four new David Bramwell compositions, exhibiting lush orchestral arrangements with a nod towards late-period Talk Talk, and featuring Oddfellows’ usual eclectic array of guests, including Stereolab's Simon Johns on bass, Giant Leap guitarist and composer Andrew Philips on guitar and percussion, Clearlake's Jason Pegg on organ, and Bevis Frond guitarist Paul Simmons on bass and guitar.
The CD comes complete with a twenty minute film 'The Ballad of Oddfellow', which stars Drako Oho Zarhazar - former Salvador Dali model, actor in films by Andy Warhol and Derek Jarman, and the recent subject of a Radio 4 documentary, ‘The Man Whose Mind Exploded.' This sepia-tinted curio follows the demise of legendary Victorian freakshow host, Ambrose Oddfellow, as drink, tragedy and the advent of picture-houses force him to host phoney seances for the gullible aristocracy of Brighton. But who knows what can happen when dabbling with the forces of darkness... The cast also includes Michael Attree (former world moustache championship holder), Dave Mounfield (portly comedian and nice chap) and the legendary Heidi Heels. The film features an original soundtrack of Oddfellows Casino songs, and was directed by filmmaker and MTV/ Lonely Planet host Toby Amies.
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 - group members Chris Kalis, Dan Jugle, Harry Brenner, and Scott McGaughey are also active members of Chicago groups Bronze, Michael Columbia, Icy Demons, Mandate and Killer Whales - 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 guest 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.
The Doozer builds. He has previously built stone houses and wooden ships. He is currently building music. Raised around the Fenlands of Cambridgeshire, in the arse end of nowhere, the city drew closer and closer, the lights brighter and the time shorter. The city informs his music. His music informs the city. Songs evolve around watching and talking, buying and borrowing. Characters pass by, situations are imagined, colours are added and the resultant is a forming song.
His debut album, ‘Sheet Music’, was recorded mainly on Saturday mornings, bright and early. The songs weren’t complete until the recordings were complete. The spaces always changed. Instruments and voices were layered. Pop music was the aim; pop music isn’t quite the result. Pop music is The Doozer’s music, only filtered through all of the colours and sounds you’ve imagined when walking through the street or down your lane or when your batteries died.
Exploring similar landscapes to Frank Zappa - minus the virtuoso elements - Liverpool-based a.P.A.t.T. are a bewildering and completely original two to seven piece band, utilising all available genres to create a daft and beautiful music. 'Black and White Mass' sets a new standard in home entertainment, featuring some of a.P.A.t.T.'s most accessible compositions to date, whilst still retaining an element of surprise.
Some bands are just damned impossible to classify: a.P.A.t.T. are a (usually) 6-peice amalgamation of all that has come before & all that will slowly catch up in the end. Beyond genre defying: every instrument and style you can think of, mashed up together in jaw-dropping live performances. The experimental and chaotic beeps, buzzes and blips of a.P.A.t.T., (described on the BBC Merseyside website as sounding like Frank Zappa having a fist fight with Mighty Mouse) have steadily built up a growing army of admirers. They were featured on the promotional video for Liverpool's Capital of Culture bid, and have recently staged a multi-media installation called 'Quartet', featuring four films projected whilst the band performed inside. As if this wasn't enough, they even found time to compose the incidental music for the BBC Radio Merseyside alternative music show, PMS.
Starting from a cupboard with a piano & a drumkit in it, Durham City, England, Suzy Mangion began her public music-making as one half of school boy-girl band George, in 1994. George released a number of acclaimed secret pop records on vinyl collector labels Earworm & Bad Jazz in the late 90s, and eventually released their debut album 'The Magic Lantern' on Pickled Egg Records in 2003. An EP, 'All Good Things', was released in Spain on Lejos Discos, and the 2005 George album, 'A Week of Kindness', was jointly released on both labels.
Suzy also appeared on the Piano Magic album 'Writers Without Homes' (4AD) – contributing vocals on two tracks, which have been described by many as the album's highlights - and has recorded two albums with Arbol - an eponymous debut (Indus Sonica), and 'Dreams Made of Paper' (Lejos Discos). Last year she made a guest appearance on the Big Eyes Family Players's album, 'Do The Musiking'. Suzy is also one half of The Winter Journey.
'The Other Side of the Mountain' is Suzy's first solo album, and was recorded between January and July 2006. Musically, it follows on very much from where George left off, hardly surprising, given that Suzy was responsible for writing and performing about 90% of their material.
Purchase these and all other releases from Pickled Egg
Leicester-based Pickled Egg Records is one of the most sharp-eyed, adventurous independent labels around, releasing some of the best music of any label, anywhere. Eclectic to a fault, and firmly out of step with current trends, since it's inception in 1998, it has dedicated itself to redressing the world’s musical balance in favour of quirky genius, bent tunefulness, noisy playfulness, jazz turmoil, inventive retro-futurism and downright emotional heart-on-sleeve belief, hope and passion. In a world in which the musical balance is already, irretrievably, weighted down on the side of corporate flatulence, labels like Pickled Egg are so a priori unnecessary, and yet so a posteriori essential.
The label's roster is genuine quality. Artists like Philadelphia's Need New Body, Chicago-based Bablicon, Pop-Off Tuesday from Osaka, and Leicester’s very own Volcano the Bear, have tapped rich musical mines, mixing jazz, avant rock surrealism, and a punk rock approach.
Selected releases...
Scatter 'Surprising Sing Stupendous Love' CD
Nalle 'By Chance Upon Waking' CD
Fulborn Teversham 'Count Herbert II' CD
aPAtT 'Black and White Mass' CD
Zukanican 'E5number' 10"
Zukanican 'Horse Republic' CD
Zukanican 'The Stumbling Block' CD
Mass Shivers 'Ecstatic Eyes Glow Glossy' CD
Chandeliers 'The Thrush' CD
Need New Body 'Where's Black Ben?' LP
Need New Body 'UFO' CD/LP
Need New Body 'Need New Body' CD/2xLP
Now 'Frisbee Hot Pot' CD
The Doozer 'Sheet Music' CD/LP
Daniel Johnston 'Rejected Unknown' CD
Hassle Hound 'Scaring the Grass in the Garden' 10"
The Go! Team 'Get it Together!' 7" EP
Dragon or Emperor 'Dragon or Emperor' CD
Suzy Mangion 'The Other Side of the Mountain' CD
George 'The Magic Lantern' CD
George 'A Week of Kindness' CD
Bablicon 'In a Different City' CD/LP
Bablicon 'Orange Tapered Moon' CD/LP
Bablicon 'A Flat Inside a Fog' CD/2xLP
A Hawk and a Hacksaw 7" (coming soon!)
Big Eyes Family Players 'Do the Musiking' CD
Big Eyes 'Love is Gone Mad' CD/LP
Big Eyes 'Clumsy Music' CD/LP
Big Eyes 'We Have No Need for Voices' CD
Big Eyes 'Big Eyes Songs' CD/10"
Pop-Off Tuesday 'Pop-Off Tuesday' CD/LP
Pop-Off Tuesday 'See My Ghost' CD/10"
Pop-Off Tuesday 'Pop Ahoy!' CD/LP
Butchy Fuego 'Butchy Fuego' CD
Volcano the Bear 'Yak Folks Y'Are' LP
Marshmallow Coast 'Seniors & Juniors' CD/LP
Marshmallow Coast 'Ride the Lightning' CD
100 Pets 'Easter Songs' LP
Oddfellows Casino 'Yellow Bellied Wonderland' CD/LP
Oddfellows 'Casino Winter Creatures' CD
Oddfellows 'The Absense of Birds' CD & Film
Farina 'Three People' CD/LP
Farina 'Allotments' CD
The first Sproatly Smith album (RW 76) is still available. The Yew And The Hare can be purchased for £5.00 from REVERBWORSHIP.COM Limited edition of only 50 I hope you enjoy xx
We've got a new release - sculptural noise-jazz structures by one-man-project from Kiev.
This is a story of solid but disperse layer of irregular noise being methodically spread over the acoustic plane of a grand piano that was cynically squashed with echo-effect.
A mini-CD comes in an illustrated 5-page hand-made mini-book.
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