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Listed: Six Organs of Admittance + Clue To KaloSix Organs of Admittance
Six Organs of Admittance is Ben Chasny, a one-man psychedelic juggernaut. Resonating from deep within the redwoods of Northern California, Chasny’s acid-folk recordings emit an tentative solace that channels the genius of both John Fahey and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Last year’s Dark Noontide blew minds when Chasny laid down his acoustic guitar and went electric, combining feedback and tablas for one of the finest head trips available for 12 bucks. Chasny also appeared on the freakout album of 2002, Field Recordings From the Sun by Comets on Fire.
1. John Fahey - Red Cross (Revenant) – I can't imagine ever really needing anything more than a couple of beers and a way to play this CD at night. That's it, I'm set.
2. Erkin Koray - collection of singles (2xLP) – Besides being a bad mutherfucker, Erkin's just got it, you know? Look at the turtle neck sweater and the kitty and the stacks of amps. Now that's a man. Besides that, he can pull out those melodies that are as exquisite as an Andalusian choir and lay them down over a dirty-ass tune.
3. Keiji Haino - To Start With, Let's Remove the Colour! (PSF) – Why do Haino's CDs on PSF always smell so good? I bought this on the same day that I realized I didn't actually own my own copy of Songs of Love and Hate, so I got that too. They make wonderful companions to each other.
4. Major Stars - Live and all records – It looks like I am going to have to take all my friends, one by one, from the west coast out to Boston for some sort of annual pilgrimage to see the only American guitar rock band that matters anymore, since the Major Stars don't seem to be making any plans to come out here anytime soon.
5. Thai Elephant Orchestra – When I first heard this I thought it was one of those recordings of Kawabata at age 14, breaking beakers and banging on things in science class. But no, just some cool elephants having a good time jamming out some tunes on the ol' thundersheet harmonicas.
6. L - Holy Letters – Goddamn. Got this on a rainy day up in Humboldt County years ago and it just melted right into my being. Lush and beautiful rural electric folk music that pretty much turned me around and then turned me around again.
7. Hiroshi Kawani - Flashback – Possibly the scariest recording I have ever heard. Well, scary isn't really the right word. Frightening and surreal. Beautiful. Ideal. This music breathes on the same plane as Jandek and very few others. Not that it sounds like that at all. Exactly.
8. Nikki Sudden - all the reissues on Secretly Canadian – I can't imagine ever really needing anything more than a big bottle of whiskey and a way to play these CDs. Any time of the day. I'm set.
9. The music of Utrillo – Although too busy playing drums for his brokedickdog rock band, hopefully one day he will get his music together in a proper format so that the rest of the world can hear it. He's released a few tapes and CD-r’s under various psychedelic monikers. His tunes are piano based gems that seem to be lost between the worlds of brokenhearted N. Young, the Martian voyages of Eno, some wandering Slovakian circus, and the 7 a.m. sincerity of Epic Soundtracks.
10. Cat Power - "Good Woman" from You Are Free (Matador) – Don't know why she took so long to put a new record out. All she needed to do was release this song and even if she recorded herself snoring for the rest of the LP, it would have been a worth the wait. Few songs have ever been written that are so bathed in compathia, which Octavio Paz describes as that state where love returns in a concentric circle to the beginning and another place further and washes away all the hatred for a person that only real love could create in the first place. A true freeing. It lives in the same company as "Boots of Spanish Leather." Unlike most of the pathetic pleadings drowning the world that call themselves “love songs” but are merely made to mythologize oneself in the heart of the other through weepy melodramatics, "Good Woman" is a gift, not a trap. A close friend once taped a version of it off the BBC and it sounded like the Dirty Three were backing her up, but I could be wrong. But with a song like this, a fucking trustafarian hippie sitting on the street with a broken guitar could sing it and I'd give him 5 bucks.
11. Dredd Foole - In Quest of Tense (Forced) – Nothing can really compare to seeing Dan shake his fists at a freezing grey October sky with leaves swarming around as he bellows out "Season of the witch," so this CD is about as close as I'm going to get on a drunken night in Santa Cruz to a voice so full of light that even God would shield his eyes.
Clue To Kalo
Hailing from Adelaide, Australia, Clue to Kalo mastermind Mark Mitchell composes and produces music that is on par with releases from the world's best electronic labels. His work for Australian imprint Surgery has received universally positive reviews and landed him a spot on 2000's Top-10 list for national alternative radio station, Triple J. His mix of melodic IDM production, passionate lyrics, and unconventional lo-fi vocals make up a sound that is both technically impressive and expressive of emotion. His equally notable live show was singled out in a concert review by The Wire as a highlight of the 2001 Sound Summit Festival in Newcastle. With productions that are simultaneously dynamic and hypnotic, Clue to Kalo is set to establish himself as an artist of note. His excellent Mush debut Come Here When You Sleepwalk hit shelves on Tuesday, March 18.
1. The Necks – Live Recordings (Fish of Milk) – I saw The Necks play live for the first time last week. Everyone was sitting down. Lots of people were drinking red wine and had their eyes closed. Any Necks is great to play at work but I chose this 4-CD box set because it’s new and because you can put it on and forget about it for hours. It pretends to be background music, but when it really gets going the intensity can be overwhelming.
2. Sientific American - Saints Of Infinity/Simulated D.I.Y. (Slabco) – Another long record that is good to put on when there are lots of chores to do. Usually when I play it in the store someone comes up and asks what it is. For good reason too: there are some fantastic moments. "Saints Of Infinity" Pts. 1 and 2 run onto each other to make one of my favourite ever tracks to DJ. It’s simple but infectious. If someone played it out at a club, I know I’d dance to it if I was drunk enough.
3. Yo La Tengo - Nuclear War (Matador) – I guess it’s kind of puerile to really like something because it has kids swearing on it, but I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t one of the cool things about this. Yo La Tengo are one of my all-time favourite bands, one of those bands that can make me feel wonderful whenever. This single is four versions of the same track and that’s another great thing about it: it just goes on and on.
4. Lilys - Selected (File 13) – In the early ‘90s, Lilys were good at shoegazer. Then they changed their minds and were good at ‘60s pop. Selected falls somewhere in between those two styles. This gets played at work a lot because it’s short. You think it’s going to go for awhile and then out come a couple of short ambient tracks and you’re done. So then you hit play again. "Won't Make You (Sleepy)" is one of my favourite Lilys songs.
5. Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda (Impulse!) – I love the sound of the title track on this record. Partly because it’s a great piece of music and partly because it reminds me of a girl I liked once. It’s a beautiful start to a record. When I play it at work, it moves around the room nicely and makes home-time not seem far away at all.
6. cLOUDDEAD - s/t (Mush) – I know I’m supposed to be biased now or something, but this is one of my favourite albums. A lot of people have talked about how it slips between genres, and of course this is true, but it’s also really accessible. When I play this at work a lot of people ask about it, and I think it says something that a lot of these people aren’t interested in hip-hop. The horn player from Rocket From The Crypt asked about it, but then he went ahead and bought a bunch of reggae records instead.
7. The Millennium - Begin (Columbia) – The story behind this album is almost as good as the album itself: a band that is gearing up to be the next Beatles falls flat on its face in the late sixties and is forgotten about immediately. Then the record is pulled from obscurity and hailed as a ‘lost classic.’ And it’s true that it’s a fantastic piece of psychedelia. A lot of old hippies go apeshit over it when they hear it in the store. The bass heavy beat in the opening track “Prelude” sounds like the world’s first ever hip-hop beat.
8. Various Artists - The Best of Tropicalia (Universal) – I play this compilation a lot in the store because I’m trying to sell off the remaining stock. My boss got lots of copies in because it’s great and then nobody bought it. Downstairs in the sale bin at Big Star you can get a copy for six Australian dollars. Just because the cover’s bad a lot of people pass this CD up, but the glaring truth of the matter is that this compilation rules.
9. Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (Polydor) – Sometimes early in the morning, after I’ve woken up at 7 a.m. to go and sell records to people who are always bugging me to sell them records, the sound of music can be irritating. This is a good album to play when you want to hear something that is going to go about its business without trying to involve you too much (at least not overtly). Mark Hollis is great. I love this record and his solo album. I have to be careful though because, if I’m feeling a little shaky, this stuff can make me teary.
10. Home - XIV (Cooking Vinyl/Arena Rock) – This is another record that found its way into the sale bin at Big Star. It’s a bit criminal because it’s ace. I keep it in my pigeon hole and play it almost every time I work. "Chicago" makes me go misty-eyed, and even though I don’t think the song has all that much to do with the actual city of Chicago, I secretly hope that the city feels a little bit like the song sounds. By Dusted Magazine
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