Indie, alternative, experimental & electronic vinyl and CDs

This week's hottest shit...

Shed
The Traveller Album of the week

Once again i'm getting my head gorgeously smashed in by the future of German techno - this time the record is all the work of one man - the incredibly gifted René Pawlowitz. After the soulful, sublime & uber-deep grooves of 'Shedding the Past' blew everyone's minds a couple of years back it's a pleasure to report another classic-in-the-making in the form of 'The Traveller'. The first track is an itchy, stunted gurner with a fabulous drum...read full review.

Ducktails
Mirror Image Single of the week

Been waiting a while for this little beauty and it's been worth the wait. Two more delicious helpings of jangle heavy, sun drenched, blissed out jams to save what's left of my crappy summer. I've been hammering 'Landscapes' and the self titled LP so it's a treat to have a couple of newies to beam off. A-side 'Apple Walk' is a bitter sweet almost ballad-esque tune that is still as light as a summer breeze and tasteful as a whole stack of Olde Englis...read full review.

Walter Gibbons
Jungle Music

Walter Gibbon's is a name i don't think I've ever heard before which comes as a surprise considering his output and his contributions toward the evolution of modern dance music...I'm all embarrassed now. It's funny how much of this stuff can pass you by. In the press release he is described as 'one of the most important and unheralded DJ / remixers in New York dance music history'. He was out there on the starting line mixing up two identical recor...read full review.

Surgeon
Fabric 53

It's hard to believe that this is only Surgeon's second ever mix CD. He used to put out a fair amount of records back in the late 90's but really not much at all these days. This is a welcome selection mixing up 30 tracks, presumably in Ableton. It's a heady mix of techno and UK bass music expertly blended. Surgeon really knows how to construct a mighty fine journey through his DJ sets and this documents that wonderfully. There are some cracking tu...read full review.

Timber Timbre
Demon Host

I'm not familiar with this dude but I sat and listened to his album this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. His real name is Taylor Kirk (remember it's important to have a stage name to protect your identity) and he makes music of a singer songwriter flavour. That particular flavour is a very bare bones ernest sounding one with it mainly being him and a guitar with the odd occasional piano creeping through. It's powerful stuff though for a formula...read full review.

M. Ostermeier
Chance Reconstruction

Aw, this is lovely. I've heard this a few times now and it's winning me over! Ole 'M' had a CD out on Hibernate a while back which was well received by us and you lot. Here's his 2nd album and it features Mr M constructing some lovelyness using piano, electronics, guitar and acoustics. It's spot on gorgeous as well... you'll get a dab of maudlin sounding piano popping up and then some electronics appear out of nowhere and together everything is lay...read full review.

Les Rallizes Denudes
Heavier Than a Death in the Family

It feels like I've been waiting for these lads to come in for AGES. Bootlegs of bootlegs they may be, but Les Rallizes' stuff's only ever been available in bootleg form anyway as they were way too fucking cool and reclusive to even consider something so dull as an actual, proper and official album. If you've never heard them before they're pretty much the black-clad progenitors of the Velvet Underground-worshipping line of underground Japanese rock...read full review.

Conrad Schnitzler
Zug

This is a startling icy futuristic composition originally released on private tape in 1974. The twenty minute piece builds from cold pulsating snares that become very hypnotic and then huge waves of cascading synthesizer. I guess it's fairly minimal in terms of its component parts but the overall effect and attention to detail is magnificent. For more contemporary comparisons I'd say it's like a cross between Hecker, Richie Hawtin and Pete Namlook....read full review.

Cindytalk
Up Here In The Clouds

Cindytalk is somewhat of a rotating cast centering around Gordon Sharp, who I thought came across as being a wonderful spirit in his recent interview in The Wire. These recordings were created between 2003-2010. This sounds great from the moment I hit play. It's difficult to tell if the sounds of waves across a shore are field recordings that have been processed or purely synthetic. Meanwhile ghostly tones hover above opener 'The Eighth Sea'. Onto...read full review.

S. Carey
All We Grow

This is a really nice collection of lovelorn ballads and moving compositions from Sean Carey, of Bon Iver. Its quiet, understated and to be fair, quite brilliant. It has great production and amazing songsmithery. It has emotion and depth. It's a bit like this reviewer...Ohh!! I'm just kidding. I have the emotional depth of a puddle. All of the songs on this album almost brought a tear to my eye while I was listening to it...read full review.

David A Jaycock
Presets

...I broke my leg in two places, My doctor says I should stop going to those places..there's nothing like a shitty joke to liven up proceedings. This David A. Jaycock sounds like he needs some crap gags to turn his frown upside down. I don't know the feller, he could be the happiest man alive, with a basket of puppies and clothes made of sweets and saccharine smiles. I wager he isn't...read full review.

The Dictaphone
The Dictaphone

The Dictaphone is the work of a one (French) man band. The sleeve is all cryptic and features a kid sorta dancing with a cute little Simba-esque lion cub. Musically this record is KING! Imagine a one man version of The Residents smoking pipes and jamming with Kurt Vile and Ty Segall on a frustratingly wet afternoon in July and you'll get some idea of what this sounds like. The Dictaphone man noodles it up on the guitar, he turns up the distortion p...read full review.

The Super Vacations
Thicker Milk

I've only heard the one single by these Norfolk, Virginia based characters ('Henry' i think it was called) and i thought it was pretty sweet but they've totally surpassed themselves on this long player. Sitting somewhere in the new and previously un-mined territory of lo-fi, surf and psych The Super vacations manage to sound like many things whilst maintaining their own identity and crafting sweet tun-age at the same time. 'Thicker Milk' serves up...read full review.

Boduf Songs
This Alone Above All Else In Spite Of Everything

This Boduf Songs LP is well whispery. Don't recall ever hearing Boduf Songs but from the minute the needle hits the wax i feel compelled to take the whole Boduf Song vibe very seriously. Musically, we are talking super minimalism. Tracks are recorded with a singular microphone and are primarily made up of one instrument and a vocal that generally dominates the track. This is due mainly to the bleak lyrical content and the husky, whispered vocal del...read full review.

Dum Dum Girls
Stiff Little Fingers / Dream Away Life

That ghostly, rattly indie that the Dum Dum Girls produce is starting to make total sense now. Like the Shop Assistants crossed with Moon Duo is the closest I can get to describing 'Stiff Little Fingers' - possibly a tribute to the Irish Punk wonderkids who properly kicked off the whole Rough Trade empire, I do wonder? Problem is with this rhoobarb 'n' custard motorik pop is that if you strip out the vocals it does sound a bit like a Fat Truc...read full review.

No Age
Glitter + 1

I used to think these guys were about the most overrated band on the planet but I've got to say that the last few things I've heard by them have grown on me a bit. The lead track here is a bit of an odd one with its strangely bleary mid-range production style.. Everything else about it reminds me of Dinosaur Jr. because of the lazily delivered vocal melody and the noisy, atonal guitar line that runs right the way through it but the comparison doesn...read full review.

V.I.V.E.K
Feel It

This is the second release on Mala's Deep Medi label from V. Shadra, and is four tracks on heavyweight vinyl accompanied by a 45 minute mix CD which includes all four tracks plus a ton of dubplates. Opener 'Feel It' is PROPER dubstep. No cookie cutter stuff here, just the purest, huge bass machinations wit...read full review.

Mr Maxted
Momentum

We've been fortunate to score some copies of this wicked tape of total post industrial analogue synthesizer heaven. Anyone that picked up the LP will know what to expect; futuristic, dark, raw electronics that have benefited for yee good old tape saturation. This really is fantastic malfunctioning sci-fi, that sounds like it was created in some bunker laboratory on Mars. This really takes me back to a golden age in electronic music and is everythin...read full review.

Warpaint / Sister Crayon
Bowie Tribute Split

Warpaint are the lot that Brian likes. Well he's a red blooded male, they are attractive ladies with a predeliction for on stage wind machines - who can blame him? The pressing plant have cocked up the labels so the A side is labelled the B side and vice versa. Idiots. Can't anyone get anything right? Which makes it even more confusing as its a split single but strangely both bands sound the same. Warpaints 'Ashes to Ashes' and its extremely faithf...read full review.

Goodnight Lenin
Crook in The Creek

Static Caravan is often a mark of quality amongst the billions of records we have to wade through each week just so you, my dear reader can part with your hard earned cash on the odd lavish gem that pops through the murk. There are two this week first off is Goodnight Lenin ...well theres no way round this... and it may be a good or bad thing depending on your viewpoint but the rollicking folky tune on the A side closely resembles Mumford and Sons....read full review.