Earlier this year, Portland’s Parenthetical Girls released the album Privilege (Abridged). Now, the outfit is offering Privilege Appendix, a digital EP featuring eight songs that were recorded during the Privilege series but were “deemed not good enough for the Abridged version”, as they put it themselves. Head over to their bandcamp to get hold of this EP, and listen to a couple of excellent cuts off it below, ‘Present Perfect (An Epithalamium)’ and ‘The Comedienne’. Enjoy.
As we mentioned last month, Fuck Buttons are releasing a new single from their critically acclaimed third album Slow Focus. ‘Brainfreeze’, due out on 7th October via ATP Recordings, has now been complimented with a video directed by Fuck Button’s own Andrew Hung. The release comes with the single full 8-minute version and a brand new track called ‘Royal Flush’ on the b-side.
In other related news, Fuck Buttons are heading on a North American tour in support of Slow Focus. It kicks off in San Francisco on October 9th and you can check their full list of dates here.
Now here’s the video for ‘Brainfreeze’.
Chicago-born, New York-based extraordinary alto saxophonist, composer, improviser and sound experimentalist Matana Roberts releases today the second instalment from her ongoing experimental project Coin Coin, following her 2011’s Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres.
Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile is driven by an aesthetic practice that Matana calls ‘panoramic sound quilting’ and conjures “some of the most nuanced, thoughtful and substantial American liberation music of the 21st century” as the press release notes.
Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres saw Matana collaborating with more than a dozen Montréal musicians involved in the experimental and avant-rock scenes, including label mates Godspeed You! Black Emperor!. Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile is a more intimate affair featuring a New York jazz sextet comprising pianist Shoko Nagai, trumpeter Jason Palmer, double bass player Thomson Kneeland, drummer Tomas Fujiwara and operatic tenor singer Jeremiah Abiah.
The long running Coin Coin project is far from finished, and Matana plans to release another 10 chapters. Right now, we can indulge our ears with Chapter Two: Mississippi Moonchile, available on vinyl, CD and digitally via Constellation. You can also head over to The Wire to stream the entire album, and listen to two magnificent cuts, ‘amma jerusalem school’ and ‘for this is’ beneath.
Next month, Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem will release a retrospective double LP of disco pioneer Patrick Cowley entitled School Daze.
After moving to San Francisco in the early 70’s, Cowley enrolled in the City College of San Francisco where he founded the Electronic Music Lab and created what became known as The San Francisco Sound, his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music.
In 1981, after gaining notoriety as a composer, producer and remixer, Cowley founded Megatone Records and released his debut album. In the same year, he was invited to write music for the films of famed gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles. Cowley accepted and sent reels of his college compositions. Also at this time, Cowley had been hospitalized and diagnosed with a then-unknown illness, of which he passed away the following year. Only later did his illness become known as AIDS.
The upcoming release features a collection of Cowley’s instrumental songs recorded between 1973 and 1981 that were found in the Fox Studio. As the press release describes, “the songs on School Daze range from sparse proto- techno to high octane funk to somber post-punk to musique concrete, revealing the depth of Cowley’s unique talent.”
School Daze will be release on October 19th, when Cowley would have been 63 years old. All proceeds will be donated to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
The cosmic, hypnotic and groovy “Nightcrawler”, one of the gems off School Daze, is being offered as a first taste. Here it is.
In April of this past year, Piano Interrupted saw their debut album Two By Four being re-released. Back then, the London based duo promised to follow it up with a new album later this year and their new effort has just been announced. The Unified Field will see the light of day on October 25th via Denovali.
Taking its name from David Lynch’s book Catching The Big Fish, Piano Interrupted’s upcoming album “draws upon multiple, varied styles and influences”, as the press release describes, “and bring them into one coherent unifying whole with dense arrangements of fragile piano, colourful cinematic soundscapes, organic rhythmic textures and rich, warm strings provoking a diverse range of emotions”.
To whet our appetite further, Piano Interrupted have unveiled The Unified Field‘s first sublime song called ‘Cross Hands’. Listen to it below.
A year on from the release of Efterklang‘s fourth full-length album Piramida, the Danish trio are celebrating the anniversary with a befittingly gorgeous video for album’s closing track ‘Monument’ by Andreas Koefoed and Hvass&Hannibal. The video also makes reference to The Piramida Concert, a live album by Efterklang & Copenhagen Phil, released earlier this year. The album version of ‘Monument’ is used in the first part of the video, whilst the second half uses the live version. Here it is.
