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The Flood Troubleman TMU-168 CD £11.99 Brand new album from Wooden Wand, a swell companion volume to Troubleman’s reissue of their earlier Xiao side. This one is dedicated to free sax titan Charles Gayle as well as Death Vessel and there’s an ecstatically wasted feel to much of the playing here, like a jugband laid flat out on the earth taking huge gobble-shots at the moon. Lugubrious banjo and corridors of de-tuned wugh lead to some of their most broke-down blues to date, nod-out anthems to gush of no-mind and the kind of lysergic country first mapped by The MV & EE Medicine Show. Some of the female vocals here are so beautifully articulated that they sound as if they’re broadcast direct from a sun-bleached basement in upstate California circa 1967 in the first sweet blush of acid gnosis. Unbelievable. Features guest appearances by Tower Recordings associate Gabriel Walsh and Mr Pete Nolan of Magik Markers/Spectre Folk/GHQ/Virgin Eye Blood Brothers et al. Also includes a Quicktime video for “Earth Dance”. Highest recommendation. |
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Live Polyamory CD-R £7.99 Feral trumpet/drums exchange, torn from the hearts of James Toth aka Wooden Wand and Lucas ‘Bones' Crane. Crane's trumpet playing sounds a little like Cosey Fanni Tutti or Pete Nolan playing Cherry-styled bugle calls and Dixon-spits with a sad, martial force while Toth's drumming style works the kind of horizontal planes previously levelled by Denis Charles into new realms of punk. Free fucking folk. Recommended. Limited edition of 150 copies w/liners by, ulp, Carlos Castaneda... |
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The Great Migration/Quarter Century Mad Monk MM-003 LP £11.99 Brand new LP on Wooden Wand's swanky new vinyl-only imprint, Mad Monk. Full colour printed sleeves. Limited to 500 copies. Cody is a solitary New York-based singer/songwriter with a penchant for launching bent lyrics and deadpan quizzical vocals ala Michael Hurley and the Holy Modal Rounders into the kind of magic pot that would mix Mike Rep style basement hillbilly modes with a touch of Will Oldham, Townes Van Zandt, David Peel, Richard Brautigan and Koerner, Ray and Glover. The arrangements are pretty unfussy and provide the perfect cushion for Cody's measured blues, working old time soul-trodden forms that draw as much from hermetic Lower East Side traditions as they do from wide-open mountain modes. This set would've found a particularly welcome home somewhere in the early Elektra catalogue and with its first few releases Mad Monk is already starting to feel like a major new locus for the more esoteric and illuminated contemporary folk/rock moves. A major grower at VT this week, this one reveals a little more with every spin. Highly recommended. |
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Wither Thou Goest, Cretin Mad Monk No Cat Art Edition CD-R £13.99 Hand-numbered/self-released edition of 200 copies art edition CD-R from Wooden Wand, packaged with a card envelope pasted onto a thick piece of wood. This is a major return to loner form for Wand, with 10 tracks that take the isolated ambience of Nebraska and dose it with the apocalyptic glam of Bowie’s “Quicksand”. Wand’s writing is at an absolute peak here, with a surreal allusive style that sets mid-60s Dylan against Gram Parson’s “Hippy Boy” in a post-Siltbreeze universe. He never sounded better. Highly recommended. |
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Buds Of May Digitalis ACE-001 CD £8.99 "Buds of May' was originally self-released on cdr back in 2004 but has now been lovingly re-mastered and re-packaged by Digitalis so those of you who didn't manage to track down the original issue will finally get to hear this exemplary work. Turner Cody may not yet be a name familiar to many, but thanks to extensive touring of the US and Europe he is causing quite a stir on the underground. Indeed the Herman Dune bassist was spotted by none other than Wooden Wand himself James Toth (who has recently signed to the Nonesuch imprint) who proceeded to bag a full LP for his own Mad Monk imprint. With this buzz around him it comes as perfect timing that Digitalis launch 'Buds of May', an album which in many ways is Cody's most complete and most accessible. Taking influence from the world of classic singer songwriters, from Bob Dylan to Townes Van Zandt with maybe a little of Will Oldham thrown in for good measure, Cody proceeds over the course of the epic 'Buds of May' to vocalize his own views on life. He is firstly a storyteller, and in a world where mainstream lyrical content is more banal than it has ever been, Cody comes as a breath of fresh air. Simply produced with guitar and bass underpinning the tracks, it is Cody's distinctive singing voice which carries each piece as he creates distinctive melodies that stay with you for some time after the record has reached a close. Right now with artists such as Jose Gonzales haunting the mainstream airwaves it seems almost impossible not to stumble across new singer-songwriters whenever you flick through the racks of a high street store, but what Turner Cody offers is a unique voice in a crowd of copyists. Cody is at once cynical and hopeful and should offer an antidote to a tired, apathetic world. Unforgettable music Packaged in custom three-color arigato packs from the awesome folks at Stumptown Printers. All songs completely remeastered by Stephen Clover (seht) @ Palindrone." - Digitalis. |
