Nice anthology of pomes from some modern days heads/musicians, the highlight of which is Christina Carter’s wonderful “Center Of Exits”. Also features work by Michael Anderson, Michelle Angelini, James Barrett, James Blackshaw, Julie Cook, Michael Donnelly (Brothers Of The Occult Sisterhood et al), Sid Fallon, Spencer Grady, Denton Harris, Denton Harris, Robert Horton, Paganini Jones, Eden Hemming Rose, Brad Rose, Mainon Alexandra Schwartz, Indigo Tempesta, Kade L. Twist and Keith Wood (Hush Arbors). Hand-numbered edition of 120 copies. Each book hand-bound with cloth tape and a hard cover with a design by Keith Wood.

Another major milestone in Vinyl On Demand's on-going deluxe documentation of the furthest fringes of the European underground, Viva Negativa is the culmination of several years worth of commissioned remixes, extrapolations on and collaborations with the work of The New Blockaders, the UK's most consistently feral noise group. The quality of the track listing is pretty staggering – a testament to the liberating effect those early TNB sides had on a whole generation of otherwise culturally disenfranchised post-punks – and plays even better as a state-of-disunion round-up than recent attempts at void-articulation like Gold Leaf Branches, Invisible Pyramid et al. Almost every major contemporary noise artist is featured and Volume One has tracks from Oren Ambarchi, Anomali, Ashtray Navigations (a beautiful slice of slow blown-to-smoke tone), Emil Beaulieau, Benzo, Cisfinitum, Controlled Bleeding, Dieter Muh, Evil Moisture, Freiband, Grunt, The Haters, Jason Kahn, Zbigniew Karkowski, Komafuzz, Kraang, Lockweld, Massimo, Daniel Menche, Thurston Moore, MSBR, Nocturnal Emissions, KK Null, Pita, Plethora, Prurient, Richard Ramirez, Scanner, Silvum, srmeixner, Asmus Tietchens, Treriksroset, uh…V/VM (woops!), Vortex Campaign, Keith Fullerton Whitman, John Wiese, Nobuo Yamada and Z'ev. The whole deal comes packaged in a beautiful full-colour/laminated hard card box with the LPs pressed on 180g vinyl in hand-numbered sleeves and bundled with a poster/manifesto. This one knocked us clear on our asses, a staggering document. Highest recommendation.

Totally sick: celebrating Alchemy Records' 20th anniversary - and Japanese noise/rock legends Hijokaidan's 25th - major label bozos Imperial have stepped into the gulf with a series of definitive birthday sets. Alchemism is a massive two-disc overview of the activities of this consistently dazzling underground label complete with a fold-out sleeve that has colour cover shots of all the action, especially noteable for the lovingly executed Modern Lovers and Ash Ra take-offs from Ultra Bide and Christine 23 Onna. All tracks previously released except for exclusives from Tongue favourites Oshiri-PenPenz and Doodles. Also includes: Jojo Hiroshige, Ultra Bide, SS, Inu, Hoburakin, Idiot O'Clock, Sekiri, The Genbaku Onanies, The Continental Kids, Danse Macabre, Sob Kaidan, Genbaku Kaidan, Subvert Blaze, Sperma, Hanadensha, Garadama, Angel'In Heavy Syrup, Auschwitz, Tatsuya Kitajima, Tsumetai Iki No Mama, Miki Sawaguchi, Masonna, Merzbow, Incapacitants, Solmania, Hijokaidan, Seiichi Yamamoto, Omoide Hatoba, Totsuzen Dan-Ball, Christine 23 Onna and Chouzu. Highly recommended, naturally.

Just got our hands on a still-sealed/unplayed crate full of these legendary, long out-of-print sides privately pressed by Peter and Patricia Harleman and Klyd and Linda Watkins 1969-1977 in order to document their wild experiments with vocal form. Across the space of these beautiful looking LPs, the two couples navigate the same kind of formless, disembodied zone that defined Jandek's unaccompanied vocal trilogy while touching on poles as temporally and spatially diverse as the associative poetry of Matthew Valentine, Jack Kerouac and Charles Olson, the wowing use of heavy delay/reverb associated with contemporary heads like The Skaters and Excepter, the slum-prose of The Fugs, Patti Smith and Lisa Suckdog and the sound poetry experiments of Henri Chopin, Bernard Heidsieck, Bob Cobbing, Brion Gysin and others associated with the legendary Revue Ou. That this was going on in almost complete seclusion somewhere in American throughout the 70s is nothing short of mind-boggling.

Recently there's been a comparative upsurge in interest in the work of the Watkins and the Harlemans, with rumours of reissues and box sets, but the LPs (all of which were originally pressed in runs of 1000, except Volume 1, of which only 500 were made) remain almost-impossible to source. It was back in 2000 that their influence first began to percolate into the underground, with Christina Carter of Charalambides uncovering a copy of Number Four in Austin's Sound Exchange. After having her ears blown she shared her find with Heather Leigh Murray who made contact with Klyd Watkins, who by that time was living in Nashville. After establishing common aesthetic ground the pair agreed to work together, leading to a brain-storming Charalambides show that took place in Nashville in 2001 featuring the trio of Tom Carter, Christina Carter and Heather Leigh Murray performing with Klyd Watkins on "Listen The Night" a Poetry Out Loud piece originally recorded back in 1971 for the Number Five LP.

The initial seeds for the Poetry Out Loud project were sown back in 1963, when Peter Harleman, then based in St. Louis, arrived in Nashville in a trip to visit his mother. Calling into Zibart's bookstore in search of paperbacks by Leroi Jones he got talking to the clerk, who happened to be Klyd Watkins. Klyd was excited to make contact with another soul that shared his passion for contemporary small-press poetry and immediately invited Peter back to his apartment to meet his wife Linda. Over the next few years the poets continued their friendship via the mail, swapping new works, journals and criticism and in 1965 Peter met and married another young poet, Patricia "Bebe" McGary. In 1965 the Watkins were living in rural Indiana, where Klyd taught high school English, while the Harlemans were based in St. Louis. During a visit to St Louis, Klyd and Peter had a conceptual bust-up over the relative merits and creative applicability of poet Charles Olson's concept of projective verse (something that Klyd, like many thinkers of the time, was immersed in) and Marshall McLuhan's concept of medium=message, an insight championed by Peter. Klyd recalled the conversation in a recent history of Poetry Out Loud: "Walking the streets of Saint Louis they had a heated argument, with Klyd championing Olson's formula for using the typewriter to capture the breath of impassioned speech as the most exciting mode of creating poetry, while Peter pointed out that another machine, the tape recorder, captured the human tongue far more directly. The harder Klyd argued for keeping poetry on the page, the more excited he became about being wrong. By the time the Watkins drove back to Indiana an alliance was formed to make poetry out loud."

The first Poetry Out Loud album was the result of four years of experimentation, with the couples working slowly towards abandoning text altogether in favour of the gush of pure intuitively-sourced sound. Recording sessions combining simultaneous musical and poetic improvisation birthed what they came to describe as "The Nashville Sound," a laminal assemblage of spoken word and song. The technology also advanced, with the players moving from a $30 deck to a $150 home recorder while working on the first LP and they briefly welcomed another couple into the fold, Toby and Ginny Tate. By 1970, the Watkins had moved to Kentucky and the Kentucky landscape was to have a huge influence on the rest of the POL series. But with the Harlemans now living in Kansas and the Tates in Atlanta, recording session were few and far between.

By the time of Number Two, the Harlemans were heavily involved in the exploration of American Indian poetry, immediately apparent on tracks like "I Am The Crow." From Number Two to Number Five the Watkins and the Harlemans contributed roughly half of every issue each, while welcoming occasional guests like Tony Cowan or legendary French sound-poet Bernard Heidsieck and his wife Francois Janicot (Number Three, Number Four, Number Five, Number Seven and Number Eight), a relationship that helped them maintain an umbilical connection to some kind of formal tradition. By the time of Volume Five the performers had once more upgraded their equipment and had also begun to record tracks "live" at various venues with a string of cuts taken from performances in bars, coffee houses, colleges and rock venues. By this point POL had a few hundred subscribers who bought the LP through the mail and they were even reviewed in Rolling Stone.

In 1972 the Watkins visited the Harlemans in New Jersey, providing an opportunity for the extended quartet recordings that make up much of Number Six. The Watkins had never seen the ocean before, an experience that inspired Number Six's massive "Ocean." Number Seven would be the last volume to feature all four performers vibrating together, with the Harlemans producing Number Eight and Nine alone and Number Ten being recorded in St. Louis in 1976-77 with Klyd working with the Harlemans as a trio. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful end to a remarkable adventure initiated by a group of artists who took the revolutionary edicts of radical 1960s poetry straight to their hearts. "These days we hear now and then of new fans who have continued to find Poetry Out Loud through the used record bins," Klyd reports. "Thirty years later, the world has not entirely forgotten Poetry Out Loud, just as it never entirely heard of it in the first place."

1975. Another solo set from the Harlemans. Notes by Robert Palmer (Rolling Stone/Downbeat et al): “With this ninth volume of their “magazine” of oral poetry, the Harlemans penetrate more deeply into the resonances of speaking, chanting, and singing voices, and into themselves. Connections with the “ritual of the irrational,” the cultivation of states of disassociation or trance. were present in their earlier work, but here, in the sound pieces “Trance,” “Fear For My Body,” and “I Give My Body To The Drum,” they are explicit. Using the narrow melodic range, chant-like insistence, drum and metallophone accompaniment, and out-of-body flight images so central to shamanist tradition, the Harlemans confront a “new” use of oral poetry which is, of course, an old use also. The recitation of written texts of written texts – the “modern” way – has been superseded by the creation of poetry in sound and, in these new compositions, by the deliberate use of some of the effects tape makes possible with the idea of affecting the listener quite directly. All poetry, all art in fact, aims at a similar ordering of “thought, feeling, and apparent sensory impressions” (in the words of William S. Burroughs), but certain music, dance and other art attempts to actually trigger and control various psychological experiences. The ritual of the Central Asian shaman is an example. It is the shaman's task to pass into a trance state and report back to his community of the spirit world. In order to achieve his altered state of consciousness he resorts primarily to various organized sounds. He chant/sings, using a restricted melodic range in a repetitive pattern, a process which helps create a trance state because of the nature of hearing. The basilar membrane, a structure in the inner ear where soundwave vibrations are translated into neural impulses, is pitch sensitive and pitch discriminatory. That is, various areas of the membrane respond to various specific pitches by sending electrical “charges” along specific nerve pathways to the brain. When these areas of the membrane are “massaged” regularly and in sequence, as in strictly modal music or in much chant, the repetition sets up a hypnotic pattern of impulses. The shaman accompanies his voice with a drum and some sort of metal instrument, both of which produce the kind of sound physicists refer to as “steep fronted,” that is a “noise” sound with tightly packed overtones. In addition, drum sounds have an extremely rapid decay time. Such sounds, with their welter of enharmonic pitches, stimulate most of the surface of the basilar membrane, thus ensuring the transmission of as many simultaneous neural impulses as possible to as much of the brain as possible. And the neurons are able to rest between firings because of the rapid decay time of the sounds, thus insuring continuing peak effects for the sound and allowing changed or other sung material to periodically resume its own hypnotic pattern. In other words, the shaman's basic equipment – voice, drum, rattle – is actually a sophisticated tool for self-induced hypnosis, or trance. This self-programmed, inner-directed cultivation of dissociation, which is at the heart of magico-religious traditions the world over, is contrasted on the present recording with involuntary disassociation from each other and from the wellsprings of their own thought and actions. The first kind, practiced as a rite, puts one in touch with worlds within. The second, accepted by many as the price of living, is the source of much unhappiness and pain. Thus the narrator in “Take A Sip Of Me” casts herself in the extreme role of a disembodied cup of coffee in order to reach out to another person: “I won't burn you,” she is forced to add to her invitation. Thus the quintessential evocation of mortal fear, “Fear For My Body,” which in its more morbid manifestations bespeaks a dissociation bordering on the pathological. “I Forgot Your Name” is a somewhat lighter treatment of disassociation; as a vision of the widening gulf between the sexes it is a little reminiscent of a Rolling Stones put-down song, with echoes of Elvis in the delivery. The musical comparisons are apt ones, because with this album the Harlemans move closer to music, just as music is moving closer to the inflections of the voice. In “Curing,” which Peter proposed as an antidote to the malady of separation, Patricia's opening whines sound like an electronic synthesizer, until one recalls that the synthesizer was originally designed to give computers a “voice” and is thus an imitation of the Real Thing. And while “Trance” has the proscribed melodic vocabulary of the chant, “I Give My Body To The Drum” makes use of that most musical of devices, the well-timed modulation. But this use of music, and again it is a very old one, has to do with the creation of magical effects for the purpose of achieving magical results. In his The Wellsprings of Music Curt Sachs wrote that “Everything that sounds, be it in the cruder form of frightening noise or the organised patterns of music, bears the brunt of mankind's eternal strife against the hostile forces that threaten his life and welfare; and, just as well, nothing better than sound can summon the powers of luck and prosperity . . . Even language stresses unity of singing and magics as the Latin word incantation, ‘magic formula,' derived from cantare, and the English charm, from carmen. Whenever singing is an act of ecstasy and depersonalization, it moves away from ordinary human expression. The voice is often remote from being as ‘natural' as we believe our own execution to be. It is coloured by pulsating, yodelling, ventriloquizing, or bleating. One screams, yells, squeaks, mumbles, and nasals.” Sachs sentences on the origins of music are strikingly descriptive of what the Harlemans are up to They've been pioneering in this area of speech / music / magic with each successive album, and with # 9 they've done it again.”

All proceeds from the sale of this release will go to Tom Carter. Read more about the appeal here: http://www.volcanictongue.com/tomcarterappeal

Follow-up to the first volume of this on-going series that joins the dots between an earlier generation of American Primitive guitarists and contemporary intuitive sound-as-thought players. Once again Jack Rose is featured (with an absolutely gorgeous 6 string re-think of "Cross The North Fork 2") but every other player puts in a first-time appearance on this volume. The inclusion of Christina Carter is a particularly inspired move and one that speaks of the liberated range of the series in general and her track is a beauty, a stubby acoustic guitar miniature. Nice cover snap too. Other tracks include a particularly mesmeric recording from UK guitarist James Blackshaw and contributions from Peter Lang, Jesse Sparhawk, Michael Chapman, Sean Smith, Fred Gerlach, Billy Faier, Sharron Kraus, Robbie Basho and...uh...Jose Gonzalez. Another rich, far-sighted assortment from this great label.

Brand new tribute set of cover versions and punk extrapolations based around the phenomenal body of work birthed by Mr Jojo Hiroshige aka Alchemy label boss and Hijokaidan mainman. Features a totally disobedient Beefheart-style rave-up from the Oshiri PenPenz, microphone-gobbling action from Masonna (first new recording in years), great psych/pop stylings from Doodles, monstrously deformed guitar/noise from Solmania, GaramonKakinoki +AOL and a whole bunch of other punk Kansai Industrialists. Think of it as a particularly focussed Night Gallery instalment. Highly recommended.

Follow-up to the great Time And Relative Dimensions In Space compilation with a two CD set once again dedicated to long-form drone works. Exclusive tracks from Birds Of Delay, Bruce Russell, Son Of Earth, The Opera Glove Sinks In The Sea, White/Light, Keenan Lawler, Bird Show/Lichens, Of…Ohv, The Zoo Wheel and The Gray Field Recordings.

Three-way split of extended live sets for this volume of Heath Moerland’s (Sick Llama) compilation series, with jams from New Pledegemaster, Steve Kenney (Demons) and Slither all drawn from their recent tour. Hand-numbered edition of 50 copies.

Brand new instalment in this legendary compilation series from PSF, now in its seventh volume. For this latest survey of the state of the contemporary Japanese psychedelic underground the label ran a special live night at Koenji Show Boat in May of 2009 and recorded all of the players’ sets. The disc opens with the outer space choral folk of Le Son De L’os, a trio that features Yuko Hasegawa of Onna-Kodomo on guitar and vocal, Masahiro Deguchi of Gendai Sokkyo on flute and guitar and Shizuo Uchida on bass. Bo No Kubo are a drums/acoustic bass/guitar improvisatory unit that translate the Incus aesthetic to Tokyo. Derakushi are a phenomenal free jazz/psych ensemble who use electric rock firepower to propel the furious saxophone of Shun Suzuki; expect a full-length album from these guys on PSF very soon. There’s a great, minimal tracks from shakuhachi player Sabu Orimo, here with his new unit that features drummer/harmonica player Tomohiko Namiki. Touyounomajyo are a classic guitar/bass/drums power trio that would have fit in just as well on some of the earlier volumes and Hasegawa-Shizuo, who have had a bunch of previous releases on labels like PSF and Tiliqua, close the set with an epic drone imagining. Nothing cuts to the heart of the Tokyo underground like PSF’s Flashback series. Recommended.

Great limited triple LP set that bundles two nights of wild free jazz that Qbico presented in Detroit and Buffalo back in 2006. High energy sets from Arthur Doyle & Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, Andrew Barker & Daniel Carter, Steve Baczkowski & Ravi Padmanabha, Muruga Free Funk (with Perry Robinson), Faruq Z Bey & Northwoods Improvisers and Odu Afrobeat Orchestra.

Fantastic compilation of all unreleased tracks from this great NJ label. Exclusive jams from Julian Lynch, Pill Wonder, Ducktails, Fluffy Lumbers, Big Troubles, Andrew Cedermark, Frat Dad , Dana Jewell, Air Waves, Family Portrait, Alex Bleeker, Mountain Man, Real Estate, Rainbow Bridge and Liam the Younger.

Compilation featuring unreleased tracks from Connelly & The Machines, Body Morph, Hive Mind, Dog Lady and Drainolith: “So the other day, me and my lab buddy supreme Scott were knee f'in deep in trying to find out if a huge craggly motor was delta or wye three phase connected, and needless to say, was NOT having luck. It was a one of them RAW bologna built motors that has wire numbers, but its pointless cause its all on its own weirdo system. Whatever. So as usual, we shot the shit.
"What’s up this weekend man?"
"Not much, got a killer afternoon gig at the spot on Sunday...."
"What’s a gig?"
"Ah.... I’m having some of my weirdo friends over to make ah.... music...."
"You make music?"
"Sure"
"Would you ever play a 'gig' for the troops?"
"We should get black to that motor...I think I know the lead wires now..."
"Well, I can’t come over, I gotta fix my tires on my hunting jeep, but you know what would rule Olson?"
"What’s that?"
"If you would press that jammer on wax, mix all the tracks together into one inzane mess and sent it to Smith out west to press...."
"Man, you might be on to something"
"Make it one long one-sider with a lock groove, I mean shit...that’s how I remember gigs anyway.... and just use a flyer for the cover!!!"
"My man!!!"
So I took Scott's advice. Took the killer matinee jam, got out the scalpel, mixed everything together seamless inzane style, book ended it with an EVIL Hive Mind loop and boosh!!!! Pressed gig memory!!!! So it's just like a gig, except you don’t have KNOX MITCHELL's dad dropping you off or Collino spilling brews everywhere or your secret recipe INZANE CHILLI remains burning up in the bottoms of an empty crock pot. Oddly, not a peep of crew-audience noise to be found. Dog Lady played acoustic string scrape, Dan Body jammed reed universe from the uneven side (and then BLASTED Disclose and Firmeza 10 in the jamm room), Drainolith is my main man Alex K from Montreal and kept it uber real with amazing synth scramble, live from yep, THE BASEMENT. Greh said he did a cover of THE SHINING but I’ve never seen that mini-series. Dead Machines and Connelly jammed magical pixie flutes, infected metal scrape and vocals from an eerie afternoon lagoon. Like an endless gig, ...you gotta SIT THRU THE WHOLE THING...in one inzane memory blurr surpreme.... Record ends with an EVIL Hive Mind lock groover, endless...party. ... forever.... Was a blast, more of this style to come. And BYOB!!! There are three party stores right in the hood, duh!!! 2pm SHARP!!!> Edition of 100 in handmade recycled sleeves, numbered.” – John Olson.

Compilation featuring unreleased tracks from Full Scales, Spykes and Pool Water: “Is the Voltages Leads in Inductance or Induction leads Current in Capacitance? ?? Huh? Always forget this easy breeze system code to know which is leading in the Induct/Capt current game...Yeah: three tracks of attack:
Full Scales: Live at Aries assault party from last Pan gig in April last year. Mega Hammond organ live in the basement. Spykes: Terrible tones tacked onto a tapestry of mangled inzanity thru a crazed mental plane. Horrible.
Pool Water: Dog Lady, Connelly, Zone Force- live in the Comfort zone and on a trial leading to hiding places. Violin, flute, guitar = mixed together for an uncomfortable loose skin dangling in the dry wind.
Three long tracks of ZEAL-ish style. Triple ack attack. Cover covers, numbered.” – John Olson.

Irresistible new compilation CD from the reactivated Alchemy Records, an all-female psych set curated by Jojo Hiroshige of Hijokaidan. Features fragile, breathless song stylings from a bunch of upcoming femmes including Akiko Hodaka (formerly of Maher Shalal Hash Baz), Mai Mishio of Uzumibi, Hirachin of Oninko! and Totsuzen Danboru, Shiho of Ten-No.5 and Yuka Fujita of the excellent Chozu. “Produced by Jojo Hiroshige of Hijokaidan (The King Of Noise), the godfather of Japanese noise music and the owner of Alchemy Records. He realized the strength, fragileness, delicateness and other elements that only women could have are the keyword for this decade. This album contains 11 tunes from emerging female musicians that Hiroshige picked out from the Japanese underground music scene.” – Alchemy. 

All proceeds from the sale of this release will go to Tom Carter. Read more about the appeal here: http://www.volcanictongue.com/tomcarterappeal

Edition of 500 copies compilation LP with exclusive tracks from Akron/Family, Joanne Robertson & Matthew Ashworth, Wand, Natural Snow Buildings, Married In Berdichev, Moon Duo, The See See and Seadog. Comes with a full colour zine featuring artwork by Jake Blanchard, Pete Fowler, Andrew Rae, Will Sweeney, Sarah King, Olange Gularte, James Trimmer/Mirt and Mat Pringle.

Still one of the wildest of the legendary Bloodstains comps, with a round-up of classic disobedient wastoid DIY from Sweden, inclduing classic sides like Kriminella Gitarrer's "Sylvias Unge", Rude Kids' amazing "Raggare Is A Bunch Of Motherfuckers", Watabout, Bugs, Glo, Usch, Brulbajz, Mizz Nobody, Butter Utter, Vicious Visions, Liket Lever, Blodarna...

Vinyl edition of this excellent tribute to the American Primitive genius of the late Robbie Basho from a bunch of players with a deep connection to the source including Glenn Jones, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Helena Espvall (Ghost/Espers), Meg Baird (Espers), Arborea, Fern Knight, Cian Nugent and Rahim AlHaj. Buncha female vocal tracks are particularly choice here, highlighting Basho’s gift as a highly idiosyncratic singer as well as a visionary instrumentalist. Dedicated to the memory of Jack Rose. 180g vinyl, edition of 300 copies. 

Fabulous follow-up to the same label’s Ongaku 70, this set takes in a buncha obscurities from the Japanese underground of the 1980s, all of which would contribute to the momentum that gave birth to the scene’s explosion in the 1990s. Alongside stuff that some heads might know - Phew of Aunt Sally’s “Urahara” from 1980, schizophrenic Pinakotheca recordings artists Tako, the mutant techno of Riuichi Sakamoto’s “Riot In Lagos” – there’s a ton of alien tongue, ranging from EP-4’s thudding tape-damaged Industrial punk through Lizard’s acid-damaged prog-pop, Portray Heads’ transplanted Trans-Europe Express, Gunjogacrayon’s usurping of James Chance & The Contortions and prefiguring of The Boredoms, the amazingly titled Daisuck & Prostitute’s blunt punk/funk, Shinobu’s psychedelic cold wave and Pta’s epic unclassifiable Josef K-play-Can-play-“Rapture” 1982 8 minute masterpiece “Woo-Guy After Dark”. Another phenomenal set that is sure to blindside anyone who considers themselves an expert on this endlessly inventive scene. On pink/white splattered vinyl. Recommended!

Necessary compilation of one of the most revered and whispered-about Japanese underground labels, Vanity Records. Vanity were briefly active in the late 70s and early 80s. Run by Agi Yuzuru, who also edited Rock Magazine, the label released 10 LPs, 3 singles, a double compilation, a bunch of cassettes and even a few flexi discs that came free with issues of the zine. Vanity offers a uniquely twisted vantage point on a creatively accelerated period, translating what was happening in the punk and No Wave scene in New York as well as the UK and European Industrial explosion via the Japanese aesthetic of Further. One of their most highly regarded releases was Tolerance’s 1981 LP Divin, a long-term VT touchstone, a group that combined minimal Industrial electronics with primitive techno and the sound of the Japanese grid for the perfect nocturnal soundtrack. They’re represented here with the classic TG whipcrack sound of “Sacrifice”. Groups like Sympathy Nervous have a classic cracked middle-European new wave/synth deadpan quality but with drum machine and keys that come over like a home-recorded “Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne”. Dada’s amazing 1978 recording “Yuuen Inraku Gaki” combines wailing Far Out-meets-Fripp lead guitar over martial percussion and choirs of Popol Vuh-styled synth, directly connecting the new wave with earlier psych experiments. This one is up there with that phenomenal Onna 7” that came out on Holy Mountain: Julian Cope definitely needs to pick up on these guys. Mad Tea Party have a great stumpy idiot-avant appeal that anyone who digs Gasaneta/Guys N Dolls circuit will pretty much swoon. Phew’s punk group Aunt Sally are represented with a self-titled track from 1979. Also features wild tracks from RNA Organism, BGM, Arbeit, Morio Agata, Normal Brain, Perfect Mother and Kiiro Radical. A secret history of yet another side of one of the most fertile experimental music scenes in the world. On white/pink spattered vinyl. Highly recommended. 

Aces-up compilation of idiotically great and previously unheralded minimal synth, proto-Industrial and experimental bedroom electronics from the glory years of the Swedish underground in the early 1980s. Originally released on cassette by Tor Sigvardson of 18:e Oktober on his Neukoln label, this presents a re-mastered version complete with five previously unreleased tracks that were excluded from the original due to time limitations. Most of these groups were solitary operatives working out of small villages dotted across the country and communicating via tape trading networks and as such much of it has the feel of primitive electronic folk music, with classic angsty adolescent posturing filtered through dark, post-Industrial atmospherics, monotone robot vocals, whipcrack electro-percussion and repetitive rhythmic keyboards. Influences like Throbbing Gristle, Kraftwerk and the second Suicide album share shelf space with contemporary synth pop moves but something about the isolated circumstances of its creation makes the music seem oddly lonely, like tone-dialling across lost shortwave stations late at night and stumbling across loner adolescents man-handling cheap electronics and power-breathing into hissy microphones while dreaming of an automated future where they get the girl, all their problems are solved and memories of their dull country upbringing are blown to shreds. Styles vary from beautifully ‘emotive’ new wave shakers through weepy/melodramatic teenage Euro-pop (“Respect me for my strange ideas!”), creepy/psychotic mood pieces, austere Eastern Bloc/Warzawa-styled instrumentalism and some fabulously minimal tone threat, all rendered in a totally endearing hands-on/DIY style. Features tracks from Glenn Winter, Santiago de Gil, Ferdinand Rhtm, Arvid Tuba, Artificial Control, The Heart Of Darkness, Caique, Corteche, Spilluffe, 18:e Oktober, Moulin Rouge, Peter Tengvall, Engurdetz, Art Division, Patchwork, Ausgang Verboten and Overlords. Comes in a gatefold sleeve with in-depth liners on 160g vinyl and in a hand-numbered edition of 999 copies. Almost too much – highly recommended. 

Ass-blasting double LP compilation of wild Dutch punk, still some of the crudest ever spat to wax. Amazing tracks from Ivy Green (“I’m Sure We’re Gonna Make It”), Helmettes, Panic (“Requiem For Martin Heidegger”), Flyin’ Spiderz, Speedtwins, Paul Tornado, Suzannes, Tits, Mollesters, Filth, God’s Heart Attack, Mecano Ltd, Subway, Mort Subite, The Brommers, Shith, Coitus Int. Vopo’s, The Ex, Nixe, Rondos, Nitwitz, Trockener Kecks and Frites Modern. Excellent sleeve notes too.

All proceeds from the sale of this release will go to Tom Carter. Read more about the appeal here: http://www.volcanictongue.com/tomcarterappeal

Limited benefit CD-R arranged by the Hebden Bridge squad in less than 24 hours after Charalambides were forced to cancel their show there due to Tom Carter’s sudden illness, all proceeds going directly to Tom: tracks from Ashtray Navigations, Neil Campbell, Spider Stacey, Dylan Nyoukis, Bridget Hayden, Astral Social Club, Rick Tomlinson, Konntinent, High Aura’d, Listening Mirror, Will Bolton, Isnaj Dui, Kyle Bobby Dunn, The Failed NASA Experiment and Caught In The Wake Forever. 

Staggering box set that gathers the first five volumes of the epoch-defining Rubble collection, originally issued by Bam Caruso in the 1980s that best articulated the freakbeat/psych sound of the UK underground in the mid-to-the-late 60s: Rubble was the UK’s answer to Pebbles and while they were pre-dated by comps like Chocolate Soup For Diabetics, they pretty much set the standard for the presentation of obscure F/X saturated pop psych, amplifier crunching freakbeat and dopey tea-sipping and budgie-baiting lysergic fop. I’ve long been of the opinion that the influence of The Beatles has been one of the most baneful in rock/pop history but it’s possible to make the argument that the influence their more experimental pop sides had – specifically Rubber Soul and Revolver, w/a nod to Sgt Peppers and the early Pink Floyd – on the UK underground was not without merit. Rubble consists, basically, of groups trying to ape, cash-in or exceed The Beatles’ most dosed sides and in their determination to go beyond “Tomorrow Never Knows” these groups were responsible for some of the most inspired, moving, beautifully stupe pop/rock music of that or any age. I guess it’s more Beatles’ concepts of ‘songcraft’ that tend to function as their inheritance rather than their more ‘experimental’ tendencies, and it could be argued that the British psych explosion is the sole legacy of their more advanced explorations of the potential for F/X augmented rock/pop settings to massage your brain as dramatically as any psychoactive substance.
Regardless, there were so many amazing sides released in the second half of the 1960s in the UK that it more than matches the parallel garage explosion in the USA. This massively heavyweight box set bundles the first five volumes of Rubble  - The Psychedelic Snarl, Popsike Pipedreams, Nightmares In Wonderland, The 49 Minute Technicolour Dream and The Electric Crayon Set – all with reproductions of their original sleeves and with a full-size booklet with detailed notes, ephemera and rare photos. The track listing is dazzling, a virtual who’s-who of Floral Albion, with sides from Kaleidoscope, Wimple Winch, The Misunderstood, The Pretty Things, Tomorrow, The Koobas, Jason Crest, The Attack, The Flies, The Open Mind, Caleb and many, many more. Listened to in one sitting, the early Rubble sides sum up the utopian pop project of UK psych, a distant neverland that both exaggerates and parodies Englishness and that in many ways feels like the first pop stirrings of England’s eternal hidden reverse. I feel like I have somehow internalised all of this music so completely that my own biography is somehow tied up in it, even as I missed out on it first time around. But really, this is the motherlode, one of the greatest repositories of psychedelic excess, all in the one place. Highest possible recommendation!

Excellent set of raw gospel, bluegrass, otherworldly folk and devotional get-down compiled by Mike McGonigal (Yeti/Chemical Inbalance): subtitled A Treasury Of Caucasian-American Gospel, the set ranges from 1937-77 and the line-up is choice, running from the haunting sound of the Blue Sky Boys through Anglin Twins, Delmore Brothers, Early Upchurch & Droiss Kidd, Charlie Monroe’s Boys, the amazing Brother Claude Ely, Charlie Bailey & The Happy Valley Boys, Jimmy Murphy, Ernest Van ‘pop’ Stoneman, Ernest martin & His Gospel Melody Makers, Curt & Faye Bartmess, Red & Lige, The Turner Brothers, Rev. Harold Smith, Roy Lanham and his Gospel Quartet, Bailes Brothers and Martha Carson. From the label that brough you Grouper & Ilyas Ahmed, Abner Jay et al. Comes with an insert featuring snaps and liners. Recommended.

Edition of only 50 copies hand-cut lathe with insert and download documenting some insane pipe and drum music recorded live in the field by Anthony Milton: incredible degree of out of body hyperventilating going on here, with crude pipe stylings huffing all the way to unconsciousness while drums batter our ritual tattoos and wild get-down stylings. A side was recorded at a 36 hour non-stop street fiesta in the village of Sorata in the High Andes while the flip was at an overnight bacchal in a bamboo hut in the village of San Miguel del Bala in the Amazon basin. Line this one up to next to an Albert Ayler boot and your favourite Vibracathedral Orchestra CD-R for maximal brain rearrangement. 

Irresistible, expertly compiled LP that bundles the best of the legendary Ethiopiques series of original Ethiopian and Eritrean music: this is a particularly inspired set, matching the mood of mystery and distance and celebration and sadness of the best of CDs with some almost Arkestral brass fantasias, amazing ethno garage/soul testifying, melancholy jazz, outer space percussion and some truly outside vocal stylings. If you’ve yet to take the plunge into the magical world of Ethiopiques this is the perfect ticket and if you’re already a paid-up believer this is the one-stop you’ll wanna return to again and again. Lifting tracks from volumes 1, 8 and 17 we get music by Lemma Demissew, Tlahoun Gessesse, Sefu Yohannes, Bahta Gebre-Heywet, Teshome Meteku, Mahmoud Ahmed, Lemma Demissew, Alemayehu Eshete, Bahta Gebre-Heywet and Teshome Meteku. Comes in heavy tip-on style sleeves. Recommended. 

Subtitled ‘Big Boobs Boogie and 13 other deviant slices of fuzzed-out proto-punk madness from the UK 1970-1975', Volume 3 of this amazing series turns the spotlight on the UK ‘bonehead’ scene, with some ludicrously super-charged/mono-braincell thug rock w/a heady glam/metal charge played with half-bricks for plectrums and with plenty of songs about bad-assed babes with skin tight denims doing bikers wrong: the vibe here is early-Slade-meets-punked-up-Thin Lizzy-via-Blue Cheer and if that doesn’t give you instantly painful gonads then you ain’t packin’ em. Band names and song titles are so completely stupe that if the sonics weren’t so, uh, authentic, you’d swear someone was making the whole deal up. We got tracks from Stud Leather (!), Alan Lee Shaw (“She Moans”), Streak, Slowload (“Big Boobs Boogie”), an alternate take on Mississippi’s godlike “Mr Union Railway Man”, Barry Rolfe, Sweeny Bean (!), Agnes Strange (!), Castle Farm (“Hot Rod Queen”), Incredible Hog, an unknown acetate, another one from Streak, Sleaz Band’s “Midnight Man” and Clutch’s “Black Angel”. Almost too much! Best volume of the series, hands down, best cover too, edition of only 300 copies, instantly sold out at source. Highly recommended! 

Unlikely round-up of pre-rock/roll 78s from the other side of the world that anticipate or osmose contemporary rocking moves while mutating them well beyond the remit: this is a highly addictive collection of high energy world music that runs the gamut of re-orientalised country orientalisms, jump jazz, samisen boogie woogie, early Egyptian and Indian rock n roll, organ-stomping cumbia and hillbilly boogie. Beautifully presented too, in a cool tip-on sleeve with the kind of graphics you might wanna frame. Love this. Recommended. 

Stunning first-ever stereo recording of the “fiery choral sounds” of Sacred Harp Singing: recorded by Alan Lomax at Corinth Baptist Church in 1959, this features over 300 singers taking part in polyphonic folk hymns from The Sacred Harp compendium. The amazing mass voices move like clouds of constantly shifting overtone and have all the timeless, otherworldly beauty of Gaelic Psalm Singing, moving from martial chants to single leading voices through moments of complete vocal surrender. This one restores Lomax’s recordings with a bunch of contemporary material from the session that has never before been released. Coming with in-depth liner notes this is a historically potent packaging of some jaw-dropping devotional choral music. Recommended. 

Massive side of lost Americana dedicated to the high lonesome sound of sufferin ballads, brokedown blues and melancholy paeans to the pull of oblivion that has a heady Harry Smith/Anthology feel that’s down to the inspired associate logic with which its compiled: stellar tracks from Arthur Smith Trio, B.F. Shelton, The Carter Family (their classic, lugubrious “Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?”), John Hurt, Emry Arthur, Jimmie Tarlton, Shortbuckle Roar & Family, Clarence Ashley, The Cackle Sisters, Buell Kazee, Moses Mason and Bascom Lamar Lunsford. A fantastic set and a timely reminder of the weird lunar appeal of the most lonesome American folk music. Highly recommended.

Unbeatable no-filler compilation of primo Ethiopian soul: this continues Mississippi’s public service upgrade of key volumes of the legendary Ethiopiques series of classic lost Ethiopian sides from the late 60s/early 70s and it’s all gravy, with tracks that run the gamut of weirdo modal/funk polyrhythmia, Saturnian jazz, desolate soul testifying, sad ballroom romanticism and electrified ethno grooves, all of which are rendered with that massively addictive and profoundly otherworldly laidback ‘Ethiopiques’ style. This one bundles major tracks from volumes 24 & 25 including Mulatu Astatqe’s killer title track, the amazing Tamrat Molla & Venus Band, Samuel Belay, Getatchew Kassa & Soul Ekos Band, Abbebe Tessemma and more. Highly recommended!

Second instalment of this fascinating series that collects ‘stray’ short tracks from the GRM Vaults: this one concentrates on early pre-1976 works from four composers who went on to blaze singular trails. Denis Smalley is probably best known for his amazing 1979 recording The Pulses Of Time and he is represented here by 1974’s “Pentes” a beautiful piece of widescreen drone based around the sound of the Northumbrian Pipes. Dominique Guiot’s 1974 recording “L’oiseau de Paradis” presents a series of dramatic soundscapes scored as if they were a screenplay, Pierre Boeswillwald’s 1971 “Nuisances” is an eerie noise/drone work that uses ‘pollutants’ or ‘nuisances’ while Rodolfo Caesar’s “Les Deux Saisons” from 1975-76 is an improvisation using glass organ and a frequency modulation device. 

Massive 5xCD box that compiles the complete run of one of the greatest garage/psych/weirdo compilations of all time, the Gathering Of The Tribes series along with a bonus volume: this was a particularly great series in that the compilers had a feel for the more cracked oddball psych stuff, harder burning stuff like big VT faves Fraction, D.R. Hooker, Mystic Siva, Music Emporium, Kak, The New Dawn et al all of whom feature heavily Some major revelations on here too, such as the  run of tracks by Canada’s It’s All Meat who do the whole extended Doors psychodrama thing to psychotic, psychedelic excess. And talking of psychotic, the track by Macabre, “Be Forewarned”, has to be heard to be believed, an insane Satanic proto-metal trip w/lyrics about Satan, the heart of the sun and the dark side of the moon wired to ludicrous OTT proto-doom moves. Also a bunch of revelatory tracks from Josefus, The Unrelated Segments, The Deep, The Chants, The Plague, The Bards, Indian Puddin’ & Pipe, The Headstones, The Mystic Tide, The Humane Society, The Grains Of Sand, The Trolls, The Malibus, The Buck Rogers Movement, The Crystal Chandelier, The Missing Lynx, Jefferson Lee, The London Fog, Canterbury Fair, The Escapades, The Bad Seeds, The Lyrics, Talula Babies, Mary Butterworth, Jeff Liberman, The Savages, Circus 2000, West Coast Natural Gas, John Wonderling, The David, Onion, Hartford baby Grenade, Neighb’rhood Children, Perth County Conspiracy and Peter Tessier. What a set, pretty much a dream line-up of outsider garage/psych excess, packaged in a box with individual sleeves and a chunky booklet with pics and liners. Highly recommended!

Third volume in this on-going series that documents various stages of evolution of the Japanese underground: following the 70s and 80s the 90s set is the real gravy and represents the decade that was the most creatively accelerated in terms of underground activity. Cream of the crop here is an amazing studio recording from the classic trio Fushitsusha line-up, “Magic V”, with Haino on electric guitar and vocals, Yasushi Ozawa on electric bass and Jun Kosugi on drums recorded during the sessions for their 1993 album for John Zorn’s Avant label, Allegorical Misunderstanding. Haino’s vocal are particularly potent, moving from a high lamenting style to aggressive epiglottal action while the group work the kind of complex rock rhythm equations that would come to define their current incarnation. But that’s not all. There’s a classic “Moungod” live ritual from Masaki Batoh’s Ghost, from their classic self-titled 1997 debut, “Moungod Te Deum” and Hoppy Kamiyama’s legendary God Mountain label is represented by Demi Semi Quaver’s “A*merika”. We also get a great goof of a track from ‘noise’ legends The Gerogerigegege and tracks from Phew, composer/trumpeter Jun Miyake, Ryuichi Sakamoto, E*trance, weirdo J-pop from Takako Minekawa and of course no 90s overview would be complete without a track from legendary guitarist/songwriter and Org recording artist Idiot O’Clock. A great and wide-ranging overview of the creative tumult of underground music in Japan in the 1990s. Recommended.

Very limited reissue of this legendary Broken Flag compilation originally released on cassette in 1983: this reissue was originally intended to coincide with the Never Say When Broken Flag event that took place in London in May of 2012 but it’s only now seeing the light of day. This is one of the most radical and profoundly a-musical documents of Broken Flag’s uniquely primitive and ferociously raw DIY aesthetic. It features exclusive tracks from Ramleh, The New Blockaders, Sir Ashleigh Grove, Vortex Campaign, Citipati and Depilate Corps. The Sir Ashleigh Grove track (a New Blockaders ‘satellite’) is particularly astounding, a long two/three note track of scouring minimalist debris and fucked-up martial beatbox that sounds like buckled metal played by Sun Ra. The New Blockaders track is a beautiful example of their ferocious early DIY electro-acoustic style with that shed at the bottom of the garden appeal that makes the early recordings so unique while working in the same area as Ferial Confine. The Ramleh track is a totally hysterical and barely comprehensible live ‘power electronics’ assault while Depilate Corps turn in an eerie feedback choral that’s heady with implied threat. A phenomenal set, one of the best early Industrial/noise compilations and a solid spin from start to finish, highly recommended! 

Much-anticipated fourth volume of this mind-numbingly amazing collection of “fuzzed-up boot-stomping continental low-life heaviness 1969-1975” in an edition of only 300 copies: this one is focussed on European levels of caveman ugh, pre-metal, pluke-popping glam and proto-punk brain donation with a choice run of ridiculously OTT hysterics. Silence are to Led Zeppelin what Blue Cheer were to The Jimi Hendrix Experience, favouring volume over technique across two amazing power-grunting sides. Germany’s Propeller sing the praises of an “Apache Woman” while Belgium’s Angie make for one of the most confusing wimpy power ballads in the form of “Streetlight Fight”. Mothers Of Track drop the classic “Motorcycle Rock” while Good Time Joe turn up the Stones/Dolls swagger with “Slipstream”. Also killer tracks from no counts like Mushroom, Corporation, After Shave (!), Blackbirds 2000, Tiger, Tykes, Maternal Joy and the mind-blowing closing track from Germany’s Cindy & Bert that immortalises the Hound Of The Baskervilles to the tune of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”. Too fucking much! Another amazing, life-affirming volume from one of the most insanely enjoyable of modern underground compilations. Immediately sold out at source, highly recommended!

"Incredible archival set by Christina Carter from a solo performance in London on 26 October 2004.  This art edition comes in a run of only 122 signed and hand-numbered copies with a variety of art paper sleeves in the usual Many Breaths style and is available exclusively from Volcanic Tongue.  Described by Christina as her ‘most broken and expressionist performance to date' this set features radically reworked interpretations of early solo and Charalambides material in a style that can be best described as deconstructed Texas blues by attempting to combine the voice, rhythm and slide guitar of these complex songs via a single solo performance.  Here Christina seems to be taking direct inspiration from original country blues slide players like Blind Willie Johnson and Bukka White while translating them to the present via a variety of aggressive playing styles filtered through the psychedelic blues of Jandek and Keiji Haino.  At times the playing reminds me of Bill Orcutt, not necessarily in terms of technique or sonics, but more in approach, the way the guitar is attacked furiously combining both lead and rhythm techniques simultaneously. She launches frantic flurries of slide notes while always returning to the root chord’s open tuning in the same way that Orcutt's playing always returns to that de-tuned bottom C-string.  The rhythm playing itself is anything but straight-forward with syncopated and staccato-styled playing of slashed chords.  You could imagine this as being a very physical performance with Christina moving and contorting between playing high-end slide and off-beat open chords that seem to continually resonate providing the songs' wayward rhythms and building intensity.

 On the opening track "Namaste" the slide playing gets particularly aggressive towards the end, with flurries of improvised notes sounding almost like Christina's interpretation of Heather Leigh’s wilder pedal steel work transposed to slide guitar.  The song is offset by a vocal melody that sounds as connected to traditional Celtic folk as much as country or gospel blues, giving the track a strange balance that reflects the inner conflict perfectly. One of the highlights is her interpretation of two classic early Charalambides tracks from Joy Shapes and Unknown Spin: "Here, Not Here" and "Voice Within".  The guitar playing moves seamlessly between delicate finger-picked melodies and crashing chords laden in reverb and echo providing a permanent wall of sound.  Slightly reminiscent of the atmosphere on Keiji Haino's classic Affection album and with a similar use of overlapping repetitive rhythms as on his recent Seijaku recordings.  This also really demonstrates Christina's ability as an accomplished guitar player with at times some slightly more eastern or Malian blues-sounding scales being used.  The more aggressive wailing vocals often heard on her Scorces recordings is also evident.  There is a wonderful moment where Christina moves between one of her falsetto screams and her softer tone when her voice breaks reminding us of the fragility of the performer herself. 
With so many of the recent Many Breaths releases focusing on voice and melody such as A Blossom Fell or even poetry as on Seals, it’s great to hear this other dimension of such an important artist. This is Christina as a blues-influenced solo performer jamming wild interpretations of the form in a psychedelic outlaw style that could only come from Texas. Highly recommended." - Andrew Ross

All proceeds from the sale of this release will go to Tom Carter. Read more about the appeal here: http://www.volcanictongue.com/tomcarterappeal

CD edition of what was originally a limited cassette album from Christina Carter. It feels like we have been pretty much constantly drooling over new Christina releases of late but she seems to be in the middle of one of the most creatively-accelerated phases of her career right now and Texas Blues Working is yet another monster in a dazzling run of blats. This one matches choirs of overdubbed voice soaked in a ton of mystery and F/X over electric guitar shapes that move from knotty, almost Jandekian chord puzzles through lucid single-note heartbreak that feels closest to Loren Connors amazing form circa Hells Kitchen Park or Keiji Haino's recent midnight loop work. But it's the vocals that really grab you by the back of the neck, with supernaturally mournful wordless cries echoing through deep space and lucid sunbursts of west coast-style psychedelic oblivion (something of Jefferson Airplane circa After Bathing At Baxters/Volunteers) carved into some of the most emotionally barren and personally spooked song forms. Haunting and unforgettable, another masterpiece from Christina. Already sold out at source. Highly recommended!

Stunning new private press release from Christina Carter (Charalambides/Scorces et al) in an individually hand-numbered, signed and hand-lettered edition of only 89 copies, each of which comes wrapped in a full-size original painting by Christina (!): “Imaginee is a landmark release from Christina and the most ambitious statement of her artistic career to date.  A mixture of presentations comprising spoken word poetry and musical compositions for voice, piano and guitar this is a singular release by an artist who is truly pushing herself and her art into profound new zones.  It moves through alternately personal, reflective, beautiful, provocative, disturbing and intimate modes as Christina’s beautiful, yet fragile, vocals are offset against sparse and creative arrangements.  The verdict – even next to personal favourites like Coupled, Seals and Trickster this ranks as a fucking masterpiece.
Christina has always expanded her craft beyond her work as musician into poetry and art. In particular, she has previously published poetry via Digitalis and Ecstatic Peace as well as heralding the influence of the late 70s Poetry Out Loud series. In addition, her vocal and lyrical work (particularly on Seals with tracks like “Building and Rocks”) have always had that observational/streams of consciousness feel with lines and thoughts evolving, looping and tripping into one another. This for me though is her first part-spoken word poetry release, delivered with a confrontational, observational or sometimes reflective style that would not have been out of place next to fellow Texan Bill Shute.
The album (comprising 8 poetry and 6 musical presentations) sounds like it has two natural halves split by the piano-only instrumental title track in the middle. The poems are a mixture of reflective (“A Friend of a Friend”, “A Fascination of Faces”), observational (“What Kind of Face”, “An Assistant”, “Avenue of Corner”) and self-assessing (“You Get Out Of My Head”, “You Taught Me”) covering possible themes from relationships to simply story-teller. Often written in the first person, they are sometimes directed to a variety of characters (father, friend, lover, God) – it is never clear, perhaps left to the listener or Imaginee. Not content with just the lyrical content or delivery style, Christina has also adopted a number of production techniques from distance, up-close, phasing and echo to give these a further dimension beyond simple spoken poems; it’s this kind of detail that really bring the album to life. Each track evokes a slightly different meaning on subsequent listens but personally I really enjoyed the lyrical content of “What Kind of Face” whilst there was a certain fragility and disturbing quality to “You Get Out Of My Head”.
The musical compositions, which are interspersed between the poems, are the apex of Christina’s song craft to date. The piano led “Letter L” has a kind of continuous vocal prose (not unlike Seals) with a Joy Shapes-style arrangement (like “Here” or “Voice”), simple two-note bass interspersed with jerky stabbed notes that sound like deconstructed Texas blues guitar translated for piano.  “Actual Black Empty” is one of the clear highlights – an arrangement of gently plucked guitar overladen with minimalist distorted lead accompanied by non-conventional slow droning harmonica sounds like the kind of dysfunctional blues you want to trip on. This is matched by the intimate, close vocal of “You have the life…” with the sort of painstakingly beautiful melody that has graced latter year classic Charalambides albums like Vintage Burden or Exile. If that wasn’t enough the beautifully titled “Two Lovers In One Magazine” is another mindblower and the absolute zenith of Christina’s vocals prowess to date, created virtually by echo, phased, layered, double-tracked and backward vocals, all harmonising in an almost mantra chanting embrace “How good to know…”.  With only a two note piano accompaniment, this is a like a continuous euphoric wave of vocal and melodic ecstasy that will have you spinning. The track closes with flutters of blossoming notes, arpeggios and triplets evoking the spirit of Alice Coltrane (to these ears anyway in a slightly twisted way). 
Following some of the more surreal poems is “Drama In Paradox” – possibly the most fragile and amazing vocal I’ve heard from Christina – unless you have no soul you will find this both beautiful and deeply affecting beyond mere description. The album closes with the epic 19 minute blues dirge of “Symbols”. A vocal-led intro gives way to sparse, desolate harmonica interspersed with the sort of overdriven, minimalist blues-playing of Loren Connors or Jandek.  Like weeping notes of liquid blues from the gutter, my kinda thing. 
Overall, this is a major statement from an artist that is continually pushing the boundaries of her craft. Whether it’s the thought-provoking (at times surreal) poetry, the beauty and melody of those vocals, or the closing fragility of that blues dirge, this comes with my highest possible recommendation!” – Andrew Ross.