Jailbreak is the duo of pedal steel/vocalist Heather Leigh and drummer Chris Corsano. The name foregrounds the kind of outlaw violence with which the two reformulate rock/roll instants by bringing free jazz fire power to amp-humping sex beats. Their musical alliance goes all the way back to the legendary Brattleboro Free Folk Fest, the birthplace of the ‘New Weird America’, where Corsano and his long-term saxophone partner Paul Flaherty joined Leigh and Christina Carter for a quartet show that took the roof off the building and the skin off their fingers. Since then Corsano and Leigh have worked together as part of Taurpis Tula and as members of Thurston Moore’s Dream/Aktion Unit. Jailbreak play improvised music that dispenses with traditional notions of call and response or dialogue in favour of a profound simultaneity that would birth instant forms from the application of high energy strategies. Leigh’s steel mainlines sanctified slide guitar sources and deforms them with overdriven electricity, playing a form of future-blues exploded by super-charged currents. Corsano detonates time, literally blows it to pieces, in favour of a profound polyrhythmic feel that would confuse past and future. Yet the whole thing rocks like it hasn’t a braincell to spare, re-connecting avant garde tactics and ass-whooping rama-lama with alla the revolutionary fanfare of the most radical counter-cultural two-chord punk. Their debut LP is called The Rocker. It’s all you need to know.  “For those of you who've been worried that the Free Power Noize scene has become a little too tame, (and seriously who isn't somewhat concerned about that), a new screamin' creamin' duo -- Jailbreak --explodes to the rescue. The world's wildest free drummer (Chris Corsano: Cold Bleak Heat , duos with Mick Flower, Bill Nace etc.) and the world's wildest free steal pedal guitarist, (Heather Leigh:, Dream Aktion Unit, Jandek, etc.), pits two of the landscapes most intense pyromaniacs against each other in -- "The Rocker" -- a blast-furnace of blisteringly joyous witch-howling assaults on the essence of whips and chains and repressive injustice gone legal.  Both of these magisterial musicians are capable of extreme dynamics and subtleties, but those concepts don't get in the way of this monster-truck of a record. And why should they when drums and guitar can slash and burn in a riotous electric smash fest like this crazed merry madcap of an album.  Over the top ... Way! As the full frontal music rips through my naked and defenceless eardrums, images emerge of an old and demented grandmother, strapped into her rocking chair by disciples in heat. (ooooohhhhh yyyeeeaaahhhh!!!)  The more she violently rocks and chants with insane exhilaration, the more the treacherously imprisoned souls of Hell claw at their walls of liquid fire, desperately trying to free themselves from chains of Human and Sub-human limitations.  It sounds like 100 pall-bearin' viciously possessed drummers lifting 100 gone-bonkers zombie lovin' guitarists into another realm of escape, one that reality hasn't presented as a release, until now. The 1st time Heather & Chris played together, (a first meeting improve 4tet performance -- Babes on the Loose), I watched in disturbed horror as Heather crashed her steel pedal to the stage and sliced her hand while trying to play upside down. Then she passed out.  Corsano rushed to her aid, but had to stop and bandage his own bloodied digits, as rivers of crimson soaked the frightened platform.  (They obviously survived).  This recording picks up where that chaos and bedlam left off, and if possible, lifts the ante higher, into a maelstrom of American psychotic pandemonium gone-a-hunting in Scotland. A catch-and-release band for sure that attacks the jailers and frees the innocents ... just before the death penalty can be brutally administered. I liked it.” – Paul Flaherty. Highly recommended!

Brand new album from the world-beating free music duo of Heather Leigh on pedal steel and vocals and Chris Corsano on drums, following on in style from their Family Vineyard LP. Once more recorded and mixed by Andreas Jonsson the sound is as dazzling as their debut, with three tracks that move from ferocious post-Sharrock power blues through new zones of smoky, spectral tone. The opener comes straight out of The Rocker, with Heather’s bad motor scooter guitar burning asphalt while Corsano plays in four directions at a time, ducking air raid warnings with an amphetamine dexterity. Second track, “White Spider” is a whole new bomb, with the duo navigating a kind of psychedelic giallo atmosphere with Corsano making like an orchestra of Max Roachs while Heather plays spectral strings and floating tones that are straight out of the Nicolai/Morricone songbook. The closing “Freezing Shark” might be the most radical recording they’ve nailed to the floor, with an unaccompanied vocal from Heather driven straight through the wall by Corsano before the guitar explodes like a heavy metal Masayuki Takayanagi playing future blues. This is such a great, invigorating shot from the source and it confirms a whole buncha things that are important in underground music: energy, passion, actual playing, speed-of-thought improvisation. Who else comes close? Hand-numbered edition of 297 copies. Highest possible recommendation!

Deluxe vinyl edition of this classic solo album from Heather Leigh (Jailbreak/Scorces/Jandek et al) originally released in a tiny edition on cassette by Fag Tapes. Two fully-extended high metal masses for amplified pedal steel and vocals that blow all notions of form, fidelity and frilly fucking folk-picking fops to the kinda sweet metallic ribbons previously worn as crowns by Keiji Haino, Jojo Hiroshige and Teenage Jesus & The Jerks. Very different in tone and attack from the recent Jailbreak LP, Jailhouse Rock has a more amorphous sound, with muzzy smears of guitar caked in NZ-style fuzz and clouds of high string tone that conjure the miasmic electronics of Maurizio Bianchi. One of Heather’s most blasted sides with all-new nuts artwork by Heath Moreland. “Jailhouse Rock is in fact a wax reissue of a long OOP 2006 cassette classic on Michigan crud factory Fag Tapes. It was a fave of ours that year (and every year), so it feels extra celebratory to be able to offer up a freshly remastered (by Pete Swanson) LP edition of the album for global re-appreciation. Sprawling, long-form descents/ascents into mythic electric disorientation, powered by her trademark recipe of FX-soaked pedal steel and voice. Jailhouse feels loosely more aligned with a mid-aughts drone/noise aesthetic than the outsider dirt road Americana of her Devil If You Can Hear Me LP (also on NNF), but the distinction is a slight one. Side A swims in swooping sheets of vox and tempestuous wind tunnel dynamics before slowly dying away to wheezing disembodied harmonica. The B piece begins in a more overtly beautiful mode, a trinity of crystalline notes picked and stretched until they’re transformed into a rapturous sky of textural distortion. Sensual and vertigo-inducing in equal measure. Black vinyl LPs in jackets with brand new paint/collage artwork by Heath Moerland (of Sick Llama, Slither, Odd Clouds, etc). Edition of 400.” – NNF. Highly recommended!

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.