God - See smoke,smell fire.

Life Metal by SUNN O)))

Sunn O)))’s Metal Cleanse

BY JORDAN MAINZER

When a Sunn O))) show starts, you feel it. I don’t mean that in some sort of pseudo hippie kind of way--I mean you literally feel it in your body because wherever you’re sitting immediately starts to vibrate. Friday at the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel was no different: A pulsating assault of guitars, trombone, and Moog enveloped the crowd into hypnosis. On the surface level, no matter what songs they played, it wasn’t too different from their usual performance, including the metal theatrics. But it was even more cleansing than the one I saw at Big Ears 2016. However many beers I had before the show was irrelevant; I left feeling more lucid than ever. While I was in the church, I was aware of my surroundings only during moments of silence, when the band (inevitably) blew a speaker, the songs of late-career Scott Walker over the PA system bookending the entire experience, and applause after their main set and encore.

The feelings of positiveness I experienced make sense in context of Sunn O)))’s surprisingly bright new album Life Metal, a cheekily titled antidote to “death metal.” Their first of two albums planned for release this year, Life Metal was written with frequent collaborator Tos Nieuwenhuizen on Moog and eventually recorded with none other than Steve Albini at Electrical Audio here in Chicago. It was also the first Sunn O))) album recorded entirely to tape; the extra bit of hiss on the guitar tones adds a greater aspect of the physical realm than ever before. The warm hues of Samantha Keely Smith’s paintings that grace the cover art are akin to the timbre of the music. Slabs of synthesizer light rise to the surface between drone metal power chords on opener “Between Sleipnir’s Breaths”, as recordings of whinnying horses and layered vocals from Hildur Guðnadóttir provide a soft antidote to her ruminations on the impermanence of life. On “Troubled Air”, Anthony Pateras arranged and recorded pipe organ that provides a flat levity to contrast the pointed high tones of the guitars and childlike wonder of the triangle percussion. “Aurora” segues from the dark tones of ���Troubled Air” but juxtaposes with it high-pitched, heavenly sounds reminiscent of the human voice, ultimately challenging you to find hope even in the squeakiest of guitar feedback squalls; like the live set, it eventually gives way to silence.

The stunning “Novae” closes out Life Metal, at first threatening to continue the dismay of the previous track but offering what’s probably the most buoyant guitar work on a non-Scott Walker-collaborative Sunn O))) album. Halfway through, Guðnadóttir’s haldrophone and electric cello become the focal point of the track, carrying you out of the listening experience with a different conception of what a Sunn O))) record can be. Together, their set Friday and Life Metal show a band still capable of eviscerating your expectations, redefining their own boundaries in subtle ways you notice most looking back.

8.7/10

Sunn O))) Release Metta, Benevolence.  BBC 6Music: Live on the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs. on Double LP format

Available on CD and digitally last November, this epic release is available on vinyl today from Southern Lord. // Watch an unboxing video to check out the excellent packaging now.

Paintings by Samantha Keely Smith.

In late October 2019, following a successful UK tour ending in a sold-out concert at the mythical Roundhouse in London, SUNN O))) entered studio 4 of the BBC Maida Vale on invitation to record a live session for Mary Anne Hobbs to be broadcast on Samhain via her excellent radio show on BBC6. To enter the legendary John Peel studios was to enter a temple of music and experimentation, liberty in ideas and sound.

The band was nearing the end of a long touring year around the Life Metal and Pyroclasts albums (of which Anna Von Hausswolff and her band had accompanied SUNN O))) on the UK tour, and Anna joined SUNN O))) in the studio on synths and with her tremendous voice). SUNN O))) had developed their compositions extensively, embracing the formative concepts of the Life Metal album conceptually and emotionally, but actualized and evolved into vast, open and bright hyper-saturated arrangements. Particularly the pieces the band chose to perform on this recording: Troubled Air and Pyroclasts. The former enriched into a total aspect of the band's ethos and form in many ways, and Pyroclasts had evolved to become all-inclusive radiation of O))). The radiation embraces collaboration and freedom of interpretation by each player, within a structural format of the massive monuments of sound and distortion which define SUNN O))).

The recordings of this session—  Metta, Benevolence.  BBC 6Music: Live on the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs.— were released on CD and digital formats last November via Southern Lord and today, the long-awaited double LP version is finally available.

Watch (+ share) the Sunn O))) Metta, Benevolence... LP unboxing video on YouTube.

Revisit passages from "Pyroclasts F (featuring Anna von Hausswolff) here and "Troubled Air" here.

SUNN O))) Metta, Benevolence       BBC 6Music : Live on the invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs 1. Pyroclasts F 2. Pyroclasts C# 3. Troubled Air

Stephen O’Malley (Electric Guitar, Minimoog Model D synthesizer) Greg Anderson (Electric Guitar, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer) Tos Nieuwenhuizen (Moog Rogue synthesizer) Stephen Moore (Trombone, Roland Junior-106 (mod) & Nord Stage (gaffed black) synthesizers) Tim Midyett (Electric Bass Guitar, Roland Juno-106 synthesizer) Anna von Hausswolff (Voice & Nord C2D synthesizer on Pyroclasts F & C#)

Artist photo by: Ronald K. Dick.  Hi-res available here.

Order Links:

https://sunn.southernlord.com/metta-benevolence-bbc-6music/

*exclusive Sunn O))) band store color variants

https://southernlord.com/store/sunn-o-metta-benevolence-bbc-6music/

https://southernlordeurope.com/store/sunn-o-metta-benevolence-bbc-6music/

*exclusive EU color variants

https://evilgreed.net/collections/sunn

*exclusive Evil Greed color variant

SUNN O)))’s website/webstore sunn.southernlord.com

SUNN O)))’s album oeuvres online sunn.bandcamp.com

SUNN O)))’s live recordings online sunn-live.bandcamp.com

SUNN O)))’s recordings are released by Southern Lord Recordings

www.southernlord.com

www.southernlordeurope.com

new arrivals july 10th, 2017

stormy records13306 michigan avedearborn, mi 48126 313-581-9322 check our facebook page for a CAR SEAT HEADREST ticket giveaway!!!! details posted this afternoon!!! glenn jones plays this week on thursday night at trinosophes. also - this week is the first week of the east dearborn musical event - tunes at noon. watch for a seperate email with info on that!! items in stock today - july 10th 2017 RADIOHEAD OKAYNOTOKAY COMPUTER double cd $15.99 ATOBE, SHINICHI  $29.99From The Heart, It's A Start, A Work Of Art 2LPFrom The Heart, It's A Start, A Work Of Art has its origins in early 2000, before Chain Reaction released the legendary Ship-Scope 12" (later released by Demdike Stare in 2015, DDS 014EP). Three of the tracks here are taken from an acetate cut at Dubplates & Mastering at that time, but which wouldn't see the light of day until now, including another batch of tracks taken from original masters. Only five copies of that acetate were ever made, so this is the first time any of these tracks are available for public consumption, and they rank among the finest and most distinctive in either the Chain Reaction or Shinichi Atobe's vaults. The material is effectively some of the Japanese producer's earliest work, showcasing the sort of tender, feminine pressure that would bubble up on the Ship-Scope EP and later be revealed in his new productions, Butterfly Effect (DDS 010CD) and World yet, for many reasons, they would lay sunk in his archive for the next 17 years. The tracks taken from that acetate are labeled "First Plate 1-3" and really are quite remarkable, having taken on so much character and added weight over the years that the incidental crackle of surface noise imbues proceedings with an added dimension that's hard to fathom. It basically sounds like a lost transmission making its way from Paul-Lincke-Ufer at the turn of the millennium to a new, completely changed world all these years later. The patina of crackle lends a mist-on-bare skin feeling akin to summer garden parties at Berghain in the stepping "First Plate 1", and gives a foggier sort of depth perception to the hydraulic, Maurizian heft of "First Plate 2", but it's the submerged euphoria of "First Plate 3" that hits the hardest; a heady, bittersweet reminder of days gone by. The other four tracks are crisply transferred from master tapes, relinquishing a sublime, impossible to categorize house variant that recalls everything from DJ Sprinkles to Ron Trent, yet with that weird, timeless production tick that by now has become something of a signature for this most distinctive and hard to categorize producer. Buoyant dub house and techno with lush, gaseous synths and keys. Remastered by Matt Colton from original tapes and worn actetates -- grit included; Limited copies. MOTORPSYCHOBegynnelser 2x10"+CD+DVD  $57.99This music was written for a project Motorpsycho was invited to be a part of by Trøndelag Teater in 2015. It eventually ended up as the play Begynnelser ("Beginnings"); directed, designed and dramatized by the independent theatre group De Utvalgte based on a new text written by Norwegian author Carl Frode Tiller. It was produced and performed at Trøndelag Teater in Trondheim with a cast drawn mainly from their ensemble. Motorpsycho played live at every performance with a line-up that included "utility psychos" Pål Brekkås or Tos Nieuwenhuizen. The play ran for six weeks in September and October of 2016. Not all of this music was eventually used in the play. The band also wrote a lot more during preparations and rehearsals. It was a long process and most of the music was tweaked in a big way to fit the flow and feel of the play. It was also played live every night, so what you would have heard during the performances would in most instances have sounded very different from this album. But these initial recordings have a certain unity of intent, as well as a sound and a definitive vibe to them that the band feels perhaps represents their input into the project the best. It is what they feel works best as a pure listening experience. The music is not sequenced in the order it was used in the play, and a lot of the music that eventually was played in the performances is missing from this album, so this is perhaps best described as "a version of what it might have been", more than a document of what the soundtrack eventually ended up becoming. One presumes this also probably would explain the title of the album. The titles of the various tracks reflect the band's process. The song names are in many cases inner-band shorthand for associations they gave the composers as they were written, and all of them are additionally graced with a place name taken from the area of Norway that both Hans Magnus Ryan and Bent Sæther of Motorpsycho grew up, and where the play is set. The included DVD contains a documentary and a complete two hour filmed performance of the play -- with English subtitles; DVD is PAL format, region free. So all-in-all, you get a lot of new, original Motorpsycho music. DUVELLE AND HISHAM MAYET, CHARLES  The Photographs of Charles Duvelle: Disques Ocora and Collection Prophet 2CD/BOOK  $68.99Disques Ocora, a French label dedicated to capturing and publishing the sounds of folkloric culture from around the world, is held in the highest possible regard in the realms of professional and amateur ethnomusicology. Instigated in 1958 by Pierre Schaeffer, the founder of musique concrète, Disques Ocora's sterling reputation is largely built on composer and musicologist Charles Duvelle's pioneering field recordings, as well as his now-iconic photographs and graphic design. Charles Duvelle's work is indisputably one of the most important contributions to the human understanding of the rich biodiversity of our planet's music and language. In 1977, his field recordings from Benin were selected by Carl Sagan for inclusion on the Voyager Golden Records, which were carried into outer space by the Voyager spacecraft to stand as an example of humanity's highest musical expressions for the universe's unknown listeners. Sublime Frequencies' most ambitious project to date, this 296-page fine-art photography book comprises an exhaustive collection of Charles Duvelle's field photography from 1959 to 1978 (188 black-and-white and 58 color photographs), demonstrating that this master musicologist had an equally unerring eye for photography; Includes a photo index listing the details of each photograph. It also contains an exhaustive interview with Charles Duvelle by Hisham Mayet, detailing the history of the label and offering Duvelle's unique insights into the discipline of field recording (French and English facing text). The package includes two full-length CDs of archival recordings (some of which have never been published) selected, compiled, and fully annotated by Duvelle himself. Most of the tracks on CD one (Africa) are complete versions of truncated tracks from OOP Ocora LPs. CD two, which includes performances by Sohan Lal, Kheo Oudon, and Madurai Ramaswami Gautam, is focused on material from Asia (music from India and Laos), with two long tracks that have never been released (a third track is a complete unedited version). The material focuses on the five regions surveyed during his time with Ocora: West Africa, Central Africa, Indian Ocean, Pacific Islands, and SouthEast Asia. It includes "Disques Ocora / Charles Duvelle Discography, 1959-1974", a complete overview illustrated with 94 full-color album thumbnails, "The Prophet Collection, 1999-2004" a discography of Duvelle's post-Ocora label illustrated with 41 full-color album thumbnails, "Eastern Music in Black Africa", a 17-page report prepared by Charles Duvelle at the request of UNESCO (February 1970), and a review of the Ocora catalogues (1964-1973). In a tribute to Disques Ocora's exquisite design sensibility, the book is printed on 170 gsm Lumisilk matte art paper and bound in grey buckram with gold foil stamping on the cover and spine. The front cover includes a tipped-on glossy photograph by Charles Duvelle. Hardcover book; 10"x10"; 296 pages; 4.5 lbs. Produced and edited by Hisham Mayet. POLICE DES MOEURS: Dedales LP  $22.99Montr233;al synth pop band Police Des Moeurs are one of the finest and rawest bands in the minimal synth/wave and cold wave scene. D233;dales, their third full-length album, keeps the pure energy of their previous efforts while leaving greater room for atmospheric and textural considerations. D233;dales leads you into the passage zone between civilization and wilderness, a mysterious place where truth, lies, light, and darkness collide. For fans of New Order, Martin Dupont, Rational Youth, Xeno & Oaklander. Mastering by Rude 66; Graphic design by Alessandro Adriani. Edition of 500. NACHT'RAUM/BANDE BERNE CREMATOIRE: Expanded 1982-1984 LP $22.99Mannequin Records present an LP compilation of Michael Antener's (Swamp Terrorist) early '80s minimal synth/industrial projects Nacht'Raum (with Michael St228;mpfli) and his solo project Bande Berne Crematoire. Heavily influenced by the works of SPK and Nocturnal Emissions, Michael Antener made his first recordings in the basement of his parents' house in a small village nearby Bern, Utzensdorf. He started BBC in 1980, a hybrid of Neue Deutsch Welle and noise/experimental, making a household name in the international home recording scene of the time and participating to many tape compilations. Teaming up with Michael St228;mpfli as Nacht'Raum, he self-released the untitled mini-LP in 1983. Coming out from the same town of Grauzone, the duo moved into the darkest minimal electronic sounds, choosing German as main language for the lyrics and a Roland TR-808 as main drum machine, bringing the sound to a proto-electro dimension. Nacth'Raum is a real gem in '80s Swiss underground electronic music, together with Mittageisen, Grauzone, LiLiPut, and The Vyllies. Michael, by the way, later teamed up with Ane Hebeisen. They went by the name of Swamp Terrorists, releasing seven albums and touring throughout the world until the end of the '90s. At the end of the '90s, he sold all of his instruments and became an independent graphic artist. Mastered by Rude 666. Includes two inserts; Edition of 500. DAMIEN DUBROVNIKGreat Many Arrows  LP  $21.99Great Many Arrows is the sixth studio album from Damien Dubrovnik, the Danish duo of Loke Rahbek and Christian Stadsgaard. It is also the 200th release on their Posh Isolation label, marking eight years for both the label and project. The label's inception came with Damien Dubrovnik's debut album, and since then the two have been inseparable. Without Damien Dubrovnik there would most likely have been no Posh Isolation, and vice versa. Great Many Arrows is undoubtedly a high point in the varied discographies of both Rahbek and Stadsgaard. It is the most realized Damien Dubrovnik recording to date, and a standout in Posh Isolation's troves. As a record, Great Many Arrows manages to translate the intensity of the duo's often unrestrained live shows in to carefully crafted studio productions. Unlike the pair's earlier and largely electronic recordings, the compositions on Great Many Arrows set organs, cellos, violas, wind, and other acoustic instruments against the backdrop of an electronic landscape. The new toolset is as apparent on the surface as it is in the enclosed detail, taking the project further from its noise roots than it has ever been. This is not to say that Rahbek and Stadsgaard have traded ferocity for formal constraint. It is rather the opposite. While Great Many Arrows is certainly the pair's most "musical" work to date, its veneer of accessibility might also make it their most terrifying. The strength of the recording lies in the interaction between the melodic, acoustic instrumentation and the bulldozing electronics. Moments of beauty and light are transfigured into utter chaos and rage, the mesmerizing change an expression of the equal and opposite form's natural sway as it beckons and slips between its own passing. Great Many Arrows takes its name from a historic archery competition in Kyoto, Japan, in which archers would shoot as many arrows as possible for a 24-hour period. On April 26, 1686, Wasa Daihachiro from Kishū successfully shot 8,133 out of 13,053 arrows, averaging 544 arrows an hour, or nine arrows a minute, becoming the record holder.

SUNN O))) UNVEILS PASSAGE FROM “PYROCASTS F” FEATURING ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF

The boundless new track appears on Metta, Benevolence.  BBC 6Music: Live on the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs.

CD/DL Arrives November 26th, 2xLP Arriving on January 28th via Southern Lord.

Paintings by Samantha Keely Smith.

In late October 2019, following a successful UK tour ending in a sold-out concert at the mythical Roundhouse in London, SUNN O))) entered studio 4 of the BBC Maida Vale on invitation to record a live session for Mary Anne Hobbs to be broadcast on Samhain via her excellent radio show on BBC6. To enter the legendary John Peel studios was to enter a temple of music and experimentation, liberty in ideas and sound.

The brilliant Anna Von Hausswolff and her band had accompanied SUNN O))) on the UK tour, and Anna joined SUNN O))) in the BBC studio on synths and with her tremendous voice on the Pyroclasts pieces.  Today, SUNN O))) premieres an excerpt from the remarkable “Pyroclasts F” track ahead of the November 26 CD/Digital release date.

Watch (+ share) the visualizer for SUNN O))) feat. Anna Von Hausswolff “Pyroclasts F” excerpt on YouTube.

Also revisit the "Troubled Air" excerpt on YouTube.

Nearing the end of a long touring year around the Life Metal and Pyroclasts albums, SUNN O))) had developed the compositions  extensively, embracing the formative concepts of the Life Metal album conceptually and emotionally.  But on Metta., Benevolence…, the songs actualized and evolved into vast, open and bright hyper-saturated arrangements— particularly the pieces the band chose to perform on this recording: Troubled Air and Pyroclasts. The former enriched into a total aspect of the band's ethos and form in many ways, and Pyroclasts had evolved to become all-inclusive radiation of O))). The radiation embraces collaboration and freedom of interpretation by each player, within a structural format of the massive monuments of sound and distortion which define SUNN O))).

SUNN O))) Metta, Benevolence       BBC 6Music : Live on the invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs 1. Pyroclasts F 2. Pyroclasts C# 3. Troubled Air

Stephen O’Malley (Electric Guitar, Minimoog Model D synthesizer) Greg Anderson (Electric Guitar, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer) Tos Nieuwenhuizen (Moog Rogue synthesizer) Stephen Moore (Trombone, Roland Junior-106 (mod) & Nord Stage (gaffed black) synthesizers) Tim Midyett (Electric Bass Guitar, Roland Juno-106 synthesizer) Anna von Hausswolff (Voice & Nord C2D synthesizer on Pyroclasts F & C#)

Artist photo by: Ronald K. Dick.  Hi-res available here.

SUNN O))) TO RELEASE METTA, BENEVOLENCE. BBC 6MUSIC: LIVE ON THE INVITATION OF MARY ANNE HOBBS

CD/DL Arrives November 26th, 2xLP Arriving on January 28th via Southern Lord — Pre-orders Available Now.

Tune into Mary Anne Hobbs on BBC 6Music to Hear an Excerpt of "Troubled Air" + Check Out a Teaser Below.

Paintings by Samantha Keely Smith.

In late October 2019, following a successful UK tour ending in a sold-out concert at the mythical Roundhouse in London, SUNN O))) entered studio 4 of the BBC Maida Vale on invitation to record a live session for Mary Anne Hobbs to be broadcast on Samhain via her excellent radio show on BBC6. To enter the legendary John Peel studios was to enter a temple of music and experimentation, liberty in ideas and sound.

The band was nearing the end of a long touring year around the Life Metal and Pyroclasts albums. SUNN O))) had developed the compositions extensively, embracing the formative concepts of the Life Metal album conceptually and emotionally, but actualized and evolved into vast, open and bright hyper-saturated arrangements. Particularly the pieces the band chose to perform on this recording: Troubled Air and Pyroclasts. The former enriched into a total aspect of the band's ethos and form in many ways, and Pyroclasts had evolved to become all-inclusive radiation of O))). The radiation embraces collaboration and freedom of interpretation by each player, within a structural format of the massive monuments of sound and distortion which define SUNN O))).

Anna Von Hausswolff and her band had accompanied SUNN O))) on the UK leg, and Anna joined SUNN O))) in the studio on synths and with her tremendous voice on the Pyroclasts pieces.

Watch (+ share) the teaser visualizer for "Troubled Air" from Metta, Benevolence.  BBC 6Music: Live on the invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs on YouTube.

SUNN O))) Metta, Benevolence       BBC 6Music : Live on the invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs 1. Pyroclasts F 2. Pyroclasts C# 3. Troubled Air

Stephen O’Malley (Electric Guitar, Minimoog Model D synthesizer) Greg Anderson (Electric Guitar, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer) Tos Nieuwenhuizen (Moog Rogue synthesizer) Stephen Moore (Trombone, Roland Junior-106 (mod) & Nord Stage (gaffed black) synthesizers) Tim Midyett (Electric Bass Guitar, Roland Juno-106 synthesizer) Anna von Hausswolff (Voice & Nord C2D synthesizer on Pyroclasts F & C#)

new arrivals july 20th 2017

lots of used lps this week - kiss, bowie, hendrix, black sabbath. zeppelin. tons of new arrivals in the used vinyl world. a whole new bin of rock records and a whole new bin of jazz records. lots of fun listening for your summer - and all at great prices!! also - this week is the second week of the east dearborn musical event - tunes at noon. full desription and schedule just below the list of this week's new arrivals. items in stock thursday - july 20th 2017 Belfi, Andrea: Ore LP $21.99LP version with download code. Andrea Belfi (born 1979) is an international respected electroacoustic musician and composer. He began playing drums at the age of 14. He studied art in Milan, before becoming involved in experimental music and since 2002 he's been in collaboration with a wide range of artists, currently residing in Berlin, Germany. His new album Ore is released on the new UK record label Float which was founded by Sofia Ilyas, who was previously the label manager at Erased Tapes Records. The new label exists parallel to Float PR, the London based agency dedicated to the promotion of unique artists and projects, and Andrea Belfi is the first signing. Titled Ore, the album places the drums as its centerpiece, while textures are embellished and mutated through electronic manipulations and dark, eerie sonic details. Over the years, Belfi has built a sound-world that artfully combines a modest drum set-up with an equally concise electronics component. He has searched long to produce and refine the acoustic timbres of his music, but has now reached a certain point of fulfilment, courtesy of his Saari drum-kit from Finland. Melded seamlessly with the acoustic elements are a Nord modular and sampler. On Ore, Belfi attains a masterful synthesis of these two sonic realms. Belfi has gained a reputation for his energetic and charismatic performances, both as a solo musician and within numerous collaborations. 2016 saw him tour with Nonkeen, the German three-piece band headed by Nils Frahm. Belfi became an instant highlight following a sold-out gig at London's Barbican Centre, lighting the stage with an impressive and explosive drum solo that became one of the most memorable moments from the evening. "When I started the record I really wanted to find something very direct. I was looking for something very raw, something sonically and acoustically complex. The title Ore actually was suggested by my wife. I had to look up the meaning and loved the concept -- something raw that you can extract, and the refinement into a precious material. It's a very simple metaphor but there's a lot there, you can just put that word out and you don't have to explain too much. You give an input to the listener, and just leave it to the imagination." Mixed by Francesco Donadello; Mastered by Nils Frahm. Mitchell, Nicole: Mandoria 2LP  $29.99Double LP version. "Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds is Nicole Mitchell's second album for Chicago-based FPE Records. Recorded in May of 2015 at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, it features her longtime collaborators Renee Baker (violin), Tomeka Reid (cello, banjo), Alex Wing (electric guitar, oud) and Jovia Armstrong (percussion), along with new members Tatsu Aoki (bass, shamisen, taiko) and Kojiro Umezaki (shakuhachi). Also in the mix is Chicago artist, scholar and poet Avery R Young, who brings her lyrics to life with visceral humanity. Composer and flutist Nicole Mitchell, once hailed by Chicago Reader music critic Peter Margasak as the 'greatest living flutist in jazz', continues the work begun when jazz visionary Sun Ra and his Arkestra first touched down on Planet Earth and told humanity that space (outer and inner) is indeed the place. As with contemporary Afrofuturist pioneers like cosmic jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington, post-everything beat maker Flying Lotus, R&B cyborg Janelle Monáe and dystopian noise-rappers Death Grips, she uses Afrofuturism as a platform to launch her own, unique vision. Her vast sound often encompasses contemporary classical, globally oriented fusion, gospel, spoken word, funk-inspired groove research and even brittle shards of avant-rock. Mandorla Awakening II collides dualities such as acoustic vs electric, country vs urban, simple vs complex, while also sounding through intercultural dialogue between Black, European and Pan-Asian improvisational languages. The outcome is a creative music suite that blurs musical styles into recognizable fragments that weave a unique sound fabric, where human emotion and the struggles of today swim." O'Malley, S: Dread Live LP $25.992017 limited repress. Stephen O'Malley deploys the second in a trio of documents of his improvisational prowess following his crushing Fuck Fundamentalist Pigs, which was brought forward in tribute to the November 2015 Paris attacks and released in December 2015. The minimalist electric guitar mantra Dread Live was performed at Studio Helmbreker in Haarlem, Netherlands, on September 6, 2013, and recorded by Mathijs Ton, with technical support by the great Tos Nieuwenhuizen, using a hypercardioid ribbon mic with immaculate '70s valve amp backline. The set was programmed as part of the opening of the Dread -- Fear in the age of technological acceleration exhibition at De Hallen Haarlem, curated by Juha van't Zelfde. It renders 40 minutes of Sunn O)))'s O'Malley at his most depressive and heavy and is something akin to a slow-motion baptism by waves of tarry, blackened harmonic distortion, holding the listener under its sinking pressure. How low can you go? O'Malley knows. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton. Edition of 700 hand-numbered copies. O'Malley, S: End Ground LP $25.99Limited 2017 repress. End Ground forms the 3rd and final installment in a series of records documenting the solo prowess of Sunn 0)))'s Stephen O'Malley released on Sweden's iDEAL Recordings. It was performed on electric guitar thru Sunn model T amps, and captured on zoom H4 at Centre Cultural Suisse, Bad Bonn Carte Blanche, Paris, France, on October 18th, 2013. In solo mode, stripped of his usual accomplices and collaborators, O'Malley is no less than an elemental force. His durational meditations absorb and consume with steady-handed wave after wave of charred, sustained, and sub-harmonized chords casting the mesmerizing minimalist practice of La Monte Young into the physicality of Black Sabbath's original, heavy metal die. The A-side/first half of this 45 minute performance features O'Malley tentatively coaxing out languorous riffs which turn the air around him to a pensive, vibrating mush. As the 2nd half dawns he begins to deliver more crushing blows, drawing out and subsiding the chords with a patented, gut-wrenching and vivifying power that transcends rock, avant-garde, minimalism -- all of that -- to awaken dormant senses not usually experienced with other musics or concise temporality. As with many of the most affective heavy drone recordings by Sunn 0))), among others, a modicum of patience is required in order to attain the right state for reception, but once your mind and body are malleable, the impact is deliciously visceral, primal and whelming. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton. Individually hand-numbered edition of 700 copies. O'Malley, S: Fuck Fundamentalist Pigs  2 lp  $31.99 Stephen O'Malley on Fuck Fundamentalist Pigs upon its initial release in December 2015: "On 8 January 2015, the day following the Charlie Hebdo murders in Paris (the city I have called home for the last eight years), I started a week-long tour of Norway. During this jaunt I faced the toxic reality daily of the horrible blossoming events intermittently via television. . . . The Trondheim concert on 9 January (depicted here) happened on a particularly intense day in this timeline... and was personally a true example of the purging power of immersion in music. Through a web of emotions resolving distance, disintegration, the intense power of the moment and the brutal fundamentalist, cultural and psychological aspects behind. . . Like most of us I have also sometimes fallen for the constant baiting toward anger, outrage, paranoia and fear in the daily life, often but not always misdirected, but it is not debilitating by any means. It's clear that as an experimental guitar player I have absolutely no political power (or even ability to articulate in those forms) but it's important to take the opportunity to say 'fuck you' in these situations. To the fascist and fundamentalist movements. To the absurding of the worst sides of monotheistic belief systems. And not only the perpetrators behind these events but also on other sides including the reactive and opportunistic. Those with most to gain are the underlying authoritarians in our own societies who have opportunities to implement and increase their control even further for their gains. The 'security' changes we face in fact may also result in yet further increase in the loss of liberty and freedom. The reactions aimed toward increased separation of cultures, xenophobia, nationalism, and especially racism are highly regrettable. I hope these recordings offer a small sense of solace in the time, even for the few hundred who hear them. . . . For the concert on this record we had a massive backline with beautiful vintage Hiwatt amplifiers, and two PAs (including a Funktion One) in the small venue Blæst, the night hosted by Nymusikk. . . . This record is actually the third part of a trilogy of live solo guitar records we intended to be released on iDEAL during spring 2016." Mastered and cut by Matt Colton; Edition of 700 (hand-numbered) Langhorne, Bruce: Hired OST LP $24.992017 repress. "Classic 1971 Peter Fonda film soundtrack from Dylan side-man & folk scene impresario. Beautifully melancholy score performed with guitars, tonal effects, fiddle, banjo, sitar, and more that evokes high plains drifting, lonesome cowpokes. 'It's The West seen as Purgatory, its characters endlessly moving on, but Langhorne conjures beauty from the pain." -- The Wire. Palestine, Charlemagne: Arpeggiated Bosendorfer + Falsetto Voice  LP $27.99In 1974, Ileana Sonnabend commissioned Charlemagne Palestine to create a limited edition, double LP in conjunction with a performance to celebrate the opening of her new Soho gallery at 420 West Broadway. Charlemagne made several recording attempts, first at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania where they had a Bösendorfer Imperial Piano in their theater. He recorded "Bösendorfer + Voice", "Voice Piece" as well as some Bösendorfer tests, with Mayo Thompson as producer and Kurt Munkacsi as sound engineer. These ecstatic Swarthmore recordings, recorded late at night in the big empty theater space, represented the original elements on which Charlemagne Palestine later created the piano pieces for Four Manifestations on Six Elements (ALGAMARS 004LP, MAGNE 008LP). For more than 40 years since these recordings were made, Palestine never went back to listen to them, but recently on re-listening to these Swarthmore recordings with Alga Marghen, he found several blissful, arpeggiated piano and falsetto voice studies which he feels now deserve to be heard. Included in the Alga Marghen VocSon series, this LP of two previously unreleased 1974 recordings finally see the light of day. Edition of 405. TUNES AT NOONevery thursday at 12 noon in dearborn city hall park at the corner of michigan ave and schaeferone hour of free music - bring your lunch and enjoy some fun in the sun!! 7/20 Lac La BelleLocal musicians Jennie Knaggs & Nick Schillace create music that blends history with the present via accordion, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, harmonizing vocals, and fingerpicking resonator guitar. With their separate experiences learning folk and blues in Appalachia, American roots bind Lac La Belle’s compositions with a heavy thread. For this performance enjoy some of their favorite old time, bluegrass and western swing favorites, alongside their original tunes. 7/27 Detroit Pleasure SocietyDetroit Pleasure Society plays the traditional jazz of New Orleans with a fresh twist and raucous candor. 8/3 Libby DeCamp"Libby DeCamp makes dusty folk and American Roots-inspired music with a lyrical edge and a classic three-piece energy, delivered with a haunting vocal closeness that reaches listeners of all kinds. Sweetly soulful "Broken Folk." 8/10 Michael Malis TrioMichael Malis is a pianist and composer based in Detroit, MI. Malis bridges the gap between original composed, complex material and the spontaneity of improvisation. His trio (piano, bass, drums),   featured on his latest album, has toured in the United States and Canada, and in September 2016, they performed at the Detroit International Jazz Festival. 8/17 Viands "Viands is a spontaneous collaboration between two auteurs of Detroit's underground music scene: Joel Peterson and David Shettler. The music they create is a deep, reflective and fearless alternate-reality keyboard meditation that draws on the pair's broad musical vision to explore new vistas.