“We’re a Zambian Band!”

Tired of motoriking around the living room to your Krautrock records? Just plain done with dancing your legs down to your knees to your Northern Soul, Batucada, and Space Disco LPs? Sick unto death of the records in your Eastern Bloc Jazz-Fusion, Dungeon Synth, Nederpop, Nangma, Pirate Metal, Pornogrind, and Spouge collections?

Well, my depraved vinyl junkie friend, why not give Zamrock a shot?

The 1970s Zambian rock scene produced some really great Afro-psychedelic bands, the most famous of which was Witch (stands for We Intend to Cause Havoc!). Fronted by the charismatic Emanuel “Jagari” Chanda (that “Jagari is an Africanization of “Jagger”!), Witch sang in English and were famed for their frenetic live shows, which could last more than six hours and frequently included some really dope covers, including a retooled version of Grand Funk’s “We’re an American Band” the band proudly retitled “We’re a Zambian Band.”

Seriously, all you crate diggers: how fucking Sub-Saharan cool is that?

I’m not going to go into any great detail about the socio-economic conditions that made Zamrock such a potent force in the seventies; suffice it to say the movement arose and thrived in the sunny wake of Zambian national liberation and economic boom times only to slowly founder amidst a host of vexing geopolitical problems (wars on the nation’s borders, an uprising in country) and the near collapse of the country’s copper-based economy.

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NYC-based alt-rocker and film composer Jared Dymbort releases a rather convincing blend of retro indie pop rock.

His latest single, “Rearrange,” is executed with a lovely, well-paced arrangement that feels akin the wonderful out-of-the-box pop of Young Americans-era Bowie.

“Rearrange” is off the equally as good EP, “My Old Victories” which is composed of four seriously retro art pop gems that elicit the Talking Heads, The Cure, and the Thin White Duke himself with Jared’s low octave croon and obtuse lyrics taking center stage across the angular, pendulum swinging rhythm section.

Once a largely dismissed and often derided genre, New Age music’s critical reevaluation has been a welcome development, in part because it expanded the style’s history while deviating from expectations and in turn enlarging the potential for pure enjoyment. Light in the Attic has been crucial to this shift in perception, and with new release Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990 they remain at the forefront of this continuing reappraisal. Offered in a package of exquisite design, either as a 3LP with Stoughton “tip on” jackets, slipcase and poster, or as a 2CD with a hardbound book, and both with enlightening notes by Spencer Doran, it’s in stores February 15.

As the title to this set makes plain, part of the reason for Light in the Attic’s success in rehabilitating New Age music is directly related to an inclusive approach that branches into the more reputable associated styles of Ambient and Environmental. However, I Am the Center: Private Issue New Age Music in America 1950-1990, the box set that kicked off the label’s dig into the vaults back in the autumn of 2013, was a pretty specific undertaking. It boldly proclaimed its New Age orientation and said enter if you dare.

What initially sparked my interest was the term private press, which suggested that the contents might deliver something better than expected. Bluntly, it was unlikely to be worse. The second intriguing thing was the timeframe, which largely predated the ’80s popularity of New Age and by extension my lived experience with the form. Well, that collection not only exceeded my hopes, but in deflating stereotypes and uncovering a wealth of unheard artists (G. I. Gurdjieff, Wilburn Burchette, and Laraaji being the main exceptions), it delivered one of the sweetest multi-disc releases of its year.

In late 2016, (The Microcosm): Visionary Music of Continental Europe, 1970-1986 saw Light in the Attic dropping the New Age tag entirely, though it was clearly a sequel (indeed promoted as such), and it did a fine job of linking the New Age goings-on documented throughout I Am the Center to Kosmische, a style many mosey sorta sideways into appreciating due to its link to Krautrock.

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Behemoth is a fascinating band on so many levels. For one, they’ve transcended labels. They started off embracing the qualities of Polish black metal more than a decade ago, to pushing the boundaries of what the genre can become with their latest critically acclaimed masterpiece. Secondly, you have one of the most identifiable, relatable, and inspirational frontmen in the business in Nergal.

He doesn’t pretend to be something he’s not. Maybe that’s because he’s living life on his terms and has no time for the bullshit opinions of others. This guy stared death the face, then took it out back and beat the shit out of it.

To those who only look at Behemoth’s dark and disturbing imagery, it would be easy to pass them off as caricatures. But if you dig in, it’s remarkable to see a band take both their visuals and themes to the heights that they achieve. They expertly weave dark religious themes with the heaviest of heavy metal. Throw in a bit of middle eastern flair and experimental noise, and you have the makings for one of the most unique bands over the past several years.

The show at the sold-out O2 Forum in north London was like the live unpacking of a nightmare. The crowd was going bonkers from beginning to end. There are no “hits” to be found, but the band rightfully pulled heavily from last year’s I Loved You at Your Darkest. It was as if hell had been recreated on stage and I sat patiently waiting for the oversized arm of Satan himself to burst through the smoke at any given moment and condemn us all. In other words, it was my favorite show of the year so far.

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Today, The Vinyl District places the needle on the masterful new single from Bay Area-based, modern acoustic guitar maestro Mark Vickness. The track may not feature any vocals, but it definitely speaks of the expansive Alaskan wilderness, which is its namesake.

Mark’s 2018 release, Places, was lauded as one of the best contemporary guitar records in recent history by outlets such as Acoustic Guitar magazine. That is quite a bite to chew, but as indicated in this performance video, Vickness displays utter confidence over his instrument.

His precision is masterful, and the arrangements create an atmosphere beyond the constructs of his acoustic guitar.

Although it fits with the terminology, to consider the underground as an expansive basement only works so well. It’s perhaps more beneficial to describe the u-ground as a hulking, organically cultivated and mysteriously regenerative onion of uncommon deliciousness and diversity of flavors. As the layers get peeled away, the tastes frequently become more intense, initially intriguing and especially when historically situated, revelatory. Such is the case with Awake In Th Red Desert by Canadian poet bill bissett & the gang of Vancouver outsiders named Th Mandan Massacre. Not a lost record but surely too-little known, Feeding Tube’s first-time vinyl reissue in an edition of 500 should help change that.

If you think music holds vast stores of subterranean obscurity (hey, it does!), you should try literature on for size. Naturally, a high percentage of u-ground writing is located in the poetry section of the used bookstore, in part because the form frustrates the nagging belief that the essence of literature resides somewhere in the neighborhood of “a great story artfully told.” Additionally, poetry largely isn’t writing meant to be quickly grasped by the reader. Instead, it stymies the attempts to conquer its totality, or to employ a contemporary phrase, the need to “get it.”

And thus, bill bissett (deliberately lowercase, and we’ll get to that) remains largely unknown outside of hardcore poetry circles, even after being rated as a “great poet” by Jack Kerouac, a figure who still stands as one the kingpins of the whole grand countercultural experience, even if he’s currently somewhat out of vogue.

Part of the reason Kerouac’s praise hasn’t carried more weight might be due to its coming from deep in the man’s grumpy, boozy Florida-based late period as part of an interview conducted for The Paris Review by New York School poet Ted Berrigan. I do believe the occasion of this chat brought Kerouac exposure (courtesy of Berrigan) to the work of a young Jim Carroll, writing that Jack also praised, but I digress. Poetry’s good for sideroads of thought, y’know?

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Kanye West dropped his debut studio album, The College Dropout, on February 10, 2004. Released by Def Jam Records and Roc-A-Fella Records, the 21-track album solidified West as more than just your favorite rapper’s go-to producer, at the time.

After working in the studio with Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, Freeway, Cam’ron, and many more, West signed his own deal with Roc-A-Fella and recorded The College Dropout over the span of four years. While West handled the majority of production, artists including Jay, Mos Def, Jamie Foxx, Ludacris, and John Legend were involved in the making of the album. With singles including “Through The Wire,” “Jesus Walks,” “All Falls Down,” and “Slow Jamz,” The College Dropout debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 but was met with widespread critical acclaim.

West won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 47th annual Grammy Awards, and The College Dropout is lauded as one of the greatest albums of all time.

This item is expected to ship in 2-3 weeks.

It’s a shame, when you think about it. All the great albums I never heard growing up because (1) I could rarely afford the cost of an LP, and (2) there was no great or even half-decent FM radio station within listening range of the one half-horse town (the other half of the horse was owned by nearby Harney, and they got the front end) I called home.

Take Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack. Never heard it. Never heard of Queen period until “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which I should have liked but didn’t because I thought it was too camp. Too camp! This from a guy who spent the better part of his adolescence idolizing Elton John. But that’s the way I roll. I didn’t like the pitch of Freddie Mercury’s voice, or the band’s lush and ubiquitous vocal harmonies, and as for the songs, they were too structurally baroque for my primitivist tastes. In hindsight, I was a little punk in the making. My attitude was keep it simple, which was why I never liked progressive rock, period, until I started to get high and listened to my fair share of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis.

And if I didn’t like Queen much to begin with, I really disliked them after they put out those bookend hits, “We Are the Champions” and “We Will Rock You.” To me they sounded like pseudo-fascistic declarations of supremacy, and I thought then and still think now their Übermensch shtick would have gone over like gangbusters at the Nuremburg Rallies. The line “no time for losers” offends me as much as any line in rock history, which is why I never listened to 1974’s Sheer Heart Attack even after I knew it existed. I thought of Queen as a bunch of snotty high-pitched twats whose songs were too complicated for their own good, and wrote them off as bad rubbish.

But there is a time and a place for everything, and now is the time to give Queen their chance at rocking my world. And guess what, they have. Sheer Heart Attack isn’t the perfect LP, but it includes a slew of cool songs I like, even if some of their affectations continue to irk me. Bottom line: Any band with a guitarist as good as Brian May, and that can come up with a line as good as “Give me a good guitar/And you can say my hair’s a disgrace” is okay with me.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Waxwork Records is thrilled to announce their partnership with Orion Pictures for the release of The Prodigy Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Music By Joseph Bishara. Directed by Nathan McCarthy and starring Taylor Shilling (Orange Is The New Black) and Jackson Robert Scott (2017’s IT: The First Chapter), The Prodigy is a 2019 American horror-thriller film centered around a child whose disturbing behavior signals that an evil, possibly supernatural force has possessed him.

The haunting soundtrack by Joseph Bishara (Insidious, The Conjuring) is an expert composition of dark orchestral scoring focusing on heavy string arrangements, clarinet, and horns reminiscent of classic 1970s horror soundtracks. The orchestration is blended with emotive electronic soundscapes. Bishara’s tense strings, coupled with droning electronic rhythms and piano, sets the dark tone and effectively captures impending doom.

Waxwork Records worked directly with Orion Pictures and Bishara to create a deluxe vinyl release of the soundtrack featuring UV reactive 180 gram “Blue Iris” colored vinyl, new art by Adam Rabalais, a printed insert, old style tip-on gatefold jackets, and high quality LP packaging.

It was Waxwork’s aim to create a vinyl record that could appear “possessed” and by using UV reactive compounds, the record emits an eerie, glowing splatter effect when exposed to a black light. The unique result is a stunning vinyl record, both sonically and visually. Much like the character Miles in The Prodigy, the vinyl soundtrack itself is hiding something sinister in plain sight.

I was never one of the Black-Sabbath-loving troublemakers who smoked Camel unfiltereds in the parking lot outside metal shop at my old Alma Mater–fact is I was a faceless geek who wore glasses and preferred Elton John and to be honest, those guys scared me.

But now I kinda feel sorry for that motley crew of greasers and long hairs, and this despite the fact that they posed an existential threat to my personal safety in high school (walking down the hall between classes was like walking point in Vietnam!). Why? Because they never got a chance to hear doom metal pioneers Pentagram but were instead condemned to play their Sabbath and Deep Purple and Kiss 8-tracks over and over until the 8-track players in their bitchin’ Camaros ATE ‘em.

And all because Pentagram vocalist Bobby Liebling was such a colossal drug abuser and all-around egomaniac fuck-up he blew every chance the band ever got to get out of Old Virginny and become the heavy metal gods they wanted (and perhaps even deserved) to be.

Indeed, so feckless and self-sabotaging was Liebling that Pentagram didn’t put out a bona fide debut album until 1985–a good DECADE OR MORE after they produced the demos and live rehearsal tapes collected on the 2001 compilation First Daze Here: The Vintage Collection. And by that time the guys who played on this one were (with the exception of Liebling, natch) long gone.

Which was far too late for my old high school tormenters who by that point in time had probably given up listening to metal years ago (or maybe not–I hope not!) in favor of who knows what… Commercial country? The NRA-era Nuge? Madonna?

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