Gryn Brvs / Siblings of Plasma split cassette (Digitalis Ltd) 3

A split featuring two groups that share some members. Gryn Brvs' side is a freeform percussion / acoustic guitar sprawl that seems to lost its way several times but when it's good, it's gloriously good. Siblings of Plasma explore similar territory but with less emphasis on improv and more on hypnotic ritual.

Anthony Guerra- Empty Kingdoms cdr (Black Petal) 6

Spacious and beautiful improvisations on guitar, maybe like a more abstract Loren Mazzacane Conors. Particularly fine are the moments on the title track where the loops sing in weird 'off'-harmonies and the final track of solitary strung-out slide guitar blues and Guerra's high wavering vocals. Nice card packaging too. Highly recommended.

extraordinarily loud live show from Australian guitarist Guerra and American drummer Nidek: fuzzed-up guitar and drum mayhem that simply slashes its way out of the speakers - superb

also: It's Over, We Don't Care comp, Stern / Guerra, Green Blossoms

Gulliver - Boujouba 7" (Pickled Egg) 0.25

lovely melodic songs from the man they call the French Momus ... I'd say a Noel Coward for the synth pop generation

Steve Gunn - s/t cdr (Abandon Ship) 5.50

A reissue of Steve Gunn's (Magik Markers / GHQ) cdr on Onomato from a year or so ago. Magical zoned ragas on banjo and acoustic guitar, with some psych guitar flights. Heidi Dahl sings on one track.

Steve Gunn / Shawn David McMillen - End of the City LP (Abandon Ship / DNT / Abaddon) 13

Excellent split LP featuring GHQ's Steve Gunn on one side with an acoustic guitar figure, heavy on repetition and with a gorgeous warm sound. The sound around the guitar builds up with bowed strings and electric guitar into a lovely piece of hypnotic American blues / folk. Shawn David McMillen is a member / ex-member of Ash Castles on the Ghost, Friday Group and Iron Kite. His side explores ethnic and primitive folk in a more experimental way with barbiturate spiked accumulations of strings and metal.

Gyanism - An Interstate Pugilist cdr (MYMWLY) 2.50

"From Brisbane’s fertile underground flows a million glistening particles as the soundtrack to the dirge of our lives unravels our minds into a cathedral of crystal shards and wails our prayers into the void A sprawling wash of guitars, harsh electronics, percussion and processed acoustics forged into a mutant march towards oblivion made real by joel stern , yusuke akai , daiji igasashi , scott sinclair…sweet head fuck for the children of the infinite dissolution." (MYMWLY) 

h

Hanage Youchien - The Children of Ganga cdr (om ha sva ksha ma la va ra yam recordings) 5.50

Another limited edition cdr from Jani Uton's Indian trip. Jani Hirvonen (Uton) with a Japanese couple he met in Laxman Jhula, Rishikesh. Instruments used include ravanhattha (traditional Rajasthani instrument), violin, percussion, flutes and vocals. Child-like jams and improv trances.

Hands of Sun - Clay Dreams cdr (Nothing Out There) 5.50

This is the second instalment of the Odomez Series; the first being that fine cdr from Robert Horton from last year. "Odomez... it's a small town up north in France, inside which is located a huge and beautiful land of strangeness. Before 1965, it was a chemical-textile factory. After that, no one really knew. Like a quiet jungle of metal and plants. The Odomez Serie aims at keeping the memory of that place alive, now that it is doomed to demolition, and to call for musical and visual collaborations. Every artist contributing will be sent an artwork related to the place as an inspiration." Hands of Sun is English sound artist Mark Peter Wright and his contribution is an evocative mixture of musique concrete and field recordings, adrift in a huge haze of wind tunnel drone. The cdr comes in an outsize envelope with a postcard / photograph featuring the work of Constantin Dubois who runs the label.

Harappian Night Recordings - The Glorious Gongs of Hainuwele cd (Bo'Weavil recordings) 7.50

Harappian Night Recordings is the work of Dr Sayed Kamran Ali, also a member of Hunter Gracchus, although you could be forgiven for thinking this was a collision of field recordings of ethnic ritual music and the kind of free jazz / folk clutter that Hunter Gracchus specialise in, played by a freeform collective. Gamelan, oud, primitive bowed and plucked string instruments, deranged percussion blasts, queasy drone - I guess some comparison could be made to Sun City Girls, the more percussive elements of Monopoly Child Star Searchers, some of the Finnish free folk stuff. Highly recommended.

Gareth Hardwick - Carnations cassette (Peasant Magik) 2.50

Double sider featuring two ever expanding drones. The first side is based on guitar and is as warm and gorgeous as any Stars of the Lid track. The second is a dense slab of wheezy chord organ drone. Both excellent. 

Gareth Hardwick / Eyeballs split cassette (Blackest Rainbow) 4.75

Nicely matched split featuring one side of Hardwick's glacial drift - tones merge like clouds on the horizon - and the other features Richard Dawson (Eyeballs). On this side I can hear distant melodies beneath the drone haze but it sounds like they've been suppressed beneath layers and layers of fog or buried deep underground and it's an effect that's deeply unsettling (but in a good way!).

Gareth Hardwick / Machinefabriek split LP (Low Point) 7

Another great pairing featuring Mr Hardwick. This time his piece is recorded on lapsteel and the gliding notes elongate into longing tones that ebb and flow. Its meditative qualities remind of chorale music. Beautiful. Dutch musician Machinefabriek sculpts his drones from static and hiss and latterly the piece becomes a ghostly counterpoint to Hardwick's more classical tones. Highly recommended and on clear vinyl. 

Harps of Fuchsia Kalmia

• The Angular Acceleration of Light in the Unsound Mind of my Uncle Dead in Michigan cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Harps of Fuchsia Kalmia is the alter-ego of Salvatore Borrelli (also of Etre). Loose improvised folk clutter utilizing a lot of exotic stringed instruments such as saz, ectara, israj, dulcimer, egyptian harp and celtic drone harp as well as the wheezy drone of harmonica / shruti box / organ. Valerio Cosi contributes saxophone to one track - a strange collage of queasy jazz and dusty Victoriana.

• Burning With Your Old Joy in the Terminal Sun cd (Ikuisuus) 8

Another gorgeous album from Salvatore Borrelli with 5 tracks dedicated to Maya Deren, Luciano Cilio, Carole Schneemann, George Bataille and Derek Jarman. As on his recent Reverb Worship cdr, he uses a plethora of exotic stringed instruments and wheezy organ / harmonica drone to create a semi-improvised amorphous wash of avant-folk.  Mesmerizing and intriguing. 

• Fractal Psych Obsessions For Rural Chaos cdr (267 Lattajjaa) 5

Harps of Fuchsia Kalmia is the alter-ego of Salvatore Borrelli (also of Etre) and he is joined on one track on this by Valerio Cosi. A beautiful amorphous collage of exotic stringed instruments and digital manipulations. Midway between electro-acoustic improv and avant-folk.

Hassara - Backyards I - III cd (3 Lobed) 5

This guitar tour de force compiles three cdrs released in very small numbers. Hassara is James Toth, aka Wooden Wand but, save for one track, this is a far distance from the music he makes under that name. Here he comes blazing in with a hurricane of feedback and fuzz, subsides to a sort of walking blues, then it's full power again with a wah-wah pedal in circuit. The last two tracks (clearly these formed one of the original cdrs) have quite a tinge of Captain Beefheart about them and this is, I think, best enjoyed if you turn it up and let yourself be pulled into the vortex of Toth's repetitive riffs. Rockin' (JC)

Heathen Prayers - Behind the Patterns cdr (HP Imprint) 4

Heavy Winged - Alive in my Mouth LP & cd (3 Lobed) 9

• Graphical House cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 4.75

Towering Breaker offshoot. Swarms of electro-acoustic drone with see-sawing violin, occasional blurts of clarinet and lots of weirded-out vocals.

Helm - Impasse 3" cdr (Low Point) 2.75

Excellent new release from Luke Younger of Birds of Delay with a full-on blissed-out whiteout of pulsing synth, tone shimmer and hidden ghost-like melodies hidden deep in the brightness.

Nils Helstrom - Discarding All That Was Before cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.75

Expansive drone-works with an uneasy undertow.

Jason Henn and Joe O'Connell - Mingus Plays Electric Guitar 7" (Luddite Rurual) 1

home-recorded 'tape chess' - ping-pong collaboration from members of Elephant Micah

also: Elephant Micah

Chris Herbert / Felix split 7" (Low Point) 2.75

A lovely split on Gareth Hardwick's Low Point label. Chris Herbert has an LP due on Kranky and one out already. This track is dedicated to the ghost of Basil Kirchin - this starts out with Chris processing electric guitar into drone layers, haunted by a collage of field recordings and a sense of unease. The other side features Felix: a duo of Lucinda Chua on piano / vocals and Christopher Fummerlin on guitars. It is an intimate recording with 'cello underpinning the hushed piano chords and Lucinda's semi-sung, semi-spoken vocals and sounds like Empress recording for Kranky. 

Victor Herrero - Anacoreta (10 Songs for Spanish Guitar) cd (Bo'Weavil recordings) 7.50

Victor recently collaborated with Josephine Foster on her "This Coming Gladness" album but this album finds him on 6 string (nylon) acoustic rather than electric guitar. The result is a fascinating collection of Spanish folk, flamenco and classical traditions.

Herons - Walk Upright cassette (Housecraft) 2

Dense drifts of bowed strings, feedback and the kind of indeterminate sound that generates unease and reminds me of Lanterns. 

H.L. - Broken e.p. 3" cdr (First Person) 0.50

minimal electronic hum with distant beats and voice

Stephanie Hladowski - s/t 10" (Singing Knives) 6

An unutterably beautiful record that started life as recording sessions for a Scatter album. 4 traditional songs sung in a voice that sends shivers to your toes and back again. She sings "In the Month of January" a cappella, "Willie O' Winsbury" accompanied on bouzouki by brother Chris (of the Family Elan / Nalle) and on the B side explores the drone undercurrents of folk music with incredible takes on "Andrew Lambie" (with a blanket fuzz drone of harmonium and clarinet) and "MacCrimmond's Lament" with Isobel Campbell's 'cello providing the mournful depths. Beautiful "embroidered" artwork from Hanna Tuulikki and sleevenotes from Alex Neilson. Can't recommend this highly enough.

Homescience - End the Year 7" (Pickled Egg) 0.25

quirky US lo-fi pop with an epic heart

Hopen - We Are Singing for Hurrays cd (Arbouse) 0.50

this has perhaps the worst cover I've stocked but is a rather interesting mish-mash of samples that can be confusing or pretty or sometimes both

Robert Horton 

• If I Can't Play My Boot, I Don't Have A Leg to Stand On cdr (Nothing Out There) 9

A welcome return from one of America's finest sound-makers. Horton's home-made guitar, the Boot, features on every track here, forming a spectral haze of strings. Bells, harmonium and a keyboard that reminds me of Dolly Collins' flute organ breathe sunshine into the stringed fug. Two tracks near the end are monolithic drones: "Dirge for the Court of the Sow Bug", featuring bagpipe chanter, fizzes and swarms like a huge cloud of insects and the final "Tune for the Great Wood" exhales in slow chordal wheezes. Gorgeous. 4 panel artwork.

• Interdigitate cdr (Anti-Guru) 7

A lovingly packaged cdr on new UK label. This is some of Horton's most blissful music to date with xylophone splashes opening the cdr in gorgeous fashion, like early morning sunlight through blinds. Other highlights are the hypnotic loops of guitar / boot on many of the tracks, spectral oscillations and gaseous hiss of "Green Mist" and the wonderfully Clangers-eque "Clavicle" on which Tom Carter contributes e-bow guitar. As ever, Horton's musical vision is nothing less than fascinating. Handmade packaging.

Hotem - Trans-science: Live @ Illokivi cdr (Foxglove) 2

Trans-science was recorded at the Praesens improvisation music venue in Ilokivi, Finland and it runs as one continuous, near 50 minute, piece. The venue has a lively acoustic and it suits the four players and their chosen instruments (much percussion, Jew's harp and, lierally, bells and whistles) very well. There's no technical point-scoring here, so the intervals and spaces are savoured and when the music falls into a groove, you can tell these people are in it for enjoyment and feel, rather than chin-stroking analysis. Indeed, when the drums and didgeridoo get going, this becomes funky… and, however much you may love improv, you can't say that too often about this sort of free music! (JC)

Noah Howard  - The Black Ark LP (Bo'weavil) 10.75

If you're at all into post-Coltrane free jazz, this album is a "must have" issue from Bo'Weavil. Released in 1969, unavailable for ages and, most importantly, an utterly cogent, driving set of pieces from a splendid seven piece band lead by alto player Noah Howard. This re-issue puts some very powerful free music back on the map and it does so with customary Bo'Weavil packaging style. Also worth a mention is the original sleeve note by trumpeter, International Times cartoonist and writer Mal Dean, reproduced here alongside some highly enthusiastic new words by Oren Ambarchi. His enthusiasm for the record we can only endorse. (JC)

• Under Bent Limb Trees 2cd (Digitalis) 10.50

Keith Wood is Hush Arbors and also a member of Wooden Wand & the Vanishing Voice, Golden Oaks, Sunmilk and a sometime live member of Six Organs of Admittance. This is a much-needed reissue of an earlier Digitalis cd and is as stunning an album of downer folk as any. Heavily-delayed repetitive guitar lines are funereally paced, drones loom in the background full of foreboding and Keith's high-pitched vocals float free and wayward amidst an atmosphere of drug-induced stupor. The second disc features rare, out-of-print and unreleased tracks.

• Live, Heeley Institute / Death calligraphy cdr (self-released) 6.75

Two reissues in one: first the Blackest Rainbow live set from Sheffield, then the 3" that came out a while ago on MYMWLY.

Wooden Wand / Hush Arbors - Swappin' split 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 3.25

Split featuring one new song each, "Light" from Hush Arbors and "Breather" from Wooden Wand. Recommended.

i

Ice Bird Spiral - Psychiatmc Bloems cassette (Funeral Folk) 5

"This 30 minute tape is like listening to NWW and Biohazard intros in a dentist seat, or a delay-drenched Yeovilian version of De Fabriek.  Bizaradelia freak-out. They played an amazing show at the recent Kraak festival. These guys need to end up in everyone's tape deck and exotic dreams about hippie communes on Saturn in 2035!" (Funeral Folk)

The Idle Suite - Up Two Sticks Road cd (Last Visible Dog) 3

Impromptulons - Beat It / Beat Off 3" cdr (Black petal) 4

Abstract improv revision of Weird Al Jankovic's version of "Beat It" by Joel Stern, Will Charlton, Alan Nguyen, Rin Healy, Marek Rygalski and Adam Bark.  

Indoor Park - The Neutral Mile cd (Deep Water) 6.50

An album of mainly instrumental electric guitar and drum pieces which confounds any thoughts of beard-strokey post rock. Instead, there are hints of krautrock, nods to instro rock'n'roll and really fine melodic sounds and fuzzed soloing. Sampled spoken word interjections are used to great effect, especially on The Long Boy and the Fat Boy, which I just can't stop playing. A welcome surprise find and one I'd recommend to you. (JC)

Inhibitionists - Concessions Strings cdr (MYMWLY) 3.50

Abstract sound impressions from Christian Kann, often built from rattling strings into a frenetic throb. Some tracks utilize percussion and drums echo around a weird unearthly hum. Others get darkly glitchy. Nice packaging with felt inside.

Isaac Willow - Santimonious Rhythm & Rouge cassette (Housecraft) 4

Crazed improv finds itself buried under a mountain of hyperactive tape debris. Sold out at source.

Isengrind / Twinsistermoon / Natural Snow Buildings - The Snowbringer Cult 2cd (Students of Decay) 11.25

A stunning double cd release featuring music from Natural Snow Buildings and two associated solo recordings. First up is a split disc with Isengrind (Solange Gularti) taking up the first half. Thick plumes of Eastern-leaning drone-smoke and ethereal folk. Solange uses sitar and other stringed instruments, flutes and whistles and a plethora of hand percussion, filtered through a ton of reverb to create something utterly otherworldly. Twinsistermoon (Mehdi Ameziane) starts his half of the disc by occupying similar hazed-out drone-folk terrain. These are interspersed with sparsely accompanied folk ballads with Mehdi's impossibly high and pure vocals recalling Vashti Bunyan. Disc two features the two recording together as Natural Snow Buildings. Some tracks, like "Bear Hunting", are wistful and wide-eyed post-midnight balladry. Others are dense and opulent dirges with a much darker, almost ritualistic side than either solo project, as if magicking up the spirits of the forest. This comes in a gatefold sleeve featuring artwork by Solange and needless to say, comes highly recommended.

Islaja 

• Palaa Aurinkoon cd (Fonal) 9
• Meritie cd (Fonal) 9

exotic and beautiful avant-folk from Merja Kokkonen who also plays with Kemialliset Ystavat & Avarus: an astonishing array of instruments are plucked and bowed, the vocal harmonies are haunting, the arrangements sound vaguely archaic and the result is utterly sublime if rather unsettling

• Ulual Yyy cd (Fonal) 8.50 / LP (Fonal) 8.50

Brand new (third) album by Merja Kokkonen, also of Avarus / Hertta Lussu Assa. This is truly extraordinary experimental pop that is extremely hard to pin down; it seems to exist in an entirely different world and time - I suppose it makes me think of Can's "Ege Bam Yasi" without really sounding like it. It has a similar tranced feel and a dubby edge to it at times. Merja's vocals are astonishing -  up-front and disconcertingly double-tracked. A few tracks towards the end sound similar to older Islaja songs but this is a bold step into something entirely unique. Highly recommended.

also: Maan Matoset comp, Sala-arhimo

Iversen  - 42 Minutes cdr (Foxglove) 1

Ixchel - Dreams of cdr (Leaf Trail) 4

Duo featuring Dubliners Timothy Hurley (Quetzolcoatl / Bonecloud) and Barry Semple. Of all Hurley's projects, this comes closest to being song-based with Hurley's blissed-out vocals drifting high over layers of fogged sound. "Clockwork Castles" sounds like Skaters play something off "Pet Sounds" - nice! I've been a fan of everything Hurley has done to date but this is his finest moment.

j

James Bloodbeard - s/t " cdr (Rural Faune) 4

Four-piece featuring Steven R Smith (Thuja, Hala Strana etc), Jason Honea (Child Readers) and Mark Williams and Brian Lucas, both of Father Beard. Free strumming, the insistent wheeze of melodica and spaced-out vocals.

Jane Austen - Wish Wash cassette (Clean Teeth) 4

Solo project of Angeline Chirnside who has also been in Currer Bells, Wyntr Raven and Lost Roman Legions. Strange and magical lo-fi home recordings. Distorted bells that sound like they're ringing from underwater. Sea shanty drones. Strange piano sounds that sound like gamelan music.

Frank Janiurek - Electric Sex Goddess cdr (self-released) 3.50

Stunning solo guitar from one half of Red Kites, soaring arcs of ringing feedback and the purest of tones, reminiscent of Mazzacane Connor's electric guitar recordings.

David A Jaycock - A New Love Song 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 4

This single is a delight in every way. The artwork is fabulous with a gold sprayed bird on the leaf-cut cover and a printed insert. David A Jaycock is also a member of Big Eyes Family Players and the B side of this single could easily have graced one of their albums with its melancholic chamber folk. The A side is a song with a real early '70s English singer-songwriter feel. Lovely stuff.

Jazzfinger - Mole & the Morning Dew LP (Spirit  of Orr) 11.50

5 track LP from Newcastle duo of Ben Jones and Hasan Gaylani. Burning guitar fuzz, a thick haze of static and crumbling electronics - degraded drone from Newcastle. 

Jazzfinger / Culver & Fordell Research Unit LP (Blackest Rainbow) 9

"Brand new split LP featuring heavy hitting UK bleak dudes... A-Side is Jazzfinger's 'Killed In A Clear Sky', one solid slab of fucked up tapped guitar drone and distant eerie whir... like a storm of electric feedback, slashes and cuts. Far out, and a real killer 20 odd minutes to make you lull out. B-Side is a collaboration between Culver and Fordell Research Unit, another side long piece, that starts off with some bassed up doom chugs and slogs that sound like fucking something that could lay down by some Southern Lord brutality, but then it punches you in the face with its distorted churning hell. Limited to 275 white label LPs."

Jennifer Gentle 

• A New Astronomy cd (A Silent Place) 6

The official release of a cdr released in an edition of 100 on Sub Pop in 2005 and dedicated to 19th century amateur astronomer Giovanni Paneroni who held a staggering number of nutty ideas, including that the sun is a 2m in diameter silver ball. Luckily "interesting" ideas translate better to the arts than sciences as this cd, perhaps JG's strangest release, testifies. Sounds range from cosmic drone to sweet but warped pop, like hearing Joe Meek productions in your dreams to ragged VU-esque drone / raga jams to damaged acid pop to an out-and-out Meek tribute "Me and Joe on the Moon". Fantastic.

• Live In the House of God LP (A Silent Place) 10

This solo performance by Marco Fasolo was recorded, as the liner informs us, "in a little church somewhere in Italy on July the 31st 2003". It seems like an omen of things to come, as nowadays Jennifer Gentle is Marco's solo project. A Vox Jaguar organ is played through a variety of effects and the music created really thrives in the ehco-y acoustic of the church. At times it's almost as though an ancient choir was being channeled through the organ! This is on single sided white vinyl - a lovely thing to look at as well as fine music. (JC)

Jennifer Gentle & Kawabata Makoto - The Wrong Cage cd (A Silent Place) 8.50

In case the very combination of these forces isn't enough to tempt you, here are a few details. All the music was recorded live in 2002. Makoto plays a wild and wonderful solo piece on sarongi, and the collaborations are flowing psych-outs. The bonus track - 18 minutes-plus of it - is a fuzz-fest freakout which could psychedelicize the very foundations of your home... or the internal walls at least! Highly recommended. (JC)

Jerusalem & the Starbaskets / Bengal Traitors split 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 4

Two earthy and refreshing rockin' tunes with, at times, flavours of Bo Diddley (the guitar at the end of the Jerusalem song especially) and Medicine Head about them. This is a highly attractive 7" on opalescent vinyl with a spiral pattern printed on the sleeve and fronted by a separate print of the spiral on clear plastic: if you move this against the background, you can simulate the opening sequence of Jon Pertwee-era Doctor Who shows in the comfort of your own home... fab! (JC)

Jinx - King of the Rats 7" (Becalmed) 0.25

harmonizing American duo Chris and Wendy play a
melancholic strummy indiepop which reminds me of the Lucksmiths and even the more subdued moments of the Smiths in places

Joe + N - Opsy Delet Space Before Com cdr (First Person) 1

Sparse guitar notes hanging in an oppressive atmosphere and gnarled moans / growled murmurs from Joe of Carbon records.

John Henry Calvinist - King Soloman Hill cdr (Foxglove)  2

Solo cdr from one of the members of the Lost Domain: autistic blues on acoustic slide guitar, lonesome feedback howling across parched wood-knocks and guitar squall that makes my head throb.

Joshua - Life Less Lost cd (Spirit of Orr) 9.50

reissue of Joshua Burkett's second album, originally released on his own Feather One's Nest in a folded-paper black and white sleeve. Woozy late-night loner folk. Highly recommended.

also: Pewtr Trust

"Sounding like Laddio Bolocko playing Aufgehoben's songs, this amazing quartet shares a seriously mindblowing connection with the huge  underground noise scenery in the United States.  This half-an-hour free-form session between these Ohio-based dudes  is a long electroshock torture which features Yeh (experimental violinist/electronic musician with a highly growing reputation around the world) playing bass here, Jewell (experimental drummer/electronic musician also involved in Pink Reason and Psychedelic  Horseshit) on drums/electronic junk and John Rich/Jon Lorenz  (Wasteland Jazz Unit) totally immersed in a hyper-amplified and nihilistic sax playing. File under sparkling brutality." (Dreamsheep)

"The Julie Mittens were among the first groups that I asked to do a release for Abandon Ship Records. It's been nearly a year now, and well worth the wait. They've made some treacherous waves over the past few years, from their Sloow tape to their latest Holy Mountain release. This one is no exception. Fresh off their US tour, the Julie Mittens decided to properly document it with sister releases on ASR and the Netherland's own Cut Hands label, respectively. Not only are the two releases completely different from each other, but each CDr is housed in it's own one-of-a-kind sleeve which boasts a unique photo taken on their US tour. That's 200 different sleeves in total, with screenprinting on each taboot! Recorded by Steve Sanford at the Golden West Cafe in Baltimore on September 10th, and features Baltimore's own Lexie Mountain on vocals for the 2nd track." (A Ship)

Julie's Haircut hail from Italy and have accompanied Can's Damo Suzuki, so the Krautrock feel in their music isn't surprising. However, it seems rather unusual to hear Sonic Boom involved here. I say unusual, but I also mean very welcome, as his electronics sit very neatly within the tight rhythms and alongside some very funky Hammond organ! (JC)

Juniper Meadows - Grand Sonora 3" (Palustre) 2

k

Keijo 

• Here They Come cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Another super-limited (51 copies) Keijo release on Reverb Worship that is destined to not stick around for long I imagine. Mesmerizing folk-blues jams and more psyched-out atmospheric pieces too. Hand-painted sleeve. 

• Just Enough cassette (Digitalis) 6

8 track cassette from Finland's Keijo Virtanen. This is his droniest work in a while with the guitar work kept fairly sparse. Harmonica haze, vocal oms and singing metal create a meditative air and Keijo's cyclical guitar weaves magic through that.

• Reduce Snow cdr (267 Lattajjaa) 5

Latest from Keijo Virtanen. Minimal blues and hypnotic repetitions on guitar, harmonica and jaw harp.

also: Invisible Pyramid, Maan Matoset comp, Kheta Hotem, Robert Horton / Keijo. Magick Travelling Backpack Band

Keijo and the Free Players - After at Once cd (Digitalis) 4

also: For the Dead in Space II & III comp, Maan Matoset comp, Avarus, Hand/Eye comp

Kiila - Contemporaries PAL video (Fonal) 8

The video features songs from 'Heartcore' plus from the 'Free Will is Hard to Kill' 7" and were made by Jan Anderzen, Jonna Karanka (Kuupuu), Sami Sanpakkila, Toni Laakso and more.

also: Lau Nau, Maan Matoset comp

Cast King - Saw Mill Man cd (Locust) 3.50

Cast King hails from Alabama and has been playing old-time country / folk songs for the last 6 and a half decades - this, at the age of 79, is his debut album and it's a fine collection of drinking songs, murder ballads and woman-done-me-wrong songs that sound like they've been unearthed on one of the Harry Smith Anthologies.

David Kirby - The Scythe cdr (Students of Decay) 4.25

David Kirby is a member of Wire Thicket alongside Taiga Remains' Alex Cobb. This is not as full-on as his debut for the same label - it opens with ephemeral creaks, wheezes and tones like the ghostly imprint of an orchestra tuning up. A heavy haze of electricity buzzes underneath. 

Kitchen Cynics 

• Dust cdr (self-released) 4.50

Another beautiful collection of bedroom psych-folk from Alan Davidson. Includes a cover of Kevin Ayer's "O! Wot a Dream".

• Hoodie Craw cdr (self-released) 4.50

intimate folk-psych, mostly unadulterated guitar, a bit of keyboard and Alan's gentle lilt. This features covers of 'Vegetable Man' (Syd Barrett), 'Josephine, for Better or for Worse' (the Strawbs) and 'Gently Johnny' from the Wicker Man

• Dumbfoundlings cdr (self-released) 4.50

Another new cdr from Aberdeen's prolific Alan Davidson of purely instrumental tracks, every bit as lyrical and bewitching as his songs. Cascades of harp-like strings like summer rain, Alan's lilting guitar playing, a bit of music hall, some lovely instrumentation (zither, chanter, phono-fiddle, psaltery, clarinet) and the usual great titles ("Double Line for the Gentleman's Comfort" being a favourite).

• Master Of The Fuzzy Fadeout cdr (self-released) 4.50

this Aberdonian band have been quietly making some lovely records for over a decade now  - intimate bedroom psych-pop, in a similar vein to Robin Hitchcock but a slightly folksier feel  - includes covers of Fairport Convention and Bridget St John

• The Aberdeen Typhoid Outbreak of 1964 cdr (self-released) 5

Another journey into the magical mysterious folk-psych world of Alan Davidson. This is a cd of instrumentals based on the typhoid outbreak in Aberdeen in the '60s which may sound like you're in for a grim listen, but this is as lyrical as I've heard from the Kitchen Cynics. 

• A Tune-a-day the Kitchen Cynics Way cdr (self-released) 5

In 2007 Alan Davidson ran a subscriber series of cdrs featuring as you might guess one tune for every day of the year. This compiles 31 of them. Bewitching and lyrical bedroom psych-folk. Adrian Crowley plays on and co-wrote one track.

• Disconnected cdr (self-released) 5

This gathers together some songs that originally appeared on compilation cds that came with Dream & Ptolemaic Terrascope magazines, some different versions of old favourites ("Hoodie Craw", "Here Comes the Bump" are particular favourites of mine) and a bunch of other stuff. There's a cover of "Black is the Colour" and Alan's cover versions are always something special. It's rare that someone as prolific as this manages to maintain such quality and I never fail to be amazed at how he manages it. Magical storytelling psych-folk-pop that should soundtrack your dreams.

also: Rory MacIntyre & Kitchen Cynics, Nihil Project

Kompleksi - (I Ain't No) Lovechild / Moscow 1980 7" (Lal Lal Lal) 0.50

Sharron Kraus - Right Wantonly A-Mumming cd (Bo'weavil) 8

David Krejcj cd (New American Folk Hero) 1.50

Created from parts of an old piano, pickups from a Fender Rhodes keyboard and the amplifiers from a Hammond organ, the Cleophone is unique. One time Minneapolis psych rocker Krejci named it after his beloved infant daughter, who said her dad's instrument made spooky Scooby Doo sounds. Here he gives a cogent 34 minute performance which shows a strikingly wide range of sounds. When the strings are struck there is still a slight piano timbre; the rest of the time I can only think of Barre Phillips double bass playing or the grooviness of Can's rhythms as possible reference points to tell you what it sounds like. You see, the Cleophone is unique.... (JC)

Kungen - Cub In 5 10" (Intercontinental) 0.50

I can't find the blurb about this but from memory it's someone from Hermann Dune doing a sample-strewn electronic thing that ranges from fairground cheesiness to hip-hop prowl to rawer early drum-machine / fuzz guitar & organ stuff 

Stefan Kushima - Your Purple Breath cdr (Ikuisuus) 6.50

Kuupuu - Yokehra LP (Dekorder) 9

l

L - Holy Letters cd (vhf) 5

originally recorded in 1989/90 and issued in 1992, this is an infinitely calm and lovely album of cosmic psych-folk and drone from Hiroyuki Usui. This reissue comes with a booklet which includes liner notes from Ben Chasny (who collaborates with Hiroyuki in August Born)

La Otracina - Gardens of Blackness cassette (Digitalis Limited) 5.75

"pretty stoked to finally be dropping a bomb from la otracina, one of my absolute faves from the past few years.  these brooklynites know how to bring in it in all forms from all directions.  "gardens of blackness" is everything you'd hope it was: heady dark drones that flirt with the world of metal more than ever.  drummer/vocalist adam kriney let's go on the a-side, hollering and wailing like tomorrow's nothing but a distant dream. 
other times you end up dredging up some serious murk from the bottom of the pool.  hints of tape collage come out of nowhere and eventually it mellows out for a pretty even high.  it's cohesive and all over the map all at the same time, definitely showcasing their new direction since their last record on holy mountain.   there ya go, what else do you need? limited to 55 blackest black copies." (digitalis)

One sided tape of music from Peter Friel (JKTapes / Widening Horizon). A collection of electronic squiggles layered into one seething mass of machine scrawl drone.

Lamppukello - Kaahumatti Kaheskanneski, Yyjo Ite Yheskanneski cdr (267 Lattajjaa) 1

perhaps the most deranged thing to come out of Finland - this is a similar idea to the Kneale Kneale Kneale project on CPP: one anonymous Finn and his 2 kids create mind-melting sounds with casios on stun and child-babble looped to crazed infinity - yikes!

also: Gold Leaf Branches comp

Lau Nau - Nukkuu cd (Locust) 7.25

Keenan Lawler 

• A Ghost of a Plane of Air cd (Music Fellowship) 7

This was first issued by Lawler in a fairly small quantity in 1999 and now receives a deserved reissue for those who missed it first time. He manages to wring the most incredible sounds from his 1930 Resonator guitar from a dream-like underwater ringing of the opening track to the primitive ecstasies of "Coffee's Bad Books", a flurry of bowings and frenetic notes, to the sheer almost electronic noise onslaught of "The Colonies". Jaw-droppingly good.

• The Strange Tale of Eddy Westport 3" cdr (New American Folk Hero) 2.50

Leafy Green - Songs cdr (267 Lattajjaa) 1

Ten songs from America "Recorded in a cool room during a hot week in a southern town" by Leafy Green, aka Barrett Jones. These are gentle, wistful guitar based pieces and if you value the heartfelt over exact vocal pitch (and who doesn't?) they may move and soothe. (JC)

Part of the Odomez series, in which sound artists record their reactions to objects found in the abandoned Odomez factory in the north of France. L'Enfant Meduse recorded these songs at the factory and the result is 3 loose improvisations of acoustic guitar and (mainly wordless) vocals (vaguely reminscent of "Sapphie" era Richard Youngs). Nice handmade packaging: outsize card with a photograph and a metal cog (from the site).

Les Beyond is the work of Erin Jane Ward - 6 tracks of melancholic delayed guitar repetitions. Shades of a more minimal Yellow 6.

Here's a highly unusual release - actually, I'd go as far as calling it unique. The label on the clear sleeve containing this picture disc dubs it "An oddly disturbing & humorous Rabbit Love Story". However, as the songs are in German I can't really comment on this, except to say that Ain't She Sweet, that 1927 hit revived by the Beatles in Hamburg and I Don't Want To Talk About It are among them, sung by Leukers in what could be the style of a cartoon rabbit. One side of the disc has a couple of rabbits coiled up with their tongues out - soixante-neuf indeed! - whilst the other is heavily etched and also illustrated by A.L, who is best known as a visual artist. Listening to this made me think of Fred von Jupiter, but I suspect this dips into darker terrain... translations are welcome! Comes with a free magazine (JC)

Little Skull - Collected 7"s cd / book (Pseudoarcana) 9.75

Another exquisite artefact from Pseudoarcana after that lovely Glory Fckn Sun cd / book. It's a limited (to 50) reissue of all the equally limited Little Skull lathe cuts hand-packaged by Mr Little Skull himself Dean Brown with a booklet full of bats. The music is suitably crepuscular - ghosts of sounds and melodies sculpted from accordian, percussion, strings, pump organ. If fog could make a sound, this is what it would sound like.

Loachfillet - In Random Selekt Volume II 3" cdr (267 Lattajjaa) 0.50

Half science-geek electronic shriek and shimmer and half-effects pedal swirls and squeals from Californian sound artist Loachfillet 

Loner Deluxe 3" cdr (Rusted Rail) 1.50

Plinth's gentle, chiming melodic music, replete with spoken word samples, is reworked here by Loner Deluxe and friends. The treatments are an ideal compliment to the spirit of the originals, with additional drums, xylophone and a rather nice accordion from Anne Marie Deacy of Mirakil Whip. A charming record. (JC)

Harvey Lord 

• Weighted Down cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Impressively crisp finger picking guitar flows throughout this album and I suspect Mr Lord sees himself as an instrumentalist first and a singer second. However, his gentle vocal style compliments the folk-blues tinged music well. I suspect he is well acquainted with Bert Jansch's back catalogue and I'm guessing that Weighed Down might be a reference to Skip Spence. Whatever, it's a good record. (JC)

Lost Domain - The Mystery of the Lost Domain cdr (Cook an Egg) 6.50

Second edition. The duo's ragged ballads are played acoustically on guitar, drums, bells and vocals and it gives them an even more fragile and post-midnight feel than their recent album on Important.

Ludo Mich / Blood Stereo - From Tapes & Throats LP (Giant Tank) 9.75

"Glasgow got consumed by the collective throats of Antwerpian weirdo Ludo Mich and Brightonian/ Lothian noise-family farmhands Blood Stereo a couple years back. remember? relive the night terror inducing Nosferatu yap which melted the minds of the Instal '06 festival audience on side A before necking the most truly OUT swallie of post-everything sound poetry and tape-dirt manipulation ye''ll chug all year on Side B." (Giant Tank)

"Following several releases on labels such as Fi-Sci Records, Clinical Archives and tara Records, comes the latest album by Tim Chaplin's electronic / experimental project Luminous. Eight tracks of edited one-man jams, using more traditional instrumentation than previous Luminous recordings." (267)