the brainwashed brain
a weekly digest from the staff and contributors of brainwashed
V07I41 - 10172004
Click here for other issues
OFFSITE UPDATES

marc almond injured in a bike accident
The BBC has reported that Marc Almond's condition is still "critical but stable." They also report that he had emergency surgery and is recovering in intensive care. Almond was reported to be riding on the back seat of the motorcycle during the collision with a car near St. Paul's Cathedral. A policeman reported earlier that Almond has suffered severe head injuries. Almond, a long time friend of a number of Brainwashed bands, has appeared on records by Coil and Psychic TV, but is best known worldwide as singer for Soft Cell. We will update this news if we have an update on his condition. Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family and we hope he makes a full recovery.

jandek played sunday night
This could possibly be one of the weirdest occurances ever. After 25 years and 37 albums, Jandek has finally performed in public. For images and some links, see the best Jandek site at tisue.net/jandek. Perhaps this might have something to do with his last album, titled The End Of It All. David Keenan, author of England's Hidden Reverse, who had a role in organizing the Instal.04 festvial reports the following:

    I didn't get to speak to him, no one did except my friend Barry Esson who curated the fest and Richard Youngs and Alex Neilson who played with him. He never once said he was Jandek, just a rep of Corwood Industries. Said to Alex afterwards that the live show was the first time he had ever felt truly alive. Smiled on stage once. Looked very emaciated. Apparently in rehearsal he told the group he had three types of songs and he would signal by the way he played guitar what type each one was, either Blues, Ballad or Brutal(!). He had been in Glasgow for a week, flew over on his own money so that he was under no obligation to play if he didn't feel like it. The venue was emptied while he practiced and no one was allowed to announce he was playing or he would pull the show. I knew he was thinking about doing it for a while and finally over the last few days realised it was happening but was unable to tell anyone. Heather and I have about 70 pics of him in all. The concert was filmed, with Jandek having the option of releasing it as a DVD on Corwood. Everyone here is still in a daze, can't believe it happened, the concert was everything you could've hoped from a Jandek show, crazy heavy Velvets spiked blues guitar, Richard playing Holger-Czukay style bass throbs, Alex playing heavy and free and that fucking voice sounded like it was straight from the void, set of blasted blues, Haino said afterwards "Jandek *is* the blues." Jandek looked like he was realy enjoying it and pulled a few good shapes too, never said one thing though, took his time packing his guitar but no one approached him and he left the venue as abruptly as he had arrived. All the songs were of heartbreak and abandon, few funny lines too, like when he suddenly exploded "I made the decision to get real wild!" and everyone began screaming. Apparently he loved the screams, looks likely that he will play live again and the next time he will announce it. Anyway, still trying to piece it all together. Who could've thunk it?
SITE

ryoji ikeda works the formula
Formula, an amazingly painfully difficult to locate DVD/book from Ryoji Ikeda is now available directly through his UK-based agent at http://www.forma.org.uk/. Additionally, Ikeda has a new series of performances and installations all listed in the Events section and in more depth at his website. Ikeda is also in the process of creating a new official website. We will have more details when they're available.

steven stapleton scheduled to return to portland
Beta-Lactam Rings Records is now accepting pre-orders for the limited edition of the 3xCD/3xLP set of Angry Eelectric Finger by Nurse With Wound. Additionally, Steven Stapleton is scheduled to make an appearance in Portland on December 11th at an open house. Please phone 503-827-4142 or visit blrrecords.com for more information.

the v/vm test continues
A new site redesign, artist section, and new free download section are all now visible over at the V/Vm site. Additionally there is news of forthcoming releases along with upcoming tour dates.

THE EYE


27
19 Minutes, Quicktime Streaming Video Boston-based 27 aren't quite international superstars (yet). However, this notoriously slower (and often melodic and pretty) three-piece has a tendency to do massive European and Japanese tours with metal monsters like Isis or 3 Stages of Pain and release records on metal labels like Hydra Head and Relapse. This is an extra special and unique edition of The Eye. While Jon Whitney interviews and captures bands live each week, 27 asked Jon to make some music videos for the band. In turn, the three songs that appear in this episode are complete videos: the sounds were taken directly off the CD while the visuals were patched together with live footage in the studio, and various other stories. The video for "Every Day" is extra special as it includes no footage of the band but is close to their hearts with respect to animal rights. No band members were harmed. No animals lip-synched. Please enjoy!

19 Minutes, Quicktime Streaming Video

TECH SPECS
Necessary:

  • A current web browser
  • A modern computer
  • The latest quicktime plugin for streaming media (hint: use the latest Mozilla if other browsers aren't working)

Recommended:

  • A fast connection
  • A willingness to learn

Unnecessary:

  • 'tude

If you see a blank window without anything streaming, don't complain to us. You don't have the latest version of Quicktime for streaming media. Go download it. It's free.

MUSIC IN REVIEW

Dean Roberts, "And The Black Moths Play The Grand Cinema"
Staubgold
As the dust of Mille Plateaux's collapse settles, it's easy to forget about the number of great releases from the label's more experimental off-shoot Ritornell that will also be lost. And though I'm not sure that Staubgold is game for a larger reissue series of that label's lost gems, they have certainly chosen one of the best for this single repress, complete with redone artwork. Black Moths was Roberts' last "solo" record before 2003's beautiful Be Mine Tonight. It was recorded shortly after a couple rather computer-centric discs (All Cracked Medias and Moth Park) which found Roberts exploring his usual set-up of prepared guitar, hi-hat-heavy percussion, and plunked piano to alienating extremes, instruments deftly chopped and pasted into mock mini-explosions, a coalescence of chiming, shredded sound bits with instrumental identities and roles filled only at a bare minimum and movements within a piece arriving in anxious, feigned, and too-often meaningless succession. The "meta-language" Roberts describes himself as creating on these releases, while unique, can also be frustrating as it provides no easy information about the direction of a particular piece. Often a song's entire progression consists of repetitious, segmented bursts in which the interaction and improvisation of the instruments are boxed within simple, stunted meditations on a single tonal or textural idea. Roberts' smoky, even ragged playing style, steeped in years of droning improv with his first group Thela, seems an immediate signifier of lonely and fragile territories, but the religious structuring of these earlier releases makes for a bizarre conflict of interest as any tangible mood is erased by the calculated and incessant playings off-of or into a cryptic formal diagram. For Black Moths, Roberts has not given up on the high-concept of his early works; rather, he chooses to up the ante by forcing more elements of traditional rock or "song"-styled composition into his already idea-heavy mix. The "Black Moths," consisting of Matt Valentine, Tim Barnes (of Tower Recordings) and cellist Charles Curtis are not a support band assembled to indulge any new-found sweetness in Roberts' sensibility. They appear as if in the imagined realm of the Spiders from Mars, brought together at Roberts' whim to carry his ideas into rock (or at least free-folk) parody. The "grand cinema" of the title puts the players on stage, weaving rock moves into the reams of static glitch, cello groan, and billowing guitar squall that unfold out and out, in increasingly foreign structure over the 40 minutes. Roberts sings over a few of the track divisions (marking only pauses along a solid body of shifting and cycling sounds), one time breaking desperately into Eno's "Cindy Tells Me," another bursting with the glammy refrain, "How they adoooore you!" Barnes' percussion and Valentine's bass manage also to sound almost manic, amazing given the album's formal restraints, which struggle to guide everything toward a sprawling digital submergence where "natural" cracks and pauses are prematurely filled, and new, unsuspected gaps opened. Black Moth's theatrical component does little more than add another layer to Roberts' unique sonic amalgam, but it is enough to make this disc one of his most accessible and most complex, preparing well for Be Mine Tonight where the artist's bizarre compositional structures find just the right counterpoint in fragile song-craft and production detailed enough to make the music sound truly otherworldly. - Andrew Culler

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Anaal Nathrakh, "Domine Non Es Dignus"
Season of Mist
While the land of their Scandinavian contemporaries slowly creeps towards weeks of complete and unrelenting natural darkness, Britain's Anaal Nathrakh seem set to unleash a similar fate upon the world with the release of their second full length. Picking up right where they left off 3 years ago with their wildly successful and critically acclaimed debut, The Codex Necro, the duo bring more of what they have termed to be "the soundtrack for armageddon, the [audile] essence of evil, hatred and violence, the true spirit of necro taken to its musical extremes." While obviously this is typical black metal hyperbole, they've historically done a pretty solid job of backing it up with their cold, mechanistic precision and merciless velocity. However, Domine Non Es Dignus, as shocking as it may be, sees them progressing beyond classic "grim" schlock and entering a territory where they can truly do some damage. An immediately noticeable departure from their previous work is the inclusion of cleanly sung, mildly operatic vocals that bring immediate and unavoidable comparisons to Garm's late Ulver/early Borknagar work. While this aspect of their sound is still in its formative stages and is used sparingly, it shows promise. Nowhere is this more evident than the album's standout track, "Do Not Speak," on which vocalist V.I.T.R.I.O.L. ascends, albeit for only a short time, above the catchy breakneck guitar harmonies for a surprising and, hopefully, revealing glimpse at what is to come. Compare that to "Procreation of the Wretched" in all of its howling, noisy, and all-around old-school glory, and you'll get a pretty good idea of the astounding range these guys are capable of covering in the course of ten short songs. They even take a stab at death metal dynamics with the relatively slow groove of "This is the End," another forward thinking gem on an album not lacking novel ideas and more than adequate execution. - Drew Wright

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Wiley, "Treddin' on Thin Ice"
XL
While Dizzee Rascal has been grabbing all the attention on these and his home shores, another act and acquaintance of his has been waiting patiently in the wings, ready to unleash his sound on the masses. Wiley has finally arrived on the scene, though it seems almost like he's come to the party late, when the UK underground scene already feels ancient and waning. With Mike Skinner getting his lauds and Dizzee pulling the rest of the fans, it hardly seems like there's room for Wiley unless he's got something original to push. Luckily, he does have that, and enough creative subject matter to keep the ears glued to the speakers and the feet on the dancefloor. Wiley and Dizzee were both members of the Roll Deep Crew — both even throw shout outs to them on their records — so like influence produces like stylings; though where the latter is after the minds and hearts, the former is definitely after the rumps and booties. Wiley is a producer, not just a rapper, and his production values are excellent, with clean bass, beats, little or no samples, and double-tracked vocals with echoes and repeats in odd tones. Plus, his delivery is a bit clearer, making him easier to understand through the cockney slant, which also makes him a bit more likeable. It's to be expected that rhymes will be about the same old schtick that street hoods chat about, but Wiley's got another message about making things work, working through the problems, and succeeding on one's own steam. He raps and speaks with a super smooth flow, and even when he tells the tale about pies that are missing it doesn't sound ridiculous, just a regular occurrence in his world. That's perhaps the most glaring trait that makes Wiley excel: he doesn't take himself too seriously, willing to joke and jar but do it all with the same skill and respect as his more driven material. There are guest rappers that add some variety and camaraderie, and some interludes that are pleasant enough but would have been so much better if he'd completed them as finished tracks or integrated them more. If there's a medal to give for this game these days, though, I'd give it to this cat over the others. He's obviously put the work in, the years in, taken some hits here and there, but his sound is all his and ultra-original, ready to take on the world or help it along if needs be. - Rob Devlin

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LARS HORNTVETH, "POOKA"
Smalltown Supersound
One of several definitions of the word "pooka" is "a shape shifting magical being from Celtic folklore." It's somewhat a fitting title for Jaga Jazzist member Lars Horntveth's debut solo recording, seeing as defining his style of music would be difficult. Pooka's strong compositions draw from the cinematic to jazz to modern classical, all with the underpinning of electronic-based elements and, at times, a slight edge. Employing a prominent and lush string section, Horntveth's intricate and challenging charts provide quite the workout, rather than just having them playing "eggs" to color in the spaces around his performances on bass clarinet, saxophones, guitars and a host of other instruments. For his twenty-four years in age, it's mind-blowing to hear such strong musicianship on a plethora of instruments paired with the maturity of his compositions, delicate arrangements and orchestration; or at any age, for that matter. After repeated and very enjoyable listenings (my four-year-old asking it be played in the car), it only became apparent when taking more of a critical approach in preparing to review this disc that Horntveth may, at times, have a formula for changing keys when he's got a truly amazing motif playing out. Yup, that's truly the only offending element I could find. The more upbeat and driving tracks, such as "The Joker" and "1. Lesson In Violin" rely more on the poppy, electronic side of things and less on the backing orchestra; the syncopation of the latter track having Jaga Jazzist written all over it. Then again, with the majority of their tunes either written or co-written by Horntveth, comparisons and similarities are inevitable. The greatest track this year, "Tics" builds from plucked strings and minimal glitch beats underneath haunting soprano saxophone to a grandiose chorus of odd time signature strings playing out an intricately woven, middle-Eastern tinged melody. Having witnessed Horntveth's musical abilities first-hand and enjoyed his solo recording several times over, he is a musical genius-in-waiting and an important modern composer of his or any other generation. - Gord Fynes

samples:


The Delgados, "Universal Audio"
Transdreamer
The Delgados are done with confrontation and hate at least musically—a modus operandi their last two albums were laden with—and want to show off a lighter side, concentrating on harmonies and jangly guitars to get the point across and cause the spirits to rise. Universal Audio, then is the Delgados turned firm pop outfit, having fun and enjoying every moment, even in the most somber of tempos and dourest of keys. Recorded with Tony Doogan at their own Chem19 studios, these songs are full of little treats of fancy as Alun Woodward and Emma Pollock trade off singing duties and fill it out with whatever strikes their fancy. Starting off is what may sound like fighting words drowned in bright guitars, but is actually a question of faith and what gets people into their situations. A little keys touch the point, and then the heavy drums return with perfect syncopation. At the chorus the song takes flight, and then the next verse takes it towards the sun, with distorted madness accompanying a secondary vocal, harmonies, and the rest of the instruments. Suddenly it's the indie rock wall-of-sound, though with the same intent of warming up the entire world with a little bit of sunshine through a thick and layered pop sound. Even though the lyrics seem full of questions or self doubt, the band sounds as confident as ever in this sugar sweet head bob of a joy parade, until the fourth track, "Come Undone," a piano-led dirge with Pollock's most plaintive and gorgeous vocal wailing "this is how it feels to drown, this is how we come undone." Brave and unrelenting, the album continues, the songs an adventurous and captivating walk on new ground, the kind of record the Delgados have been threatening to make for a long time with only one song crossing the five minute mark. There are no missteps or faltering moments to be found, no paltry fallacies or facades of indie cred. It's just one solid block of good music with the best of intentions. Others may talk of how it rates with the rest of their catalog, but it just plain doesn't. It transcends it all, and though I may miss the direct assault of other records, this one does the trick just fine. - Rob Devlin

samples:


Doerner/Kelley/Neumann/Rainey, "Thanks, Cash"
Sedimental
Here at last is a collection of recordings from the 2001 stateside tour of this foursome, all like-minds and prolifics within the vibrant improv communities of Berlin and Boston. Bhob Rainey and Axel Doerner in particular have emerged as leaders in the extended technique of breathy brass playing, where each surface of their horns becomes available as an amplified textural playground, as easily hollowed out for rustling, gaseous overflows as transformed into a turbine of magnified industrial clang. Their approach to improvisation means a more acute interaction with the instrument, an inward expansion on the part of each player that few have been able to jive successfully against the responsibilities of the ensemble setting. Too often the immaterial (or ultra-material) nature of the style creates barriers between musicians, who are tempted into layers of colorless ambience or dispassionate exchanges in noise. Even Doerner and Rainey, who maintain astonishing levels of quality in both solo and group play, sometimes walk into the occasional critique of their work as too thin or minimal in its concerns, its dynamics too hidden. These criticisms have no bearing on Thanks, Cash, a disc as sonically dense as anything I've heard from these players, full of patient, attuned interactions and rich, dark detail. Rainey's Nmperign bandmate Greg Kelley borrows from the bristly, stunted half-blurts of that group's tenser moments, laying down colored accents and squealing feedback takeovers atop Doerner's closely percussive breathing exercises and minimal electronic accompaniment. The pure tones and static waves of his computer mesh with the ghostlike hover of Andrea Neumann's innenklavier, producing a painted backdrop of throbbing and electric earth tones, a synthetic and darkly green atmosphere where Rainey's horn hobbles like a wind-tricked door. He moves with thrilling impulse from grand, industrial hollows to the claustrophobic frenzy of spit-soaked insects in the bell of his sax, each sensation delivered with an anticipated and appropriate magnitude. Greater than any one contribution, however, is the ambience of the whole. The players are less interested in reaction or embellishment as with a thick textural weave, often achieved as the three horns blend a breathing feedback pattern over Neumann's detached string tangles. At times the sound is overpowering and anxious, certainly busier, and touching harsher extremes than the Nmperign records, but reaching for a new kind of lushness, a forest of electrical fields and buried energy. The four have created a writhing lifeform, nuanced and surprising all at once, and something I can barely imagine witnessing live. - Andrew Culler

samples:


Bitcrush, "Enarc"
Component
Bitcrush, the latest solo endeavor from Mike Cadoo, takes both the melodic and gritty elements from his prior work in Gridlock and the now-defunct Dryft and splices them with an urban sensibility. More coherant and accessible than anything Cadoo has done previously, Enarc is a logical musical progression that retains a filmic nature while embracing the notion of traditional song structure. Fans of his work might find themselves caught off guard by this at first, but the results are, to quote the soon-to-be-ousted President Bush, superb. The opening cut "Engale" starts off as expected, with a growing hyponotic drone peppered with punchy, crunchy percussion. Yet despite the present familiarity, it quickly becomes clear that Bitcrush is not just another abstract experimental soundscape act, as the pleasant introduction of traditional instrumentation on "Untilted" reveals. Moaning with digital noise, "Arjon Tenpher" dazzles with dubbed out drum loops and creeping synthesized melodies. "Habitual" shifts gears from its relatively straightforward hip hop groove by climaxing with disjointed junglism and an acid teaser lead line. The stunning and irrepressibly head-nodding "Eye Koto" blows the roof off the motherfucker with a Bristol inspired jam of plucked twangy guitar, huge beats, and DSP manipulation. "Frebasyc" rocks a Peter Hook-style riff over sharp stuttering drums, with the only missing desired addition being vocals, which apparently will be incorporated into future Bitcrush tracks. "Carbon" locks itself in the echo chamber for something somewhat resembling the recent 303-obsessed Wagon Christ album without the kitsch. Conversely, the untitled hidden bonus track does a 180 degree turn as a straight-up shoegazing indie rock song that could easily wind up on college radio station playlists. Standing defiant before the blown out hull of IDM, Enarc is an aurally arresting affair that stays captivating throughout and raises the bar for Warp noodlers, Ninja Tune wannabes, Planet µ wankers, and the rest of their ilk. - Gary Suarez

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Laibach, "Anthems"
Mute
Essentially a formulaic, gimmicky act that only occasionally impresses, Laibach's long career has largely been defined, as well as hindered, by what the New York Times once called a "crypto-totalitarianism" that pervades its work. The project's dubious perceived politics, often simultaneously inferred and contradicted by the collective's murky artistic ethos and unbelievable over-the-top theatrics, injected a dose of controversy into their overblown music, guaranteeing them attention from listeners on both sides of the ideological spectrum. Anthems, a dual disc retrospective of the Slovenian band's two decades of work, chronologically works backwards, beginning with a bouncy, danceable remix of "Das Spiel Ist Aus," the second single off last year's surprising and impressive 'WAT' album. Also from that album, "Tanz Mit Laibach", arguably the best track ever to come from the band, finally gets the blend of pounding techno and bombastic eurocentricism right, after years of prior attempts with largely sketchy results. Continuing on, forgettable numbers like "Alle Gegen Alle" and "Wirtschaft Ist Tot" set the tone for the overall mediocrity that pervades the rest of this disc. "God Is God" indulges in tiresome KMFDM-styled guitar riffs over repetitive beats and an all-too-familiar male chorus, while the quirky former club staple "Geburt Einer Nation" brings back vivid memories of New York City goth/industrial nightclubs with its populist march. Of course, a handful of their notorious and downright laughable cover songs (The Beatles' "Get Back" and Europe's "Final Countdown", among others) made the cut and those Germanic Cookie Monster vocals that are so undeniably Laibach only intensify just how embarassing these tracks truly are. Fortunately, Laibach sheds some of the hokey stigma when scales back its excessive use of orchestral elements, as displayed by the inclusion of earlier tracks such as "Die Liebe" and "Brat Moj". The second disc, comprised of previously available as well as unreleased remixes of Laibach material, is largely unimpressive, though there are a couple of notable exceptions. "Wir Tanzen Ado Hinkel", the Zeta Reticula remix of "Tanz Mit Laibach", strips back the intensity of the original, treating the vocals with a robotic-sounding effect and laying down beats of an equally mechanical quality. Juno Reactor actually makes "Final Countdown" remarkably listenable with an invigorating floorfiller akin to his mid-nineties material and should certainly please anyone familiar with his pre-"Pistolero" work. All in all, Anthems is a fair, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt by Mute to hype up and glorify the backcatalog of a largely mediocre, self-indulgent act. This new entry in the probably EMI-influenced pillaging of the Mute industrial archives of the 1990s fails to meet the mark set by the recent projects set forth for infinitely more worthy acts like Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire. - Gary Suarez

samples:


Solvent, "Apples & Synthesizers"
Ghostly International
Jason Amm wants me to believe that there is some heart to be found left behind in the 1980s and that it can be transformed and shaped into a potent stew of consistent and modern excellence. I don't believe him entirely. There's plenty of good music to be found on Amm's latest; a few tracks stand head and shoulders above the rest, though, and this makes it an uneven album. The bad that comes with the good is annoyingly bad. The worst tracks are a reminder of how stale and mechanical music can be. Paradoxically, the same mechanical processes that make certain tracks dull and lifeless are responsible for making others irresistibly addictive. The first three songs are steeped in the shimmer and cleanliness of trumpet-like keyboards and rumbling bass lines that stutter along like the white lines on a highway. "Operating Ease" and "My Radio" are catchy and they stand the test of repeated listens without fail. Unfortunately the next five and a half minutes suck all the vigor and propulsion right out of what the previous two songs had worked so hard to cultivate. It isn't until the darkly attractive "Think Like Us" kicks in that the album retains any amount of momentum. The grey area in between is a bit too sterile to be worthwhile and when a track such as "Think Like Us" kicks in; it only emphasizes the failings of other, lesser tracks on the album. "Remote Control" and "Instrucograph" just sound like variations on a theme and they take away from the massive piles of funk and groove that are built up and let go of far too quickly. The amorphous "Science with Synthesizers" is the next song on Apples & Synthesizers to evoke any real sense of awe or wonder once "Think Like Us" has ended, but it's the closer that truly comes as a knockout. "Steve Strange" echoes and buzzes steadily under the sirens of various keyboards and interrupting rhythmic textures and does so with no lack of tension. Various synthesizers reverberate and bounce off each other into a myriad of patterns and melodies that make the flat parts of this record seem like bad dreams. I'm a sucker for a good melody, so when Solvent successfully lays out a great song, I'm as hooked as I can be by his songs. The filler material, however, leaves a lot to be desired and at times it simply kills the evocative aura that the great songs produce. - Lucas Schleicher

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We know that our music picks may be somewhat challenging to find, which is why we have a community section which can be used to obtain nearly everything available on this site.

NEW RELEASES


WEEK OF OCTOBER 17 - OCTOBER 23
Bitcrush - Enarc CD (Component, US)
Blockhead feat. Aesop Rock - Sunday Seance/Jet Son 12" (Ninja Tune, UK/Canada/US)
Cinque Cento - Lake Shore Drive CD (Beatservice, Norway)
Client - Radio 12"/CDEP (Mute, US)
Greg Davis - Somnia CD (Kranky, US)
Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence 12" [mixes by Timo Maas & Ewan Pearson] (Mute, UK)
Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence/Halo CDEP [mixes by Mike Shinoda & Goldfrapp] (Mute, UK)
Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence/Something To Do CDEP [ltd edition - mixes by Timo Maas, Ewan Pearson & Black Strobe] (Mute, UK)
Detroit Grand Pubahs - The Galactic Ass Creatures From Uranus remixes 12" (Poker Flat, Germany)
The Go Find - Over The Edge vs. What I Want 12"/CDEP (Morr Music, Germany)
Goldfrapp - Wonderful Electric 2xDVD (Mute, US)
Growing - The Soul of the Rainbow and the Harmony of Light CD (Kranky, US)
Gys - Lon 12" (Zero G Sounds, US)
Franz Hautzinger's Oriental Space - Franz Hautzinger's Oriental Space CD (aRtonal, Austria)
The Hidden Cameras - I Believe In The Good Of Life 7"/CDEP (Rough Trade, UK)
Isis - Panopticon CD (Ipecac, US)
* Jarboe & Larry Seven - Beautiful People Ltd. CD [reissue with bonus tracks] (Atavistic, US)
J-Vox - Adress Unknown CD (Component, US)
Jukes - I Wasn't Even Looking 12"/CDEP (Twisted Nerve, UK)
Marsen Jules - Herbstlaub CD/LP (City Centre Offices, Germany/UK)
Lazarus - untitled 7" [ltd to 300 copies] (Temporary Residence Limited, US)
Wes Mcdonald - The Guest CD (Skybucket, US)
Melodium - Anaemia CD (Audio Dregs, US)
* Mono - One Step More and You Die LP [ltd edition reissue] (Temporary Residence Limited, US)
* Mono - New York Soundtracks LP [ltd edition reissue] (Temporary Residence Limited, US)
Nine Black Alps - Cosmopolitan 7" (Melodic, UK)
Plastiq Phantom - Plastiq Phantom CD (Imputor?, US)
Shur-I-Kan - Waypoints CD/LP (Freerange, UK)
Simple Minds - Silver Box 5xCD [demos, live tracks, radio session & other rare recordings] (Virgin, UK)
Sixtoo - Body Ache Summer 10" (Ninja Tune, UK/Canada/US)
* Songs: Ohia - Songs: Ohia LP [reissue] (Secretly Canadian, US)
* Songs: Ohia - Axxess & Ace LP [reissue] (Secretly Canadian, US)
* Songs: Ohia - The Lioness LP [reissue] (Secretly Canadian, US)
State River Widening - Cottonhead CD/LP (Vertical Form, UK)
Subtle - A New White CD/LP (Lex/Warp, US)
* Swell Maps - Trip To Marineville CD [remastered with bonus tracks] (Secretly Canadian, US)
* Swell Maps - Jane From Occupied Europe CD [remastered with bonus tracks] (Secretly Canadian, US)
Various - Low Dose Exposure 2xCD (Skybucket, US)
* Richard Youngs - Advent CD [reissue] (Jagjaguwar, US)

This is simply this week's highlights from the NEW RELEASES provided by Greg and Feedback Monitor. For a more detailed schedule stretching into the future, please check out the page, since release dates can and will often change.

POLL

Results from last poll:

LINK OF THE WEEK

slap the candidate
More than half of the educated world probably hates Bush more than Kerry, but we all want a chance to give each candidate a good slap. Now you can with new slapthecandidate.com! Some of the links in their background are amusing, others disturbing, like the satellite coming out of Bush's ear as everybody in the know knows Bush is really wired like the puppet he is. Anyhow, have fun with it.

THIS WEEK'S CROSSWORD

doin the splits
Test your brainwashed band personnel knowledge with week's puzzle: We Outta Here. It's all about people who left bands and moved on. Best of luck!
It's a PDF document. Print it up, pass it around the office, pester your cubicle neighbor.

Here's the solution to last week's puzzle.

FEEDBACK

chances are

Subject: nww

How can I get a CD copy of "Chance Meeting"? I can't seem to find it anywhere. Is it out of print? I live in the US, by the way.

Unfortunately all the United Dairies releases are currently unavailable thanks to WSD collapse. Some stores might still have some copies kicking around, but they'll be tough to track down. Don't worry, though, they will all resurface soon through Revolver in the USA.

Subject: events

It's a shame you remove the list of concerts from The Brain when you archive the past issues. It's a valuable resource to be able to look back and see who played when. Any chance you could reinstate them?

Not at the moment as it's an included file and gets updated all the time, not just once per week like The Brain. Hopefully soon we'll have some kind of system in place like that.

Subject: C93/NWW gigs in San Francisco in either November or December

Hello,

Has there been any word on this or dates set?

No. We'll keep you posted here though.

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WHAT'S IN YOUR PLAYER?

The A-List CElebs sound in!
Treewave - Cabana EP+
The New Year - The End is Near
The Durutti Column - The Return of the Durutti Column
Aix Em Klemm - Aix Em Klemm
Lilys - In the Presence of Nothing
A Featherweight Burden - Fall Arrives in Texas

Wiley Wiggins, Austin TX, who "was the cute one in the film Dazed and Confuzed" claims Ms. Robin Z. Any more celebs wanna chime in? We know you're reading.

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