Pawel - Berkeley

Dial

Transcendent deep house. Melodic, simple, but with loads of depth. This is one of the better minimal singles put out in recent memory. A prime example of deep house in every way.

Lawrence - Until Then, Goodbye

Mule

For the most part, this album is just a collection of various 12" singles Lawrence has put out in the past year or so. Had he not put them on one album, those singles would have taken up the rest of my "top 5" list. Lawrence (aka Peter Kersten) is the brainchild behind Dial Records and is, in this music fan's humble opinion, the most talented and consistent electronica producer in the world. This CD is a must have for anyone interested in minimal techno, deep house, or electronic music in general. Almost everything this guy puts out is pure gold, so be sure to give his full-length a listen.

The Sandwitches - How to Make an Ambient Sadcake

Turn Up

Other people will probably write better reviews of this record in this book, but I had to at least say something. I don't typically listen to garage/psych/indie rock records like this, but this record has a unique feel to it that is difficult to describe. I suppose the best way to describe it is tangible, or maybe accessible. That's not to say its overtly simplistic or some type of low-brow, blue-collar music. It's just entirely listenable and not one bit self-conscious. Solid songs through and through.

Joseph Childress / White White Quilt - Water Tower Split 7"

Endless Nest

Startlingly heavy, but not heavy in the "metal" sense. There is a sort of emotional weight to this single, a weight that only melancholy country-western/folk music seems to be able to produce.

Conforce - Cruising EP

Curle

A great release from a label I know next to nothing about. Obviously rooted in Detroit techno, but not without a hint of modern sound, this single still manages to catch one's ear in a veritable sea of "blah" minimal techno.

Borneo - Charismatic Megafauna

Self-released

Killer noise rock. Contemplative, yet edgy. More of this would be refreshing.

tip: Visit the following websites if you know what's good for you:
ahriot.blogspot.com and physicsengine.podomatic.com/

The Beatles - The Beatles Mono Box Set

Apple/EMI

On the one hand, it's an endless game of Spot The Difference, bound to occupy Beatlemaniacs for days on end; different takes, odd fade-outs, etc. On the other hand, I was unprepared for how bold this stuff sounds in mono. Without the stereo picture, there's no place to hide instruments in the mix or play tricks with placement; it's either there or it's not, and the presence sure makes itself felt. But whether you spring for the Mono Box or the Stereo Box, or just buy the reissues individually, you'll hear things on this 40-plus-year-old music you've not heard before.

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Glass Note

Yeah, it was brought to my attention by a car commercial, but it's cool, alright?

Vijay Iyer Trio - Historicity

ACT Music

What Jason Moran did with "Planet Rock," Iyer does similarly to M.I.A.'s "Galang" as well as others: take a familiar pop theme and filter it through a contemporary jazz pianist's sensibilities. It only works if the pianist has the smarts to elevate the material. Iyer does.

Steve Lehman Octet - Travail, Transformation, and Flow

Pi Recordings

Tony Williams - In New York

An argument can be made that modern jazz drumming begins and ends with Tony Williams since he came up playing with Miles, embraced rock and the avant-garde, and influenced nearly everyone who followed him with his grace, power, and inventiveness. In the last years of his life he led a spry quintet through his own catchy, deceptively simple compositions (there's some serious harmony underneath those hummable melodies, thanks in part to pianist Mulgrew Miller). The group played for an hour in front of a NY studio audience in 1989; this is the thunderous proof.

Allen Toussaint - The Bright Mississippi

Nonesuch

I guess this was producer Joe Henry's idea, but it's brilliant: New Orleans' ambassador of song on piano, playing N'awlins standards in a basic setting, with edgy but reverent jazz players like Nicholas Payton, Don Byron, and Marc Ribot. The interpretations are simple, direct, and beautiful.

John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble - Eternal Interlude

Sunnyside

If Hollenbeck were a painter, he'd be an abstract impressionist. He favors broad swaths of unusual sound colors over concise solos or even melodic thematic material. One minute there's a buzz of low brasses and reeds randomly articulating, later there are skittering flute-and-piano lines across slowly undulating chords, and soon there's a chorus of whistlers floating over flute counterpoint. You get caught up in these textures and before you know it, the landscape slowly changes underneath your feet and you're somewhere else. It's heady, atmospheric stuff best taken with a long view.

Grass Widow - Grass Widow EP

Captured Tracks

Julianna Barwick - Florine

Self-released

The Esso Trinidad Steel Band - Van Dyke Parks Presents the Esso Trinidad Steel Band

Minky Records

Broadcast & the Focus Group - Broascast & the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age

Warp Records

tip: Spacemen 3 vinyl reissues are here. Come stop by your favorite record store (Amoeba, obviously) and pick up a copy while we have 'em.

Welcome to the Turn of the Century

I can't say that I exactly recommend Dame Darcy's collection of Turn of the Century shows, which originally aired on New York's public access station from 1996-1999, but I'm really happy that the collection was released. I've been looking for glimpses of these episodes for a decade, as many other fans of the cartoonist/musician/doll-maker doubtlessly have. It's a terrific keyhole into a particular scene at a particular time, and features guest appearances by Tiny Tim (although he probably had no idea he would be on TV), Thurston Moore, and even Courtney Love -- long before the Hollywood surgeries!

Eastbound & Down: The Complete First Season

“I'm a bulletproof tiger, man!”

Whatever Works

Woody Allen wrote the script for Whatever Works over 30 years ago for the late, great Zero Mostel. Half the fun of watching this film is simultaneously trying to imagine what each scene would have been like if it had been made with its intended star. Nonetheless, Larry David's aggro-paranoia and ego-driven malcontentedness is stunning, hilarious, and horrifyingly well-done. I say this is the best of the "Late Woody" era.

Funny People

Instead of functioning as a comedy, Funny People is a drama about comedians. The plot goes lots of places I never thought it would, twisting and turning its way through comedy clubs, terminal illness, professional jealousies, and hopes both new and abandoned. Adam Sandler has come a long way from singing about his red hooded sweatshirt.

Various Artists - Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968

Rhino

Four discs of Nuggets' action, from the mid-to late-'60s Sunset Strip to the outer Valley!

"Weird Al" Yankovic - The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic

Sony Legacy

Yes, they included "Yoda."

tip: The Outer Sunset is where it's at.

tUnE-yArDs - BiRd-BrAiNs

4AD

She has an idiosyncratic style that blends sonically disparate elements. She makes her songs with a tenor ukulele, a loop pedal, and a crazy-ass voice.

tip: Arcana: Musicians on Music.

Elliott Smith - Roman Candle

kill rock stars

Finally, Elliott's long out-of-print first album is back on vinyl. The recording is raw enough that you can hear the tape hiss on each track, but light years ahead of any other singer-songwriter's first time out. Even with the somewhat out of place "Kiwi Maddog 20/20," every song is a keeper that will be burned into your memory. No joke, this album could talk you down off a ledge.

Blessure Grave - Learn to Love the Rope

Captured Tracks

Ahhh yes, Gothy/Post-punk goodness with Ian Curtis-aping vocals and a Shadow Ring cover to boot. Addictive bass/guitar leads, cymbal-less drumming, and some mean baritone vocals - all of which sound like they were recorded by Martin Hannett inside a submarine. Can't wait for their upcoming debut LP! If you're at all a fan of Cold Cave, you now have a new favorite.

Grooms - Rejoicer

Death By Audio

So I took a shot on this album based purely on the fact that it was on Death By Audio (the label of the dude from A Place to Bury Strangers). Being a huge fan of APTBS, I figured he'd have taste enough to put a good band out. I wasn't disappointed. Not sure how to describe it, but I'd say it's some sort of post-indie pleasure. You got yourself a Sonic Youth and Pavement stew!

Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights

Load

I hold a very special place in my heart for two-piece rock bands. Really, I do. Three people is sort of the minimum if everyone is gonna just play their instrument in a straightforward manner, so if you whittle it down to just two you're forced to get creative if you want want a full sound. Lightning Bolt is, hands down, the king of two-piece rock bands and calling what they have a "full sound" is a complete understatement. On a casual listen these two are just a full-on barrage of delayed vocals and yelps, nonstop drumming, and driving bass, but on closer listen (and ideally played at an all-engulfing volume) it becomes apparent that the two are dialed into a shared brain of incredibly controlled chaos. Beautiful melodies with mind blowing progressions and change-ups. I also highly recommend checking out their tour DVD The Power of Salads and Milkshakes to see them pull off their act live. Incredible.

Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem

P.W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd.

Although this is alphabetically at the end of my list it is easily my favorite new album of the last six months. I read about this being Mount Eerie's black metal album when it was coming out so I didn't know what to expect. Upon hearing it I think calling it that might be a bit misleading, but I guess I could see where such a statement was coming from. The first track just starts out blasting totally blown out drums, cymbals, and guitars - a crushing wall of doom. But then the album fluctuates between loud and calm, sounding like a David Lynch soundtrack or a field recording from a Pacific Northwest forest at points. After listening to older Mount Eerie/Microphones albums you notice hints of this already, Wind's Poem is just the crushing build up of that same sound. If Elliott Smith and Aidan Baker had locked themselves in a cabin somewhere in rural Washington state, they might come out with an album that has a similar sound and feel to this.

tip: Amoeba Music now accepts Pickles Nickels!!! (Disclaimer: Amoeba Music does not actually accept Pickles Nickels.)

Lone / Kona Triangle - Ecstacy & Friends / Sing a New Sapling into Existence

Werk Discs / Porter Records

Two of the most under-the-radar yet noteworthy electronica releases I've been geeking on for the past few months were made wholly or in part by the same person. Lone is the alias of one Matt Cutler who makes tunes that walk a straight line between Boards of Canada's electro-synth, 70's nostalgic boom-bip, and the fuzzy, low-end theorizing, space racing glitch-hop that folks like Flying Lotus, Samiyam, and Nosaj Thing have popularized. On Ecstacy & Friends, his second album, Lone achieves a plaintive soulfulness with most of the songs, giving the entire album a sincere emotionality that is all too often missing in the compositions of his beat-making peers. In teaming with Keaver & Brause to form Kona Triangle and drop Sing a New Sapling into Existence, Lone's aesthetic works harmoniously with K&B's more J Dilla- and Madlib-inspired approach to instrumental Hip-Hop, an element that wasn't entirely missing from Lone's solo work. Basically, you're already in love with both of these albums. You just haven't heard them yet.

Bear in Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth

Hometapes

The swirling, Krautrockin' psych-prog that Bear in Heaven offered up on their debut album Red Bloom of the Boom meanders less and finds sharp focus via solid pop songwriting on their second album. The songs are shorter, the rhythms are motorikier, and the melodies more apparent, making this new batch of songs much easier to latch on to. Fans of Can, Yes, Mew, and Yeasayer will find much to like here. The standout track is easily "Lovesick Teenagers," which pretty much validates your crushing adolescent heartache by casting it in bronze and putting it up on a pedestal where it belongs, where it has arguably always been, at least in your mind.

McDonald and Giles - McDonald and Giles

Cotillion

My co-worker Vinnie handed this LP to me with emphatic instruction to get my mind right and spend some time with this gem. Ian McDonald and Michael Giles were in the original lineup of King Crimson but left that group after just one album and tour. McDonald and Giles is the one and only album the two would release as a duo after their departure from King Crimson. This is pastoral, trippy, and prog-rock studded with some of the sickest drumming. I'm talking a literal goldmine of breaks! The liner notes state that Ian McDonald plays guitar, piano, organ, saxes, flute, clarinet, zither, and "sundries" while Michael Giles got open on drums, milk bottle, handsaw, lip whistle, and something called a "nutbox." Oh and Steve Winwood has an organ and piano solo somewhere in there. Find it!

Best of Youth

I'm cheating here - this is a miniseries. But it's also just about the most satisfying melodrama of all time, with characters so real you'll go to Italy someday and hope to run into them. Then you'll seek help for watching too many movies.

Black Book

Verhoeven hammers his excesses down on a strong Jewish woman trying to survive in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Pain and excrement ensue. 

Blissfully Yours

An odd and earthy tale of young love in the sultry jungles of Thailand.

Cache

Haneke sets his typically objective (dispassionate, cold, clinical, etc) gaze on a middle-class Parisian family being terrorized by anonymously-sent videotapes of their home. This film is pretty unnerving and hinges ambiguously on a few key scenes you might miss if you're not watching closely. Crazy old Roger Ebert just went back and re-reviewed this one, picking it apart like it's Mulholland Drive.

A Christmas Tale

The most densely layered Christmas movie actually focuses on the reason everyone loves and hates the holidays so much: family. Or more directly, blood.

Crimson Gold

A pizza delivery driver shows up in a jewelry store in Tehran and blows his brains out. Then the film rolls back the clock to the previous week in his life, shedding light on Iran's repressive regime and making you hungry for pizza. Make sure to tip your driver!

Dogville

Lars puts his leading lady through the wringer (shocker!) on a stage set with chalkboard outlines for buildings and bushes; you don't have to use your imagination to know that Nicole Kidman might reach a breaking point. Just about the best supporting cast ever as the politely cruel small town folk.

Downfall

You've probably seen those hilarious clips of Angry Ranting Hitler outraged over Sarah Palin or blue Smurfs in Avatar (Der Führer knows what he's talking about). Downfall is so good that when it finally gets to that scene that's been remixed so many times, you don't even think about all those hours you wasted slopping through subpar YouTube videos. You're just sitting in a room with the most dangerous man of the 20th century.

L'enfant

This is the story about a guy named Bruno, one of the dumbest criminals of all time. He does anything for a euro. Early in the film Bruno tops himself in the stupid department by selling his girlfriend's newborn baby on the black market! This sets off a series of chain reactions so engaging you kind of have to thank Bruno for staving off your boredom. This won the Palme d'Or at Cannes a few years back.

The Five Obstructions

This time Lars puts his filmmaking hero (Leth) through the wringer by forcing him to remake a celebrated old short film five times, each time with various rules and restrictions imposed. The result is collaborative alchemy.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days

I realized when this film came out that it's really hard to sell people on a movie about abortion. So forget all that. This is a tension-filled nerve-wracking roller coaster ride through some of the bleakest corners of hell (late '80's Romania). Once the nightmarish story kicks in, this stuff is too compelling to forget.

Friday Night

This luminous little French morsel about a one-night stand is a lot like In The Mood For Love with equal sensuality, less prettiness, and more edge. If that's your kind of math, go watch it!

Head-On

Probably more alive than any other film I saw this decade. A live-wire low-life German man marries a suicidal Turkish girl. Watching this is like taking a cold shower with a fire hose, and for a two hour film, it gets pretty epic.

Irreversible

Not much middle ground here. You're either gonna admire this or question every other film on my list because of this one. The film begins with a brutal murder in a dingy underground gay sex club and slowly moves back in time over the course of a fateful day. The idea is novel (and necessary), the soundscapes are genius, the long takes work their way under your skin and you'll be so repulsed by the idea of rape that you'll want to vomit. The magic of the movies!

Memories of Murder

This is basically a Korean Zodiac, made about a year before Zodiac. A detective is called in from the city to help solve a series of small-town murders, pitting modern science against the old school detective method, also called "a hunch." This movie is enormous in scope and really unsettling, with a thoughtful, ambiguous ending.

Morvern Callar

A Scottish girl wakes up next to the dead corpse of her boyfriend and finds an exit door from her dreary blue-collar existence. Features a too-cool-for-school mixtape (with the VU, Holger Czukay, Boards of Canada) and Exhibit A for Samatha Morton's induction into the Super Awesome Acting Hall of Fame. Unless you're from the U.K., watch it with subtitles.

Nobody Knows

Nobody knows that four reaaallllly young siblings are living together in a Tokyo apartment without any parents around! Just like Home Alone, only a million times more horrifying and without the mac and cheese. I hated a couple of things about the ending (an obnoxious song and a total lack of closure), but it's the journey not the destination.

Reprise

Two friends in Norway submit their novels to a publishing company on the same day. This alters the rest of their lives in constantly surprising ways. A must-see for every lit student out there and people who enjoy such things as moving pictures.

Silent Light

A Mennonite farmer in northern Mexico is having an affair with a neighbor. His wife tries to deal with the news, but the director is more interested in a series of gorgeously composed, hypnotic long takes that build towards a state of grace.

Werckmeister Harmonies

The circus comes to a small, cold Hungarian town and quiet routine is thrown into the fire. Like Silent Light, Béla Tarr is interested in those hypnotic long takes, so you have to be receptive to that kind of transportational intent, which was a little trendy with the art house set this decade (see also Gus Van Sant between Gerry and Paranoid Park). I seem to love these kinds of films already, so when they include the stark beauty of a taxidermied whale, I'm all in. We'll be lucky if the next ten years are this good.