Amoeba Music and SF Station have teamed up to offer a $50 Amoeba gift certificate! 

Amoeba is proud to once again sponsor the Treasure Island Music Festival!

Head over to www.treasureislandfestival.com for full details
or buy your two-day pass HERE:
http://www.treasureislandfestival.com/2011/tickets/

                      

Today, Monday July 25th at 6pm, the amazing group Battles will be doing a free, all ages performance at Amoeba Hollywood in support of their latest, recently released album by the trio, Gloss Drop which features collaborations from such artists as Gary Numan and  Matias Aguayo. In fact when the NYC group played in LA a couple of months back at Echoplex Aguayo jpined them onstage for a live rendition of the album track (and current single/video) "Ice Cream." I missed that previous LA show but heard from folks who went that it was off the hook. I caught them in NYC a while back and they totally lived up to their rep as a great live band. They were mesmerizing. Loved them! Naturally then today's Amoeba set at 6pm (PST) promises to be a goodie.  And if by chance you are not in the LA area or simply unable to make it to the Hollywood Amoeba store at that time today, the good news is that the special in-store set will be streamed live on Amoeba.com  where you can also mail-order Gloss Drop for just $10.98 on CD and for $18.98 on LP version (both versions ship free to anywhhere in the US)

Bituaya’s first show in Los Angles wasn’t met with much fanfare. Roughly sixty people came to their show Saturday at Tropical De Nopal gallery, hosted by Eclectica deejays Reyes and Glenn Red. After their seventy five minute set briefly stalled by power outages and a complaining neighbor who called the police, I can gladly say that I was there to witness one of the best shows I’ve seen this year, if not in the last few.

Bituaya hails from Venezuela, a country known by most Americans more for their oil, baseball players and of course, their leader Hugo Chavez, who is overly hated by the right and overly loved by the left. Venezuela has a rich music history, from the Joropo music that reminds me of Mexico’s Son Jarocho, to Latin Pop stars Richardo Montaner and Jose “El Puma” Rodriguez. In recent years people all over the world have been getting down to the alterna-house sounds of the legendary Los Amigos Invisibles. Venezuela also has a rich history of great Salsa artists such as personal favorites, Oscar D’Leon, Federico y Su Combo, Los Dementes and La Dimension Latina. One cannot deny the influence of Caribbean music on Venezuelans or for that matter, on Bituaya as a band. Bituaya continues the trend of recent Latin America artists perfecting the mixture of Merengue, Salsa, Cumbia, Reggae, Hip-Hop and Electronica effortlessly and without sounding contrived.

The six -piece group consists of two rappers, a singer/multi-instrumentalist, a percussionist, keyboardist and one of the smallest deejays I have ever seen, no joke. This guy had to stand on a box just to use the deejay table! From their first song they got everyone up and started dancing, as they played tracks from their ElectroCaribe release. Right away you can tell that these guys are well trained in music. These aren’t guys stumbling through genres; these guys have studied the various styles they play. It’s not shocking to find out that Bituaya are linked to many community-based art programs in Venezuela. Each song seemed to get better than the next. I especially like the mixture of  Joropo and Hip-Hop, with Aquiles Rengifo playing the cuarto underneath the Dub Reggae samples the solid flow of Miqueas “Piki” Figueroa. It’s something that I hoped that Son Jarocho groups would do more of, but it seems to be met with a lot of resistance. Bituaya made it seem so easy. In fact, every song came out so easily. Their Salsa was pure, the Merengue pulsed and the Cumbia/Reggae hybrids felt natural, all with that electro-sheen and Hip-Hop mentality that makes the music relevant. The night ended with a long jam, which included Raul Pacheco from the O.G. genre-bending band, Ozomatli, on guitar along with various Venezuelan nationals joining in on percussion and flute.



I had the daunting task of following the group with a deejay set. I tried my best but with the sound turned down due to noise complaints and an audience exhausted by Bituaya, I couldn’t do much besides play background music to the people trying to talk to the band. I would have to if I weren’t behind the turntables. I really enjoyed the band. Sometimes when I witness a band that is that good, I want to leave the show halfway through so nothing tarnishes the feeling that I am having at the moment. Because of the deejay set I was forced to stay and I’m glad I did because Bituaya did nothing tarnished that feeling. I guarantee just by word of mouth of the people that were at that show that Bituaya will play to a larger audience the next time around.

Wanna get their CD, ElectroCaribe? It is now available at Amoeba Hollywood for the low, low price of 7.98!
 

Joe Johnston's Cap is a symbol of America, but more of our foreign policy than domestic issues:

As Steve Rogers, he starts off small and frail ("a 90 pound asthmatic"), but unwilling to back down from bullies. One pummels him in the alley, but he just keeps getting up to be hit again until his virile buddy Bucky Barnes chases the bully off. Adolf Hitler is a bully, and Steve won't back down from him, either, nor should America. Thus, America is never the bully, only the bullied or the defender of the weak from the bullies.

Steve might be weak, but what's really important to his status as a hero is his heart and soul. Not just anyone could've been made into the superhero Captain America through the injection of the super-serum formula. It took someone with a truly good heart, intrinsically anti-bully, to wield all that superpower in the correct, moral direction. The Red Skull was injected with the same formula, but look how ugly he turned out. That is, America is a benevolent superpower (and better looking than our enemies), intrinsically deserving of our power over others, since it's not our nature to use force wantonly.

Steve repeatedly lies, but only for a just cause, to get himself in the military to serve his country and vanquish evil. Despite his 4-F status, he's sure that his country needs him to fight as a man, not as a scientist or with some other skill set that doesn't involve muscle. Dr. Abraham Erskine, the German inventor of the formula, recognizes the determination of Steve in his willingness to lie for a just cause and enters him into the super soldier program. Realpolitik might make lies necessary, but that's not a problem as long as you remain true to yourself and your cause is just. We lie for good reasons, our ends are justified, and we are necessary for those ends to be realized. When the time comes, we'll jump on the grenade to protect you.

Finally, Cap is pure and innocent. He's never had sex. Even when he's on a double-date with Bucky, all he really cares about is being able to fight. The girls will recognize his greatness once he's proven himself on the battlefield. And they do begin to recognize his sex appeal after he's rescued 400 soldiers from Hydra. The scientifically altered pecs probably don't hurt, either. Yet, he gets frozen before trying out his least utilized super-enhancement and wakes up 70 years later still a virgin. The others (women, foreigners) will recognize our rectitude in time, receptive of our truth. The film reassures us that this acceptance isn't purely a matter of power: the British agent Peggy Carter begins to fall for Steve even before he gets transformed, right around the time he falls on the aforementioned grenade.

Captain America is about as incompetent as big budget films get. Working for the Nazis (although there's barely a mention of them and no swastikas in sight), the Red Skull (never named that, just Johann Schmidt) is attempting to do something with the cosmic cube (again, never called that), such as powering a bunch of laser rifles that aren't any more effective than our boys and their rifles. He also plans on sending many airplanes that look like bombs to a bunch of the major cities in the States (which we know because they're labeled). Along the way he captures the Howling Commandos (never named) and tortures Bucky for no reason other than to give Cap something to do (how he knows where they're imprisoned is never explained). The action, when it occurs, is on a par with Chuck Norris' Delta Force. After waiting and waiting for Cap in costume, the majority of the fighting is told in a montage sequence to be filled in at a later date (i.e., flashback sequences in the sequels). You'd think that the one thing the special effects team could get right with CGI is the throwing of the shield, but mostly it flies off screen and re-enters as Cap captures it over his head -- Johnston isn't much for framing anything more than the characters on the screen. Thor throws his hammer, Hulk smashes, Iron Man flies and shoots out beams -- how hard is that to grasp? That's primary, everything else is just icing.

Probably the best thing about the film was the trailer for the new Spider-Man movie, which is a great example of the first person camera eye, which should only be enhanced by 3D.

The Sight Below
Glider 2LP
Ghostly

There’s a beating heart buried in the cold landscape of Glider, a warm 4/4 pulse that enervates the album’s echoing, looped drones and pulls the listener swiftly through the snow. By pinning barely-there electronic beats to his wisps of guitar melody, the Seattle-based producer turns ambient music into a hybrid strain of breathtakingly intimate, small-scale dance music. There’s a separation of elements in The Sight Below’s songs that’s almost meteorological in nature: Tendrils of treated guitar trail lazy patterns in the sky like the Aurora Borealis (“At First Touch”), flicker in the distance like heat lightning (“Dour”), or expand and contract like time-lapse cloud formations (“Life’s Fading Light”); running along beneath, nearly obscured by the airborne phenomena, is an ever-present beat, which ranges from the mud-puddle throb in “Without Motion” to the tiny, insistent high-hats in “A Fractured Smile.” The tracks evolve at a deliberated pace, but as the tones overlap and the rhythms build, time oozes to a halt and hangs in blissfully frost-bitten suspended animation. With Glider, The Sight Below has created a work of vertiginous sonic depth and exquisite melancholy: techno music for a dark, brooding night.

Purchase Glider here:



Iron Curtis
Goma EP– San Soda / Mano Le Tough 12"
Kolour

Johannes Paluka delivers this fresh soulful deep house EP where the title track holds a nice smooth groove with a pitched down vocal bit. To follow is a stunning remix from SAN SODA. On the flip, "YOU'RE (WAY MUCH MORE THAN JUST) MY CHOICE TONIGHT" is a downtempo number & gets a MANO LE TOUGH remix.

Purchase Goma here:







Levon Vincent
Man Or Mistress 12”
Novel Sound

Levon Vincent returns with another quality 3 track ep.  Limited vinyl only release "MAN OR MISTRESS", "MAKING HEADWAY" and "NO REGRETS" are all varied in style, typical LV bass heavy tracks sitting nicely between both house and techno.

Purchase Man or Mistress here:









John Beltran
Kassem Mosse & Sven Weisemann Selection Remixes 12"
Delsin

In addition to John Beltran's Ambient Selections 1995-2011 (DSR 088CD) compilation, Delsin presents this special 12" featuring remixes by Kassem Mosse (with studio mate Mix Mup) and Sven Weisemann.


Purchase Selection remixes here:








Try To Find Me
Vol. 3 12”
Golf Channel

The 3rd installment in JUSTIN VANDERVOLGEN's "TRY TO FIND ME" series. "I'M A DANCER" is a huge peaktime club jam with big thundering drum beats and "more than a whiff of leather". B/w "NEEDS ENDING" a dreamy fx laden song with a whispery vocal that people are going crazy for.

Purchase Try To Find Me 3 here:





Miles
Facets EP
Modern Love

Miles' Facets EP brings together different ends of his production style, unifying elements of the house and techno he's most commonly released as MLZ together with the more broken production signatures usually reserved for Millie and the darkened tribalism of Demdike Stare. "Flawed" opens with a Linn loop from the archives, stretched and slowed down with an intoxicated aesthetic that's somewhere between house and dub, before "Lustre" re-configures source material originally keyed in by label-mate Andy Stott with a nice line in squashed percussion. "Primer" extends from a Demdike Stare outtake and veers off into an analog drum machine workout, before "On The Fly" ends the set with a recording made straight to mixing desk from an array of mis-wired and malfunctioning drum boxes, contact microphones and samplers. Thirty minutes long, mastered and cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Limited to 700 copies for the world.

Purchase Facets here:




Snuff Crew
Basement Jams Pt.1 12”
Skylax

These Berlin based producers have released music on labels like RUSH HOUR, GIGOLO, PLAYHOUSE, etc and now have landed onto SKYLAX! Here they bring 4 cuts of heavily influenced Chicago-style old school house. Includes "LIKE THE WIND", "DREAMER", "DO THE SNAKE", and "SIGNALS".

Purchase Basement James Pt 1 here:








Cos-Mes & Chida
12 Inches For Japan 12”
ESP Institute

In an effort to help friends in Japan, ESP INSTITUTE presents part 1 in a ltd edition red vinyl stash. COS-MES brings a triumphant theatrical vocal stomper w/ HEY YAH & ENE label boss CHIDA dropping a dark dubby pumper on the flip. Proceeds go to relief efforts. No repress.

Purchase 12 Inches For Japan here:




Chicago Skyway & Dcook -LAGER EP 12”
Kenny Hawkes/GREEN GRASS 12”
Various/HIPSTERS VOL 2 LP
Marvin Zeyss/THE REMIXES-TEVO HOWARD 12”
AFMB: In My Life (feat. Geraldine Roth) 12"
MITZI: Vinyl Versions 12"
JON DASILVA (FEAT. DONALD WAUGH): Love Is All We Need 12"
JONA: This Time 12"
LOVEBIRDS/LEIF: The Beast/Almost Invisible 12"
FORMAT #1: Solid Session 12"
MANIK: Armies Of The Night Vinyl Sampler 12”
SAN PROPER, SAN: Shook 12”
RECLOOSE: Saturday Night Manifesto 12"
BRAILLE: The Year 3000 12"
MAXI MILL: To The Next/Sun Rays 12"
Bulb/STILL THERE 12”
Colman Brothers/BREATHING WITH DG 7"
Dense & Pika/BAD BACK 12”
EC33/I GOT THAT FEELING 12”
Funkineven/ROLAND'S JAM 12”
Excision & Downlink/HEAVY-SKISM RMX 12”
Jon Dasilva/LOVE IS ALL WE NEED 12”
Smoove & Turrell/ECCENTRIC AUDIO LP
Bulb/TENDERNESS 12”
Mat Chiavaroli/WAR OUTSIDE 12”
Johnwaynes/HOOMBA HOOMA 12”
Lord Of The Isles/HOT BLOBS EP 12”
Machinedrum/ALARMAA 12”
John Heckle/THE SECOND SON DLP
Various/10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY PT.2 12”
Jam City/WATERWORX EP 12”
Istanbul 70/PSYCH DISCO EDITS VOL 2 12”
Istanbul 70/PSYCH DISCO EDITS VOL 3 12”
Tony Lionni/TAKE ME HIGHER EP 12”
Kastil/DUSTY EDITS VOL. 1 12”
Javeon McCarthy/LOVE WITHOUT A HEART 12”
Phil Weeks/IN THE MOOD - PHIL ASHER 12"
Mighty Mocambos & Friends/ZULU WALK 7”
Tobor Experiment Disco Experience/ST LP
Subb-An & Anomaly Jonez/MISLEADING 12”
Anagram Jam/ANAGRAM JAM LP
Randa & The Soul Kingdom/THINGS RMX 12”
Los Charlys Orch/THE GROOVE 12”
Sharmaji/HOW TO MOVE 12”
Jaybird/WHAT DA FUNK!?6BLOCC REMIX 12”
Alexis Raphael/KITCHENS & BEDROOMS 12”
Youandewan/1988 12”
Frankie Knuckles/I'LL TAKE YOU THERE 12”
Xxxy/YOU GOTTA DO YOU 12”
Memoryman aka Uovo/SOUL DROPS EP 12”
Kuba Sojka/BERLIN NEWS 12”
Miguel Migs/RED & DREAD 12”
Various/YELLORANGE HISTORY 12"

       
According to several sources published over the past hour Amy Winehouse has died. These reports are based on a press release from the Metropolitan Police in London who wrote earlier today that, "Police were called by London Ambulance Service to an address in Camden Square NW1 shortly before 16.05hrs today, Saturday 23 July, following reports of a woman found deceased. On arrival officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead at the scene. Enquiries continue into the circumstances of the death. At this early stage it is being treated as unexplained." While sadly not a total surprise this is still such tragic news. Another great talent who never got a chance to reach her true potential and live her life. Only 27...damn! Rest in peace Amy Winehouse.

1)  Beastie Boys
          Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
(Capitol Records)

Claiming the #1 spot for God-knows-how-many-weeks and counting is the new Beastie Boys' album Hot Sauce Committee Part Two which continues to rope in old fans and new fans alike with its lo-fi old school aesthetic and prominent guest features.  About as popular as new rap records get, and pretty dang good to boot!


2)    Vakill Armor of God (Molemen Inc.)

Resurfacing after a 6 year absence from the game is one of Chicago’s finest MCs Vakill, who ropes in Jake One and his long-time affiliates the Molemen for his grand return.  Vakill is known for penning vicious punchlines so intricate that it takes the average listener more than three rewinds to figure them out, but  Armor of God finds Vakill mellowing out on the battle raps a bit and focusing more on stories of the street and hardships in the Chicago rap scene.  It’s the sound of a veteran who knows the streets of Chicago like the palm of his hand sitting back and examining the beauty and the tragedy of it all.  Strong album.

Have you ever sat slumped at your miserable computer at your excruciating job, staring blankly at an Excel spreadsheet that mocks your very existence but really secretly hoping that a heavy metal band would come and whisk you away to a magical land of booze and Satan? Sure, we all have. ~audra~

Amoeba is excited to help sponsor the largest independent design show in the country!

Attendees get the rare chance to meet and shop directly from over 250 hand-selected designers and artists. The exciting two-day shopping event makes it easy for you to buy local and support LA’s economy, discover great design and deals, join in community, and have a blast!

At the Barker Hangar (3021 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica, CA).

More info. http://uniquela.com

On Sunday, August 7, Amoeba makes a repeat appearance at one of the Southland's biggest and best record swap meets, Pasadena City College's Flea Market and Record Swap. With over 500 vendors, the Flea Market features antiques and collectibles, records, tools, clothes, toys and much more, not to mention food and good company. The Flea Market and Record Swap is from 8am-3pm. Look for the Amoeba booth located in the Bonnie St. parking structure (Lot 5) on the 3rd Level. We'll have a great selection of vinyl, so come out and enjoy your Sunday with us! 

The LA Weekly calls the show “the best source for used records in all of Southern California.” Come on out and enjoy your Sunday with us! More here.

Then on Saturday (July 23) at 6:30 PM at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA there will be a screening of the entertaining European feature film about the trials and tribulations of four young graffiti artists WHOLETRAIN. The German film's director Florian Gaag (a former graffiti artist turned filmmaker), who was interviewed by the Amoeblog last November when the film was released on DVD (look for it at Amoeba), said that it took him six years (five years longer than projected) to complete the film due to constant opposition due to its illegal art subject matter.

When I heard Omar Souleyman was playing in Los Angeles, I knew I had to go. Not only do I love his music but also how many times do you have a chance to see anyone from Syria perform in the U.S.? All those who cry about what a disappointment the Obama administration is can thank their liberal visa policies towards international artists. Do you know how many artists’ visas were denied during the Bush administration, especially if they’re from a country deemed a threat to the U.S.? 

Truth be told, there are many places you can hear music like Omar Souleyman across the Los Angeles area. In various Arabic restaurants in Glendale, Alhambra and the West Hollywood you can find someone like Souleyman’s collaborator Rizan Sa'id on a couple of keyboards playing behind a group of belly dancers or at a wedding reception. However, comparing Souleyman to those restaurant musicians is the equivalent of comparing Junior Kimbrough to some hack wearing a fedora playing slick Chicago-style blues. Sure, they both play blues music, but with Kimbrough, you felt the blues.

I had a feeling what an Omar Souleyman audience would look like: The hipster boys who travel to places like Indonesia and buy cassettes of local artists with their ambiguously ethic girlfriends? Check! Arabic people, mostly Syrian nationals, checking out a guy from their home country? Check! The “way too cool” musicians and deejays, who never say anything to you even though you see them everywhere you go? Check! Aging hipsters, still on the brink of discovering something new? Check! Ok, we can proceed.

From the first beat people were ready to dance. The Syrians and the new and older hipsters, all lost it when Soulyman hit the floor. Dabke, the Syrian party music in which Souleyman and Sa'id are famous for, is a mixture of high-energy Arabic music that sounds like gritty house music mixed with echoed vocals. Souleyman, dressed in jalabiya with sunglasses, looked like he stepped right out of the desert night and onto the stage. I wondered if he looked at the sold out crowd and thought, “What the f*^k? Who are these people?” Even the various Middle Eastern people, who went to dance on stage and spoke to him in Arabic, were far more westernized than they would like to think, at least compared to Souleyman.

In the end the show was perfect. Syrians may go all night but the L.A. audience just started to lose steam right about the time they stopped. This show reminded me of Konono No 1 first show in Los Angeles a few years back. A show that was mixed bag of Africans, hipsters and the aging World Music enthusiasts, all dancing till the very end, but barely hanging on compared to the Congolese who can go all night.

Programmed by George Chen, L@TE: Friday Nights @ BAM/PFA is a three-part summer series is sponsored by Amoeba Music.

The series kicks-off on Friday, August 5th:

C. Spencer Yeh / David Horvitz
Friday, August 5, 2011
Doors 5:00 PM / DJ (Matt Thompson) / Performance 7:30 PM
Tickets available at the door - $7 

Join us for an evening of sonic exploration and social engagement with artists C. Spencer Yeh and David Horvitz. Brooklyn-based Yeh (who also performs under the long-running identity Burning Star Core) is a solo artist and improviser who uses violin, voice, and electronics. He has collaborated with Tony Conrad, New Humans with Vito Acconci, Thurston Moore, and Jandek among many others. Yeh will be performing solo improvisations on violin and voice utilizing the open space of BAM/PFA’s Gallery B. Horvitz, also based in Brooklyn, is a photographer and performance artist whose activities include the 241543903 project, A Wikipedia Reader, and guided food tours. In the prankster tradition, he stages surprising interactions that replicate the online experience. His absurdist social-practice approach to art making will take full advantage of BAM/PFA and the L@TE audience.



More info: http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/late080511
Facebook invite: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=203129313073278

This 14 track brand new album, which will soon be out on CD and available at Amoeba but currently is available only as a digital release, is released jointly by F.B.M.G. (Fat Boy Music Group) and Hieroglyphics Imperium.  The album has that distinction of sounding new while simultaneously giving a refreshing throwback 90's Hieroglyphics vibe - thanks in great part to killer production by fellow Hiero DJ Toure who perfectly compliments Casual's flow - resulting in an album that will appeal equally to both longtime Casual & Hieroglyphics fans as well as new fans just now catching up on this mostly under-the-radar hip-hop talent. 


                                 

Legowelt
Sark Island Acid EP
L.I.E.S



Always telling stories with his songs the prolific Danny Wolfers' latest offering the ''Sark Island Acid'' EP once again brings the listener into his shadowy world where the sounds of Chicago and Detroit meld with a demented dreamworld in which woodland creatures attempt space travel, lonely middle-aged men cast off by society perform circuit bending experiments in their parents suburban basement and autistic fans of late night talk radio call in from the outer-reaches to discuss world politics. Three tracks with the A-side being the bubbling, subduded and beautiful title track Sark Island Acid and the B-side containing the smudged out 808 ghetto compression of Backwoods Fantasies and the epic piano driven Sea of Nuhuhu. Strictly limited! 

Newworldaquarium
Dead Bears 2LP
NWAQ



Reissue of the highly-acclaimed The Dead Bears double LP from Dutch producer Newworldaquarium, originally released in 2007. Covers a wide spectrum from obscure, ultra-fat discofied house tracks to spaced-out ambient soundscapes. Thick thick!! Enter the world of Newworldaquarium. Comes with lovely Delta artwork.

 

Ladies, breathe deep against your whalebones for this July 17th marks the release of yet another gorgeous offering of tangible media from Drag City: the reissue of Joanna Newsom's eloquent "bring our troops home" treatise "What We Have Known", the long-playing b-side to the Milk-Eyed Mender's "Sprout and the Bean" single, providing something of a missing-piece link between the material showcased on Newsom's debut release and her epic sophomore effort Ys. This single, pressed into 12" vinyl with what promises to be nothing if not an artfully precious etching on the reverse side, comes housed in a "Civil War-styled jacket" because, well, just because! Get yours at Amoeba asap~!

      


Above is the Strive Films produced video for the new track "Dope" by underrated Bay Area hip-hop crew BPos which is dedicated to the late great Dub Star (aka Rick Flare/Kwanz/K-Dub) of Bored Stiff fame (fellow Bored Stiff member Equipto is among the many folks making cameos in the above video). "Dope" is the first of a series of music videos off of the San Francisco group's' brand new album Pos Tapes Vol. II. It is available as a free download but the crew's Vincente Goodword tell the Amoeblog that. "We will have some 45's in Amoeba for it in a couple months." And on Sunday, July 17th, BPos will be performing at Clux Six (60 6th st (@ Mission St.) at Hip-Hop, Hope & Harmony - the official SF AIDS Walk after-party! The $10 door ticket gets you both entrance to the event a copy of the benefit CD with proceeds going to SF AIDS Walk Foundation. General club info & ticket info for event and for general info on BPos including how to download latest free mix album.

Serengeti's anticipated new album, Family & Friends on Anticon, had its release date pushed back to August 9th when both CD and vinyl versions of this excellent album will arrive in Amoeba. Look for an Amoeblog interview with the unique Chicago area emcee on that same date. Also coming next month is a hot new collaborative project called Flash Bang Grenada which is the combined forces of LA alternative MC Busdriver and Low End Theory MC Nocando. Their 10 track album 10 Haters will drop August 23rd and should be a popular item with fans of underground hip-hop. As well as production from such Low End regulars like Nosaj Thing, Free The Robots, and Shlohmo there will be guest mic spots from Del the Funky Homosapien and Open Mike Eagle.

JUST LIKE MIDTOWN TRAFFIC -- MIDTOWN 


Midtown is a small but bustling area of Los Angeles surrounded by the larger regions of Hollywood to the north, the Westside to the west, South LA to the south and the Mideast side to the east. As the crossroads of Los Angeles' population, the once whites-only region has long been one of its most ethnically and economically diverse areas, not only home to the largely Jewish Fairfax District and the ethnic enclaves of Koreatown and Little Bangladesh; it's also LA's only African-American enclave, Little Ethiopia.


The loosely-defined districts within Midtown include the areas of Mid-City, Mid-City West, Mid-Wilshire and Wilshire Center. Within them are numerous and distinct neighborhoods of varying sizes and character that collectively define Midtown's diverse nature. Sometimes Midtown is referred to as Wilshire, after Henry Gaylord Wilshire, the father of Midtown.

DEVELOPMENT OF MIDTOWN


Wilshire, or "Gaylord" as he was known to most, was a developer/gold miner/farmer/socialist/publisher from Ohio. In the 1895, he carved Wilshire Boulevard across his barley field and made plans for development. At that time, Midtown was primarily agricultural although oil drilling had begun at the end of the 19th century. Wilshire remained unpaved west of Western until the 1920s, when developer AW Ross developed Wilshire Boulevard with a vision of a commercial corridor instead of district, targeted toward car operators rather than pedestrians -- a concept that architectural critic Reyner Banham called "the linear downtown."

POST-WAR MIDTOWN

After World War II, the lure of the suburbs slowly sucked out many of Midtown's residents. Some of the older, wealthier neighborhoods subsequently became home to up-and-coming black and Jewish families in the middle part of the century. However, in the 1970s, Downtown LA's Bunker Hill neighborhood was redeveloped as the premier commercial district of LA and many Midtown businesses relocated or floundered as a result.

THE KOREAN INFLUX

The first Korean business, Olympic Market, had opened there in 1969.  After draconian measures were undertaken by South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee in 1972, around 70,000 Koreans re-settled in Wilshire Center. The 1992 riots were a setback, especially for Korean-American Angelenos, with 40% of looted businesses being Korean-owned.


Nowadays Midtown has largely recovered although still a region of contrasts. The eastern portion is home to high-rise apartments and one of the most densely populated areas of the Southland. The western portion tends to be comprised of single family homes with fairly large yards. It's one of the premier arts scenes as well, home to many galleries and several famed museums. There are great places to see movies like the CGV Cinemas and the Korean Cultural Center of Los Angeles. It also includes historic music venues including El Rey and the Wiltern. Though until recently beautiful and important structures were knocked down with regularity, today many of the architectural treasures are now protected. Now if only they could do something about the traffic!

now on to the neighborhoods…

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS 


Arlington Heights is a primarily residential neighborhood, mostly located within the larger Historic West Adams District whose residents are 57% Latino (mostly Mexican and Salvadoran), 25% black, 13% Asian (mostly Korean) and 5% white. Within its borders are several auto shops and bakeries as well as the Washington Irving Library and a pocket park. It's also home to the well-known Jewel's Catch One which opened in 1972 as the nation's first gay black disco


BEVERLY GROVE


Beverly Grove is located in the northern corner of Midtown and is often lumped in with the Fairfax District that it borders. It's home to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and people often offer alternative monikers for it including Beverly Hills Adjacent, Beverly-Fairfax, and Fairfax-Melrose although all are as subjective (and incorrect) as the next. It's Beverly Grove: learn it, live it, love it!


BROOKSIDE


Brookside is a tiny residential enclave of just 400 homes, developed by the Rimpau Estate Company in 1920 as Windsor Crest (or Wilshire Crest, according to fewer sources). An economic slowdown in 1921 slowed down sales of the mostly-Colonial Revivals (and one Moorish and Scottish-influenced castle - The Chateau LeMoine) set on large lots and it became known as South Brookside (and later just Brookside) for the Arroyo de los Jardin de las Flores that runs through it. Since the 1930s, the privately-owned Brookledge Theater, located in the back of a home, has hosted magicians for entertainment. There's also an annual potluck with a petting zoo and carnival games.


CARTHAY CIRCLE 


Carthay Circle was developed in 1922, J. Harvey McCarthy as Carthay Center. Its most famous landmark was the Carthay Circle Theatre, from which the trapezoidal neighborhood takes its misleading name. The theater was built in 1926 in the Spanish Baroque style, a 1500-seat-theater designed by A Dwight Gibbs. The last performance was of The Shoes of the Fisherman in 1968. It was later demolished. Nowadays Carthay Circle is part of an Historic Preservation Overlay Zone.


CARTHAY SQUARE


Carthay Square was developed in 1933 by Spyros George Ponty, alongside the larger, adjacent South Carthay. It's primarily made up of two-and-three-family apartments with a couple of restaurants along the southern edge and the Little Ethiopia commercial district along it's eastern one.


COUNTRY CLUB PARK 


From 1899 to 1905, the area that now makes up Country Club Park was home to the 1 km2 Los Angeles Country Club. After it moved, Isaac Milbank's Country Club Park Real Estate Company subdivided the area for residential development. Although originally whites-only, after the racist restrictive housing codes were abolished, it attracted many upwardly-mobile blacks including celebrities like  Hattie McDaniel, Mahalia Jackson, Lou Rawls, Lena Horne, Celes King of the Tuskeegee Airman and many others.


FAIRCREST HEIGHTS


Faircrest Heights is a mostly residential neighborhood bounded by Pico Boulevard on the north, Fairfax Avenue on the east, Venice Boulevard on the south, and La Cienega Boulevard on the west. Most of the homes were built in the late 1930s and early '40s. As of the 2010 census its population was 52% black, 26% white, and 20% Latino. In 2004, Los Angeles Magazine named it one of the "10 Best Neighborhoods You've Never Heard Of". In 2013, Redfin listed it as the third most "up-and-comping" neighborhoods in the entire state.

One of its chief attractions is the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (LACES) Recreation Center. Other attractions include Ciccero's Pizza, Hoagies and Wings, Hollywood Pies, The Mint, and Penguin Fish & Chips. 


FAIRFAX  


Its series of nicknames, including Bagel District and Kosher Canyon, reflex the long-established Jewish character of the Fairfax District. Many Jews have since moved west and today the population is 85% white (Russian, Irish and Ukranian), 6% Latino (Mexican), 5% Asian. It's also home to The Grove, The Original Farmers' Market, CBS Television City and many Jewish organizations. The area immediately around Fairfax Avenue is known as Fairfax Village. To read more about Fairfax, click here.


HANCOCK PARK 


Hancock Park is an upscale Midtown neighborhood developed in the 1920s by the Hancock family, who'd previously made a fortune from oil drilling. It was subdivided by George Allan Hancock who inherited the land (which included the La Brea tar pits) from his father, Major Henry Hancock. The population today is 71% white (mostly Irish and Russian), 13% Asian (mostly Korean and Filipino), 9% Latino and 4% black. It was at one time home to Nat King Cole, although his home was later seized by the FBI over unpaid income taxes (pictured above).


HARVARD HEIGHTS 


Harvard Heights is another Midtown neighborhood largely protected by its being within an HPOZ (that also includes part of West Adams Heights and Westmoreland Heights). Its historical architectural significance is in large part due to the many California Craftsmans built primarily in the first decade of the 20th century. It's also home to Southern California's oldest school, Loyola High. The population is roughly 66% Latino (mostly Mexican and Salvadoran), 16% black and 13% Asian.


KOREATOWN 


Los Angeles is home to the largest population of Koreans and our Koreatown destroys the competition… and if that weren't enough, the OC has Little Seoul. Like many ethnic enclaves in LA, Koreatown is largely a Korean commercial district, although there are many newly-arrived and mostly poor Koreans living in the neighborhood… joining a population that's largely poor and mostly Latino. When Koreatown was officially designated in 1980, Koreatown was limited to Olympic Boulevard. However, as the Korean population and businesses have poured out in all directions, definitions have grown to include all of Wilshire Center and parts of neighboring districts, and not without controversy. To read more about Koreatown, click here.


LAFAYETTE SQUARE


Lafayette Square is a small, semi-gated neighborhood named after Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette consisting of eight blocks and centered around St Charles Place. Situated between Venice Boulevard and Washington Boulevard, its another of that part of Midtown's wealthy, black majority neighborhoods. It was developed in 1913 by George L. Crenshaw. In 1952, famed architect Paul R. Williams built a home for his family there (pictured above).


LARCHMONT


Larchmont is centered on tree-lined Larchmont Boulevard between Beverly Boulevard and 3rd Street - a portion known to many as Larchmont Village. A streetcar went up and down the boulevard until the 1940s and it, indeed, has a nice, village feel. It got a little less nice and a little less village-y when Village Pizza left for Yucca Corridor. It's still home to, and perhaps dominated by, the large Wilshire Country Club. Today the population of the neighborhood is 37% Latino (mostly Mexican and Guatemalan), 30% Asian (mostly Korean) and 25% white.


LITTLE BANGLADESH


Little Bangladesh is centered around a short stretch of 3rd Street between Wilton on the west and Vermont on the east.  In the 1960s, many Bangladeshis came to the US on student visas and many chose to live in the northern portion of Wilshire Center for its cheap rents and its close proximity to LACC. After the Bangladeshi Liberation War broke out in March of 1971, there was one more reason to relocate. That same year the Los Angeles Bangladesh Association was created. To read more about Little Bangladesh, click here.


LITTLE ETHIOPIA


Although city signs indicate that it's official length is longer, Little Ethiopia is in reality a one block stretch along Fairfax between Olympic and Whitworth in the Carthay area. The smallest of the Southland's many ethnic enclaves it's also the only African-American one. It exists primarily as an Ethiopian commercial district as not many Ethiopians live in the area. To read more about Little Ethiopia, click here.


LONGWOOD HIGHLANDS 


The romantically-named Longwood Highlands is a neighborhood in the Mid-Wilshire area. It’s a rather lush, green neighborhood, the streets of which are lined with mature magnolias, oaks and sycamores. A large number of the residences in the neighborhood are duplexes or, in fewer cases, quadraplexes. As I walked through the neighborhood, I was greeted by a diverse group of strangers, suggesting it might be more affordable than it's posh appearance suggests. To read more, click here. 

I first heard Seek Magic by Memory Tapes at the end of 2009. I was immediately hooked. I suddenly couldn't imagine how I had lived my life without Memory Tapes. The album was that good. At least I thought so. Combining all my favorite elements of dream pop and shoegaze and electronica. This guy knew the way to my heart. Memory Tapes created some amazingly catchy pop songs for this album. He captured an early 90s sound but somehow made it refreshing and like nothing I had ever heard. I was in love with Memory Tapes. All you need to do is listen to the song "Bicycle." You will immediately fall in love with this song. There seriously must be something wrong with you if you don't like this song. Memory Tapes is Dayve Hawke of New Jersey. He had also released music as Memory Cassette and Weird Tapes. He decided to combine the two into Memory Tapes. His new album is called Player Piano. The second album is always risky undertaking. Especially when you really like the first album. When that first album plays a big part of your life and is listened to over and over again. It is sort of scary to first check out that second album. I worry that I will not like it. I really want to like it. I respect the artist and want to like where they are going with the second album. But it doesn't always work out. Sometimes you are just never going to have that same experience with a second album. The new Memory Tapes album does not disappoint. Another one of my favorites from the last couple of years is Washed Out. I really loved that first album. But the jury is still out on the new album released this week. I like it. But not sure if I am ready to fall in love. But I am not giving up on it yet. I fell in love with the new Memory Tapes album immediately. This new is worth your valuable time. 

You should of course start with Seek Magic if you are new to Memory Tapes. However sometimes it works better the opposite way. I know I have said this before. But sometimes it is good to start with that second album. If you end up liking the new album then you are guaranteed to love the first one. Sort of like reading a book before you see the movie. If the book is really good, then you may not end up liking the movie. Rarely can a movie be as good as a book. But if you love the movie first. You can often end up going back and loving the book second. But it is a great feeling to read a book for the first time. To be learning everything for the first time as you turn the pages. "Wait in the Dark" is one of my favorite tracks from the new album. It is the first real song on the album following a short instrumental introduction. My favorite track on the album is probably "Trance Sisters." The album flows together perfectly. It is all very dream like and could easily put you under its spell.

There have already been a ton of great albums this year. It is really turning out to be a great year for music. I hope you feel the same way. Maybe it is just me. But I feel like all of my favorite bands are putting out great albums this year. The year got off to a great start with awesome new albums from Wanda Jackson, Puro Instinct, and Adele. I am still loving the new albums from PJ Harvey, The Kills, Raveonettes, Explosions in the Sky, Okkervil River, Gang Gang Dance,  Black Lips, Zombi and TV on the Radio. Many of these albums will be competing in my top ten at the end of the year. Craft Spells, Holy Ghost, Cold Cave, Kurt Vile, Det Vackra Livet,  Acid House Kings, Bon Iver, and John Maus are all close to the top. The albums keep coming out too. The new Sons & Daughters album is awesome. I still think they are a very under-appreciated band. I really like that last album but this new one is really working for me. Mirror Mirror is out this week on Domino. Domestic versions of Tame Impala and Hercules and Love Affair are finally being released in the next couple of months. I am also liking the new albums by Zomby and SBTRKT. They are both new electronica albums released in the last couple of weeks. The new Crystal Antlers album is out next week on July 19th. And I don't like them just because they are from Long Beach. This new album is fantastic. And they just filmed an episode of What's In My Bag. So be on the lookout for that! New albums by The Horrors and Little Dragon are out July 26th. New Dom album 8/9. New Active Child & Stephen Malkmus albums out 8/23. New Beirut and CSS album out 8/30. New album by The Rapture out 9/6. New St. Vincent, Wooden Shjips, Teen Daze, and Wild Flag out 9/13. New Dum Dum Girls and Bjork out 9/27. There will be something for everyone. New M83 and Girls albums are also out this year! But what I am most looking forward to are those new albums that I don't even know about. They are just lurking around the corner waiting for us to discover. I can't wait...



Watch the video for "Bicycle" by Memory Tapes from the album Seek Magic...



Listen to Wait in the Dark by Memory Tapes from the new album Player Piano...




also out 7/5...






Rainforest by Clams Casino











I Love You Dude by Digitalism











Drums Between the Bells by Brian Eno











Gardens & Villa by Gardens & Villa











Player Piano by Memory Tapes











Pleasure by Pure X











Devil's Music by The Teddybears






also out 7/12...






I Want That You by Middle East











Mirror Mirror by Sons & Daughters











Within & Without by Washed Out











Dedication by Zomby

       
The line up for this year's bigger and better, eight edition of the Decibel Festival (full name DecibelInternational Festival of Electronic Music Performance, Visual Art and New Media) happening at several venues around Seattle September 28th through October 2nd, has just been announced with advance tickets now available.

Performers in this year's ever expanding annual festival include Amon Tobin, who will be performing his latest piece/current seventh album ISAM (see concert trailer above) Moby, Ladytron, Bonobo, Zomby, Quantic, Mad Professor, Holy Fuck, Martyn, Motor City Drum Ensemble, DJ Krush, Green Velvet, Araab Musik, Ulrich Schnauss, Chateau Flight, Girl Unit, Bok Bok, Atlantic Connection, Egyptrixx, Blondes, Matthewdavid, Salva, and many more.

This year's expanded variety of venues will include The Paramount Theater, The Showbox Market, The Crocodile, Fred Wildlife Refuge, The Baltic Room, Sole Repair, and The Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya. For more details and tickets for the 2011 Decibel Festival, visit here.

      


Recently uploaded on Facebook and YouTube under the description Want to buy a record with Mel Blanc at Wallichs Music City / "Vinage Los Angeles" on Facebook the above 1951 promotional film (half-hour in length) reportedly was never shown to the public until now, been used six decades ago for promotional use only among record executives. Check it out if you are an avid record collector or fan of the recording industry's history including the record pressing process, or if you are interested in seeing some classic Hollywood landmarks from sixty years ago including Capitol Records (the producers of thepromotional film) and Sunset Blvd. Amoeba Hollywood fans and regulars will recognize that the opening segment was shot about a block down the street from the current site of Amoeba Hollywood on Sunset.

As noted in the YouTube description Mel Blanc, "plays a record dealer who is desperately trying to sell anyone a record at the corner of Sunset & Vine streets in Hollywood, California while pestering several people, (including Yogi Yorgeson!!). Billy May approaches playing a regular guy walking down the street, Mel takes him into his record store, (Wallichs Music City) & proceeds to pitch everything in the store to him. In the end Billy won't pay the 85 cents for a record & Mel decides to show him exactly how records are made! They go over to the Capitol Records recording studios on Melrose Avenue & meet with Alan Livingston who takes them on a tour, here is where they run into several famous folks while getting into a little bit of mischief along the way! We get to see rare footage of Dean Martin in the studio actually recording one of his hit records! they run into Les Paul and Mary Ford, a vocal group, a country & western singer (Merle Travis?), and even Bozo the Clown!"

Mastodon's anticipated fifth album The Hunter may not be released for several more months but the ever popular Atlanta heavy metal band's label Reprise/Warner have just unveiled the forthcoming album's arwork (above) which was by done by contemporary American folk artist AJ Fosik.  Still in production the band has announced that new album tracks will include the songs "Blasteroids," "All the Heavy Lifting," "The Octopus Has No Friends," "Stargasm," and "Curl Of The Burl." Slated for a late Summer/early Fall 2011 release  The Hunter is the follow up to their March 2009 studio album Crack the Skye and their CD/DVD live concert package Live At The Aragon  which was released in March this year.

The members of Mastodon are longtime fans of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. In 2007 they performed the opening song ("Cut You Up with a Linoleum Knife") of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, and more recently they contributed to the Adult Swim the previously unreleased song "Deathbound." The song, which is from the Crack The Skye sessions, can be found for free download on adultswim.com.  The Mastodon track as well as the video clip is part of the ten week, 2011 Adult Swim Singles Program. This summer the band is part of the Sonisphere Festival touring Europe. For more touring and general band info visit the Mastodon website.  And below is the just released official album trailer video featuring the new album track "Black Tongue."

Amoeba Hollywood's new Directors Section, located on the mezzanine level, gathers directors from across the world in one convenient place. America, Latin America, Asia and Europe are all strongly represented by some of their most praised filmmakers. The genres captured there include horror, drama, comedy, action, cult, documentary, and animation, just to name a few. From A to Z you can find a everything available from director Woody Allen to Zhang Yimou, with cards that list their complete filmography.

We realized that people are more than just curious about the works of certain directors; some look to their work for a distinct and consistent vision that caters to their tastes and standards. In film criticism they call this the "auteur theory." Certain directors have developed a reputation and a prestige that transcends generations. Many see directors as a film's primary artist, using an assemblage of talented cinematographers, musicians and editors to bring their image to the screen. And while some may disagree with the concept, opting to praise a screenwriter or producer instead, who can deny the feeling one gets from a certain director's work? We recognize that film is a collaborative process, but we'd also like to recognize many directors whose technique and style has influenced more than just cinema.

Horror
For horror aficionados there's plenty to discover and revisit. Saturated colors, Giallo influences and dizzy scenarios can be found in practically every Italian horror film. The Directors Section is home to many influential Italian horror directors who inspired several genres of film. Dario Argento is arguably the most popular among them. His films Suspiria and Deep Red were groundbreaking for '70s horror, and the violent surrealism of all his work remains a comparative staple in the genre. Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci are two other Italian directors who share a similar style, though Fulci has a heavy emphasis on gore and Bava, eroticism.

There is a tradition in the Latin section that doesn’t exist in the rest of the store. It’s the autographed bin cards. The bin cards are the separators between the CDS, DVD, and LPS that help you find your favorite releases. When I started working at Amoeba Hollywood several years ago, there was only one autograph bin card. It was from Alex Lora from El Tri. Legend had it he came into the store before a show and some fans recognized him and started a mini-ruckus in the Latin Rock and Pop section. A former co-worker and Amoeba favorite, Joyanne Troutman, decided to get Alex to autograph the bin card. Although being mobbed, he thought it was funny to be asked to autograph his bin card, so he did. That’s how it started.

We now have over two-dozen autograph bin cards throughout the Latin section, most of them, acquired by Paul Vasquez, World Music employee since 2006. I asked him a few questions about why and how this happened.

What was the first autograph bin that you had signed?

It was Rodrigo Y Gabriela. They did an in-store performance and I thought they were so cool that I wanted an excuse to talk to them. By then we had a few autograph bins that Joyanne and other World Music employees have gotten so I told them it was a tradition, which it is now.

How do you get the autographs? Are they all from in-store performances?

Some are, but most of them come from the artists themselves shopping at the store or people they are with introduce us to them. For instance, a friend of Los Tres Reyes introduced the members to me while they were shopping at the store. I love their music but I wouldn’t have recognized them.

Was there anyone that refused to autograph the bin card?

No, but there were some awkward moments. When Enrique Bunbury came into the store, I tried my best to communicate our tradition but he looked at me blankly. I think it was a language barrier thing, with me not speaking Spanish and him not speaking English or maybe he thought I was a random fan jacking the bin card to get his autograph.

Speaking of which, has anyone ever stolen an autograph bin card.

Yes. We had and autograph bin card from Roco from Maldita Vecindad and someone stole it. Now we have security tags on all the autograph bins.

Has anyone ever offered money for the bin cards?

One guy offered me a hundred bucks for the Enrique Bunbury bin card. I had to tell them it was not for sale.


So why just the Latin Music artists? Why not other artist from other sections?

Partly out of tradition and partly that many of the touring Latin Music artists make a stop at Amoeba while on the road. Almost all the artists that sign the bin cards say how much they love the store and wish their was something like Amoeba in their home city or country.

Below are a few more autograph bin cards. Among others are Ozomatli, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Benny Ibarra and many more.

SHOOTING THE PIER -- HUNTINGTON BEACH


This blog entry is about Huntington Beach, a beach city in North Orange County. To Huntington Beach's southwestern edge is the Pacific Ocean. To its north are Seal Beach and Westminster. To the east is Fountain Valley. North and east is the Little Saigon area. To the southeast are the towns of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

It's the largest beach city in Orange County. Accompanying me on this installment was a mysterious new traveling companion and HB resident known only as Bao. As is usual, we being with a bit of history.


EARLY HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH


The area that now constitutes Huntington Beach was for thousands of years a border territory shared by the seafaring Tongva people to the north and the smaller Acagchemem nation to the south. At the time the area was an isolated mesa surrounded by a soggy expanse of bogs and shallow marshes fed by estuaries and artesian wells. At the western foot of the bluff was a large tidal lagoon.


THE SPANISH & MEXICAN RANCHO ERAS 


After the Spanish Conquest, European settlement in the area began in 1784, when veteran Spanish soldier Manuel Nieto was granted the large 1,200 km2 Rancho Los Nietos. The main route through the ranch was a cattle trail that's now Beach Boulevard. After Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1822, the ranchos were secularized and subdivided, including into Rancho Los Alamitos and Rancho Las Bolsas where Huntington Beach now is.. American immigrants began arriving. Two years after the US declared war against Mexico (in 1846), ownership of California was transferred and more Americans arrived in the area.


THE AMERICAN ERA & PACIFIC CITY

A trader named Able Sterns acquired Rancho Los Alamitos and then the Rancho Las Bolsas. In 1862 Sterns sold the ranchos to The Los Angeles and San Bernardino Land Company, an agency for which Sterns acted as realtor. The large ranches were then subdivided and sold in smaller parcels and sold to farmers. In 1894, Colonel Robert J. Northam (then-manager of the Stearns Ranchos Company) acquired seven parcels. Much of the area was drained and seeded with barley, alfalfa and later, celery. A small succession of communities arose in the area of modern-day Huntington Beach including Shell Beach, Smeltzer, Gospel Swamp (a tent city community of Methodists pilgrims from Long Beach), Fairview and Pacific City.


Pacific City was envisioned as a west coast rival to New Jersey's Atlantic City by Philip A. Stanton and Colonel H. S. Finley who in 1901 formed The West Coast Land and Water Company through which they acquired 1,500 acres.


To give Pacific City some legitimacy, several structures were moved there from nearby Newport Beach. Stanton sold his interest the following year to a group headed by J. V. Vickers. Vickers wooed railway owner Henry E. Huntington with enticements in exchange for an extension of the Long Beach line to Pacific City. Perhaps chief among the inducements was the proposed change of name from Pacific City to Huntington Beach. Huntington changed the name of his company from West Coast Land and Water Company to The Huntington Beach Company and agreed.


EARLY HUNTINGTON BEACH

Huntington Beach was dedicated July 4, 1904 and the crowd of 50,000 witnessed the arrival of the first Pacific Red Car. The boom quickly died and by 1905, with the $126 purchase of an Encyclopedia Americana set, free parcels of land were given away. By then, celery and sugar beet cultivation dominated the economy. In 1906, the first school was built, Huntington Beach High School. The city of Huntington Beach was incorporated on February 17, 1909, under mayor Ed Manning.


HUNTINGTON BEACH FLOWS AND GROWS


The original, wooden pier was destroyed in 1912. In 1914, the pier was replaced with a concrete one, primarily to support fishing. From 1910 to 1920 the small population of 815 more than doubled to 1,687. However, when Col. Northam dug a well to irrigate his alfalfa and struck oil in the Holly-Seacliff area, the economy of the sleepy seaside resort shifted focus.


Holly Sugar converted from processing beet sugar to oil refining. The Huntington Beach High School team changed their team name to The Oilers. The oil reserves were quickly depleted for the most part but numerous oil rigs still rhythmically bob (and there are several offshore rigs too). The last oil strike occurred in 1953. Growth came to an almost complete halt during the Great Depression.


In 1933, the Long Beach Earthquake struck - its epicenter was underneath Huntington Beach. 115 people were killed and $40 million worth of damage was done. In 1939, the Huntington Beach Pier was again destroyed and subsequently rebuilt. 

We all know that vinyl was supposed to be long dead by now. But it ain't; far from it in fact. Neither CDs nor MP3s managed to kill off records like we were told that they would. Rather demand for, and sales of, vinyl has grown increasingly in recent years. The Nielsen Company reports that in 2010 US vinyl sales reached 2.8 million units while in 2006 they were only at 900,000 units - a significant increase that is continually growing. 

Just recently Nielsen reported that vinyl sales for 2011 are already up nearly 40% over the same time period for last year. Not surprising then Amoeba Music has been expanding its vinyl sections accordingly to accommodate this increasing demand for records. Recently the vinyl section at the Hollywood Amoeba store grew by about 20% to make room for both used collectible albums (a hot commodity) and the influx of new LP pressings and re-issues of older music.

Similarly to the misguided pronouncement of vinyl's demise, the more recent premature talk of how physical books are fast becoming an obsolete medium - replaced by Kindles and iPads and other digital devices to read E-Books on - is also proving to be an incorrect prediction. Yes it's true that, like with music before it, digital downloads of books are the preferred format for the masses. But, as with music in a physical format vs a digital one, the rapid growth of E-Books is actually helping create a new demand for books and a new smaller, specialized niche market for them; especially certain types of books like reference books, art books, music history books etc. - the sort of book that one likes to pore over its pages. Again Amoeba Music is responding to this new growing niche by slowly but steadily increasing its book sections. At the Hollywood Amoeba the book section (new and used) is gradually expanding and deepening its genres (art, culture, politics as well as music related books) and Amoeba is encouraging more of its customers to bring their cool music and art and film books to sell or trade for this growing new wave of book appreciators.

1) Curren$y Weekend at Burnie's (Warner Bros)

2) Shabazz Palaces Black Up (Sub Pop)

3) Pete Rock/Smif-n-Wessun Monumental (DuckDown)

4) Philthy Rich & Messy Marv Neighborhood Superstar Part 3 (Town Thizzness)

5) Matthew Shipp/Beans/William Parker/Hprizm Knives From Heaven (Thirsty Ear)

6)  Raashan Ahmad For What You've Lost (PID)

Big ups to Luis at Amoeba San Francisco for this latest hip-hop chart that includes in the number one slot the anticipated new release from one of hip-hop's most buzzed about (albeit under the radar) artists these days, New Orleans's underrated rap talent Curren$y and his sixth studio album, Weekend at Burnie's. The album, which is named after the 1989 comedy movie of the same name, is Curren$y's second full length for Warner since his exit from Def Jam. A fuill decade in the rap game Curren$y has the distinction of being simultaneously incredibly well known by a large segment of the hip-hop community (who've followed his career via the free mixtapes and official releases he's been dilegently cranking out) but relatively unknown on a mainstream level. This could all change with Weekend which packs a lot of crossover ready material.

Around 6:30pm on an incredibly warm 4th of July a yellow school bus pulled up on the Cahuenga side of Amoeba Hollywood, ready to take about 40 Amoebites on our third field trip to the Hollywood Bowl.

Our first Amoeba field trip to the Bowl was back in 2007, also to see Hall and Oates, and it became the stuff of legend around the store. See photos from that inaugural trip to the Bowl. Our second trip was to see Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings open for Feist in 2008 (kind of an odd pairing musically, but still a fun trip). This trip to the Hollywood Bowl was set for the 4th of July and included the LA Philharmonic and a fireworks spectacular. In other words, it was going to be a really fun Independence Day!

Amoebite Tuna brought some blue face paint to help us get into the 4th of July spirit. By the time the bus pulled up to the Bowl, most of us had shiny blue paint somewhere on our faces. An unintended, but pleasant side effect of the paint - it helped us identify each other in the sea of people entering and leaving the bowl. Look for the blue paint! Tuna even befriended the people in the rows around us, painting their faces blue as well.

Hall & Oates performed most of their classic hits, opening the show with "Maneater" and closing it with "Private Eyes" accompanied by the LA Philharmonic. We danced, we sang, and we danced some more.

And then there was the fireworks show - most definitely a spectacular, as the Bowl promised. Set off directly behind and on top of the Bowl itself, everyone in the ampitheatre had a fantastic view of some pretty fabulous fireworks.

John Beltran
Ambient Selections 1995-2011 3LP
Delsin

Delsin is proud to present this best-of ambient compilation by one of their all-time producer heroes, John Beltran. The 16 tracks presented here include "Collage Of Dreams," as featured on HBO's Six Feet Under series, and other material from his sought-after albums originally released on Peacefrog and R&S. Beltran is a staple of the Detroit techno scene, releasing records on the Retroactive label that would later develop into his trademark contemplative, melodic style. Includes cuts from Earth & Nightfall (1995), Ten Days Of Blue (1996), Moving Through Here (1997), Going Home (2006), The Sky EP Series No. 2 (2000), his Placid Angles release The Cry (1997) his self-titled Indio release (1999), Americano (2002) and Human Engine (2006). With extensive liner notes from the artist himself.

Purchase Ambient Selections 1995-2011 3LP





Move D
Workshop 13
Workshop

Crafty upbuilding disco.esquer house EP from the Hardwax camp.

Purchase Workshop 13 here:







Nicolas Jaar
Pépé Bradock & Dave Aju Remixes 12"
Circus Company

Here is the first volume in a series of remixes of tracks off of Nicolas Jaar's Space Is Only Noise (CC 009CD/CCS 055LP) album. Pépé Bradock presents two versions of "Too Many Kids Finding Rain In The Dust." His Blind Pig mix features Balkan strings while the "Train Fantôme Poke" version features grinding industrial scrapes and psychedelic whispers. Dave Aju turns the title track into a late '80s dancefloor workout Martin Hannett would have been proud of.

Purchase Nicolas Jaar remixes here:






Jason Fine
Menage At Trois / Jack Yo Bodda 12"
FXHE

Jason Fine returns to Omar S’ FXHE label with two jackin’ house tracks

Purchase Menage At Trois here:








Virgo Four
It's A Crime Remixes 12”
Rush Hour

"It's A Crime" is taken from Virgo Four's Resurrection (RH 113CD/BOX) album, which is now available as a single with remixes from Caribou and Hunee. Caribou reworks "It's A Crime" into an 8-minute epic dancefloor bomb. His mix starts out with an intimate vocal groove, but before long it explodes into a monstrous, acid-driven workout. Hunee goes for a more classic approach. And then there is the original mix -- a Chicago classic that never was.

Purchase It's A Crime remixes here:










Various
Love Edits Vol. 2 12”
Love Edits

Part 2 in this mysterious series of Love Edits.

Purchase Love Edits 2 here:






John Tejada
Parabolas LP
Kompakt

The Kompakt family welcomes one of America's most celebrated producers in dance music, John Tejada! Born in Austria, he relocated to his current home of Los Angeles at the age of 8 and, following a brief career in hip-hop, found his home in electronic music. If you're even the slightest fan of the genre, you'll be hard-pressed not to have heard his music over his decade+-long career. Whether on his own Palette Recordings, Poker Flat, or Plug Research -- plus a Fabric mix CD under his belt, it's thanks to a steady stream of massive releases that he remains a mainstay in the charts of Beatport and uncountable DJs. He is also half of the long-standing City Centre Offices act, I'm Not A Gun (together with Takeshi Nishimoto). As Tejada himself explains: "I wanted to experiment with some longer phrases again and to step away from the analog sequencers more and get back to using my hands to create the melodies. I also feel for the first time in quite a while I've made an album of songs for myself without worrying about the usual pressures." Kompakt presents his extraordinary new album Parabolas. Resident Advisor called Tejada "one of the most notoriously meticulous producers around" -- an unmistakable proof lies within these recordings. Genres collide and combine with an unraveling of blissful layers. The opening track, "Farther & Fainter," offers a musicality today's techno and house often lacks -- an accomplishment that resonates throughout the album. Tracks such as "Subdivided" and "Unstable Condition" reflect the wondrousness of Aphex Twin's Polygon Window project, something that could only be re-animated and brought to 2011's standards by Tejada. Parabolas is a true highlight in John Tejada's deep catalog -- bold words indeed for a producer who is known for unexpected variation and tremendous musical imagination.

Purchase Parabolas here:


DJ MADD: Dub Marine 12"
DJ MADD: Blank Space 2x12"
GUMMIHZ: Head Rush 12"
RADIO SLAVE: K-Maze (youANDme & Rhauder Rmxs) 12"
DJ PHONO: Welcome To Wherever You're Not 2LP
CARTE BLANCHE: White Man On The Moon 12"
JUSTICE: Civilization 12"
SAM A LA BAMALOT: A Bird's Leg 7"
GLENN, JEREMY: New Life 12"
TIYISELANI VOMASEVE: Votswelani 12”
TSHETSHA BOYS: Anidyi Nyama 12"
PANDA BEAR: Surfers Hymn (Actress Primitive Patterns Extended Mix) 12"
DOP: After Party 12"
COLUMBUS: Hubble 12"
BURNT FRIEDMAN: Zen'Aku 12"
ADA: Meine Zarten Pfoten LP + 7"
WOLFRAM: A Thing Called Love 12"
JIN CHOI: Full Range 12"
FURESSHU: Downstate 12"
JAMES BRAUN: Massacre 12"
CRACKBOY: Vivid Innocent 12”
JOAKIM: Forever Young 12”
MARCUS GEHRING: On A Trip 12”

My interview with KRS-One this time last year at the Hollywood Amoeba has just recently been edited and uploaded (above) to the Amoeba video archives. The interview and audience Q+A session that followed at Amoeba was based around KRS-One's book The Gospel of Hip-Hop which you can buy in store or online from Amoeba.com for just $9.99. The in-depth book, whose full title is The Gospel of Hip Hop: First Instrument presented by KRS One for the Temple of Hip Hop and is published by Powerhouse Books, was written over several years by the veteran hip-hop artist, activist, educator, and author. After spending even a short time in the company of KRS you quickly realize that the man lives and breathes hip-hop culture. His famous line, "rap is something you do, Hip Hop is something to live," are truly words that he lives by. In conversation he mentions Hip Hop (his spelling of the words) continually and clearly never stops thinking about it and its ramifications.

"I think Hip Hop is the savior of American society; Hip Hop itself brings cultures together because it gives people a chance to talk and to really see what the other guy is thinking and in a peaceful way," he told me when I asked about the real meaning of Hip Hop as a culture and a lifestyle in the six-part series of The Gospel of Hip Hop According to KRS- One Amoeblogs with him leading up to the in store interview above. A regular on the lecture circuit KRS-One was never a loss for words or opinion during the unique Amoeba instore (usually artists perform music not talk). And afterwards he stuck around for quite a while signing copies of his book, posing for photos and chopping it up with folks who wanted to talk to the man known as The Teacha. Below is the What's In My Bag video of KRS-One shopping for music with his son Lil Kris aka DJ/producer Predator Prime.  Pick up The Gospel of Hip Hop online for only $9.99 while supplies last.
 

Aloha, bitches! The boyfriend and I have just returned from a luxuriously lengthy leisure-time in Moku’āina o Hawai’i – specifically, the islands of Maui and Moloka’i. What will follow, over a course of weeks, is my travelogue. SPOILER ALERT: I survive to write this paragraph you’re reading.

Thursday. June 16, 2011.

Nothing makes me wistful for days gone by like traveling by plane. I’m old enough to remember a time when you could escape your reasonably comfortable seat for a small, smoking lounge and make small-talk with other passengers. Meals were included and expected, complimentary playing cards were practically forced on you, and bathrooms were more than one square inch larger than my skeleton.

Traveling by plane was a luxury, like taking a limo, pre-ordering a soufflé, or soaking in salt crystals made from blood diamonds. There was an implied dignity – it was something to look forward to: to be seated and be served.

Before the terrorists won.

Cut to: me and my boyfriend frantically racing to gut our backpacks and pockets of anything shiny and throwing them in large, grey tubs – Will my lip balm set off the alarm? Better throw it in, just in case…; stripping ourselves of shoes and spectacles, praying to a God that doesn’t exist we aren’t targeted to be put through the x-ray, knowing we’d refuse and have to succumb to the most unfulfilling massage imaginable; finally making it to our gate to find the two flights before us have been delayed since dawn, so the terminal is as absolutely packed with weary bodies, looking like some alternative concentration camp where people actually gained weight.

So popular was the premier summer LA Street Food Fest last year that they expanded it this year to include the Brookside Park space of the Rose Bowl to add on three soccer fields of additional space, and to include even more culinary specialists than last year. The $60 all inclusive tickets are actually very reasonable considering all you get for it. You get to taste unlimited fine food and drink including alcohol (so you could, if you wish, spend your day say at the Tequila Tasting Tent enjoying over a dozen different Tequilas) and spend the whole day with everything (even parking) included in the one time cost. All attendees need to bring is a picnic blanket and some sunscreen, oh, and an appetite. 


The day long (10am to 10pm) event also features several fun sessions throughout the day. These sessions include the all ages, family friendly Picnic in the Park and the Family Fun Day respectively from 10am to 1pm & 2pm to 5pm, and the 21+ Date Night from 6pm to 9pm. Each of these events are limited to 1500 attendees max to ensure a nice controlled environment. The Gourmet Trucks section will include the Border Grill Truck whose specialty is quinoa fritters, the Dim Sum Truck whose specialty is pork and shrimp shu mai + “baked potato” dumpling, and the Great Balls on Tires truck whose specialty is billed as "Ballywood Indian meatballs on rice."

        
There are very few artists who four full decades into their careers are still consistently making riveting relevant music that still matters to fans old and new alike. Brian Eno is one of those rarities. Eno, who got his introduction to the music world at the start of the 70's as the keyboardist for Roxy Music before soon after going solo, has consistently evolved as an artist (and music theorist) singularly crafting new production styles and musical sounds (creating the genre of ambient music), as a producer (U2, Devo, Talking Heads, Coldplay), and selectively collaborating alongside with such notable artists over the years as Harold Budd, Robert Fripp, David Bowie, John Cale, and David Byrne. Even 30 years after its release Eno and Byrne's landmark My Life in the Bush of Ghosts sounds as fresh as the day it was released in 1981.

Not surprisingly Eno's artistic output and his approach to music continues to influence generation after generation of new electronic artists. So it makes sense that for Eno's latest release, Drums Between the Bells, that the electronic music innovator should again join forces with Warp Records - a label, since its formation 22 years ago has become known for always finding and advocating adventurous new electronic music. Last year Warp released Small Craft on a Milk Sea, Eno's excellent collaborative composition with Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams.

I don't know why the Farrelly brothers' Hall Pass wasn't more successful. It's no worse than Kingpin or There's Something About Mary and is about the same thing: men trying to get it up. If you found the previous efforts funny, then there's a recommendation. It was, for me, like spending two hours with a couple of pot-bellied sports radio listeners in a Dallas elevator. Not that I have to like the protagonists in a story, but I do have to find them interesting in some way. And there's nothing interesting about the particular strain of the bourgeoisie know as the sports aficionado. I moved thousands of miles to get away from him. To their credit, I guess, the Farrellys have captured, with a cinéma-vérité authenticity, this khaki-clothed repressed memory of mine ("the 'Boys are back in town": shudder), and without ever explicitly discussing sports. They do, however, frequently turn the camera to old pictures of the leads, Rick (Owen Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis), in their glory days as high school football stars to reinforce the effects of domesticity on male potency: use it or lose it. The husbands aren't getting enough from their respective wives, Maggie (Jenna Fischer) and Grace (Christina Applegate), which regularly erupts in pornographic disquisitions on what they'd be capable of if not for the ball-and-chain.

After hearing their husbands natter on about sexual defilement one time too many, the wives grant them hall passes at the suggestion of a psychiatrist friend. For one week, the men can pretend not to be married without any repercussions for whatever might happen while the women are away on vacation. For most of the week, the husbands drink with friends and continue to dream about molesting young women while young men are actually flirting with their vacationing wives. If you've seen any romantic comedy about infidelity from the past 80 years, you'll recognize Hollywood's reduction of the hedonic calculus to a ratio: cheating isn't bad so long as (1) the betrayed lover is an asshole, (2) the jilted one is given a replacement, or, as in Hall Pass, (3) both parties are equally unfaithful. Marital bliss (a.k.a. love conquers all) is defined through parity: Rick and Maggie resist the temptation to cheat, while Fred and Grace both give in (but feel awful for doing it afterwards), with both couples renewing their vows by the end. What's perverse about this resolution is that it isn't some satirical undermining of romantic love using utilitarianism, but a moronic conflation of utilitarianism with romantic love. These couples are the libertarian base, supporting any candidate who romanticizes capitalism as naturally just.

The film is little more than a diversionary fantasy for the kind of man who can afford to have a mid-life crisis, so probably will. The comedy isn't based on any critique of the kind of fucked-up views that might lead to such crises (such as the strength of marriage bond being seen as the equality of each spouse's exchange value in the free market), but always in support of bourgeois ennui as being as good as it gets. We're supposed to root for Rick, laugh with him, not at him. Thus, his moment of self-realization comes when he tells off the bohemian barista at the local coffee shop. He points out that he might be square, but it's his type that owns the businesses, so good luck ever getting a job (a real job) with those counter-cultural views. He then goes on to steal the barista's object of desire, a hip, curvy blond co-worker with the line that she gets a chance to sleep with a married man. No, really, so appealing is his status that his kids' winsome, college-aged babysitter regularly tries to seduce him, too. The beatnik barista turns out to be a mama's boy (what else could a commie be living in capitalist abundance?) and homicidal, trying to kill Rick for taking his girl (sane people surely can't be skeptical of capital). Hell, even his wife decides not to cheat on him because there's just too much there to value (by other potential buyers). Just as Rick suspected: he could fuck young girls if he wanted, his wife is still hot enough to attract other guys, but chooses only him, and he has enough wealth that he should feel superior to cynical hipsters. What started off as a fear of impotency has now been reframed as freedom. Now, that's ideology.

(Sidenote: Surprisingly, I ran across one conservative, Carl Horowitz, who'd likely agree with me here, only with a positive spin: "Hollywood does have a reigning political sensibility.  It’s called libertarianism, or more accurately, individualist libertarianism." Anyway, it's a good essay.)

         
Care of the always self-effacinging funny rap duo of Foreign Legion (witty & talented Oakland emcees Prozack Turner and Marc Stretch) comes the above latest extended version video for "Travel Lite" from the pair's recommended current album Night Moves - on Hunger Strike Records/Quality Control and available at Amoeba Music.

Without even trying Marc and Zack are just naturally funny and, unlike so much of hip-hop these days, do not take themselves seriously by any means as they trade quips, one liners, and so corny they're funny jokes.  Included in the deliberately silly (including canned laughter) clip are such jokes as Stewardess: "Have you ever been in the Navy?"  Prozack: "Well.. I used to work at Old Navy." Ba-da-boom!

And below is the brand new video for "The Hex" by Random Axe, the latest outing from the rap supergroup comprised of Sean Price, Black Milk, and Guilty Simpson. The song is one of the many audio treats found on the new fifteen track CD simply titled Random Axe that is available at Amoeba and is featured in the new Hip-Hop Top Five found immediately below the video

Conrad Schnitzler
Live ’72
Further

Fantastic Live recording from the Cluster founder.
Beautiful handmade gatefold sleeve.

Purchase Conrad Schnitzler Live '72







Holger Zilske
Acid Test 04
Absurd Recordings

Part 4 in the “ACID TEST” series from ABSURD RECORDINGS drops from Berlin’s HOLGER ZILSKE. “A pure analog jam using just a 303, 101 and a 808″ its a slow pulsing bass heavy acid work out. Comes with remixes from JOHN TEJADA and Stockholm’s AXEL BOMAN. Initial pressing comes with download codes in handpainted sleeves.

Purchase Acid Test 04





Deadbeat
Drawn And Quartered 2LP
BLKRTZ

Scott Monteith aka Deadbeat releases an album for his own label BLKRTZ. It has been 12 years since Monteith quietly launched his Deadbeat music project with an unassuming performance on the street outside a Montreal café as part of the first edition of the city's now internationally-lauded MUTEK festival. And while the venues and audiences have grown steadily and seriously in the years since, the crackling dub sonics, deep grooves, and rumbling bass which characterized that performance have remained a constant in his live and recorded work, and earned him a substantial number of devoted followers the world over in the process. Having worked with a virtual who's-who of the most respected labels in the industry over the last decade, Monteith now takes the plunge into the murky depths of labelhood, launching his BLKRTZ imprint with no less than a full album of new material. "When I received the news a few months ago that ~scape was officially closing its doors, I was incredibly sad to hear it." says Monteith from his new home in Berlin. "Though I hadn't worked with them in a few years, I always saw ~scape as the natural home for a very important part of my work. Not necessarily the more listening side of things per se, but certainly the most unconcerned with genre or function, from a creative standpoint the most free, I guess. Barbara and Stefan worked very hard to promote a great deal of quite marginalized material over the years and did a lot to help me and many other artists out personally who otherwise would have had a much harder time of it. Though I'll be concentrating on my own work for the first few releases, it's my hope that BLKRTZ can serve a similarly honorable purpose in the years to come." In celebration of the label's inaugural release, Monteith has teamed up with long-time friend and world renowned video artist, Lillevan, to create an immersive audio/visual performance quite unlike any other.

Purchase Drawn And Quartered



Anthony Collins
Don't Look Down Now 12"
Curle

This is Anthony Collins' fourth release on Curle already, if you don't count the Nina Kraviz & Los Updates remix EP. Fans of "Another Lonely Night" will most definitely also dig "Don't Look Down Now," although it's a little deeper and more minimal, maybe. But the surprise on this release is without a doubt the 9'+ remix from Roman Flügel. This release, my friends, is going to be a summer anthem.

Purchase Don't Look Now






Omar-S
Here’s Your Trance – Shadow Ray remix
FXHE

Stellar remix from Shadow Ray of one 2011’s top tracks.

Purchase Shadow Ray remix









Marcus Worgull
Long Way/Coppa 12"
Innervisions

It has taken quite some time for Marcus Worgull to deliver his third EP for Innervisions. We won't blah blah about the music. You better just listen to it. But there is one piece of decisive information that shouldn't be withheld from those who never read the credits: "Long Way" has additional instruments, beats and even vocals (!) by Mr. Prins Thomas.

Purchase Long Way/Coppa





Sebastian Mullaert aka Minilogue
Älva EP 12"
Mule Electronic

Mule Electronic welcomes back more of Sebastian Mullaert's solo work. "Älva" is dubby, psychedelic house, sounding like a more techno version of Omar-S. This track will be a great DJ tool for everyone. On the B-side, "Lyssna Då Björkarna Viskar" is peaceful ambient house with the sound of birds singing, discordant piano, trippy synths, etc. -- perfect music for the morning in the club.

Purchase Älva EP





Stefan Goldmann
Emptying the Vaults Vol.1 12"
Victoriaville

Number 1 in a series of 3 EPs unraveling unreleased classic house tracks by Stefan Goldmann. Victoriaville continues its research into Stefan Goldmann's sweet back catalogue with the world premiere of a triple vinyl series of never before released house material. Revisiting the years 2000 - 2005, Emptying The Vaults highlights the era of Stefan Goldmann's "UK years." Restored from the original master tapes and cut by D&M's Rashad, here's some startling evidence of how deep the roots of house actually were in Berlin years before the hype set in. "Cirque Mecanique" is a throbbing groove workout with a dark edge, while "Warm Rush" brings sweet AND pure deepness. "True Dub" is an unreleased alternative version to 2002's "True" single -- no vocals, just bass.

Purchase Emptying the Vaults 1



Art Department
WE CALL LOVE 12”
Crosstown Rebels

"WE CALL LOVE" is a deviant classic for the futuristic age. ART DEPARTMENT collide with SOUL CLAP & OSUNLADE in an exclusive collaboration that brushes shards of early Chicago house with a magnetic pop infused sheen. Also has a synth house mix from DJ HARVEY & jazzy electro mix from DAPHNI.

Purchase We Call Love






Lovefingers & Nitedog
BLACK DISCO 10 12”
Black Disco

BLACKDISCO return with straight up fun party jams for 4 different moments in the night starting with LOVEFINGERS pumping macho disco "AMERICA". NITEDOG's "MARTIAL ARTS" is a mid-tempo bassline bobber. LOVEFINGERS "SLIM JIM" is a funky Eastern guitar stomp & "PRIMATES" a funky warm burner.

Purchase Black Disco 10





MARK E: The Day 12"
Inxec + Leks/HOW CAN I FEEL 12”
The Chain/LOSTWITHIEL EP 12”
Proper Heat/THE MOVE 12”
RAMON TAPIA: Talk To Me 12"
RAY OKPARA: Abellio 12"
RONAN PORTELA & ARIL RODZ: La Floresta 12"
GEL ABRIL: Angola/Changes 12"
GREGOR TRESHER: Lights From The Inside Part One 12"
GREGOR TRESHER: Lights From The Inside Part Two 12"
MULLER, JURGEN: Science Of The Sea LP
SEBASTIAN: Total 2LP+CD
AEROPLANE: My Enemy 12"
T.W.I.C.E: Dubbing Of My Soul 12"
ALEX JONES: Disappointing Dancefloors Since 2005 12”
AGORIA: Impermanence 2LP
PIERRE LX: Out 1 2LP
VA: Kitsune Maison Compilation 11- The Indie Dance Issue 2LP
PUNKS JUMP UP: Blockhead 12"
THE SUBS: Don't Stop 12"
MUMBAI SCIENCE: Lotus 12"
HIGHBLOO: Bro Code 12"
MAURIZIO VITIELLO: MusicOn 12"
PETAR DUNDOV: Tenth Plateau 12"
KID CULTURE & THOMAS ROBSON: So Addictive 12"
SEUIL: Ultravision 12"
REMERC: Just A Bards Tale EP 12"
OPTIONAL FEAST: Porro 12"
PHANTOM & HOLD: Glass Heart 12"
PHASE: Transantarctic 12"
ZZT (ZOMBIE NATION & TIGA): Zzafrika Remixes 3x12" BOX
Fracture & Neptune/CUSTOMTONE 12”
Joshua Moses & S Bengamin/PRETTY GIRL 7”
Disco Deviance/#20 ONUR ENGIN 12”
Benoit & Sergio/PRINCIPLES 12”
Daniel Kyo/SUPERSTITION EDIT 12”
Fantastics/SOMEWHERE FINALLY 12"
Shaolin Afronauts/FLIGHT OF ANCIENTS Heartbreak Sound/EP 1 12”
Danny Daze/YOUR EVERYTHING 12”
Ill Skillz/FACE THE MUSIC 12”
Need For Mirrors/TRIANGULATION DELTA 12”
Bassfort/MOON SHADOW - MOON LIGHT 12”
Deadmau5/RAISE YOUR WEAPON-STIMMING 12”
Various/MAGIC WAND VOL. 3 12”
Max Essa/HOW DO YOU FEEL 12”
Camo & Krooked/ALL FALL DOWN 12”
Bushwacka/WEST SIDE - ENERGY 12”
Aquasky/TAKE ME THERE REMIXES 12”
ASC/BRAINSCAN 12” Downlink/FACTORY 12”
Dodge & Fuski/AEROPHOBIA 12"
Benton/HAVING FUN 12”
Tuccillo/MATHEMATICS EP 12”
Cosmic Boogie & Andy Ash/THE FEEL IT 12”
DJ Madd/BLANK SPACE EP D12”
Silkie/CITY LIMITS VOL. 2 3LP
J Majik & Wickaman/THE RITUAL 12”
Only Children/DON'T STOP DON'T STOP 12”
Girl Unit/WUT-CLAUDE VONSTROKE RMX 12”
Various/KNIGHTS OF THE PLAYBOY... DLP
Soundspecies/BAMANA PROJECT 12”
Tumblack/TUMBLACK LP