RECENT FAVES FROM THE RECORD LIBRARY - February 2001


Music/Program Director Brian Turner calls 'em as he sees 'em.



JANDEK Put My Dream On This Planet (Corwood Industries)
As much as the mention of the name will send some running for the hills, there is no denying the sheer head-scratchery at this man's mysterious existence. 29 LPs down the line, nobody knows who the hell he is, or why his Venusian blues continue. His fans paid tribute to him on a disc this past year ("Naked in the Afternoon"), and everytime we Jandek for CDs for giveaway during the WFMU marathon, they arrive in a box of 30 covered by some kind of unknown gelatinous goo that is actually inside the shrink-wrap of the discs themselves. Regardless, this new one has the Man completely a capella, speculating on life and his relationship with the universe through some kind of broken amplifier or something, sometimes angry, sometimes silent. Perhaps he has been listening to our friend Mustafio? This is a head-turner.

SCREAMERS In a Better World (Xeroid)
The long lamented Screamers were a west coast punk terror who actually never released anything legit, hence boots and demos have been floating around on the market for years. Fronted by the late Tomata du Plenty (who passed on last year, maybe the impetus for this overdue retrospective), these guys had a complete ground zero on synth-driven punk, a bit like Suicide minus the Velvets influence. This limited double disc compiles their shredding live sets (you gotta hear their version of Sonny Bono's "The Beat Goes On"), demos, and a great Tomata radio spot. They had the coolest fliers too!

ENSLAVED Maudraum (Necropolis/Osmose)
Yet another example of Black Metal being criminally ignored by the avant-garde fans and press, this Enslaved record is utterly unbelievable and strange! Nordic freaks who swerve back and forth from metal pound to fits of moody post-rock (!) and psychedelia. Strangest example of schizophrenia in music since the Canderia record which was like Lou Donaldson playing with Emperor.

CHRISTINA ROSENVINGE Frozen Pool (Smells Like)
We loved Christina's last disc here, but now that she's done a record in English we can really appreciate it. Rosenvinge is a Spainish chanteuse (now relocated to NYC) with gorgeous and emotional, delicate folky-pop sensibilities. On her US debut she teams up with Steve Shelley, Lee Ranaldo, Janet Wygal and Tim Folijahn, and while musically this might have hints of the fragile bluesiness of Steve and Tim's Two Dollar Guitar, this is different and more lush thanks to her mesmerizing aura. Francois Hardy comparisons have arisen, but there is a lot to draw from this record.

JOHN SCHNALL More Songs From Midnight Matinee (John Schnall)
We're happy to have another CD reminder of what used to be one of WFMU's most inventive & creative radio shows. John Schnall presented Midnight Matinee weekly until 1998, carving up memorable and abstract portions of films and soaking them into a freeform stream of sound and music that created whole new identities, even poppy hooks, floating about in a hour of aural ether. In Schnall's world proto-Christian claysters Davey & Goliath would meet the Butthole Surfers, Jack Klugman as Quincy warns the dangers of punk rock over a loopy "Baby Elephant Walk", and other films like "The Last Picture Show" and "Broadway Danny Rose" get catapulted into a pyschedelic, repetetive realm.

VARIOUS Between or Beyond the Black Forest Volume 2 (Crippled Dick Hot Wax)
Another welcome installment to a reissue series of music compiled from the legendary MPS label from Germany, which in the 1960s and 70s presented some completely grooving and progressive sounds from the likes on Dave Pike, Sun Ra, Don Cherry, Deiter Reith and more. George Duke's Phillipine-American sister vocal group the Third Wave were on MPS (and have a separate reissue) as was the incredible Baden-Baden free orchestra recording (which has yet to get a findable reissue apart from some expensive Japanese ones). MPS has become holy grail for club DJs especially, a testimony to the diversity in sound this label offered. Avoid the $100 reissue LPs and get a taste of it right here to start you off.


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