The Other Music Update

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	February 6, 2008


			OTHER MUSIC INTERN POSITION AVAILABLE Other Music is seeking an intern to help us grow our MP3 Download Web Store. Must be computer savvy and own a MacBook or MacBook Pro, with strong writing skills and, of course, a passion for music. We're looking for about 15 hours of work per week (some of this can be done from your home) in exchange for employee perks like discounts on your music purchases at the shop and concert guest lists, and college credit if approved through a school program. Please contact gerald@othermusic.com for more information.


	FEATURED NEW RELEASES The Tough Alliance The Honeydrips Samamidon New Sublime Frequencies DVDs Brethren of the Free Spirit (James Blackshaw & Jozef Van Wissem) John Work III: Recording Black Culture Hot Chip Thao Victrola Favorites (Various) Momokomotion 2Charuson! Bear-garden Yamataka EYE Sons & Daughters Sam Shalabi Akio Suzuki Nigeria Special (Various)		Dead Meadow School of Language Operating Theatre B-Music: Cross Continental (Various) Sound Dimension ALSO AVAILABLE Nick Cave & Warren Ellis Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (Live Import) Jason Collett Controversy: A Tribute to Prince Bill Dixon BACK IN STOCK Philip Cohran Mihaly Vig Moondog (Book w/CD)

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WIN TICKETS TO SHARON JONES!
Shake off your Valentine's Day love hangover with New York's reining queen of soul and funk, Sharon Jones & her Dap-Kings! Performing at the historic Beacon Theatre on Friday, February 15, Other Music has a pair of tickets to give away to one lucky winner. To enter, send an email to tickets@othermusic.com and please leave a daytime phone number where you can be reached. Winner will be notified on Monday, February 11. Good luck!!

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15
BEACON THEATRE: 2124 Broadway NYC

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Blood on the Wall

UPCOMING OTHER MUSIC IN-STORES
BLOOD ON THE WALL Wed, Feb 20 @ 8PM
TAKEN BY TREES Thurs Feb 21 @ 8PM
BLACK LIPS Mon, Mar 10 @ 6:30PM

OTHER MUSIC: 15 East 4th Street NYC
Free admission / Limited Capacity
Other Music closes for shopping an hour before all in-stores


	$24.99 CD $24.99 LP		THE TOUGH ALLIANCE A New Chance (Sincerely Yours) "A New Chance" "1981" Yeah, yeah another Swedish band. Another Swedish band with incredibly catchy Madchester-informed, acid house-influenced songs, and a live show that plays out like a situationist spectacle: all thuggy posturing and baseball bats (part of the past apparently; the band's own stance on this documented on "Neo Violence"), performed by two dudes dressed in white wifebeaters and Harrington and Stone Island jackets. Oh yeah, there's only one of those, the Tough Alliance! A New Chance is a truly great pop record that's proud of its influences and not afraid to wear them on its sleeves. I can't help but think of St. Etienne when I listen to this album, as TTA employ a similarly generous helping of pop cultural referencing (films, books, football) and samples. The vibe that permeates A New Chance -- part Ibiza decadence and part unbridled lust for life -- is irrepressibly infectious, often with escapist themes and the longing for a better tomorrow but combined with importance of seizing the moment. In the wrong hands this could've become eight versions of "Unbelievable" by EMF but instead, we have an unofficial, updated follow-up to Foxbase Alpha. And if "First Class Riot," "Something Special," and the title track doesn't make you get up and dance, you must hate the good times. Don't miss out. [AK]


	$24.99 CD		THE HONEYDRIPS Here Comes the Future (Sincerely Yours) "The Walk" "Trying Something New" Much of the Other Music staff has been waiting with baited breath to receive the records on Sweden's Sincerely Yours label, an imprint owned and run by the magnificent Tough Alliance (just reviewed above). The Honeydrips is a one-man band consisting of Mikael Carlsson, and his album Here Comes the Future is the most wistful album to be released since Sarah Records folded and broke many a twee heart. Carlsson cites Jesus and Mary Chain, '80s new wave, and simply pure POP music as his influences, and that is exactly what you get here. A track like "Trying Something New" is a thoughtful gem of a song, sounding like the Field Mice goes shoegaze, with a bassline that would make Peter Hook of New Order blush. Perfect pop? Yes, sir! "Fall from a Height" starts off like a Kompakt Pop record, then those blissful vocals come in, and with a chorus so catchy it will have you humming its melody all day long. "(Lack of) Love Will Tear Us Apart" features guest vocals from a woman named Hannah from a band called Cat5, and you can sure bet that after hearing this great dance-pop song we will be sure to track down their album too. It sounds like prime St. Etienne, and that is perfect in my book! "The Walk" is one of my favorites; with the clean Rickenbacker guitar line and its ultra-simple snare drum beat, and with vocals that sound like Felt in their heyday, how could one not gush? I have to say that is so refreshing to hear that the perfect, wistful indie pop of the '80s and '90s lives on in bands like the Honeydrips. This record has brought smiles to many faces here at OM this week, and hopefully you will feel the same. Highly Recommended. [JS]


	$14.99 CD $14.99 LP $9.99 mp3		SAMAMIDON All Is Well (Bedroom Community) "Wedding Dress" "O Death" Vermont/Brooklyn bard Sam Amidon's version of traditional American music falls somewhere between those of M.Ward and Nick Drake on his hauntingly beautiful new album, not as raw as Ward, nor as fragile as Drake, but sharing a similarly modern, individual take on traditional folk, blues and classic country forms. Amidon, who has previously worked with Doveman and Stars Like Fleas, has found the perfect collaborator in Nico Muhly, who fleshed out Amidon's wonderful, subdued singing, banjo, fiddle and guitar with so subtle yet so sweet arrangements, adding aching strings or abstract ambience or quiet piano overdubs that bring a depth to these simple songs that is utterly embracing. Now add guest appearances from experimentalists like Eyvind Kang and free-jazz drummer Aaron Siegel, and you have a gorgeous blend of sweet and sharp, light and dark, ease and edge that make this album an undeniable achievement and a triumph that will be hugely appealing to fans of the above-mentioned, as well as other moody geniuses like Mark Hollis or Antony and the Johnsons. [JM]


	$21.99 DVD		HISHAM MAYET Musical Brotherhoods from the Trans-Saharan Highway (Sublime Frequencies) Musical Brotherhoods from the Trans-Saharan Highway (Sublime Frequencies-DVD) Filmed in Marrakesh, Morocco at a bazaar known as Jemaa Al Fna, Musical Brotherhoods from the Trans-Saharan Highway captures the rich musical life of this public meeting place, which every night transforms into a sprawling patchwork quilt of simultaneous musical performances. The "Brotherhoods" that take over the square at night each purvey their own brand of ecstatic trance music -- intricately ornamented (and often incredibly fast), electrified ouds, mandolins and banjos blare through improvised amplifiers cobbled together from car stereo parts and megaphones, backed by a battery of Moroccan frame drums, handclaps and group chants. Audience/performer boundaries seem to vanish in these nightly rituals, with members of the crowd taking turns drumming, clapping, singing and jumping into the circle to take a turn dancing solo. As I watched this DVD, I couldn't help feeling a little impoverished -- this is surely some of the most incredible communal music you will ever have the good-fortune of seeing, and it all happens in the street. Elsewhere in the square, boxing matches take place, a falcon trainer shows off his bird and a man spins selections from a dusty stack of Arabic 45s. As is the case with the vast majority of the Sublime Frequencies catalogue, Musical Brotherhoods does not provide answers or interpretation as much as it does a much needed sense of longing and humility in the face of the culture it documents; there is no narrator other than the camera's intimate hand-held movements, and filmmaker Hisham Mayet's (Folk Music of the Sahara: Among the Tuareg of Libya, ISAN: Folk and Pop Music of Northeast Thailand, NIGER: Magic and Ecstasy in the Sahel) lingering gaze is easy to imagine as your own. Propelled by incredible music, Musical Brotherhoods is an entrancing, hour-long trip through what is undoubtedly an endangered musical form. If you liked the Group Doueh or Group Inerane records recently issued by Sublime Frequencies or have been bit by the Saharan guitar bug, this is essential viewing. [CC]


	$21.99 DVD		MARK GERGIS Sumatran Folk Cinema (Sublime Frequencies) In contrast to the concentrated focus of Musical Brotherhoods, Sun City Girl/Sublime Frequencies founder Alan Bishop and SF mainstay Mark Gergis (Choubi Choubi: Folk and Pop Sounds from Iraq, Cambodian Cassette Archives) offer up Sumatran Folk Cinema, a psychedelic panoply of pop culture from the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Opening with a big band rehearsal that sounds more like a Sun Ra group chant than Indonesian Gamelan, Bishop and Gergis manage to pack incredible musical performances, both public and private, excerpts of Indonesian zombie flicks shot off of TV, some gorgeous footage of the traditional Sumatran plate dance, a shark hunt in Banda Aceh and a Sumatran hip-hop band's cover of House of Pain's "Jump" into the following hour of film. Oh yeah, and there is a lengthy section of the Sumatran separatist guerillas (AGAM) refurbishing pistols and grenade launchers, in combat, hauling in fishing nets and singing and drumming. Sumatran Folk Cinema runs the gamut of Sumatran culture, collapsing the high, low, traditional and Western-influenced into a montage that is both delightful and disorienting (the Sun City Girl Charles Goucher once said, "We're in tune with disoriental philosophy"). Like a travelogue video made by some friends with a serious musico-political agenda and absolute fearlessness in the face of dysentery, Sumatran Folk Cinema is an impressionistic, prismatic view of a world apart. [CC]


	$14.99 CD $9.99 MP3		BRETHREN OF THE FREE SPIRIT - JAMES BLACKSHAW & JOZEF VAN WISSEM All Thing Are from Him, through Him and in Him (AudioMER) Although I've loved just about every single thing I've heard from these guys singly, I'll admit I wasn't quite prepared for how incredible this new collaboration between twelve-string guitarist James Blackshaw and Baroque lutenist Jozef Van Wissem was going to be. I've been told secondhand that these pieces were devised as a kind of endurance test, if that's actually true then these guys are like the freaking Lance Armstrongs of acoustic string music. The thing is though that these four long tracks don't just drone on and on, each player is exceedingly sympathetic to the other and provides a muscular counterpoint that I didn't even realize was needed in their respective solo works. The compositions are consistently engaging and play to the strengths of both instruments. The first track is a colossus and worth the price of the album alone, 45 strings in dialog conjuring an ever-shifting array of tonalities and patterns that will no doubt stand as one of the most powerful pieces of music I'll hear all year. A high watermark in both men's discographies. (Preview songs on Other Music Digital.) [MK]


	$15.99 CD		VARIOUS ARTISTS John Work III: Recording Black Culture (Spring Fed) "Poor Black Sheep" Nathan Frazier & Frank Patterson "Walk Around in Dry Bones" The Fairfield Four Phenomenal selection of field recordings drawn from the private collection of John Work, III (1901-1967). The grandson of a Kentucky slave, John Work, III was born into a musical family. His father and mother helped revive the world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers at the legendary Fisk University in Tennessee, which he would go on to helm for several decades. He was primarily a choral composer and educator, but both his father and uncle were pioneering African-American folk song collectors and it was a passion and interest he shared, receiving an M.A. from Columbia University in 1930 with a thesis entitled "Folk Songs of the American Negro." Though of limited financial means due to familial obligations, and lacking a car, Work recognized that there was a wealth of material to record in his immediate vicinity. Having been granted the use of Fisk University's portable recorder, Work would borrow a vehicle or take the train to his intended destination, though he was forced to pay for the blank acetates from Sears-Roebuck out of his own pocket. He began working with Alan Lomax in 1941, who was then head of the Library of Congress' Archive of American Folk Song. Lomax provided higher quality glass acetates with the understanding that Work would be provided access to places where he himself wasn't welcome and that this material would be donated to the Library of Congress. This was essentially what happened, but Work did keep a fair amount of material for his own projects and as teaching aids for his classes at the University. This CD is comprised of the unreleased acetates from Work's own collection; he was primarily interested in the social and religious aspect of African-American folk music and much more willing to record a music in transition than was Lomax. Though this collection features several excellent and moving instances of music that was fast fading from the musical landscape of the south, including two striking examples of the black banjo player Nathan Frazier, I feel the most exciting pieces to be found here were those with an immediate future, especially the amateur and semi-pro "Corner" Quartets and the Congregational singing. These songs blaze through the run down grooves of the acetates with an urgency that presages the Doo-wop, Rock 'n' Roll, and R 'n' B, of the following decade. This is a lovingly presented and annotated collection that should go a long way towards bringing to light one of America's greatest ethnographers and folk song collectors. [MK]


	$13.99 CD		HOT CHIP Made in the Dark (DFA/Astralwerks) "Shake a Fist" "Wrestlers" Two years ago, Hot Chip broke big with their "Over and Over" single and subsequently The Warning full-length, an album which found the London quintet letting go of their half-baked, Prince-inspired bedroom electro for a focused set of pop (albeit off-kilter pop) songs. It was a dramatic change for those who had followed the group from before their dance floor smash, and it left fans guessing what would come next. So when Hot Chip dropped the "Ready for the Floor" single late last year, a light, bouncy electro cut filled with the same sweet, blue-eyed soul melancholy as anything off of The Warning, you couldn't help but wonder if the band had reached a holding pattern. Not true. Made in the Dark's album opener "Out of the Pictures" revs up into a plodding mechanical beat complete with buzzes and bleeps, making it immediately apparent that they're going for a bigger sound. Sure enough, when the following track, "Shake a Fist," kicks into its bottom-heavy rhythm with a flurry of squelching synthesizers laser-beaming between the speakers, you might think Hot Chip were throwing their hat into the nu-rave ring, if not for the Something/Anything sample of Todd Rundgren advising the listener, "If you have a pair of headphones, you better get 'em out and get 'em cranked up, 'cause they're really gonna help you." It is Hot Chip after all, and no amount of electronics can suppress their pop sensibility and geeky sense of humor. "One Pure Thought" finds Alexis Taylor doing his best McCartney impersonation over a bed of synchronized pulses and even with a Macarena reference in the lyrics, ends up coaxing more soul from the machine than Sir Paul got with "Temporary Secretary." Elsewhere, the velvet harmonies of "Touch Too Much" glide across beats that almost fall over themselves until the song dissolves into a sincerely heartfelt refrain of "I would hold you up again if you would ask me." Made in the Dark isn't without a few missteps; three seconds shy of 54 minutes, the album is long enough that the band could have shaved off the last few tracks, which seem like filler. But while I don't hear any one single song with the instant gratification of "Over and Over," the sum of great moments here outnumbers those on The Warning; Hot Chip has outdone themselves. [GH]


	$13.99 CD		THAO We Brave Bee Stings and All (Kill Rock Stars) "Beat (Health, Life and Fire)" "Travel" I've been struggling to pin down just who it is Thao Nguyen's voice reminds me of on this excellent folk-pop excursion. Is it Chan Marshall? Dan Bejar? Joni Mitchell? Joanna Newsom? Nguyen would not be mistaken for any of those artists, but her warm, distinctive and intriguing voice (and wonderful songwriting) clearly shares a few traits with all of these iconoclastic singer/songwriters, blending a sharp melodic sense and beautiful, natural tone with a quirky individualism, and a quirkily individualistic poetic style with beautiful, natural take on traditional folk, blues and indie-pop forms. The mood throughout is both bubbly and melancholic, evoking sun-dappled memories of summers spent chasing shadows with long-gone friends, and the sadness and struggle that inevitably follow such folly (that's life you know), sung from the heart of this talented artist. The production is loose and fun-loving, with acoustic guitars, snappy drums, banjo and bass and horns and piano popping up here and there to bolster Nguyen's hypnotic melodies. With We Brave Bee Stings and All Thao and the Get Down Stay Down have delivered the whole package, great songs and sounds, poetry and personality, and the first great surprise of the new year. [JM]


	$42.99 CDx2 w/Book		VARIOUS ARTISTS Victrola Favorites (Dust-to-Digital) Dust-to-Digital keep spoiling us. From the amazing and ridiculously lavish Goodbye Babylon gospel box to the Fonotone and Art of Field Recording sets, the imprint's impeccable curating skills and knack for packaging is rivaled only by the dormant Revenant. The label's latest release, Victrola Favorites, is a luxurious two-CD/144-page clothbound book that collects 48 sides of Burmese guitar, Delta blues, Persian folk, Chinese opera, jazz, hillbilly stomp, and too much more to mention, recorded between 1920 and the mid '50s. The men behind Victrola Favorites are Rob Millis and Jeffrey Taylor of the Climax Golden Twins who originally used the VF name for a series of cassette compilations of 78s from far and wide, that came with a simple Xerox insert and no tracklisting, making for an even more mysterious version of Sublime Frequencies. Quite the opposite, this expanded version's accompanying book comes with a complete listing of the performers (from Blind Boy Fuller's dirty "Bottle Up and Go" to He Zemin/Huang Peiying's mind-boggling "Blind Idiot Buys a Pig," via Stanley Roper's fascinating London field recordings and the sublime Greek folk music of Stella Haskil) and is packed with gorgeous full-color images of labels, phonographs, exotic postcards, and a vast array of memorabilia. For fans of the aforementioned Sublime Frequences, Yazoo's Secret Museum of Mankind, Revenant's American Primitive, and any of Mississippi Records' output, this is perfection. [AK]


	Momokomotion $27.99 Limited Edition CD w/ Book $15.99 CD 2Charuson! $13.99 CD-EP Bear-garden I'm a Gardener $15.99 CDx2 Bear-garden Love Is Sweet Suicide $15.99 CD		MOMOKOMOTION Punk in a Coma (Rambutan) "Toy" "Follow Me" 2CHARUSON! 4X2 (Rambutan) "Supersonic Monday" BEAR-GARDEN I'm a Gardener (Panda/Testify) "La La Is Love" BEAR-GARDEN Love Is Sweet Suicide (Panda/Testify) "Hot!" A few years back we introduced our readers to several Thai bands, including Modern Dog, Photo Sticker Machine and Futon, who, while stylistically a diverse bunch, all hailed from Bangkok's Soi Thonglor district, a tiny Mecca for the city's burgeoning art, fashion and music scene. We now have an extremely limited quantity of albums from a few more artists from that part of the world that are sure to sell out just as quickly. Fans of Futon will be particularly interested in Momokomotion, the newest project from Momoko Ueda, one of the founding members of that electroclash-influenced quartet. Self-describing her project as a (point oh-oh) rave band, the 10 tracks on Punk in a Coma aren't as sex-charged or clubby as her former group, but rather playful electro-pop, with the Japanese born Ueda singing about toys, dogs, punks and noise, not to mention covering Nirvana's "All Apologies"(?!), with a voice that's at times reminiscent of Echobelly's Sonya Aurora Madan. Punk in a Coma's cover features commissioned art by legendary Japanese painter Yoshitomo Nara and is available in both a regular digi-pack version as well as beautiful limited, collector edition hardcover books, with additional design work by Thai spacialist Wit Pimkanchanapong. (In-store customers purchasing the hardcover version may choose between a Japanese and Thai cover, but due to the limited quantity, mail order customers will receive either/or, and additional shipping will be applied.) 2Charuson! seems to be a bit of a local Bangkok enigma, singing not a word of Thai, but rather in English, though the lyrics are often unintelligible. But he bellows with the best of 'em, be it Elbow's Guy Garvey or more appropriately Mark Lanegan, as these songs definitely have a '90s-era Seattle feel to them. (Leave it to Thailand to jumpstart the grunge revival!) He's reportedly quite prolific, having written over 200 songs and, whom our music contact in Thailand told us, "Pulling four out of him for his debut EP was pulling the proverbial blood from the stone." One of his collaborators is Pod from Modern Dog, and album art is by up and coming Thai artist Wutachai Boontham. Last but not least is Bear-garden, whose songs could best be described as folky dream pop. It's fairly DIY sounding but still pretty and accessible music, created from her arsenal of nylon string guitar, bass, cheap keyboard and earnest sampled beats. Both of these albums were released on Panda Records, Thailand's premiere artist led indie, a commune label of sorts formed 10 years ago by Bear-garden and two other bands (Red 20 and Stylish Nonsense) when the members of these projects lived together in college, and to this day are still recording and producing each other's releases. We currently have two of her four albums: 2001's I'm a Gardener -- which also includes a bonus CD with a 2003, German-produced documentary video (mostly in English) covering Thailand's independent scene, featuring interviews from music makers like Bear-garden, Apartment Khun Ba, and Som, and the Smallroom, Bama, Panda, and Hualampong Riddim labels -- and 2005's Love Is Sweet Suicide. [GH]


	$34.99 CD		YAMATAKA EYE Re...Remix? (Commons) "Remix Works 1" "Remix Works 7" It's been a good year to be a Boredoms fan, though most wallets might feel differently, considering that most Bore-releases, including the ubiquitous numerous side projects that nearly always satisfy, have been costly import-only items these days. Well, prepare for another talking-to by your cashflow because this CD, a collection of remix and DJ work by Boredoms frontman Yamataka EYE, is all killer, no filler. EYE's been no stranger to the remix world -- he's been tearing tracks apart (mostly for Japanese indie, hip-hop, and dance artists, many unfamiliar to Western audiences) and rebuilding them as stomping tropical monsters since around the Super Ae period, turning anything he touches into jungle music in a quite literal sense (though not necessarily the drum-n-bass sense). There's very much a universal sound at work here, and those familiar with either the Boredoms Rebore Voluime 0 (Vision Creation Newsound) or his mix CD as DJ Pika Pika Pika will find themselves in a familiar territory: beats that sound like droplets of water, the chatter of Balinese gabber monkeys, snake charmer horns, didgeridoos, orchestras of tablas and kettle drums (often sped up into double-time or possibly even faster) that are often juxtaposed amid outbursts of electronics, solid house pulses, and yes, the occasional snippet of the artist's original track. When EYE remixes a song, he doesn't reshape it for the dance world, he shapes it for survival in HIS world, where pop hits are released on Sublime Frequencies and the world's best DJ is Mother Nature herself. If you're a Boredoms fan, you've probably already decided whether or not you're buying this. If you're still on the fence, give the sound samples a try and eat grilled cheese sandwiches for a week. Your wallet will forgive you for it, trust me. [IQ]


	$13.99 CD $9.99 mp3		SONS & DAUGHTERS This Gift (Domino) "Gilt Complex" "This Gift" When I first heard Glasgow's Sons & Daughters a few years ago, their rootsy-punk rave-ups instantly brought to mind the seminal Los Angeles punk band X. It was actually a breath of fresh air during a time when dance punk was losing its edge with a glut of young groups cribbing Gang of Four. I also found it a bit ironic that a band, who 20 years earlier had sung "I hear the radio's finally gonna play new music, you know the British invasion...Will the last American band please bring the flag," would be introduced to a new generation via a group from the UK, not exactly British but still across the pond. That song quote came from "I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts" off of 1983's More Fun in the New World, a great album that also marked X's biggest move towards a commercial sound; it even landed them a video into medium rotation on MTV. There's an unintended parallel here. Sons & Daughter's newest album, This Gift, finds the band embracing a wider range of influences and lots more polish thanks to onetime Suede guitarist and producer extraordinaire Bernard Butler. For one, the murky, seductive lure of their music has evolved into a sound that's still sexy and dark, but a lot more glamorous and with more of an overt pop focus. It's not as drastic as one might think though, and whether conjuring a '60s girl band's na-na-na chorus during "Rebel with a Ghost," or bouncy rockabilly ("Chains") and even a little "Mother's Little Helper" guitar riffing throughout "Darling," you can't mistake the heavy propulsive drive and Adele Bethel and Scott Paterson's harmonies for anyone but Sons & Daughters. In the case of This Gift, accessibility isn't a bad thing, and it's actually mostly a byproduct of a group successfully spreading their wings so writers like me will stop with the X references already. [GH]


	$14.99 CD		SAM SHALABI Eid (Alien8) "Jessica Simpson" "Pitchfork" Montreal-based guitarist Sam Shalabi has a pretty deep discography at this point, both with his group the Shalabi Effect and as a solo artist. I've always liked and respected his albums well enough, but haven't ever been totally blown away by anything he's ever done. I believe that situation has thus changed with the release of his fourth solo album Eid, the most concise, original, and engaging work he's released to date. Eid was composed while Shalabi was living in Cairo during 2006, and is intended to be his personal response to the wide variety of Arabic pop music he was exposed to during his stay. There's no shortage of North American recording artists mining the musical landscapes of various cultures right now, but the approach he takes here is surely the right one in that he allows the influences he soaked up to permeate his natural working method. You don't leave with the feeling that he's strewing so much third world bric-a-brac around a room as you do that he's struck a mysterious balance between the lived in, and the new. It's a beautifully produced album that opens with the sound of a forlorn solo oud and which soon erupts into a completely rocking and psychedelic burner that has a guitar solo that wouldn't sound out of place on a Comets on Fire album. He widens the palette he has to work with by dispersing the vocal duties between several excellent male and female collaborators. This is a really strong album with a wholly unique atmosphere that actually investigates, understands and responds to the music of another culture while avoiding the pitfalls of mere tokenism, it's Shalabi's finest and most likely one of 2008's as well. [MK]


	$28.99 CD		AKIO SUZUKI k7 Box (ALM Japan) "Analapos (A-1)" "De Koolmees" In many ways, inventor, musician and instrument builder Akio Suzuki is as close to what I would consider the definition of a sound artist. Born in 1941, Suzuki has been performing, teaching and building his own instruments for nearly 40 years. Outside of a few key documents -- the seminal double CD Odds and Ends comes to mind -- his work has unfortunately been rather under-represented outside of the live context, so it's a treat to hear this new collection of pieces on the resurrected ALM Records. Known for performing in outdoor settings like mountains or valleys, Suzuki creates captivatingly simple sound works that are as much about the space that they are created in as they are about the beautifully resonant instruments that he has built and perfected over a lifetime. For these recordings made in 2007, he focuses predominantly on two of his most well known instruments: the Analapos, an echo instrument consisting of a long wire with a can like metal resonator on one end; and the De Koolmees, his own version of a glass harmonica. (His performance is equally engaging on the short middle track where the instrumentation is credited only as "bottle".) Using the Analapos, Suzuki creates melodies with the instrument's natural reflections, focusing on playful vocal harmonics sung into the instrument and rubbing, plucking and tapping it to create an enormous range of carefully sculpted sounds that shift the listener's attention through various layers of aural intensity -- from long scraped decays and warm drones to percussive gesturing and rhythmic reverberation. When working with the De Koolmees, he uses the instrument's glass tubes to create gorgeous and deeply resonant pieces that sound like a combination of glass bells, prayer bowl and at times xylophone. There is a purity to this work that reflects an artist who has spent many, many years intently focused on the act of listening. In the words of David Toop, "I think of Akio Suzuki as a kind of magician." [KH]