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FL #21 MATTY & MOSSY
• Fraimers Hamey (CD)
Debut release from this Houston quartet. Melodies that will
make you swoon (think Elephant 6) combined with a breathtaking
sense of dynamics and a controlled sensuality that belies the
band's relatively young age. Other reference points? I dunno,
maybe Cat Power, Smog, and perhaps Geraldine Fibbers. Recorded
by Elephant 6 knob twiddler Chris Bishop in Athens, GA. For Real
Audio excerpts of “Christmas,” “Fattress,”
“The Angler,” and “Trojan Radio,” go to www.cdbaby.com/mattynmossy.
8 tracks, 27 minutes. $8
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FL #16 DUNLAVY • King
of All Surveys (CD)
The fifth album to be released from Scott Grimm's post–THE MIKE GUNN project. The sonic universe of DUNLAVY seamlessly shifts from mantric riffs of Sabbathian heft to shape–shifting, blissful drones, while the occasional (almost subconscious) vocals float by like a psilocybic wind. Pastoral, violin-like sounds and acoustic passages morph into brooding guitar riffs that morph into lyrical, modal guitar lines. Is it psychedelic? Uh, yeah. A special surprise lurks in the almost Morricone esque aura of “Sassy.”
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FL #18 THE LINUS PAULING
QUARTET • Ashes In The Bong Of God (CD)
The
debut Fleece release from Houston's mighty LP4 and, oh my god,
it's a concept album! The musical setting for this tale is a heady
mix of deep–psych explorations and free–jazz tinged
improvisation. Clinton's lovingly processed narrative (sounds
like he's speaking from inside a bong) allows even the most drug-addled
brain to follow this fantastical story of spaceships, two bongs
named “Mournebong” and “Stonebringer”, and
how “Mike Gunn's mom saved the universe.” Contains one
bonus song (my personal live fave, “Airplane”) that
does not appear on the German vinyl version.
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FL #13 PHILIP GAYLE •
Pnbna (CD)
First
Fleece release from Houston's premier outsider guitarist. Resonating,
often playful, solo acoustic improvisations utilizing various
guitars, mandolin, water phone, rolling pin, etc.
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FL #12 DUNLAVY • John
Merkel Is a Miracle (CD)
Atmospheric psych and drone, less aggressive than Thaumaticron 2 but just as trance inducing (if not more). Absolutely gorgeous.
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FL #11 KING FROG •
Cocoanut Grove (LP)
Fleece
debut from Eric Ostrowski's (NOGGIN) solo project. Haunting intrumentals,
incorporating acoustic guiater, violin, theremin and more, at
times having the feel of an undiscovered Folkways album. Silk
screened covers with hand colored photo attached. Ltd. edition
of 515 copies.
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FL #10 ROTTEN PIECE •
The Incarcerated Dwarf Heiress (CD)
Incredible
new album of psychedelic / experimental soundscapes. Seventeen
tracks are woven into one long, hallucinogenic piece, incorporating
electronics, homemade instruments, urban field recordings, loops
and more. Their best work to date.
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FL #9 DUNLAVY • Thaumaticron
2 (CD)
Third
album, and first to be released in the U.S. from ex–THE MIKE
GUNN member Scott Grimm. Mantric hard psych and blissful, shape-shifting
drones.
A potent slice of crushing fuzzed out riffs,
deep and heavily wasted vocal effects and sublimely introspective
chord deconstruction that drift and slide into a truly psyched-out
whirlpool of eyeball sweating sound. Ptolemaic Terrascope
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FL #8 KABLE • Tardy
All The Time (CD)
Second
album of basement folk / psych haze from the muse of Kay Bonya.
Tweaked and blissfull, an excellent followup to her debut.
Some of the record's best moments occur when
she stacks finger-picked acoustic guitars over rustic banjos;
tosses in some toy piano, an incomprehensible chant and a drum
machine that sounds like it's going into cough syrup withdrawal.
Magnet
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FL #7 ROTTEN PIECE •
Caged Meat (CD)
Complies
tracks recorded from 1990–1996. Electronics, loops, alien
percussion and the occasional outburst of noise.
Their unclean sounding electronic and effected-out
home studio musings quiver with unearthly life. Your Flesh
A joint release with Lazy Squid.
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FL #6 ALMS • Various
Artists (CD)
A benefit
for Ptolemaic Terrascope. Tracks from Ash Castles on the Ghost
Coast, Bari Watts, Dry Nod, Eyeless in Gaza, Ghost, Roy Montgomery,
Jessamine, Brother JT, Project Grimm, Peglegasus. Limited to 1000
copies and packaged in a die-cut folder with hand printed woodcut.
Few remain.
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FL #05 RUSTED SHUT •
s/t (CD)
In existence
since 1987, this is the long awaited debut from Houston's legendary
noise/rock trio. Live, studio and radio sessions capturing their
awe-inspiring primal racket. Moments of improv-noise free flight
and three chords (or less!) gutter stomp.
Hilariously over the top and wasted. Great.
Chrohinga Well
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FL
#04
ASH CASTLES ON THE GHOST COAST • s/t (CD)
Debut
album of crystalline beauty from this nomadic Texas duo. A joint
release with Wholly Other.
You're left with the feeling that you have been inadvertently
listening in on something you weren't meant to hear, recorded
long before the presumed earliest possible date for electronic
recording technology. Opprobrium
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FL #03 WILLIAM SWITZER •
The Illusion Of Technique (CD)
Improv
shenanigans from the duo of Mike Switzer (Slight Surface Noise/Avijit)
and Jason Bill (ex–Charalambides). Think Incus meets Portsmouth
Sinfonia. Kind of like the music that seeps from the moonshine-addled
brain of my Uncle Stumpy as he steps in a fire ant mound on the
way to the bayou to check the muskrat traps. Ltd. edition of 500
copies.
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FL #02 KABLE • Chlorophyll
(CD)
This
stunning debut is a psychedelic journey written, performed and
recorded by Kay Bonya. A unique blend of basement folk / psych
haze and fuzzed-out electric romps, housed in some particularly
brain-frying artwork by Miss Bonya. Kable also had a track on
the Ptolemaic Terrascope Succour comp.
Any open-minded fan of things truly consciousness
altered needs to hear this. Deep Water
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FL #01 DRILLING THE CURVE
• Various Artists (LP)
Vinyl-only comp of Houston bands with tracks from Charalambides
(a Jandek cover and the gorgeous “Mayflower”), Dry Nod,
Dave Dove Paul Duo, The Mike Gunn, Rusted Shut and Sad Pygmy.
Limited to 825 copies, not a whole lot remain.
Seminal. Ptolemaic Terrascope.
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