One of last year’s best finds was Cause Co-Motion’s singles compilation. They’re back with a 6 track EP and boy is it good. I know the amount of happy go-lucky jangly LA pop you can listen to is limited, and there’s a whole bunch of good/crap coming out of that camp, but this 10 minute long EP has actual music to go with the noise-reverb drenched doodlings most bands offer these days. Sort of a noisier challenger to my heart’s pop-punk throne which is held by the sadly demised Kung-Fu Monkeys, who I’ve now discovered to be reformed and working on a new album. Woohoo! Will it feel like the 90’s again?

I sat down to write a post about the new LP from French hip-hop trio Jazz Liberatorz, yet I after half an hour of friendfeed banter, I realized that I’ve been rocking to NYC klezmer-math-jazz power trio Rashanim for the time being and thinking obsessively about questions like if I will ever live to see them live somewhere, why on earth they aren’t better known or how to obtain the new Rashanim album NOW. After checking my RYM account for the umpteenth time to see if I have given them 5 stars, I realized my only option was to buy it from a site called thinkindie. Regardless of my financial failure, I valiantly pressed buy only to see that they don’t sell to TR. Well, what can I say apart from cursing the moment that someone first thought of using areacodes/national boundaries for digital media. Now I have to listen to Shalosh until I order a CD from Tzadik or stream the new album from Squidco (which apparently is acoustic :/) or Myspace. The second song is from Exil’s 1975 album Fusionen.

If you remember, we’ve teased the Crystal Antlers‘ debut LP Tentacles a few weeks ago on undomondo. I’ve spent the time in between listening to it and I can confidently say that it still doesn’t cease to amaze. True, their name has hipsterism written all over and how many more “Crystal somethings” we can tolerate might be hot topic, but if you are into the new jangly, noisy, power pop/punk school coming frmo NY and LA, like No Age, Wavves, Vivian Girls, Cause-Co Motion et al, Crystal Antlers’ Tentacles is a must have from 2009.

Thanks to being miles apart we can’t experience their live shows which are supposedly electric but after a few listens, it’s safe to say their own brand of garage rock is way more sophisticated than Wavves’ or Vivian Girls’ three chord punkism. 13 tracks of noisy and chaotic but at the same time accessible punk/rock with layers of hot FX fuzz sprinkled on top.

60s garage toughs like the Music Machine and the Misunderstood, red-eyed noiseniks like Guru Guru and Les Rallizes Denudes (whose ever-present turbine whine serves as the sound of the Crystal Antlers’ circulatory system) and the mechanized motor-soul of Osmium-era Parliament. Raw want meets raw power on songs like the title track and “Until The Sun Dies Part 1,” which push “Black To Comm” break-outs into “What’s Goin’ On?” sentiments while the trademark Antlers organ howls at lights on the horizon. Touch and Go

San Diego instrumental-prog rockers Sleeping People was one of the last real finds of 2007. Released on Temporary Residence the label, which also hosts Explosions in the Sky, Tarantel and Maserati and Grails among others, “Growing” is a straight forward instrumental rock album with trailing guitar riffs and rock solid drumming. Not as post-rock & cinematic as EitS or dark & psychedelic as Grails, Sleeping People relies on their aggro riffs & exceptional energy. They’ve been a 2 guitar & drum trio in the beginning for God’s sake. Only the closer “People Staying Awake” has some vocals but what a touch it is! They should have a few more vocal songs of this sense in their 3rd one!. Anyways, after touring the US with fellow San Diego rockers The Locust in 2007, Sleeping People is set to tour Europe in March and April. Don’t miss if you’re in France, Italy or Germany!

Sleeping People – Centipede’s Dream
Sleeping People – Yellow Guy / Pink Eye
Sleeping People – Blue Fly Green Fly
Sleeping People – Nasty Portion

Here’s the last part, from now on new music!!

05 A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangár Ensemble – Self Titled (Leaf) : Together with the Bela Agostone lead Hun Hangar Ensemble, AHAAH has delivered a standardbearer neo-balkan-folk EP. Hope this collaboration results in more albums in the future.Past review on undomondo
04 High on Fire – Death Is This Communion (Relapse) : Oakland, CA’s power stoner trio High on Fire’s 10 ton riffage, is hands down the best & heaviest album for me. Metacritic.
03 Upsilon Acrux – Galapagos Momentum (Cuneiform) : One of the most extreme albums this year, Acrux’ heavy prog-math rock is not everyone’s cup of tea. Past review on undomondo
02 Marnie Stern – In Advance of the Broken Arm (Kill Rock Stars) : I can’t believe how good this album turned out to be albeit being criticized for many critics as being gibberish, I’m highly impressed by her obsessive songwriting and shredding. Past review on undomondo

There’s nothing like being owned
Kept by beens in a jelly mould
Brought out on special occasions
Served with black entertainment
Measured by the size of the rash minus income
Make it stop, we could all get together
And fucking burn the lot
Kept by bees in a glass case
Next to Atlantis, rendered badly by my oil paints
Trapped by ESP in the darkness
All those guys, they just want a part in your story

01 Future of the Left – Curses (Too Pure) : After careful consideration, I guess Mclusky survivors delivered the most complete album this year, arguably 2007’s Entertainment!. Let’s see if it will stand the test of time. Past review on undomondo Pitchfork review. Future of the Left interview.

And so another list ends with the lyrics to Kept by Bees in case you wanna sing along. If anyone gets what they’re talking about, msg me please. :)

15 Battles – Mirrored (Warp Records) : Everybody’s been talking about “Mirrored” this year, and they kind of deserve it for getting their oddtimed dissonant music to find strange acclaim from mainstream circles as well as mathheads.
14 Deejay OM – Reheated Naan and Curry (Galapagos4) : A fine hybrid of Indian samples mixed with beats. Somehow liked it much more than Madlib’s take. Past review on undomondo.

Ólöf Arnalds – Klara

13 Ólöf Arnalds – Við og við (12tónar) : Icelandic singer Ólöf Arnalds‘ acoustic folk deserves a government grant as we get more and more interested in Iceland after listening to her debut.
12 White Magic – Dark Stars (Drag City) : Frankly I’m an utter sucker for their haunting minimalist folk, hopefully more to come in 2008.Past review on undomondo
11 Alamaailman Vasarat – Maahan (Backstage Alliance) : Finnish weirdo prog-rockers Alamaailman Vasarat didn’t fail to satisfy us with their 3rd album a highly versatile & wacky world music stuff. Circus music at its best.Past review on undomondo, The Armchair Critic review

Luke Temple – Medicine

10 Luke Temple – Snowbeast (Millpond) : Brooklyn, NY based singer & songwriter Luke Temple’s album is one of the best albums of the year, with hints of 70s psychedelia and melancholy, top quality singer songwriter pop. Past review on undomondo
09 Nostalgia 77 – Everything Under the Sun (Tru-Thoughts) : UK’s finest nujazz troupe a with an impressive effort, and they didn’t stop here and went for a second gold album as an octet. Past review on undomondo
08 Shellac – Excellent Italian Greyhound (Touch & Go) : Most critics didn’t like this album compared to other Shellac releases, but nevertheless it’s better than most of the stuff this year. Past review on undomondo. Pitchfork review

Men-an-Tol – Orange Juice and Vodka

07 Men-an-Tol – Men-an-Tol (Static Caravan) : I’ve declared my love for bearded UK folkers Men-an-Tol a few times this year, can’t wait for their debut album in 2008. Past review on undomondo
06 Fedayi Pacha – The 99 Names of Dub (Hammerbass) : Unnoticed by short sighted critics with the Burial syndrome, French dubster Fedayi Pacha’s “The 99 Names of Dub” is the most diverse dub album this year as well as the most cranked for me. Past review on undomondo

Battles – Race:in
Deejay OM – Silk dealers of New Delhi
Ólöf Arnalds – Englar og Dárar
White Magic – Poor Harold
Alamaailman Vasarat – Katkorapu
Luke Temple – Saturday People
Nostalgia 77 – Stop to make a change
Shellac – Steady as she goes
Men-an-Tol – Orange Juice & Vodka
Fedayi Pacha – Kufiq Type

Cuneiform never fails to impress us with a steady supply of brilliant albums. Here’s a new album, by the band that I still haven’t been able to pronounce correctly : Ahleuchatistas. The North Carolina power trio belongs to the increasing number of brilliant progressive math rock albums that I’ve been listening to this year, full of odd times, shifting rhythms, janglnig guitars and other extremities. Alongside Marnie Stern & Upsilon Acrux, Ahleuchatistas seal the deal with the “must get extreme guitar music” this year. Some good keywords that I stole from the labelpage are “avant-technical, improv-core, math-metal, art-damage”, however don’t get disheartened as the music is far from being some kind of inaccessible noise experimentation. “Even in the Midst”, with the lovely power trio formation of bass, guitars and drums has packed an extreme amount of energy & speed alongside technical ability, but it demands some serious attention to enjoy the music. I’m sure it will be rewarding to hunt the back catalogue too.

PS: There goes another mystery after reading the Audiversity review, the name was derived from the Charlie Parker song “Ah-Leu-Cha” and Mexico’s infamous hillside guerrillas, the Zapatistas.

Ahleuchatistas – K-Bit
Ahleuchatistas – Cup of Substance

The Thing with Ken Vandermark by Mizohu Yabe

We’ve been slacking on posting avantjazz for a while since I haven’t found anything notable to listen these days (care to help? comment pls.) so here’s 2006’s Action Jazz by Mats Gustafsson’s The Thingon Smalltown Supersound. Their eighth studio album is a chaotic tornado which defined Allaboutjazz summed as “rugby match played inside a liberated zoo” by . Joined by his veteran drummer Paal Nilssen-Love (also his partner from the Original Science collective) and bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten there’s a fair share of improvised madness lead by Gustafsson’s squealing sax and a frenetic rhythm section on original compositions like the closer “Strayhorn” by Mats Gustafsson and covers of Ornette Coleman, Cato Salsa Experience and Yosuke Yamashita. The Thing comes along as the Swedish equivalent of a power trio without guitars, just think about the noise they could make live!. Check out around 5:00 minutes of The Nut / The Light total bliss after a mindblowing 2 minutes.

The Thing – Chiasma
The Thing – The Nut / The Light

An excellent return to form by the all powerful Steve Albini, producer of countless milestone albums, this time with his own band Shellac, which has been silent since 2000’s 1000 Hurts. It’s been well worth the wait as “Excellent Italian Greyhound” is aesthetically and musically sublime.

A few days ago I read this at Can you see the sunset

Today the information overload is 1000x worse. It is great that there are so many individuals that can get their music heard by anyone who will listen, but all the mystery is gone. No stone is left unturned (…) reminds me of back when music was mysterious and you could spend hours pouring over the liner notes of your favorite album. ()

I also think sometimes that I can’t enjoy some music thoroughly while searching for new things all the time, I try to balance it with a mental algorithm on my own and sometimes stop myself to listen to what I got. Shellac is a band that’s in some ways against digitalization, against PR, against promotion and against music industry.

“Shellac do not have a “fixed fee” for performances like most bands, preferring instead to take the door sales minus expenses such as promotion, running costs and venue fees. They have also been known to ask venues to remove ticket charges, as they deem them unnecessary” and sometimes I think of sharing their neo-Luddite stance against the modern world. But then again don’t we all have some love/hate relationship with the modern life?

Anyways, Shellac has perfected their unique blend of fuck-off attitude a la early Helmet, Fugazi, Fudge Tunnel, Nation of Ulysses, Melvins, Sonic Youth and discordant barebone midtempo punk rock crunch. Excellent Italian Greyhound sounds like watching a black & white documentary and being enraged inside, about the system or the hostile environment modernization has caused. Reality seems bitter but at least it’s real and not fabricated.

Shellac – Steady as she Goes
Shellac – kittypants

a ‘video clip’ of Kletka Red, made from stuff filmed on the bands last tour. Mostly in Venice.

Do you like Klezmer music? Are you also a fan of high intensity in your face speed punk metal? Then this album is for you. Kletka Red’s “Hijacking” came out in 1996 on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. It’s Klezmer on crank. The band is Leonid Soybelman, Andy Moor (Dog Faced Hermans, Ex), Tony Buck, and Joe Williamson. From what I’ve read they took traditional Klezmer songs and turned them into high powered metal. The first tracks remind me of Melt Banana and have no discernable reference to Klezmer. Other tracks definitely have the flavor. Check it out. I really enjoyed this album. Here are two tracks for your enjoyment and wish fulfilment. Mazel tov!

Mersenne’s note : The first song seems to be the traditional Greek Dance you can check it out here, both of our freehosts seem to be down for the time being, at least they don’t work for me.

Kletka Red – Jew In Jerusalem
Kletka Red – D’mame