Celebrating two new John Frusciante releases

Last week it was announced on his website, that John Frusciante will release an EP and an album this year. Being fascinated with and listening to his music since seeing the VPRO documentary on dutch television back in 1994, to me this is awesome news. Apart from the collabration with Chris McDonald & Aaron Funk (Venetian Snares) Speed Dealer Moms, Frusciante's last release was 2009's The Empyrean.

According to Frusciante, the tracks on the EP (Letur-Fefr) will feature tracks that were recorded back in 2010 and the album (PBX) was recorded in 2011. Here's more info on both releases:

Letur-Lefr will be released in Japan on July 4th, in North America on July 17th, and in the rest of the world on July 16th. You can pre-order the EP, which will be available on vinyl, CD, cassette and in 32 bit, FLAC and MP3 digital formats here. 

Letur-Lefr

1. In Your Eyes
2. 909 Day
3. Glowe
4. FM
5. In My Light

Letur-Lefr will be released in Japan on July 4th, in North America on July 17th, and in the rest of the world on July 16th. You can pre-order the EP, which will be available on vinyl, CD, cassette and in 32 bit, FLAC and MP3 digital formats here.

PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone

1. Intro/sabam
2. Hear say
3. Bike
4. Ratiug
5. Guitar
6. Mistakes
7. Uprane
8. Sam
9. Sum
10. Walls and Doors (Japanese Bonus Track)
11. Ratiug (acapella version) (Japanese Bonus Track)

PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone will be released on 24th/2th September (12th in Japan). A link to pre-order it will be available in August.

Listen to the first new music since 2009 here:

To celebrate this joyfull news, here are two very interessting video's: a 2008 interview with Frusciante and a fanmade registration of his last solo perfomrance, 2005 ATP festival in England.

Mahmoud Ahmed - Yeshi Hargetu

Just a reminder on this great, great artist. Check out my post on Ethiopian funk and enjoy this very rare glimpse on Mr. Ahmed himself...

Can - Ogam Ogat

Can is a recent discovery of mine, music wise. Well, discovery. Of course I'd heard of and read about this band for years, but I never got around to really listening to their records. Strange, because I've listened to two Holger Czukay records since I was little (my father played them). Those records were 1984's Der Osten Ist Rot, and 1979's Movies. From this album comes the song Cool In The Pool:

Czukay was the bass player, recording engineer and sound manipulator in the band Can. Influenced by Karlheinz Stockhausen, like a lot of the originators from the so called Kraurock Scene, Czukay formed Can in 1968.

The most famous, and in my opinion best, records by Can are Ege Bamyasi and Tago Mago, the latter being a double disc vinyl, edited down from hours and hours of jamming. Czukay recorded a lot (some say all) of these jams, and used them to create, through the use of tape editing, the tunes on Tago Mago.


Especially the song Halleluwah earned a lot of fame. With it's 18 minutes and 32 seconds it might seem overlong or pretentieus in some other way, but this song is exciting thoughout and never bores me. With a lot of thanks to Jaki Liebezeit, Can's drummer, who excels in this song. In 2011 Tago Mago was re-released by Can's label Spoon Records, and in 2009, Ogam Ogat was released (unofficiallly). This release features two unedited jams from the Tago Mago sessions in Schloss Nörvenich, a castle near Cologne.

1. Auf Der Einbahnstrasse Part One (16:43)

2. Auf Der Einbahnstrasse Part Two (18:47)

Enjoy!

Jonny Greenwood - Bodysong

It's been a while, so...erm...yeah! I try to post as little official stuff as possible but I do post some hard to get stuff every now and then. This time: the soundtrack from 2003's documentary by Simon Pummell about life. Yeah, as big as that. I recommand to watch this film because I think it's beautiful (if that's enough...). It handles themes like birth, childhood, dance and sex by showing loads of images from all over the world, without dialogue or (for half of the time) even sound with the images. There is music: by Radiohead's guitar player extraordinaire: Jonny Greenwood. He uses sampling, jazz and classical orchestration and experimental music to paint a picture that's weird, comforting and disturbing consecutively or sometimes simultaneously.

The file that you can get here, features four additional tracks: 2 tracks from the 7" that was released around the same time the album was and one track called Untitled, of which I don't know where it came from, but it sounds like it's from the same sessions, so I included it here. Also included is Smear, a symphony Greenwood composed as composer in residence to the BBC Concert Orchestra. Not really fitting this release but yeah...

Pay extra attention to the track Convergence. It sounds like Greenwood arranged loads of percussion to play free form and slowly directs all percussion to play into the beat. I own both the CD and the vinyl as well as the 7" so I paid my dollars & cents to Jonny. Oh, and all artwork is by Stanley Donwood (Radiohead's residential artist) Enjoy!

1. Moon Trills (5:17)
2. Moon Mall (1:12)
3. Trench (2:38)
4. Iron Swallow (2:07)
5. Clockwork Tin Soldiers (3:48)
6. Convergence (4:26)
7. Nudnik Headache (2:16)
8. Peartree (3:06)
9. Splitter (3:57)
10. Bode Radio/Glass Light/Broken Hearts (4:36)
11. 24 Hour Charleston (2:39)
12. Milky Drops from Heaven (4:44)
13. Tehellet (3:40)
14. Duty Lux (2:52) 7" bonus track
15. Untitled (3:56)
16. Nudnik Headache Splitting Mix (5:29) 7" bonus track
17. Smear (12:22)

Can - Bring Me Coffee or Tea

No comment...

R.E.M. - We All Go Back To Where We Belong

Although my love for this band limits itself to Green and Automatic For The People, this song really catched my ear when I first heard it on the radio. Especially the way Michael Stipe sings the first verse, so soft and full of emotion (his last goodbye). And when I saw these two beautiful video's I just had to share them. Enjoy!

Underworld - Second Toughest Area B-sides

Sometimes music really is art. To me that's very much the case with Underworld (MK2)'s second album Second Toughest In The Infants from 1996. The record (I own the 2LP) comes with a remarkable cover whilst the music is very aesthetically beautifull too. I played the CD (on my discman...) over and over while biking to work which made my trip less long and much more pleasant. I enjoyed the music so much that I bought most of the singles and EP's that came out. That was great 'cause there were some great remixes on them, but also incredible new songs. So here's the whole sha-bam! Part 1 & Part 2.

1. Banstyle (Alex Reece Mix)
2. Oich Oich
3. Puppies
4. Cherry Pie
5. Mosiac
6. Deep Arch
7. Rez
8. Air Towel Jam
9. Oich Oich Jam
10. Born Slippy .Nuxx (Nuxx Mix)
11. Pearl's Girl (Carp Dreams...Koi)
12. Born Slippy .NUXX (Deep Pan)
13. Pearl's Girl (14996 Version)
14. Born Slippy .NUXX (Darren Price Remix)
15. Born Slippy .NUXX (Darren Price Remix 2)
16. Pearl's Girl (Tin There)