Coming up from LTM

I said the *Blues* Orchids above - Martin Brahmah trading 'licks' with BB King? Doh.

What's great about LTM in the US is that between them and Darla's distribution, the prices are kept lower than most domestic releases.

I'm very excited about the second of these two (the Peel Sessions one) but I wasn't very taken with "Diamond Age" and the songs I heard them play in '93 (or was it '92) weren't all that amazing either, so I won't be rushing out to buy that one.

That Thirst EP isn't *that* great. But their first LP is an absolute masterpiece. Someone should have reissued that in an enhanced form.

I'm very excited about the second of these two (the Peel Sessions one) but I wasn't very taken with "Diamond Age" and the songs I heard them play in '93 (or was it '92) weren't all that amazing either, so I won't be rushing out to buy that one.

That Thirst EP isn't that great. But their first LP is an absolute masterpiece. Someone should have reissued that in an enhanced form.

The 2nd Peel Session is just fantastic - Sun Connection/Bad Education/No Looking Back/A Year WIth No Head.

I never heard either Peel Session, so I don't mean to give a diminished impression of how excited I am about hearing them.

Did you ever hear the Aztec Camera cover of "Bad Education"? Surprisingly good.

Just me then.

The Miaw CD is out next week I think.

listening to it at the moment, bought on the strength of the two tracks i previously knew, 'belle vue' and 'sport most royal' and worth the tenner for those two alone.

andy

Don't agree with you about England Made Me, hazel. A quiet classic IMO. You must have the original release, because the new LTM one has both versions of Moves Like You.

I'll probably buy the Miaow anyway because I want LTM to keep re-releasing things.

http://www.ltmpub.freeserve.co.uk/ltmnews.html

Marine -- LIFE IN REVERSE (LTMCD 2396) £10
This enhanced CD gathers together all Marine studio recordings for the first time, and also includes an extended QuickTime MP3 audio visual section featuring charming Super 8 home movie footage of a trip to London to perform at a Crepuscule 'party' night at Heaven in July 1981, plus shorts and rehearsal material.

Berntholer -- MERRY LINES IN THE SKY LTMCD 2403 £10
This enhanced CD gathers together all Berntholer studio recordings made between 1983 and 1985, and also includes an extended QuickTime mpeg audio visual section featuring video clips for My Suitor, Exterior Nuit and The Choice.

Anna Domino -- MYSTERIES OF AMERICA / COLOURING IN... LTMCD 2410 £10
Mysteries of America dates from 1990 and offers eight original songs by Anna Domino and Michel Delory, as well as a haunting cover of Isn't That So by Jesse Winchester. More acoustic than before, the album was recorded in New York and Brussels, and produced by Anton Sanko (Suzanne Vega). The evocative cover art comes courtesy of Benoit Hennebert. Says Anna: "It's a travelogue of sorts - starts with a memory from childhood and ends with the Big Sleep." In addition this expanded CD reissue also features the five track mini album Colouring in the Edge and the Outline. Released by Crepuscule in 1988, the set is unusual for Anna in that it experiments with a more electronic, sequenced sound than before. The final bonus track is a previously unreleased recording from 1987, an experimental cover of Stand Apart by The Hood.

Anna Domino -- EAST AND WEST / LIVE IN JAPAN LTMCD 2383 £10
The debut mini album by Anna Domino, originally released in 1984 by Les Disques du Crepuscule (TWI 187) plus rare b side track Repeating. Guests include Virginia Astley, Blaine L. Reininger and Luc Van Acker. Digitally remastered and including seven bonus tracks recorded live in concert in Tokyo in January 1987, two of them never recorded elsewhere.

Minny Pops -- DRASTIC MEASURES, DRASTIC MOVEMENT (LTMCD 2384) £10
Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement first appeared on Dutch label Plurex in September 1979. An uncompromising genre classic, the 13 track set mixes hard-edged electronica with modernist noise, and shares much in common with contemporaries Cabaret Voltaire, The Normal, Suicide and early Human League. As well as an early version of the classic Factory label single Dolphin's Spurt, the album also includes the junk-food satire MD Mania and a cover of R.U.21 by US punk band Novak. The nine bonus tracks include all three cuts from their debut ep Kojak, also released in 1979, and the 2003 remix of Dolphin's Spurt by Zip and DJ Smacker. There are also 12 superb minutes of vintage audio-visual clips featuring five live tracks recorded at the Amsterdam Filmacademie in 1979, playable on your PC in QuickTime format.

BLAINE L. REININGER "NIGHT AIR 2" (LTMCD 2314) £10
Night Air #2 is intended as a sequel to his keynote 1984 album Night Air, a bittersweet meditation on life in exile in a hostile city. The sequel, carefully selected from several albums recorded between 1989 and 1999, captures many of the same moods, ranging from cinematic on Night Ride, expatriate angst on Invisible and modern electronica on Arc en Ciel.

MUSICA FUTURISTA: THE ART OF NOISES LTMCD 2401

Musica Futurista: The Art of Noises is a 73 minute collection of music and spoken word from the Italian Futurist movement 1909-1935, including original recordings by Marinetti, Russolo and Balilla Pratella.

As well as vintage 'free verse' readings by Futurist figurehead F.T. Marinetti, the CD includes recordings of the celebrated intonarumori (noise intoners) created by Luigi Russolo, including the composition The Awakening of a City.

Russolo's public performances scandalized Europe in 1914 yet still resonate today. Although his extraordinary ideas met with fierce resistance, it is now clear he exerted a powerful influence on a number of leading avant-garde and experimental composers, initially Igor Stravinsky, George Antheil and Arthur Honegger, and later John Cage, Edgard Varese, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Harry Partch, as well as non-classical electronica and avant-rock.

As well as period recordings, the CD includes contemporary performances of other key Futurist works by Balilla Pratella, Antonio Russolo, Aldo Giuntini, Luigi Grandi, Silvio Mix, Franco Casavola, Alfredo Casella, Matty Malneck and Frank Signorelli.

TWICE AS NICE (LTMCD 2398) £10 (DLP = £12)
Twice As Nice is the sequel to our hugely successful 2003 compilation Cool As Ice. Produced between 1982 and 1986 for release on Factory Records and Les Disques du Crepuscule, the Twice As Nice tracklist runs as follows:

52nd Street Express 5.02 #
Cheyne Call Me Mr Telephone 6.27 >
Quando Quango Low Rider (400 Blows Remix) 3.47 >
Anna Domino Summer (Baker Remix) 7.26 <
52nd Street Look Into My Eyes 6.59 #
Quando Quango Genius (Part 2) 6.48 >
Marcel King Keep On Dancing 3.30 *
Shark Vegas You Hurt Me (version) 6.33 *
New Order Video 586 (edit) 6.10
Section 25 Sakura 3.58
Thick Pigeon Jess + Bart (remix) 3.12
RFATP Motherland (Remix) 4.44
52nd Street Cool As Ice (Jellybean Mix) 7.45 #

Those tracks marked with an asterisk* were jointly produced by Be Music (Bernard Sumner) and DoJo (Donald Johnson, of A Certain Ratio). # indicates DoJo alone. > indicates Mark Kamins. < indicates Arthur Baker. The others are all Be Music (New Order) productions. The remastered CD runs for 73 minutes.

Fall 2004 will also bring new CD releases from The Servants (Reserved), Anna Domino (Best Of), Revenge (Live), Severed Heads (Rotund for Success) (attention Dan and Donut B., even though you already have this of course!), Steven Brown (Half Out), The Room (In Evil Hour/Clear!), Kalima (Night Time Shadows) and some way cool goodies on the revamped Boutique label.

Suprised he's starting with Rotund for Success. Glad the Severed Heads are finally getting their revival/critical acclaim that's due. Tiger Sushi released a remixed version of Dead Eyes Open earlier this year and I think another Severed Heads edit found it's way on a Glimmer Twins mix, or Black Strobe related, can't remember.

I have the Berntholer 12" "He's My Suiter" or whatever, and it's quite wonderful.

But really, Marine were great, very similar to Josef K but more repetitive, funky and fun. I've always referred to their track "Animal in My Head" which was originally on the Crepuscule Fruit of the Original Sin compilation as the single greatest post-punk song ever. It's totally awesome, like a more accessible Josef K/Fire Engines/Pop Group but not twee like Orange Juice. Awesome.

Might have something to do with the rights. Is Nettwerk no longer involved?

I finally have some time, Ned. Your CDs will be in the mail shortly!

DVDs! Now that'll be cool. Word is that the Wake one is a Hacienda gig.

I can't wait to get the "Rotund" reissue, but I do hope they start poking backward in time after this reissue, instead of forward.

there's a without mercy reissue cd on ebay right now...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200280635803

auteur labels comp of factory stuff looks pretty good, though nothing much new to me on there

new sxxv and wake albums this year!!

factory auteur labels tracklist

01 MARCEL KING Reach For Love (New York Remix)
02 NEW ORDER Lonesome Tonight (7" Edit)
03 THE WAKE Talk About The Past (7" Edit)
04 SECTION 25 Reflection
05 52ND STREET Can't Afford To Let You Go (Unorganised Mix)
06 QUANDO QUANGO Atom Rock (7" Edit)
07 RED TURNS TO Deep Sleep
08 SHARK VEGAS Pretenders Of Love
09 THICK PIGEON Hank
10 STOCKHOLM MONSTERS Terror
11 THE DURUTTI COLUMN Duet
12 KALIMA The Smiling Hour
13 SIMON TOPPING Chicas Del Mundo
14 ABECEDARIANS Smiling Monarchs
15 STREETLIFE No More Silence
16 LAVOLTA LAKOTA A Prayer

'thick pigeon' is a TERRIBLE band name!

verrrrrrrrrry interested to see LTM've put out bernard szajner's some deaths take forever, which i downloaded a while back on the strength of the amazing synth vs guitar epic 'welcome to deathrow'.

yeah bernard szajner is pretty goddamn cool from what I heard on that compilation or other.

'thick pigeon' is a TERRIBLY FANTASTIC band name!

Nothing new on that collection but good to see "Terror" get a run instead of the usual couple of singles that get stuck on these things to represent Stockholm Monsters.

haha i was going to complain about terror being comped for the umpteenth time

Smiling Monarchs is the best thing happening, there. I won't buy it, though.

Wot? It's usually "Happy Ever After" or "Partyline", innit? (xpost)

true.. tho when the reissues came out terror was on both ltm and darla comps at the time

i like smiling monarchs but deep sleep is far and away the lost classic here

the b-sides of that amazing 12" are just as good as the a-side

Yeah, it's nice, I put that 12" on my blog long ago, but Smiling Monarchs is better I think.

I'd consider that comp just for the new (to me) Shark Vegas track, but first I need to hear it and see if it is anywhere near as amazing as "You Hurt Me."

I've never been all that happy with Shark Vegas. Sometimes obscure Factory stuff...is just obscure Factory stuff :)

Thick Pigeon put out a fantastic first album, but I'm kinda past it now. I'd love it if folks heard them who hadn't heard them before, though.

I'm more interested in this Bernard Szajner thing. "Welcome to Deathrow" was the song I heard, too, off So Young So Cold, and I was surprised how modern sounding it was. I didn't even believe it was recorded back in the post punk days. So he has a whole CD out now??? Must investigate.

Also was far more impressed with Delmontes lately than I thought I'd be. I want that CD, too.

Playing Abecedarians' Smiling Monarchs now. Don't miss this one, kids. Fucking fantastic track.

Shark Vegas "You Hurt Me" is quality though. So I'd like to hear "Pretenders Of Love"

wow. red turns to on CD...

I love the Red Turns To 12 inch. I wish there was more.

the RTT track was comped once before, on a factory retrospective cd that london put out called different colours different shades or something like that.. it also had a vinyl-sourced version of the abecedarians track which sounded like shit (lazy on their part because the masters still exist(ed))

seems RTT recently played a reformation gig and are potentially releasing more stuff.. http://www.myspace.com/redturnsto

the full deep sleep ep is up on itunes now too

I really like that "Holding Angels" song. I'm guessing that's a new one. I was amused at the trivia concerning the record itself. It's nice to know one of my records is really valuable, too.

Bimble now that it is on itunes, you should remove it from your blog so the band can make some money to record some new stuff.

Good point. Shall do forthwith.

ooh thx for reminding me, off to buy it now

I cannot believe what you have to go through now to order from Darla. You used to be able to pick what you wanted and give your info and go. Now they want a whole bunch of rigamarole. Section 25 and Robin Guthrie/John Foxx, I hope you're fucking happy at the shit I went through to order your goddamn CD's. I could have had them from soulseek in a couple of clicks! What a crock of shit.

Blurt's debut and early singles get compiled by the ever vigilant Mr. Nice in November.

i note there is also an IPR auteur labels series coming soon

it better come in a letterpress sleeve ^_^

looks like the other two stuff is being reissued too

still wondering when the new wake album is coming out

coming up from LTM...

a trip to LA!

http://acuterecords.com/blog/?p=169

James Nice is one of the DJs at the festival (I am another), and there's going to be a pre-part saturday at the Standard roof pool with bands signing things and more DJing. Info here:

http://www.parttimepunks.com/

oh man that PTP festival will kick ass for sure. major jealousy.

Oh I didn't even know about the San Francisco mini festival the day before, gonna order my tickets right now.

Lasts to 3AM? I hope Section 25 plays early, leaving after them.

the other two reissues out 25/1/10

also:
A full lenght bonus disc featuring rare mixes and unreleased tracks by The Other Two is available only to LTM Mailorder customers who buy The Other Two & You and Super Highways together.

can i confess i was actually unaware there was a second TOT album

LTM's IPR compilation looks like a good one

ndependent project records
auteur labels series
LTMCD 2544 (£10)

The ongoing compilation series Auteur Labels profiles independent record labels with a unique and enduring sound, vision and design sensibility, usually guided by one or two directors, and concerned more with art than commerce. To order CDs click here.

...

'Outstanding compilations, sophisticated scholarship' (The Wire, 08/2008)

Full tracklist:
1. SAVAGE REPUBLIC the ivory coast
2. HUMAN HANDS dilemmas
3. PARTY BOYS jim jones
4. TEN FOOT FACES don't want love
5. CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN take the skinheads bowling
6. FOR AGAINST shine
7. DECEPTION BAY fence and flag
8. ABECEDARIANS benway's carnival
9. SAVAGE REPUBLIC o andonis
10. WOO down town suburbia
11. INDIAN BINGO separation days
12. RED TEMPLE SPIRITS new land
13. AUTUMNFAIR so far from god
14. FOURWAYCROSS halloween
15. HALF STRING eclipse
16. TONE the power of introspection
17. ALISONS HALO dozen
18. SCENIC sage
19. JEFFREY CLARK exploded view
20. SPRINGHOUSE moving van
21. BRUCE LICHER life begets a reprise
22. PROJECT 197 nine
23. BRIDGE underground, part 4 + bridge

AUTEUR LABEL: INDEPENDENT PROJECT RECORDS

If you've never witnessed a 50-year-old Vandercook No. 232 Proof Press working at full-on, finger-crushing capacity, then you've never heard a noise like this: SKREE CHUNK KA-CHANK SKREE CHUNK KA-CHANK SKREE CHUNK KA-CHANK. And you've never seen the primitive, industrial sensuality of rollers, bearings, plates, wheels and belts moving in greased tandem to produce a single sheet of letterpressed paper. In today's cold world of computers, watching an anachronistic contraption like the Vandercook is damned near erotic. Still, it's hard to imagine that a machine so - well, so mechanical - could act as an artist's palette; for Bruce Licher - graphic designer, printer, musician, record label entrepreneur - that is exactly the case.

Last night I had skinheads on my lawn.

IPR was an incredible label in every sense and i'm so happy LTM has done this compilation

Of those I'm only familiar with Savage Republic, Human Hands & CVB. Those are all good though so I'll be interested to hear the other stuff.

off the top of my head... for against are in my top 5 groups of all-time. half string did good dreampop/shoegaze stuff. scenic are post-savage republic instrumental dreamy post-rock. alison's halo also great shoegaze.

i have fourwaycross, autumnfair and deception bay records but i'm not as familiar with them. all fairly heavily in debt to the 4AD/factory side of things but well done all the same

I haven't heard about anything new coming up. Anyone have the scoop?

there's usually a bit of advance notice here: http://home.wxs.nl/~frankbri/

"Due out Fall 2011: new albums from The Wake and Section 25, and an archive live CD/DVD set from Minny Pops. "

curious to see what sxxv without larry will be like

there's a live Minny Pops album/dvd out. i think they're doing a one-off show soon to promote it..

also:
"Over the next few months expect albums from The Wake and X-O-Dus, and a double vinyl edition of From the Hip by Section 25. "

i think this wake album is starting to enter 'loveless remaster' territories

Yeah, they're playing next week in London (Minny Pops). I'm thinking about it, a bit skint at the moment though.

ltm now releasing stuff as factory / factory benelux now i see

lovely to have short stories for pauline as a proper release finally

sure, why not?

SORRY FOR LAUGHING + THE TV ART DEMOS LTMLP 2549 £20.00
The first ever vinyl release of Sorry For Laughing, the legendary first album by cult Scottish guitar group Josef K, recorded for Postcard Records but destined to become the great 'lost album' of the post-punk era. Recorded at Castle Sound Studios (Edinburgh) in November 1980, Sorry For Laughing should have been issued as Postcard 81-1, but was shelved after the band and label boss Alan Horne decided the 12-song set sounded too polished. Perhaps two dozen white-label copies in unmade sleeves exist, and have sold for as much as £1,000 amongst collectors. This remastered vinyl-only edition replicates the original Robert Sharp artwork, with detailed sleeve notes on the inner bag and the added bonus of a 12 track CD, The TV Art Demos, featuring all tracks from the band's very first recording sessions in 1979. Full tracklist: (LP) Fun 'n' Frenzy, Heads Watch, Drone, Sense of Guilt, Art of Things, Crazy to Exist, Citizens, Variation of Scene, Terry's Show Lies, No Glory, Endless Soul, Sorry For Laughing; (CD) Chance Meeting (take #1), Terry's Show Lies, No Glory, Final Request, Art of Things, Romance (take #1), Torn Mentor, Night Ritual, Heads Watch, Chance Meeting (take #2), Sense of Guilt, Romance (take #2)

Reviews: "They were The Sound of Young Scotland, together with Orange Juice, whose guitars were also radiant and brittle, whose rhythms were also scrubbed and blunt, whose vocals were also proud and serious, but who sounded like another group entirely" (Paul Morley); "In retrospect, their aborted attempt at a debut album feels much superior to what was finally released. The early versions of the songs sound superbly coiled and keen, the sublime poise of Endless Soul their truly timeless blaze of glory" (Simon Reynolds)

Oh shit, they just reissued the Deux Filles albums (and also put them on Spotify)! The first one, Silence & Wisdom is one of the greatest um...ambient isn't the right word, and the songs are too short to be soundtracks or whatever. It's a weird thing unto itself, featuring two guys pretending to be two girls and making little fuzzy organic sound things in an attic. The only record I can think of off the top of my head that's kind of like it in spirit is "The Yellow Box" by Peter Gordon and David Cunningham (which is probably even less well known, so not a useful reference). 2nd album, Double Happiness, has this really creepy recording of insane woman ranting that still freaks me out a bit. Can't recommend this highly enough.

Yeah, strange/fun little release, that was an unexpected thing to see in my inbox.