| Greetings from the folks at Ovulation Station! FYI: We never download our music. Everything we listen to we purchase directly from the artist or those modest, indie labels we choose to support. DOWN WITH CORPORATE MEDIA! Here are our faves of 2007! |
http://www.hop-frog.com/URCKpostasiatic.html
V/A - Post-Asiatic: Lost War Dream Music (Urck Records)
Hands down the boldest and most exciting compilation to surface in 2007. Features a diverse assortment of musicians from all walks of life playing instruments from around the world with surprising skill.
http://www.paradigms-recordings.com/store.html
Hallvardur Asgeirsson – Lifsblomid (Paradigms Recordings)
Blowing composers like Johann Johannson out of the water, it surprises us that this neo-classical artist is not world-renowned! Replete with brooding horns and funereal drums, this release is perfect to listen to on a particularly bleak evening in autumn. If the poet Georg Trakl were alive today, this is what he’d be cranking.
Buy new or used through Amazon
V/A - Black Mirror: Reflections in Global Musics (Dust-to-Digital)
When I heard “What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?” from a CD compilation that was included with an issue of Yeti magazine, I knew that the Dust-to-Digital label, credited for reviving it, was one to look out for. This amazing release reinforced what I suspected. (And they don’t skimp on the liner notes!)
http://www.kernkrach.de/html/catalogue.html
Ronin – S/T 7” (Hertz-Schrittmacher/Kernkrach)
This is a minimal synth band hailing from Tampa, Florida on my good friend Jorg’s Kernkrach label. Cold but scintillating Flying Lizards-style vocals over dead-pan beats and overdriven, analog synth. “Plaza de America” is a cold wave CLASSIC!
Students of Decay |
Oneiros Recordings |
Ruby Red Label |
Valerio Cosi – Freedom Meditation Music Vol.1-3 (Students of Decay, Oneiros Recordings, Ruby Red)
After hearing this musical venture spanning three different labels, we are the first to testify as to the transcendental powers of this young saxophonist. Just listen to the twenty-minute-long track “Freedom, Meditation, Faith” and find yourself transported to some distant desert you’d find in one of Salvador Dali’s paintings! Comparable to the genius of John Coltrane!
www.notnotfun.com
Barn Owl – Bridge to the Clouds (Not Not Fun)
Make room for the new kings of free-folk, folks! Just as solid, though slightly more experimental and Skullflower-y than their debut on Digitalis. Still cohesive and far more disciplined than 99% of these so-called neo-folksters featured on every tiny label under the sun.
Buy new or used through Amazon
Voice of the Seven Woods – S/T (Twisted Nerve/B-Music)
This release is a lot easier to find than many of the other albums we’ve listed so far, but just as solid all the way through. Another up-and-coming free-folk artist who outshines so many others with raw talent. This label is great, too! Check out ‘A Kind of Awe and Reverence and Wonder’ and Vot7W’s other release on Blackest Rainbow.
Buy new or used through Amazon
Balustrade Ensemble – Capsules (Dynamophone)
Probably the best of Dynamophone’s many great releases. If you like the pretty side of ambient, but hate cheesy new age, this is for you. Cinematic soundscapes of awesome mystery and beauty.
Deathbomb Arc
Fruit Will Rot Vol.3 (Deathbombarc)
10 3” CDRs of obscure electronica artists from all over America from noise to breakbeat in cool, kindergarten-art-project packaging! Our favorite artist in this mix is Nero’s Day at Disneyand. While he is able to jump from one unusual change to the next with meticulous ease, he never loses the groove like so many of the nerve-grating artists in this genre.
Buy new or used through Amazon
Paul Metzger – Deliverance
Move over, Sandy Bull! Here’s a banjo player of exceptional talent who offers an eastern flare to a host of compositions which are both meditative and carefully thought-out.
Great Re-Issues
Steven R. Smith – The Anchorite (Root Strata)
Michael Taylor Quartet – Pendulum (Sunbeam Records)
Persuaders – Forced to F*ck (Shattered Records)
Spider – The Way to Bitter Lake
Bruce Langhorne – The Hired Hand soundtrack (blastfirstpetite)
C.O.T.A. – Terra-Ist (Sonick Sorcery)
Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel – Hole/Nail (Self Immolation/Some Bizarre)
Zeni Geva – Maximum Money Monster
Troum – Ryna/Sen (Transgredient)
Vashti Bunyan – Some Things Just Stick In Your Head (Dicristina)
Greater Than One – Kill the Pedagogue/Lay Your Penis Down (Brainwashed)
Trustworthy Sellers
Jack @Jack’s Rhythms (New Paltz)
Eclipse Records
Aquarius Records
Fusetron
Flipped Out Records
Soleilmoon
Other Music
Mondo Kim’s
Students of Decay
Staalplaat (Germany)
Kernkrach (Germany)
HAVE A GREAT YEAR, EVERYBODY! HUNT DOWN MUSIC, NOT ANIMALS! FIGHT FOR THE EARTH AND AGAINST CORPORATE GREED! Feel free to contact us at o l i v e r t l o d g e @ v e r i z o n . n e t !