{"title":"Staff picks","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"levande-dod-upp-till-kramp","title":"Levande Död - Upp Till Kramp","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBest of Year 2019 - exclusive limited edition print free with each album purchase (see photos)*\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe evidence is undeniable now - something is stirring in Sweden. Be it Kali Malone, Amateur Hour, Post23, Monokultur, anything on Forlag Fur Fri Muzik or I Dischi Del Barone, there seems to be a near-endless stream of seemingly straight-out-of-nowhere brilliance stemming from those Nordic shores. Music not afraid to be obtuse, to change shape and come at odd angles, to ask a little extra of the listener.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd now we have Levande Död, also Swedish, I think from Gothenburg, whom i know very little else about. Their shadowy nature seems consistent with a lot of their compatriots - maybe it’s the language barrier, maybe it’s a conscious desire to ex-communicate from the traditional mechanisms of the ‘Music Industry’, maybe it’s simply an issue of location, but it’s hard to fully get at all of this music, to easily understand its origin and intent. Such mystery is to be celebrated, but don’t be mistaken, Levande Död make open, ecstatic, and welcoming music that clearly wants to be heard. Though I’ve no idea what is being sung about, there’s no doubt these songs are being sung within an inch of their lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI was immediately reminded of the intense testifying of a young Black Francis, and then after a few more listens, David Thomas. There’s that same mutant suburban garage band isolationism, of shrieking in the dark regardless of who is listening but demanding someone does. Wondrous and eternal in its desire. If I find out this is a group of forty-somethings I won’t say I won’t be disappointed, but I’ll carry on listening regardless. Music to put your faith in and be faithful to.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e  \u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3JIbnz8Ik3k\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e*while stocks last\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Happiest Place","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":20181903245385,"sku":"","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0051\/1380\/6921\/products\/Levande_Dod.jpg?v=1575371269"},{"product_id":"steve-hiett-down-on-the-road-by-the-beach","title":"Steve Hiett - Down On The Road By The Beach","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan title=\"Edited\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eBest of Year 2019\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan title=\"Edited\"\u003eRIP Steve Hiett, who passed away at the end of last month, sadly before he was able to see the first worldwide release of his much revered 1983 solo album. Slow moving, often-peaceful and relaxed, Hiett's work displays some of the traits we might consider 'ambient', but perhaps only in the same way you might also consider Durutti Column to be - this is not kankyo ongaku. And that only tells half the story. Hiett was a renowned classic rock fan, particularly so of the Beach Boys, and as such, there's a clear nod to traditional songwriting structure and feel that belies its 80s origins - this is very much a child of the 70s. Down on the Road By The Beach must have sounded wildly out of place in '83, likely explaining why it was originally only released in Japan. The production is smoothered, and when he sing it's almost like Hiett is playing from beneath the waves, and when he doesn't you've the sense of some rock and roll radio broadcast from an unknown island. If the philosophical precept of ambient is to sit amongst the environment, then perhaps Down on the Road By The Beach is escapist. It takes you somewhere else.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CjU1U95MiSE\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SRD","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":30264681660489,"sku":"","price":26.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0051\/1380\/6921\/products\/Steve_Hiett_Down_On_The_Road_By_The_Beach.jpg?v=1569503002"},{"product_id":"tribe-of-colin-age-of-aquarius","title":"Tribe Of Colin - Age of Aquarius","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBest of Year 2019\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKnowing what we do about ToC and what is inferred by the title of their new record, Age of Aquarius unsurprisingly begins in the same submerged realm as Drexciya and certainly passes through Translluison's cerebral gate. But just when you think you’ve this mob pegged as mere James Stinson acolytes (tbh there’s much worse things to be), repeated listens reveals a pretty formidable statement all its own. There's a seriousness to Tribe of Colin that makes a mockery of their name and tells the main story of this record - they're not fucking around here. They take their techno very seriously, and when I say techno I don't mean the kind you hear on luxury yachts off the Croatian peninsula. Creator God. Eye of Ra. Paradise Lost. This is weighty, often claustrophobic material spiritually aligned with Detroit's paranoid futurism that does what techno does best and conjures mental images of dead cityscapes in the dystopian night. You know the kind of thing. And the Self\/Distance into Paradise Lost one-two is as good as I've heard in a while, the former's razor-like cut and thrust giving way to the latters dubby computer world. Immersive stuff. Sounds nothing like it, but I'm declaring it 'this year's Rezzett'. Yknow, new stuff that could be old it's so good. And the packaging is immense.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pIAWXrN24SE\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Honest Jon's","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":30264809324617,"sku":"","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0051\/1380\/6921\/products\/tribe_of_colin.jpg?v=1569507165"},{"product_id":"brannten-schnure-sommer-im-pfirsichhain","title":"Brannten Schnüre  - Sommer Im Pfirsichhain","description":"\u003cp\u003eRe-press of Brannten Schnüre's folk-orientated drone masterpiece, which imagines the unholy union of Popol Vuh and Nico and renders it in a greyscale wonderland of wonky music box, fairytale and haunted nursery rhyme. Or Current 93's horror of the countryside updated and reanimated for this uneasy and ruined world. Whichever you prefer, I'm considering it music for after the eco-apocalypse. You know how the children terrify the village elders in Michael Haneke's White Ribbon? That's all i can think of when listening to this. Very limited in number and utterly essential\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NQ0k0QzyANI\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Aguirre","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":30293370208329,"sku":"","price":29.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0051\/1380\/6921\/products\/a3185200829_10.jpg?v=1569667449"},{"product_id":"kallista-kult-s-t","title":"Kallista Kult - s\/t","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan title=\"Edited\"\u003eBest of Year 2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan title=\"Edited\"\u003eBloody, ruddy hell, I'm in love. Kallista Kult's whispered, dubwise odes to forbidden rendezvous are a seductive affair, etched in smoky paranoia and coming on like Carla dal Forno’s evil twin. Across these four lengthly, enigmatic compositions you get the sense of an emerging new voice, much like hearing early Inga Copeland, Brannten Schnure and those first Happy Meal records. As debut albums go, it's a bold statement and I can see this one picking up a reet old cult following. Yep, this is the real deal. And you can't always make this claim, but the press release gets it absolutely spot on: \"Four acts of crime, madness, fatalism and despair [...] Intoxication, incoherence, paranormality and paranoia… psylocibin and self-destruction with no sign of consolation.\" Better than I could have ever put it. Limited to 150 copies!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SRD","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":30304197967945,"sku":"","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0051\/1380\/6921\/products\/Kallista_Kult_Kallista_Kult.jpg?v=1570115854"},{"product_id":"gary-davenport-scattered-thoughts","title":"Gary Davenport - Scattered Thoughts","description":"\u003cp\u003eSky Girl, the compilation that keeps giving, and now finding a(nother) second life via Numero Group's much-needed retrospective of Texan tune-lord Gary Davenport and his associated groups via Closet Records. Sky Girl fans will recall Davenport's 'Sarra' as one of the (many) highlights of that collection, and Scattered Thoughts proves he was no one-hit wonder. Alongside his solo pieces we're presented with his work under the Mannequin moniker, and collaborations with Mark Champion, all of which impressively seem to hit that same maudlin note as 'Sarra'. Impressive because his voice is so distinct, unfiltered but exact. Davenport proves himself a master of greyscale, plaintive new wave jangle, recalling the timeless bedroom melancholy of The Cure, Cleaners from Venus, even The Chills. And not just bands beginning with C - 'A Desperate Situation' unexpectedly reminded me of Sensations Fix, and then helped me draw a path through to Ariel Pink. That should give you a clear sense of what's going on here. Introverted sad-eyed wunderkind. Perfect for when the days feel like the colour of a turned-off TV screen.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FfKh20kDkdg\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Republic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":31158069788753,"sku":"","price":26.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0051\/1380\/6921\/products\/825764119733_T57006356060054.jpg?v=1573135993"},{"product_id":"peter-ivers-becoming-peter-ivers","title":"Peter Ivers - Becoming Peter Ivers...","description":"Absolutely essential Peter Ivers retrospective from the also absolutely essential RVNG stable. Most will know Peter Ivers via the inclusion of 'In Heaven' on the Eraserhead soundtrack, or perhaps Pixies cover of that same song (which i always loved). A wonky odd-pop delight of little comparison, but it only tells you a little of what made Ivers so special. A highly adept multi-instrumentalist with a preternatural ability to freewheel through genre, Ivers drew on blues, Bowie-esque outsider pop, showy glam and even an occasional disco-flected pop spirit (and i'm not imagining that - i just read he wrote songs for Diana Ross!). Tragically, Ivers' life was cut short when he was murdered in his apartment in 83, a crime that was never solved. It's a shit byline, but it does add some poignancy to this set, pregnant with hidden promise and in its way stands as some kind of precursor for every weird pop superstar who was just trying to break their way in. ","brand":"Republic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":31158161211473,"sku":"","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0051\/1380\/6921\/products\/a4157119786_10.jpg?v=1573136685"},{"product_id":"brannten-schnure-getraumt-hab-ich-vom-martinszug","title":"Brannten Schnüre - Getraumt Hab' Ich Vom Martinszug","description":"Brannten Schnüre are one of those neo-romantic music experimentalists who add to a long tradition of celebrating folk tale and exoticism. Their meticulously crafted loops, hesitant melodies and heavily nostalgic lyricism could easily be translated to what the late philosopher and music critic Mark Fisher called ‘hauntology’, a postmodern longing for a lost future. To describe the beauty of ‘Geträumt hab’ ich vom Martinszug’, however, the term seems somewhat dissatisfying. Romanticism is a hard nut to crack in the Anthropocene, and Brannten Schnüre’s realms of the cerebral are too deeply ingrained in a German tradition of story telling to define them within popular paradigm. ‘Geträumt hab’ ich vom Martinszug’ was recorded in 2014 in Würzburg and functions as the autumn part of the band’s seasonal cycle quadrilogy (the other segments being ‘Aprilnacht’ (SicSic), ‘Sommer im Pfirsichhain’ (Aguirre) and ‘Durch unser zugedecktes Tal’ (Youdonthavetocallitmusic)). It deals with the Saint Martin’s parade, a mostly European tradition to celebrate the medieval spirit of Saint Martin of Tours, friend of children and patron of the poor. Around 11 November children come out on the streets with lanterns and sing ancient songs in exchange for sweets. It’s a period of snugness and expectation, of yearning and dreaming, and therefore a consummate subject for the duo to scrutinize. To the adult’s ear the dream of the Saint Martin’s parade isn’t all that consolatory. The dark and slow loops of Christian Schoppik rather sound like motifs for a welcome paralysis. Sometimes as a gentle backdrop for vocals by Katie Rich and Schoppik himself, the repetitive structures serve as tricksters that trade innocence for the uncanny. The dream becomes a fever dream which quickly absorbs the listener into a vacuum, an eternal post-panic attack semi-relief. Maybe that’s the amazing paradox of Brannten Schnüre. The space they occupy is never comforting – as if being locked up inside a Carl Grossberg painting – but it’s also a subliminal aural zone you do not want to leave. It’s music as being, as a stream, devoid of climax or catharsis. And because it is flux and being, and exists to be taken, it speaks in art’s purest form. ‘In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art’ Susan Sontag famously concluded her essay ‘Against Interpretation’ with. Well, look no further.","brand":"Aguirre","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40178730500177,"sku":"","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0051\/1380\/6921\/products\/unnamed_ee9c7056-e749-4dcc-92e4-293f856a28d5.jpg?v=1664447238"},{"product_id":"steve-hiett-down-on-the-road-by-the-beach-1","title":"Steve Hiett - Down On The Road By The Beach","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan title=\"Edited\"\u003e2024 repress - here's what we wrote in 2019:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan title=\"Edited\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eBest of Year 2019\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan title=\"Edited\"\u003eRIP Steve Hiett, who passed away at the end of last month, sadly before he was able to see the first worldwide release of his much revered 1983 solo album. Slow moving, often-peaceful and relaxed, Hiett's work displays some of the traits we might consider 'ambient', but perhaps only in the same way you might also consider Durutti Column to be - this is not kankyo ongaku. And that only tells half the story. Hiett was a renowned classic rock fan, particularly so of the Beach Boys, and as such, there's a clear nod to traditional songwriting structure and feel that belies its 80s origins - this is very much a child of the 70s. Down on the Road By The Beach must have sounded wildly out of place in '83, likely explaining why it was originally only released in Japan. The production is smoothered, and when he sing it's almost like Hiett is playing from beneath the waves, and when he doesn't you've the sense of some rock and roll radio broadcast from an unknown island. If the philosophical precept of ambient is to sit amongst the environment, then perhaps Down on the Road By The Beach is escapist. It takes you somewhere else.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CjU1U95MiSE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SRD","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53472770752889,"sku":null,"price":29.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0051\/1380\/6921\/products\/Steve_Hiett_Down_On_The_Road_By_The_Beach.jpg?v=1569503002"},{"product_id":"brannten-schnure-sommer-im-pfirsichhain-1","title":"Brannten Schnüre  - Sommer Im Pfirsichhain","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBack in stock!\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGive the people what they want, and it was so - back in print, two early transmissions from the hidden reverse of Brannten Schnüre's mythical universe and now no longer at £££ prices. Has any other group from the 21st century underground so vividly and consistently captured such an alien sense of mystery and wonder? The eight LPs and two split tapes released over 14 years are quite a marvel, each clearly a discrete divination of a larger collective vision, just like a puzzle or dry stone wall, if you've one piece, you kind of need them all. Yet within their broader constellation are individual highpoints, and it's easy to make a case in that regard for both Sommer Im Pfirsichhain and Getraumt Hab' Ich Vom Martinszug, first released but a year apart and obviously part of the same early creative spurt, one more music box, the other more austere, but nonetheless plucked from the same hive mind. The influences of European post-industrial music, Nico, pre-modern folk and Popol Vuh are perhaps easier to identify here than on later records where their independent voice was arguably more defined, but what remains most intriguing is the process. Just how is this all made so seamlessly? No matter how familiar you now might be, these are strangely assembled songs, expressive of a previously unknown landscape of folklore, ghosts, runes and cryptic voices that references wider understandings of hauntology (and aesthetic formulations of nostalgia in music) and the post-structuralist compression of form central to the likes of Hype Williams or even Burial, but really escapes any accepted classifications (to think someone once described them as 'chillwave'!). These are certainly more 'art' records than they are 'musical' (or even musicians), sampling and arrangement (not to mention texture) much more crucial than performance, yet they remain entirely listenable, drawing on memories that don't quite exist but never quite leave you. In that sense, these are definitively 21st Century texts, amongst the few that depend on the nostalgia ultra of the era to harness something new. The forever songs from nowhere. The sound of where we now find ourselves in history.  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFFO: Popul Vuh, Coil, Nico, Current 93\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Aguirre","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":63788074697081,"sku":null,"price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0051\/1380\/6921\/products\/a3185200829_10.jpg?v=1569667449"},{"product_id":"brannten-schnure-getraumt-hab-ich-vom-martinszug-copy","title":"Brannten Schnüre - Getraumt Hab' Ich Vom Martinszug","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBack in stock!\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGive the people what they want, and it was so - back in print, two early transmissions from the hidden reverse of Brannten Schnüre's mythical universe and now no longer at £££ prices. Has any other group from the 21st century underground so vividly and consistently captured such an alien sense of mystery and wonder? The eight LPs and two split tapes released over 14 years are quite a marvel, each clearly a discrete divination of a larger collective vision, just like a puzzle or dry stone wall, if you've one piece, you kind of need them all. Yet within their broader constellation are individual highpoints, and it's easy to make a case in that regard for both Sommer Im Pfirsichhain and Getraumt Hab' Ich Vom Martinszug, first released but a year apart and obviously part of the same early creative spurt, one more music box, the other more austere, but nonetheless plucked from the same hive mind. The influences of European post-industrial music, Nico, pre-modern folk and Popol Vuh are perhaps easier to identify here than on later records where their independent voice was arguably more defined, but what remains most intriguing is the process. Just how is this all made so seamlessly? No matter how familiar you now might be, these are strangely assembled songs, expressive of a previously unknown landscape of folklore, ghosts, runes and cryptic voices that references wider understandings of hauntology (and aesthetic formulations of nostalgia in music) and the post-structuralist compression of form central to the likes of Hype Williams or even Burial, but really escapes any accepted classifications (to think someone once described them as 'chillwave'!). These are certainly more 'art' records than they are 'musical' (or even musicians), sampling and arrangement (not to mention texture) much more crucial than performance, yet they remain entirely listenable, drawing on memories that don't quite exist but never quite leave you. In that sense, these are definitively 21st Century texts, amongst the few that depend on the nostalgia ultra of the era to harness something new. The forever songs from nowhere. The sound of where we now find ourselves in history.  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFFO: Popul Vuh, Coil, Nico, Current 93\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Aguirre","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":63788080595321,"sku":null,"price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0051\/1380\/6921\/products\/unnamed_ee9c7056-e749-4dcc-92e4-293f856a28d5.jpg?v=1664447238"}],"url":"https:\/\/worldofechomusic.com\/collections\/staff-picks.oembed","provider":"World Of Echo","version":"1.0","type":"link"}