The Styrenes - City of Women

Bone-3010-2 CD, $14.99
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Paul Marotta is an early riser - 5:30 isn’t unusual. The man couldn’t be further away from the cliché of a wild rock and roll animal. But that’s completely in character as the new album from Marotta’s band, The Styrenes, is anything but a cliché. Hard, rough, mean, unwashed, and slightly verminous; with bad breath and nicotine teeth, City of Women is the kind of rock record we haven’t heard in a long time.

The buzzsaw guitar snips away at the body of a song, nagging and spitting, and the next minute it’s a tiny little melody that’s neat as a pin. Bass and drums swoop and rumble, the vocals are broken, like they’ve got screws in their jaws. The Eric Burdon & The Animals’ classic When I Was Young is hardly recognizable, engaging and expressive, while dispensing with the romantic veneer of the original. Agitated is a malicious bark. I Wish I Was High is pure fed up with life, and Mr. Handsome is that really unpleasant guy – a fatal attraction – the one we all have to encounter sooner or later.

Bright lights and long shadows, pills and booze, love, alienation, and pure desperation, and (heavens, no) maybe even something about your personal life. These Styrenes can be cunning. Most of the songs were written by the New York based singer-songwriter Tom Warnick. Marotta recalls, “We shared a bill once with Tom’s band, and I found myself humming his tunes all the way home. So we recorded a bunch of our favorites. And then added a few tunes that we’d been playing live for years but hadn’t gotten around to recording”. The Styrenes’ knack for turning most anything into pure and straight energy keeps this cozy little trip from going straight to hell. These guys aren’t youngsters and there’s enough experience between them to create what might seem like an impossible blend of urban rocksong, art-wave/art-punk, maybe even some glam, in a consistent, consciously artistic manner. The concept is simple, sophisticated music with punk energy. No beer-filled sports fans chanting, no pseudo-provocative nostalgia, no post-punk jigs. But something complex and truthful, something both thought provoking and visceral. And then, just when you think you’ve got it, the album takes another left turn.

This City of Women may not be an affable place, but it sure is alive. - Rolf Jager, May 2007

Artefacts of Australian Experimental Music: 1930 - 1973

SHAM050 CD, $14.99
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A landmark in the historical research of early Australian innovative and exploratory music created and recorded in Australia .

Over three years of research by Clinton Green has resulted in this compilation CD that stretches over four decades, a time previously thought by many to be barren of experimental activity in Australian music.

Artefacts of Australian Experimental Music: 1930 - 1973 was launched as part of the 8th Liquid Architecture Festival. The Melbourne launch included a panel discussion on the question of whether there exists a tradition of experimental music that influences contemporary practitoners. The panel featured Pauline Oliveros, Warren Burt, Clinton Green, Rainer Linz and Robin Fox.

Next dashing dark ambient album from Objekt4 "Her Face Among the Shadows" including new never released 4 bonus songs" Each track starts with gently undulating tones, building on that base and adding swirling mists of sound and menacing atmosphere that ultimately increases in anxiety. Dark horror, thriller soundtrack andcombination of menacing atmosphere...drones build before crashing beast and heavy bass. Rhytmic and frame-chaotic and desperate trip to other side of light!

Alison Knowles & Taketo Shimada
FLUXSWEET

RS024 CD/DVD, 14.99
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CD content:
1. PLAY PAPER by Alison Knowles (2003)
"Consider fragments of onion skins as musical notations. Perform with handmade musical instruments and toys." Performed by Alison Knowles, Larry Miller and Taketo Shimada

2. MUSIC BOX (homage to FLUX MUSIC BOX by Joe Jones) by Taketo Shimada (2004)
"Modify two or more music boxes and play them simultaneously with the recording of Joe Jones FLUX MUSIC BOX, if possible use children to play the music box." Performed by Zora Gookin and Robin Kahn + Clara Higgins Selman and Jessica Higgins on Toy Music Box: + Taketo Shimada on Turntables

3. FINGER EXERCISE by Larry Miller (1982)
"Make sounds with fingers." Performed by Alison Knowles, Taketo Shimada, Kirby Gookin and Larry Miller

4. DANGER MUSIC #2 by Dick Higgins (1961)
"Hat. Rags. Paper. Heave. Shave" Performed by Alison Knowles and Nelson/Electric Chaircut

5. NIVEA CREAM by Alison Knowles (1962)
"First performer comes on stage with a jar of Nivea cream. The performer massages hands in front of the microphone. Other performers enter one at the time. They make a mass of massaging hands and leave one at a time following the first performer." Performed by Alison Knowles, Kirby Gookin, Beckett Gookin, Jessica Higgins, Nancy Hwang, Noura Al-Salem on Nivea Cream: + Taketo Shimada on Turntables

6. ONION SKIN SONG by Alison Knowles (1973)
Performed by Tim Barnes playing Paper Instruments made by Alison Knowles (Bean Turner, Wrist Rubbers and Flax Paper shards) on top of bass drums.

Track 1 through 5 recorded live from a Event Score concert FLUXSWEET organized by Taketo Shimada, 02.14.2005 at Harvestworks, NYC.

DVD content: track 1 to 5 of the CD

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