Mad genius Kevin Barnes and his revolving cast of Of Montreal bandmates shed their twee trappings and “went disco” with 2004’s Satanic Panic in the Attic - and thankfully they never looked back. Two albums later, Barnes and Co. have created their masterpiece: while Satanic Panic and its follow-up, The Sunlandic Twins, both had more brilliant moments than missteps, both records seem one-dimensional compared with Of Montreal’s latest effort. In the band’s bio, Barnes acknowledges that Hissing Fauna is about his post-Sunlandic depression and identity crisis, during which he left his wife and newborn baby for several months. The tension between Hissing Fauna’s upbeat drive and often dark lyrics, between the party-anthem choruses and the alarming verses, make the record more than a collection of cleverly written songs (which, from a master like Barnes, would certainly be enough); Of Montreal’s greatest achievement yet is a gorgeous, engrossing exploration of human frailty, betrayal, and fear. And you can dance to it. (Anna)

There are still plenty of pop hooks on Wincing The Night Away, the Shins’ third full-length, but James Mercer continues to mature as a songwriter and expand his production palette, so don’t expect a sequel to Chutes Too Narrow. A lot has happened in the past three-plus years, including the acquisition of better recording equipment that let Mercer make most of the album at home, but it still sounds clearer than Oh, Inverted World. As usual, we’re given an album of sad songs that jangle happily, but there are more sounds, more sonic variety (is that a banjo on “Australia”?), and more depth too. Catchy pop formalism of winsome beauty. (Steve)

Let’s be honest: Clinic’s last album sucked. So we’re delighted to report that the band’s latest, Visitation, is not only a great return to form but as good as anything they’ve ever done. Recorded by themselves (and mixed by Gareth Jones ) in their own studio in Liverpool, this album is more akin to the sound on their debut Internal Wrangler. The guitars are heavier here, sometimes sounding like the Stooges but more often the instrumentation is more psych, a la the 13th Floor Elevators or the Strawberry Alarm Clock. Drone songs like “Animal/Human” are full of autoharp and provide respite for the growling and raw garage punk tunes in between. Clinic’s classic 60’s organ sounds mingle effectively with Ade Blackburn’s constantly cryptic words and delivery. Haunting without being overindulgent, this album is a return to Clinic’s primitive driving, reverberating sounds. (Matt)

Deerhoof also know a thing or two about kicking up the jams. The band’s latest, Friend Opportunity, is typically excellent of their recent output. They continue their recent trend of writing catchier songs than when they started out, but they’re still plenty weird; in a way, expanding their options to include almost-normal songs makes them even more unpredictable than ever. The combination of avant-gardish anything-goes with recognizable melodies and riffs makes for both great fun and great art. Prog-rock, marching band trumpet and drums, abrupt edits, surreal lyrics, and Satomi Matsuzaki’s girlish voice all contribute to the masterfully mixed-up mayhem. (Steve)

Menomena isn’t mixed up, but they like to mix it up. Friend and Foe is the exciting new record from the Portland experimental trio, and it has already been generating big buzz in the blogosphere and elsewhere. For good reason. This is the band’s third full-length, and it marks a major step up; it’s a bold and baroque pop record recalling the finest work of the Flaming Lips, with harmoniously layered vocal lines swerving through a long list of musical appearances, including a heavy dose of piano, the workman’s whistle, skronk saxophone, xylophone and a thunderous base-layer of crashing drums. A smart combination of art and pop. (Rebecca)

The Pinback frontman delivers the best Pinback record that Pinback never released (I stole that line, but it’s true). And while some have complained that Crow’s previous solo releases have been mixed ventures, there’s no denying that this is his best solo work yet and can easily stand alongside anything else he’s done in quite a while. Crammed full of the hooks you’ve come to expect over the years, Crow sounds more focused and excited than he has in years, all while writing his most personal and reflective songs yet. Living Well is a must have for any Pinback fan and also a great starting off point for anyone who’s always wanted to know why the band has the stellar reputation it has. (Grant)

Courtesy of the always reliable Thrill Jockey comes this excellent debut record from Baltimore’s Arbouretum, led by Dave Heumann, a member of the fine band Anomoanon and a frequent collaborator with Will Oldham. The Oldham connection is more than a sidenote, as Heumann’s singing does indeed resemble Mr. Bonnie “Prince” Billy himself in his phrasing and delivery. But Rites of Uncovering hardly comes off as an Oldham tribute album; it has a dense, heavy, psychedelic sound, saturated in reverb with longer, non-linear pieces that touch on themes of mysticism and the occult. Whether it’s a sudden shift in sound or thematic material, Heumann is always throwing us a curve, creating a magical universe that’s a pleasure to enter. (Matt)

Now’s the part where we alert you to some really good new bands. Let’s begin with the Bird and the Bee. Right away, the band’s name tells you something. This L.A. duo is interested in the art of love, and what art they bring to our most shopworn of topics. On the group’s shimmering debut, the songs combine the pop hooks of the West Coast ‘60s sound with the lush, breezy quality of bossa nova. Lead singer Inara George (daughter of late Little Feat frontman Lowell George) is the real star here, her sultry vocals meshing perfectly with Greg Kurstin’s smart, inventive arrangements. Whether she’s sly (“I Hate Camera”) or blunt (“F**king Boyfriend,” already a dancefloor hit, I’m told), George is a captivating presence. A ceaselessly charming record. (James)

We really like David Vandervelde. He was all over the blogs last year, and now the 22-year old Chicagoan has bestowed upon us a solid debut, The Moonstation House Band. Vandervelde’s music excels at fuzz-drenched power pop, recalling Apples in Stereo and Supergrass, not to mention early Bowie and Marc Bolan. This enormously gifted songwriter is also a versatile instrumentalist, playing nearly all the instruments on the record (save a few bass parts), with sweet string arrangements from the genius of David Campbell, who has worked with Elton John, Leonard Cohen and Beck. (Grant)

Finally, there’s Vietnam. Having previously released an EP on Vice Records, Vietnam now gives us its full-length debut on the roster of Kemado Records next to Dungen and The Sword and other purveyors of all things heavy. Often times outweighed by their hard-partying reputation, this Brooklyn band’s stripped down blues rock and Dylan-esque vocals take them into a tripped-out acid-laced journey through the better moments of Americana. (Rebecca)

On Green Blues, their debut disc for Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label, the duo of Matt Valentine and Erica Elder take their freewheeling and liberated approach to folk forms to brilliant new heights, with swirling, echo-laden vocals, enveloping clouds of lush feedback, and the ability to stretch songs into elastic webs of endless magical tones. Matt and Erica have been kickin’ around the underground experimental / psychedelic-folk scene since the mid-1990s, when they were playing as Tower Recordings, a legendary group that mixed drug-hazed freakout psychedelia with the nuance of ‘60s folk and the awareness of free jazz’s liberation from time signatures. In the past few years, the two have released dozens of albums under various monikers and aliases and on countless fringe vinyl/cd-r labels across the globe. Their presence is only now being felt by wider audiences, and Green Blues features some of their most cohesive and well produced material to date. Referencing everything from the gentlest folk to the wildest acid rock, this album will be sure to please all fans of Espers, Devendra Banhart, Feathers , White Magic, Castanets, Akron/Family, and Wooden Wand, among others. (Adam)

Hardly a throwaway EP, Animal Collective’s People serves as a welcome bridge between 2005’s spectacular Feels and the new full-length due later this year. Three tracks recorded from the Feels sessions plus a live version of the title tune, the EP is a slight 20 minutes in length but big in sound, with an air of spontaneity (it was recorded in a Seattle church) and several nice touches that give a hint of where the band is going. The title track, the opener, is superb (how could they not have found room for it on Feels?), a sprawling piece with polyrhythms and yelps centering around a pounding, melodic bass line. It’s practically worth the price of the EP alone; thankfully, the rest of the record holds up as well. (James)

Finally available in the U.S., this four-track (one’s a medley), 21-minute EP is the first release from this Icelandic electronic band since 2004. Recorded by the group’s original lineup for the John Peel Show in 2002, its repertoire draws largely on their debut album Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK, except for “Now There Is That Fear Again” from Finally We Are No One. The differences in these performances compared to the album versions are significant enough (one even merited a title change) to be worth getting; this makes a nice little appetizer before the band’s new album drops this spring. (Steve)

Adorning the front of our store right now in the form a light box is Christian Fennesz ’s electronic masterpiece, Endless Summer. It’s warm, inviting image of a sunset and the sea has been a welcome contrast to these frosty winter days, and the music has had a similar effect on us. Originally released in 2001, the album quickly established itself as a classic in the genre, breaking new ground in electronic music with its ingenious use of guitars, synths, percussion and samples. The new version has been remixed by Fennesz himself and contains two bonus tracks. An absolutely essential disc in the history of electronica. (James)

So the German duo of Funkstorung have apparently called it quits, and they’ve found a perfect way to bow out, giving us an album featuring what they do best: remix other people’s music. These are not your average remixes, mind you: The Bavarian team of Michael Fekesch and Chris de Luca grab the barest essentials of a song and put it through their signature techno sound of furious beats and glitsches. Here the pair tackle many styles and artists, from the funk of Barry Adamson (“Whispering Streets,” by far the album’s best track) to Bjork (“All Is Full of Love,” another winner) to the Raveonettes (“Love in a Trashcan”). Fans will wonder why this disc doesn’t include their highly regarded Wu-Tang remix (legal issues, one must assume), but there’s plenty of aural feasts on the aptly named Appendix. For fans of Aphex Twin and Autechre in particular. (James)

We have a pair of new comps from India that will make fans of Thai Beat a Go-Go flip. Don’t think of Indian music as funky? Think again. This collection compiles music from 1977-1984 Bollywood action thrillers, when funk was practically a universal language. The 13 tracks here include some of the most frenetic, action-packed chase music and sinister scene-setters ever made, with everything but the kitchen sink in the mix, from lush orchestras to swirling organs or claviolines (early synthesizers) to jingling tambourines - and, of course, sexy vocals (in the broadest sense, including whispering, moaning, talking, or ululating). Where else can you hear a track titled “Giraffe Trapping Music”? (Steve)

The dance scenes in a Bollywood film aren’t always elaborate set pieces with a cast of dozens cavorting around a castle or a meadow; sometimes they feature one sexy woman shaking her hips to hip music in a nightclub. The music for such scenes will likely be a fusion of Indian sounds and whatever’s hot at the moment; in the time frame covered here, 1959-1972, that’s jazz, or surf music, or rock and roll, but with sitars and tablas in the mix. Here are a dozen grooves you probably haven’t heard before, but will want to hear again and again. Fans of the cult classic film Ghost World will instantly recognize “Jan Pahechan Ho,” the track used in the opening of the movie. Delicious fun. (Steve)

Peanut Butter Wolf
 Stones Throw:
Ten Years

The Tropicalia icon’s September 2006 release appears relatively soon in the U.S., showing that the 64-year-old’s popularity here continues to rise 40 years after his debut album. This disc is a bit of a departure from much of his work; in the words of one song’s title, it “Rocks”. Oh, he’s rocked before, though he is known most for gorgeous ballads, but here he’s working in a standard rock quartet, his acoustic guitars and vocals joined by an electric guitarist, a bassist doubling on Fender Rhodes electric piano, and a drummer who really pounds out the beat on the uptempo numbers, so this is a stripped-down sort of rock. Half the tracks are slower, though, so his beautiful melodies haven’t been left behind. It’s the best of both worlds, really, resulting in more variety than a lot of his records have had. (Steve)

Caetano Veloso
Ce

We’re a little late to coming around to this one, but we would be remiss to not review what is hands-down the best jazz album of 2006, Ornette Coleman’s triumphant Sound Grammar, his first album of new material in nearly 10 years and perhaps his finest album since his 1986 Pat Metheny collab, Song X. It’s a live set recorded in Germany in October of 2005, with Coleman on his trademark alto saxophone (and occasional trumpet and violin) with his son Denardo on drums and two bassists, Greg Cohen (best known for his work in John Zorn’s Masada) and Tony Falanga. Cohen plucks and Falange bows; it’s a brilliant stroke that gives the album a whole new dynamism and style. Coleman flourishes in the small-group setting, and his saxophone playing has never sounded better, as lyrical and joyous as his classic Atlantic recordings of the 1960s. Seven songs of new material here (“Song X”, the finale, being the exception) revealing the many sides of his musical palette, from the blues to the avant-garde. Never one to rest on his laurels, Coleman, at 76, is still a creative genius, and Sound Grammar reveals him at the top of his game. (James)

Ornette Coleman
Sound Grammar

It’s almost a curse being a Japanese psychedelic rock band in this day and age, as the quality and quantity of that country’s cosmic musical output has never been more prolific and surprisingly welcomed by the indie mainstream. Having crafted their sound and vision for almost 20 years, Ghost have no problem meeting that challenge as they’re at the forefront of this phenomenon alongside contemporaries such as Boris, Acid Mothers Temple, Boredoms, DMBQ, Green Milk from the Planet Orange, etc. Since their formation in 1988, they’ve been a haunting and illusive presence, releasing eight dense and majestic albums filled with acid-folk wanderings, improvised soundscapes, free-form freakouts, and anthemic prog workouts; their newest, In Stormy Nights, is yet another foray into their multidirectional sonic universe. The dynamic range of this record is staggering; the boundaries endless; the structure bewildering. The opener, “Motherly Bluster,” is a lush five-minute acoustic ballad followed by a 28-minute free-form electronic-effects-laden instrumental improvisation akin to some of the best moments in the Sonic Youth SYR series! Ghost does not compromise a thing on this album; it is we that must give ourselves over to them, to be drenched in their blissed and driving psychedelia. If you dug their last Drag City album, Hypnotic Underworld, you will surely feel the extensions and growth of In Stormy Nights. Highly recommended for fans of instrumental avant-rock, Japanese psych-rock, and neo-prog! (Adam)

Ghost
In Stormy Nights

This is an odd but fascinating compilation of three very disparate items. The title piece, for 10 electric guitars and drums, is previously unreleased; a 31-minute Branca work from 1981 finally appearing is enough reason in itself to acquire this disc (never mind that the guitarists include Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo). The guitars are less massed than interwoven; there is sometimes more space here than in Branca’s symphonies, and the individual textures glint and shine wonderfully. Then comes the oddity. In 1982, John Cage heard Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses at a concert and disparaged it. The booklet prints an exchange between Branca and a Cage defender; track two reissues a 1982 interview with Cage discussing what he saw as the philosophical implications of Branca’s music. At 18 minutes and 45 seconds, it’s not something to listen to repeatedly, but it is historically interesting. Finally, track three presents “Harmonic Series Chords,” a seven-minute orchestral work from 1989, minor but enjoyable, offering a rarely heard side of Branca. On balance, any Branca fan should be glad to have this. (Steve)

Glenn Branca
Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses

1. Beirut: Gulag Orkestar (Ba Da Bing!)
2. Cat Power: The Greatest (Matador)
3. Band of Horses: Everything All the Time (Sub Pop)
4. TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain (Interscope)
5. Joanna Newsom: Ys (Drag City)
6. Bonnie Prince Billy: The Letting Go (Drag City)
7. Belle & Sebastian: The Life Pursuit (Matador)
8. Tapes N Tapes: The Loon (XL)
9. Thom Yorke: The Eraser (XL)
10. Sonic Youth: Rather Ripped (Geffen)
11. Built To Spill: You In Reverse (Warner Bros)
12. Yo La Tengo: I Am Not Afraid of You... (Matador)
13. M. Ward: Post War (Merge)
14. Gnarls Barkely: St. Elsewhere (Dowtown)
15. Islands: Return to Sea (Equator)
16. Grizzly Bear: Yellow House (Warp)
17. The Flaming Lips: At War With the Mystics (Warner Bros.)
18. Destroyer: Destroyer's Rubies (Merge)
19. The Knife: Silent Shout (Mute)
20. Vetiver: To Find Me Gone (Dicristina)
21. Sufjan Stevens: The Avalanche (Asthmatic Kitty)
22. Annuals: Be He Me (Ace Fu)
23. Hot Chip: The Warning (DFA/Astralwerks)
24. Ratatat: Classics (XL)
25. The Decemberists: The Crane Wife (Capitol)

www.soundfixrecords.com
james@soundfixrecords.com

110 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211 USA
718 388 8090