Certain music from the past seems to retains its superlative quality—or simply ripens—over time. In some cases, this is owed to current cultural trends borrowing from the past while the brilliance of some composers and performers from yesteryear remain timeless. On this page, we compile our reviews of albums that have aged gracefully and provide highlights of rarities, reissues and classic recordings found at independent record stores around the country.






Jungle’s Past
TEXT: SEAN MURPHY
Before Francois K., before Shep Pettibone, before Tee Scott—indeed, before the divine Larry Levan himself—there was Walter Gibbons, a diminutive Queens-via-Brooklyn disco DJ whose unassuming comportment belied an outre production acumen comparable to the innovation of Teo Maceo, Lee Perry, and Brian Eno. Paralleling...  [continue reading]



Joy, Pain & Resistance
TEXT: SETH WATTER
Critics and scholars alike have long acknowledged the debt of black popular music to an illustrious pan-African tradition. What is less well known is the extent to which contemporary South African music springs out of American genre stylings. Paul Simon’s tepid Graceland album of 1986 is generally cited as the channel through which South....  [continue reading]



It’s Monk Time, Again
TEXT: SETH WATTER
Did Lester Bangs ever listen to The Monks? Probably not; otherwise, their surly proto-punk primitivism would have propelled that venerable critic to the same heights scaled by his ecstatic reviews of The Troggs, The Fugs, Count Five, The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, and what-have-you. It would have been one of his best articles. One can...  [continue reading]






Devil’s Music by Nicolas Collins
TEXT: SETH WATTER
Barthes’ description in The Pleasure of the Text of a Tangiers thoroughfare sounds curiously similar to the experience of rapidly scanning the radio dial. Perhaps he would have found true jouissance in the work of Nicolas Collins, whose Devil’s Music of 1985 turned channel surfing into serious avant-garde strategy. It is, of course, wrong to speak of Devil’s Music as a singular entity...  [continue reading]



No Other by Gene Clark
TEXT: SEAN MURPHY
No Other is a 1974 album by Gene Clark, best remembered for being The Byrds' main songwriter between 1964 and 1966. Now, generally considered by most critics to be a lost masterpiece, the album was dismissed upon its release as being overly indulgent. Recording costs had exceeded $100,000, a considerable investment at the time for a performer who had seen his last...  [continue reading]







Pylon Re-issued & Reunited
To describe Pylon as ahead of their time is somewhat misleading, because it implies that there was ever a moment when music finally caught up with them. The architects of a sound unlike any of their Athens, Georgia contemporaries, and the inspiration for numerous post-punk imitators, Pylon still sound not quite like anything before or since. The B-52s and R.E.M. have both gone on record as stating that Pylon are one of the country's best bands. That's a remarkable legacy for a band that formed more than thirty years ago with the sole intention of playing one show...  [continue reading]








NEU! (box set)
Though typically overshadowed by their progeny in terms of fame, the fathers of Krautrock, NEU!, carved a distinct niche in the musical landscape between the early 70’s and 80’s that is still being charted today. While...  [continue reading]

Disco Not Disco: Post Punk, Electro & Leftfield Disco Classics, 1974-1986 by Various Artists
If the reissue market has taught us one thing these past ten years, it is the maxim: Disco is cool. Seldom does a month go by without newly discovered dance “classics”...  [continue reading]

Cold Fact by Rodriguez
Sometimes one generation’s music trash is another’s treasure. This seems to be the case with Detroit’s almost forgotten street folk musician/factory worker Sixto Rodriguez. In 1970, Rodriguez released Cold Fact for Hollywood...  [continue reading]

The Sleeping Bag Sessions by Arthur Russell
The Arthur Russell renaissance that began with much fanfare in 2004 and peaked with last year’s critically-acclaimed documentary Wild Combination appears to have troughed in recent months, and it’s easy to see why. Although...  [continue reading]

Songs by Warlus
Trying to place Warlus' Songs in the context of the history of rock music is impossible. The album is at least five years behind psychedelica, five years before DIY or die and for an English speaking album in the key of Beatles...  [continue reading]

Sings by Charles Manson
His name alone stirs a pot of emotions in most people, ranging from disgust, doom, anger, fear, embarrassment for humanity—and in extreme cases, maniacal pride and praise for horrible, ignorant reasons. Thanks...  [continue reading]

Black Rio 2, Brazil Soul Power 1968-1981
One of those blissfully evanescent, half-forgotten subgenres that were well due for reappraisal by the 2000s, samba soul is inextricably tied to an era—black power—and the tropical, languid environs of Brazil. The percolating tribal groove that...  [continue reading]

Bored by Destroy All Monsters
Listen to Destroy All Monsters' 1978 record Bored after listening to anything by the band before that and you will think they are the biggest sell outs in rock history. If by some divine miracle this is your first DAM listen, you'll probably think... [continue reading]

Unjust Malaise by Julius Eastman
Legend holds that Julius Eastman once showed up to a 10 a.m. rehearsal in full S&M regalia, bottle of scotch in hand, relishing the bemusement and outright incensement from his other conservatory-trained peers. A “walking...  [continue reading]







Used Vinyl Selections from WALL OF SOUND; Seattle, WA; tel: 206.441.9880
• Dead Moon - Hard Wired In Ljubljana - 2LP live set - $17
• David Bowie - Station To Station - $8
• Volcano The Bear - The Idea of Wood - $25
• Led Zeppelin - Presence - $12
• Bruce Sprinsteen - The River - 2LP - $12
• The Pretty Things - S/T - Norton reissue - $10
• Duran Duran - S/T - $7
• Freddie Hubbard - Straight Life - $8
• Bongwater - Breaking No New Ground - $12
• Link Wray - Hillbilly Wolf Missing Links V.1 - $10
• Television - Marquee Moon - 4Mw/B re-ish - $10
• The Sonics - Boom - Norton gatefold - $10
• The Doors - Strange Days - $8
• The Kinks - S/T - Japanese pressing (80s?) w/ obi - $25
• Rashied Ali Quintet - 1973 Survival label w/ Blood Ulmer - $75

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