Monday, August 31, 2009

New Drugs [Luxurious Expanded Reissue]

So the lovely folks at I, Absentee have reissued my 2007 album New Drugs For Nuclear Families Of The Seventies, with 8 bonus tracks (3 previously unreleased), all remastered from the original tapes and packaged up in kinky new artwork (with naked 70's women!). I only pressed 100 copies of this album back in 2007 and it's always been one of my personal favorites, so I'm quite happy to see it back again.

If anyone missed out on this before, or is new to the album, the sound could be described as melodic psychedelic bedroom electronic music with jazz and funk breaks from the 60s-70s and big humming basslines, tied together with some live instrumentation. Two tracks even feature the world-famous Luke Hazard! Here's what I, Absentee had to say about the release:
After appearing on no less than five releases with us already, Milieu had pretty much become an honorary member of the roster. So it seemed a natural leap for him to finally have his own release with us. The 2007 album,New Drugs For Nuclear Families Of The Seventies, seemed like the perfect place to start.

The album, considered by Milieu one of his personal favorite works amongst his vast catalog, has long been out of print and sold out. It showcases Milieu at his most beat-oriented and melodic, with twenty tracks of hazy, nostalgic rhythms clocking in at over seventy-nine minutes. We barely managed to keep it a single disc release.

New Drugs has been freshly remastered, with all new artwork. Eight bonus tracks have been added, including Milieu's complete half of The Tandem Series 5 disc for the excellent Boltfish label. The album is capped off with three previously unreleased tracks from the era.

Anyone who's followed the label should be quite familiar with Milieu at this point. New Drugs is truly one of the standout discs of his prolific body of work and we are excited to bring it back into circulation. Check out thecatalog page for several sound clips and a free download of the track 'Echo Spectrum'. The album should also be available through Norman Records, n5md, Smallfish and, for the first time in Japan at Linus Records.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Milieu - Swaying Palms

Long rumored, delayed, picked up, canceled and revised – Swaying Palms, for better or worse, has arrived! This is the album I labored so hard over in the Spring-Summer of 2008 that was originally slated to be released at Consumers Research & Development before they (sadly) closed their doors.

Containing some of the freshest Milieu ever recorded, Swaying Palms is a tropical trip through bright rainbow melodies, tight clean drum breaks and bass grooves that sound like an Ibiza party slowed down to half speed. Super equatorial music here, virtually dripping with humidity, psychedelic sunsets and exotic locales filled with blue water, mixed drinks, hammocks and free love. Definitely the Milieu record to have for the Summer!

I've only made 100 copies of these, and the first 25 came with a special surprise (which is already gone at the moment I type this), so get in fast if you don't want to miss out! Each copy has been assembled with different designs (following in the Milieu Music tradition of vintage wallpaper) so no two copies are alike.

For MP3 clips and ordering info:

Brian Grainger - Tortoiseshell & Other Improvisations

With this new cassette, I'm introducing the second leg of the CO_RD Tapes imprint - a catalog set called BLUE. Why blue? Well, because it's one of my favorite colors, and so each tape will have blue somewhere on the packaging. These releases will be for named artists, and will likely be splits, collaborations or simply music that is meant for the tape format above any other.

BLUE01 is such a release, compiling 10 improvisations recorded from 2006 to 2007 that were collecting dust on old four track tapes and hard drives. Some songs were recorded during the Eight Thousander sessions and others were simply live experimentations or sketches. Two tracks, "Light Trails 1 & 2" feature the talents of Acreil and David Tagg. The title track previously appeared digitally as part of Attacknine Records' 13 Weeks Of Summer compilation.

There is much more to come in the BLUE catalog, including David Tagg's first ever cassette release, two tapes by The Blue Spaces, a very heavy Brian Grainger tape and a few splits, so stay sharp! Everything is limited to only 25 copies.

Coppice Halifax - Submarine Green

Number eight in the ongoing Analog Botany series that continues to flourish. Complete with radar scanning sounds, bodyboard beats and dub chords filtered through reverbs deeper than the Sea of Green...

As always, limited to 50 copies and $6 in the shop!