A couple of very notable rock additions to the store this week: starting with New York's Psychic Paramount. Patrick brought this band to my attention, who he's familiar with from the scene (Patrick is half of Latitude Longitude, in case you weren't aware). "Psychic" here definitely means psychedelic, but it's also a bit psychotic - instrumental rock with incredibly dense grooves that are manipulated, reversed, twisted around in various directions that keeps things interesting. "Gamelan Into The Mink Supernatural" is the album to start with - Origins & Primitives is the album to move onto after becoming familiar with the band.

Speaking of tough twisted rock, but stepping back a few decades and moving to Japan, comes the new Masayuki Takayanagi album on the excellent Japanese label Doubtmusic. We've carried his New Directions Unit double releases, also on Doubtmusic, as well as the New Direction Unit release on Eclipse. Takayanagi was an early leader in free improv rock, a fusion form that was definitely influenced by jazz, but is really rooted in rock. Bands like his led the way for bands like Ruins or Koenji Hyakkei. For a full discography of Takayanagi see http://www.diana.dti.ne.jp/~katta/discography_e.html

Speaking of new rock, we're now carrying both of the excellent Moving Gelatine Plates releases on Musea. MGP were an early influential band in the same world as Etron Fou or even Debile Menthol. The French sense of absurd humor lives in bands like these, but put the jokes aside because the music is paramount here, complex and zig-zagging music that draws from an eclectic set of influences. Performing links to Magma and Gong might give you an idea, but this short-lived band were in a class of their own.