SQUIDCO & THE SQUID'S EAR UPDATE December 29, 2009

A couple of months ago Daniel Kernohan of Verge Music contacted us to tell us the sad news that they were closing after 15 years of business. They asked us to help them by taking on a number of labels that they were carrying to ensure adequate distribution, and to help them transition their customers so that they can continue finding the music they're searching for. As Daniel stated in his closing letter to his customers: "Verge has worked hard over the years to make a connection between customers and labels and artists. It would be a shame if that connection were broken. Labels and artists would suffer. So working with Squidco will honour the special relationship Verge has had with you and the labels and build on that for the future."

On a personal note, having been a loyal customer of Verge Music before Squidco started, I'm humbled and grateful to Daniel for the recommendation, and hope that Squidco can provide the kind of selection and customer service that I once relied upon from Verge Music.

For all Verge Music customers seeing our bi-weekly newsletter for the first time, welcome! VergeMusic.com now redirects into Squidco to a page with Daniel's full letter and a search form to get new customers started. If you ever have any questions about our service or any item we sell or you wish we would sell, please don't hesitate to ask us!

To keep this email otherwise brief we'll skip the usual 2 week recap, except to note that we're running a few stock reduction sales during the holiday week, offering good prices on some very interesting releases:

After the store listings are links to 10 new reviews on our online companion magazine, The Squid's Ear.

Happy New Year All - Here's hoping for a year filled with Inspiring and Surprising Sound!!

Sincerely,
Phil Zampino & The Staff @ Squidco

Improvisation:
$19.95   Buy  listen	Blake, Ran & Anthony Braxton: Memories Of Vienna (Hatology)
	In 1988, on the spur of the moment, Blake and Braxton met to record this set of 8 standards, including pieces by Monk, Parker, Gillespie, Miles Davis, Mal Waldron, &c.
$18.95   Buy  listen	Brotzmann / Nielsen / Uuskyla: Noise of Wings (Jazzwerkstatt)
	This acoustic power trio recorded these 10 freely improvised, highly charged tracks in 2001 in Sweden's Bohus studio, now re-released with a live recording from the same year.
$15.95   Buy  listen	Capece / Patterson: empty matter (Another Timbre)
	Amplified objects artist Lee Patterson and reed player Lucio Capece, also on the sruti box, in 8 rich and slowly paced "empty" works that create mysterious timbral environments.
$16.95   Buy  listen	Centazzo / Curran / Evan Parker: Real Time One (Newtone)
	This landmark live recording from Rome, 1977, brought together electronics, sax and percussion from these now legendary performers, re-issued here with one additional track.
$30.95   Buy  listen	Circulasione Totale Orchestra: Bandwidth 3CD (Rune Grammofon)
	Frode Gjerstad's Circulasione Totale Orchestra with a new line-up including Louis Moholo-Moholo, lstad, Sabir Mateen, Kevin Norton, Bobby Bradford, Lasse Marhaug & Paal Nilssen-Love, &c.
$12.95   Buy  listen	Dadge, Chris: The Tangled Woof of Fact (Bug Incision Records)
	Bug Incision's label leader Chris Dadge in a follow-up to his 2006 solo drum album "I'd Drive Your Ass Across The World", succinct journeys in a percussive world.
$32.95   Buy  listen	Dixon, Bill: Weight / Counterweight [VINYL 2 LPs] (Broken Research)
	Trumpeter/composer Bill Dixon returns to small group playing in a trio with open-minded improvisers Aaron Siegl and Ben Hall in a double LP of advanced directions and techniques.
$18.95   Buy  listen	Dok Wallach (Thieke / Erdmann / Fink / Kobberling): Live in Lisbon (Jazzwerkstatt)
	The Dok Wallach quartet devotes itself to the music of Charles Mingus, who they consider the quintessential rebel jazz musician, here recording live at Clube de Portugal, Lisbon.
$19.95   Buy  listen	Douglas, Dave Tiny Bell Trio: Constellations (Hatology)
	A much-needed reissue of Dave Douglas's Tiny Bell Trio with guitarist Brad Shepik and drummer Jim Black, a remarkably telepathic group recorded mid-tour after 3 years working together.
$17.95   Buy  listen	Gjerstad, Frode & Han Bennink: Han & Frode (Cadence)
	Gjerstand and Bennink began performing together in 2006, and this was part of a series of concerts from 2007 in Norway, recording these incredible tracks live at the Nils Aas Museum.
$15.95   Buy  listen	Hodgkinson, Tim: Teshuvah (Rossbin)
	Pianist/clarinetist Milo Fine and clarinetist Tim Hodgkinson in extended improvisations, demonstrating the technically sharp, inventive fire that resulted from their first encounter playing together.
$12.95   Buy  listen	Lamp Chops: The Localization Of Noise And Its Endowment With Form (Bug Incision Records)
	Four beautiful string-saturated improvisations from Toronto's Colin Fisher and Simeon Abbott recording live and playing exclusively on ghuzeng and prepared guitar.
$15.95   Buy  listen	Loris: Farmer / Hughes / Jones: the cat from cat hill (Another Timbre)
	Electronics and natural objects with a common love for the E Bow from this electroacoustic improvising trio recording at Middlesex University in 2009.
$15.95   Buy  listen	Matthews / Rives: arethusa (Another Timbre)
	Saxophonist Rives with Wade Matthews on software synthesis and manipulated field recordings in a piece inspired by the story of Arethusa, a servant of the Greek goddess Artemis.
$17.95   Buy  listen	Mcphee, Joe: Alto [VINYL] (Roaratorio)
	"Alto" joins "Tenor" and "Soprano" to complete a trilogy within Joe McPhee's catalog of unaccompanied playing, here on alto saxophone and alto clarinet.
$26.95   Buy  listen	Mitchell, Roscoe / David Wessel: Contact (RogueArt)
	Reeds and electronics from Art Ensemble's Roscoe Mitchell and improviser David Wessel in a DVD from the Paris IRCAM festival, 2004, and a CD of a 2002 live recording at UC Berkeley.
$13.95   Buy  listen	Mostly Other People Do The Killing: Shamokin!!! (Hot Cup Records)
	New York's MOPDTK (Evans/Irabagon/Shea/Elliott) performing band leader Moppa Elliott's post-uber-be-bop that smokes in the future tradition of 50s jazz.
$17.95   Buy  listen	New Monuments, The: [VINYL] (Important Records)
	A trio of hard abstract improvisers bringing a massive set of experience to the recordings heard here, made during the tour they conceived during the 2008 Instal Fest in Glasgow.
$19.95   Buy	Sharp, Elliot: The Velocity of Hue - Live in Cologne (Panrec)
	A rare DVD of composer Elliot Sharp performing his "Velocity of Hue" and "Quadrature" compositions on guitar with Max/MSP, live in Cologne, 2005.
$21.95   Buy	Sun Ra: Medicine For A Nightmare The Singles [VINYL] (Doxy)
	A great collection bringing together rare 7" singles from '55-59, primarily studio recordings under a number of different band names and configurations, essential 'Ra.
$17.95   Buy  listen	Taylor, Cecil & Dominic Duval: The Last Dance Volumes 1 & 2 [2 CDs] (Cadence)
	Both sets from the duo of pianist Cecil Taylor and bassist Dominic Duval performing live at the San Fransicso Jazz Fest in 2003, great free playing from two of New York's finest.
$12.95   Buy  listen	Tenterhooks: Tenterhooks (Bug Incision Records)
	2006 recordings of a quartet featuring Jack Wright, Ben Wright, Mike Pride, and Nate Wooley, tightly coiled intersecting sounds and extended playing techniques.
$15.95   Buy  listen	The Sealed Knot (Beins / Davies / Wastell): and we disappear (Another Timbre)
	For a decade this trio has created some of the most interesting electroacoustic improvisation, captured in a 38 minute performance at the Ear We Are Festival in Biel, Switzerland, 2007.
$11.95   Buy  listen	WarIsTerror Terroriswar: The Brutal Reality of Modern Brutality (Thollem)
	Pianist Thollem McDonas with the WarIsTerror quintet (now known as TSIGOTI), improvising in a music that combines revolutionary politics and intelligent avant-punk fervor.
$18.95   Buy  listen	Watts, Trevor: The Deep Blue (Jazzwerkstatt)
	Pure Watts as this multi-instrumentalist layers himself performing saxophones, percussion, piano and synthesizer for far-ranging and captivating results, from electronics to African drums.
$13.95   Buy  listen	Yoshihide / Ozeki / Gustafsson: with records (Doubtmusic)
	It started with a Mats Gustafsson's LP, for which Ozeki Mitkito created a polyvinyl chloride cutout, which Otomo manipulated on his turntable, recording this limited hand-numbered CD.

Electronic / Experimental:
$24.95   Buy  listen	Collins, Nicolas: Devil's Music (EM Records)
	2 CD edition of Nicolas Collins 1986 warped electronic work, with bonus material from a 1987 cassette-only release, plus a video and PC & Mac software to create your own Devil Music!
$14.95   Buy  listen	Ferrari, Luc : Les Arythmiques (Blue Chopsticks)
	One of Ferrari's final works, a disturbing electroacoustic piece representing in sound the jolt of electricity sent across the composer's heart to treat his arrythmia.
$17.95   Buy  listen	Merzbow: Microkosmos Volume 1 [VINYL] (Blossoming Noise)
	The first in a five part series of limited edition Merzbow LPs, each featuring artwork from a collection of visual collages created by Masami Akita from 1982 through '83.

Rock/RIO/Prog:
$29.95   Buy	Fahey, John: America [VINYL 2 LPs] (4 Men With Beards)
	Fahey's epic and classic 1971 Tacoma LP was conceived as a double but released as a single LP, deservedly reissued in a 2LP 180 gram beautiful gatefold edition with art booklet.
$14.95   Buy  listen	Jackie-O Motherfucker: Ballads Of The Revolution (Fire)
	JOMF's 10th studio records, drifting ballads and songs that reach back through their history, beautifully rendered songs that use eclectic and gorgeous strategies.
$19.95   Buy  listen	Yamamoto, Tatsuhisa & Muneomi Senju: a thousand mountains ( acoustic & synthesized drums and percussions) (Doubtmusic)
	An ecstatic set of drum works from ex-Boredoms drummer Muneomi Senju and Satoko Fujii drummer Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, amazing, engaging and intense polyrhythmic playing!

Compositional:
$13.95   Buy  listen	GVSU New Music Ensemble + Various Artists: In C Remixed (Innova)
	The GVSU New Music Ensemble take on Terry Riley's in C, interlocking phrases, repeated any number of times, plus remixes of the GVSU's recording from 11 modern artists.
$19.95   Buy  listen	Prokofiev, Sergei & Dmitri Shostakovich: Works For 2 Pianists Under Soviet Rule (Hat [now] ART)
	Two works for piano composed under Stalinist rule by Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev, recorded in 2009 by pianists Ufuk & Bahar Dorduncu.

Books & Magazine:
$4.95   Buy	Signal To Noise: Issue #56, Winter 2010 (Signal to Noise)
	Winter 2010 issue with articles on Matthew Shipp, Sufjan Stevens, Van Dyke Parks, Talibam!, Chesnutt, Bobby Beausoleil + live reviews, CD, DVD, LP and book reviews .
$8.95   Buy	Wire, The: #311 January 2010 Magazine (Wire)
	2009 in perspective, presenting the top 50 records of the year, plus features on Monolake; Janek Schaefer; Thirteenth Assembly; Yan Jun; Position Normal; The Village Orchestra; Josephine Foster, &c.
$11.95   Buy  listen	Yeti: 8 [BOOK & CD] (Yeti)
	Nicely published 200 page book with articles, interviews, & visual works, including a piece on the Harry Partch instruments, articles on Colors, Zola Jesus, &c. &c.

Miscellaneous:
$15.95   Buy  listen	Crumb, Robert: Hot Women (Kein & Aber)
	Cartoonist Crumb's compilation of women vocalists recorded between 1928-1950 from southern countries all over the world, with an illustrated booklet crammed with informative text.

THE SQUID'S EAR The Squid's Ear is Squidco's companion online magazine, featuring reviews of Squidco items from independent writers. Click here to go to the Squid's Ear, or click an album cover below to read its review.

Recent Reviews:

Frode Gjerstad / John Edwards / Mark Sanders: Bergen (FMR) Olivier Capparos & Lionel Marchetti: Equus (Grand Vehicule) (Pogus) Jessica Pavone: Songs Of Synastry And Solitude (Tzadik) Elton Dean's Ninesense: Happy Daze + Oh! For the Edge (Ogun) Ergo: Multitude, Solitude (Cuneiform)

The Nu Band: Lower East Side Blues (Porter Records) La Casa, Eric / Jean-Luc Guionnet: Inscape. Lille-Flandres (Monotype) Moscow Composers Orchestra & Sainkho Namchylak: Portrait of an Idealist (Leo) Various Artists: Three 7" Records and 1 Various Artists CD (Generate Records) Anthony Braxton: Creative Orchestra (Koeln) 1978 (Hatology)

Do you Twitter? If so, you can follow Squidco's new releases and reviews on the 'Ear at twitter.com/squidco .

You can also follow Squidco's new releases using our RSS feed: