The Terminals Touch CD
Labradford Mi Media Naranja
Pan-American s/t
Andrew Chalk Time of Hayfield
Brightblack Morning Light s/t
Chopin Nocturnes
Burning Star Core Fascination 2CDR (disc 1)
Naked on the Vague The Blood Pressure Sessions LP

In 2007, the Last Visible Dog label released Last Days of the Sun, the first new album by The Terminals in over 10 years, and now they've reissued a classic by the band, the 1992 album Touch. It's funny, putting this on I realize that though I've never actually owned this, a lot of the songs are familiar - the awesome opener "Basket Case," the rollicking Brian Crook-sung "(What I've Heard Of) Wyoming," the epic "Mr. Clean," the scary "That Thing Upstairs Is Not My Mother" - and that the reason is that I taped them all off the radio back in the mid-1990s, during various installments of the community radio show (KZUM 89.3 FM Lincoln) hosted by one Chris Moon, who is now, well, the Providence, RI-based CEO of Last Visible Dog Records... I think right now, while I'm on a Rhythm & Sound/Basic Channel kick and open to various (ahem) contemporary reimaginings of dub, is a good time to pull out these two albums from 1997, the fourth Labradford album Mi Media Naranja and the self-titled debut by Pan-American. Both groups feature Richmond/Chicago musician Mark Nelson (the latter is his solo guise). I think I like the Labradford album the best with its spaced-out windswept nod to some kind of barely-there Morricone-rock. Maybe it's just the Italian (?) title that makes me say that but this is a great album. The Pan-American is a little more under-the-threshold, without the soundtrack riffs to focus on, more comparable to something contemporaneous like Pole... not quite sure what's going on with it yet but I like it. Heard great things about this new Andrew Chalk and it did sound nice when I was paying attention but just as often I wasn't paying attention at all - maybe, to apply Eno's maxim, this album is just slightly more ignorable than it is interesting? Now, Brightblack Morning Light - there's an ambient album that stays interesting because it's done by electric piano and slide guitar playing non-stop swampy roots-rock riffs. I still call it 'ambient' because these are barely songs at all, even when they are singing something specific in two-part harmony. Very weird humid and druggy album - it took me a few listens to get used to it and how 'Muscle Shoals' it was, but now I'm really getting into it. I always rave about Burning Star Core, and I love the Yeh/Beatty/Tremaine BXC trio configuration, but first listen to this Fascination 2 x CDR didn't make too big of an impression. Each disc is a separate live show from 2007. I mean, it does make an impression by being very loud and wall-of-noise, but this lineup is capable of some amazing detail work and I couldn't pull too much of it out here. Excellent design and packaging by Yeh though, as always, and this time including liner notes! The Naked on the Vague LP is new on Siltbreeze, an Australian man/woman drums/synth etc. duo, and it made no real impression at all. Something's in there, I can tell, I'll let you know how the next spin goes.