The Alps - Le Voyage (Type Records, 2010)

These labels don't just look like the cover; they also look like the album sounds. A review somewhere described "Le Voyage" as a fake soundtrack to a European travel film, and that's apt not just because of the title. Expansive but not endless, each cut more of a set piece than a "song", varied from track to track but related as a whole, pleasant but also a bit emotionally removed. This record has snuck up as one of my favorites from this year.

The labels are blow-ups of the similarly indistinct sleeve images. Though the album's production is clear and precise, there's still a slight fog on some tracks, a soft distortion around the edges or the equivalent a medium film grain, and the label art reflects that nicely. The labels relate to the cover without simply duplicating the same image on a smaller scale, and the art relates to the sound in a non-literal manner. Lovely usage of Futura medium too.

CR-3075 (1959)

The Fabulous Wailers (Golden Crest)

Another colorful one. You'd think the "Golden Sound" of Golden Crest would favor the gold, no?

Povertech Industries (1995)

The B-Side wins again and again, and this time is no different. Just the B-Side this time. Half of the CM von Hausswolff Plays John Cage 7". The other side is a spiritcom version of one of the Imaginary Landscape works. This side is von Hausswolff's cover of 4'33". The great thing is how he recorded this. Cut straight to vinyl, no sound source. The real kicker: instead of time, he translated 4'33" as distance. Vectors, my friend, it is all in vectors. Four feet and thirty-three inches. That's how long the groove is, and determines how long the composition plays. No, it does not translate to four minutes thirty-three seconds. The package recommends you not play this side. I must not love my turntable, because I do anyway.

Sympathy for the Record Industry (1994)

"Stop messing with my head with your half baked ragas, dull pseudo ethnic arcana, fake folk etc don't give me 'give and take' improv, and please no 'interesting', I want full-on universal electric blood or nothing (Nothing is pretty good too)…"
— Matthew Bower, from a March 31, 2005 text for Volcanic Tongue record shop.

Happy 4th! In honor of this holiday, I offer a record under the lead of Matthew Bower, one British individual who’d be able to convert us into loyal British subjects again single-handed with just one guitar, an amp and a howl. (As he has in his bands Mirag, Pure, Total, Sunroof! and some later versions of Skullflower.) Thankfully he wasn’t around in the 18th century. We'd be eating grilled tomatoes with fish cakes for breakfast. So I offer a 7” from the first glory days of Skullflower.

I could mention I met him once at the Empty Bottle. Saw him standing alone before a show. I walked up, thanked him for the years of music and pleasure. Bower looked up at me (he's rather short), beer in hand, and replied, in a cold yet somehow not mean or condescending manner, "How do you know who I am?" Didn't have an answer. Then an hour later, electric bliss.

Back to the matter at hand. One of many of the best things about Bower, is his nonchalance about being tough. He came up with a great band name, everything else is malleable. Look at the label. Flies? Gnats? Drooling bumblebees? Ok, maybe a rabid wasp. Not too scared regardless.

And the song titles. You know you aren’t worried about image when you can use these titles for your heavy brutal stomp. If it is gonna pummel you, the title can have a little fun, no? Who needs bluster? I’m skittish just considering encountering any of the fully-grown horses of this “Ponyland.” Only Bower would dream to make a “Fake Revolt” more menacing than a real one. This is the stuff electricity was invented for, to mangle and buzz over paleolithic drums. When other opportunities fall through, sometimes to get the heart racing one must stick out your thumb and hold high that cardboard sign: “Nihilism or Bust!”

99 Records (1981)

99 Records didn't last long (1980-84), but the had a pretty damn good four years: Bush Tetras, Y-Pants, ESG, and Liquid Liquid were all on the roster at one time or another. One of the label's last releases was Glenn Branca's debut long-player, The Ascension. The cleanliness of the label's design belies the dissonance and clamor of the album, a rock-ish hybrid that hints at the massive guitar symphonies Branca would soon endeavor to compose. Side B's 99 logo is pretty nice, but we can't confirm or deny if it's present on all of the label's releases. The A side seems a little drab, if uncluttered and attractive, until one notices the old A/B switcheroo, a little bit of graphic trickery that we can't recall ever seeing on any other labels, surprisingly enough. Also worth checking out is the design on the 7" singles released by Branca's rock bands, The Static and The Theoretical girls. The Ascension is adorned with some really nice Robert Longo cover art, but that will have to be exhibited in some other blog.

Cinema Sound, Ltd. (1960s)

Let the marriage of yellow and purple, Cinema Sound, Ltd., and The Cannon Royal Family seduce you...

"International Fashions in Sound is an instant ticket to everywhere, produced exclusively for Cannon Royal Family International Fashions for bed and bath." (Yes...I googled said royal family and the first thing that came up was an upland cotton blanket.)

"The selections in this album provide an unusual feeling of opulence in music. They offer a colorful experience for the listener, taking him on a magic carpet for a brief visit to some of the world's most exotic places."

"This album is not for sale."