Glenn Donaldson (a.k.a. Edmund Xavier) is a San Francisco musician who runs Burundi Cloud label and is/was a member of The Skygreen Leopards, Thuja, FWY!, Horrid Red and many others
Bitchin Bajas and Bonnie Prince Billy – Epic Jammers & Fortunate Little Ditties By…LP+EP
Bonnie & the Bajas (a better name?) get into lovely abstract drone-folk territory that wouldn’t have been out of place in CD-R culture of the ’00s. Bonnie mumbles & croons his way through some fortune cookie cut-up lyrics over lovely analog synth drones & guitar bits. File next to Richard Youngs Festival & Witthuser & Westrupp’s Der Jesus Pilz.
The Garbage & the Flowers – The Deep Niche LP
Been admiring Grapefruit Records from afar & I finally bought this reissue by one of my all time favorites from ye olde 90s. I bought the super rare Eyes Rind Lp new back in the day & covet it. Turns out this earlier tape was even better & better recorded, lo-fi Cherry Red Records-ish folk pop. This sound is wonderfully restored, best album I have heard in a long long time.
The Bibs – From the Fish Houses LP
This now defunct (?) Detroit band finally gets a real LP from my buddy Soft Abuse. It’s Siltbreeze + Xpressway + Detroit weirdness, 4-track sounding simple, bummer folk rock. It’s all a lovely guitar mood pieces with enough vocal song elements to have character. I played this record a lot; it just hits the sweet spot.
Brannten Schnure- Geträumt Hab Ich Von Martinzug
Damn this album was free on bandcamp. This female/male duo is really hitting it out of the park with their loop/drone/folk, spoken/chanted vocals with mysterious samples & keys. It reminds of the thrill of first hearing Kemialliset Ystavat, but with more modern DAW elements & sampling. The guy is a great painter too, worth a peak at discogs.
Masayoshi Fujiita & Jan Jelinek – Schaum
Another random bandcamp find (so much great music to be found there, fuck these other streaming services)…brings together lovely sound design electronic elements with improv (as far as I can tell)., prepared vibraphone & live loop processing, very organic & dreamy.
Gun Outfit – Winner’s Circle Cassette
A major revelation this year was seeing Gun Outfit live at Woodsist fest…really exciting blend of country, post-punk & hippie not heard since the heyday of Slash Records. Based around a male/female guitar/vocal duo, Amps For Christ plays his homemade instruments with them sometimes, while Adam Payne does his best Meat Puppets impression on bass.
Other new/old things I got hip to: Drunk Elk, Exiles From Clowntown, Hypnobeat
Releases in 2017 to look forward to that I might be involved in releasing or recording: Swiftumz, Odd Hope, Lovebirds, Hallelujahs, Backstabbers, The Dream By Dream…???
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