Hi Folks. It’s a whopper of a start to the year with some amazing new releases and tours in the works. See below!! Also feel free to follow Lawrence on TWITTER and Becks on TUMBLR. -- Lawrence & Becks.
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Hi Folks. It’s a whopper of a start to the year with some amazing new releases and tours in the works. See below!! Also feel free to follow Lawrence on TWITTER and Becks on TUMBLR. -- Lawrence & Becks. |
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 AUD$18 postpaid |
DEERHOOF VS ONEONE 7INCH RMSG009 In celebration of their Australia and New Zealand tour in 2010, Deerhoof and OneOne team up for a special limited edition 7’’. Loosely inspired by the old-school Jamaican Dancehall 7’’s, this lovely little slab of vinyl comes packaged in a yellow gold slip with a deluxe screenprint and photo insert with lyrics and whatnot. Two killer exclusive tunes - Deerhoof’s Sealed With A Kiss (version) and OneOne’s OneOne Theme (Version). Ultra limited edition - PRE ORDER NOW - ships march 01!!!
DEERHOOF AND TENNISCOATS ON TOUR OZ
DEERHOOF ON TOUR IN NZ
ONE ONE ON TOUR IN OZ |
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 AUD$25 postpaid |
NIKASAYA ONE SUMMERHEIM RMSG009 In the summer of 2009, Hiroshima based songwriter Nikaido Kazumi and Tokyo’s Saya (Tenniscoats) met at Guggenheim house, in Shioya. Overlooking the bay of Kansai, the pair set about recording a collection of songs that capture moments of utterly euphoric song, housed in a shimmer of incidental soundscapes. Recording both inside and outside Guggenheim House, the pair’s songs find a perfect union with the architectural and urban spaces in which they were situated. 'Yuka' and 'Osiro' for example allow the epic high ceilinged rooms of Guggenheim House to shroud Nikasaya’s voices in astounding natural reverbs, whilst 'Ufun Taxi' features percussive textures care of passing trains and 'Buun' an unexpected duet with an over excited Semi (cicada). One Summerheim melds free-pop structures with elegantly intertwined vocal harmonies. Building on the unique songform found on the duets debut 'Ipiya', One Summerhiem sees two of Japanese preeminent and visionary voices re-united. Nikasaya’s songs are more than the sum of their parts...they soar in a glorious cluster of swirling vocal melodies and instrumental flows that are harmonic, hummable and most of all heartwarming. One Summerheim also features contributions from UENO (Tenniscoats), Lawrence English and Meco. |
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 AUD$30 postpaid |
aus LIGHT IN AUGUST, LATER RMSG008 Light In August, Later is the latest work from Tokyo based musician and composer aus (Yasuhiko Fukuzono). It's a measured and paced collection of pieces that evoke warm visions of open plains, sun causing mirages to gather on the ground. In this vision the detail of the environment close at hand somehow becomes united with the epic horizon laid out beyond it. It is in fact this relationship between focused detail and sweeping texture that is at the very heart of this edition. Matching cycled melodic passages with tiny electronic clicks and tones, aus generates a music that borrows the harmonic intent of pop but reduces it to a fine grain. Melodies blossom, are swept up in a gauze of processing and become transformed into something exquisitely intimate and engaging. Collaborating with Viennese musician Glim on two pieces, and joined by artists such as Cokiyu on others, this is a record that speaks to aus's abilities not only as a composer, but also a sound crafter of the highest order. An essential and compelling deconstruction of electronic infused pop by one of Japan's most impressive young artists. |
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 AUD$25 postpaid |
AKIRA KOSEMURA POLAROID PIANO RMSG007 Throughout the later half of the 20th century, Edwin Land's Polaroid film came to dominate photo albums - offering the chance to 'capture the moment' and relive it seconds later, Land's product revolutionised the way people documented the world around them. Yet Polaroid cameras did more than simply recount past moments - the medium itself inserted a soft-focus, dream-like quality that appeared to suggest vague recollection over exacting reality. Following in this tradition, Akira Kosemura's latest pop miniature for Someone Good, Polaroid Piano, shares this hazy filmic impression. It's a snapshot of his increasingly personal and evocative piano and electronics pieces, tinted with field recordings (recorded in various locations including recordings from Brisbane and Hobart by Lawrence English) and offered as a series of small but gloriously rich auditory phrases. Played notes and the mechanism of the piano itself share equal presence in the compositions - Kosemura's physicality evident throughout the album. Polaroid Piano, like the film from which its name is drawn, captures a moment but does so with a shimmer of the unreal and the imagined. | |
 AUD$25 postpaid |
The Rational Academy Swans RMSG006 After a year of touring, countless collaborations and time spent in hibernation writing Australia's psychedelic avant-pop collective The Rational Academy return with their sophomore full-length Swans. With Swans The Rational Academy set fire to the edges of deconstructed pop with a record that typifies their unique brand of richly textured song. Colliding their trademarked harmonic richness with a shimmering blur of post-everything sonics, this record is alive with luminous psychedelic anthems, acidic space-dirges, and deeply considered pop experimentation. It is an album that is a visionary journey through the outer rim of song-form and melody. Swans also sees the Academy working closely with producer and arranger, Lawrence English - a collaboration that sought reinvention and transformation, each of the songs being built up and peeled back numerous times to reveal their underpinning quality, within the album as a holistic work. It also features contributions from post-everything musician Mike Cooper and Australian icon Heinz Riegler. Swans, which is the second release in Someone Good’s ‘!0 Songs In 20 Minutes’ series, glows with a graceful and organic maturity of approach that places The Rational Academy as one of this Australia’s most progressive pop outfits. |
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 AUD$25 postpaid |
Qua Silver Red RMSG005 "Silver Red" has been an evolving piece of music from Qua aka Cornel Wilzcek. Over the course of two years Silver Red began to take shape, with the piano and guitar source material originally recorded in 2005 at a live performance in Melbourne. This source material was loaded into an ever-growing custom software patch controlled by a French invention, the Lemur - a multi-touch, programmable screen - that eventually became the backbone of the composition. While it evokes ideas from Steve Reich, Philip Glass and other rhythmic minimalist composers, it also owes much to colourful explorations of artists such as Moondog and Roberto Cacciapaglia. In 2007, Laurence Pike, of Sydney bands Pivot (Warp Records) and Triosk (Leaf Records), took to the drums performing with Qua live and in the studio. As well as playing on Qua's upcoming pop album, Laurence played a one-take drum part that was then loaded into the custom Qua software patch and re-performed by Cornel, thus lending it the same treatment as the other source material. "One Second" is a reaction to "Silver Red". It felt necessary to somehow resolve the album and boil it down to a few simple sounds. It looks at Silver Red from the view point of artists such as Ennio Morricone, Kristoff Komeda and Scott Walker and somehow extrudes one second of time from Silver Red. |
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 AUD$30 postpaid inc FREE BADGES! |
The Rational Academy A Heart Against Your Own RMSG004 THE RATIONAL ACADEMY present their debut LP A HEART AGAINST YOUR OWN. With an unerring willingness to dispense with the pleasantries of expectation and convention, The Academy’s songwriting duo Benjamin Thompson and Meredith McHugh have forged a unique place in the heartland of melodic song writing, etched with glistening electronic interludes and wall of sound guitars. Their songs are replete with sweet melody, reflective lyrics and a presence that’s both engulfing and expansive for the listener. Produced by Room40’s Lawrence English and featuring Iceland’s Ben Frost, UK based duo For Barry Ray and others, ‘A Heart Against Your Own’ follows on from The Rational Academy’s two, now highly collectible, seven inches, a swag of compilation appearances and projects with the likes of Japanese songstress Tujiko Noriko and Novi Split. "The next big thing. The ‘It’ band. We've been told this too often before. But join us tonight for THE RATIONAL ACADEMY and you'll leave smugly, knowing this time Richard Kingsmill hasn't beaten you to it!" Faster Louder |
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 AUD$25 postpaid inc. FREE BADGES! |
Lullatone The Bedtime Beat RMSG003 LULLATONE presents THE BEDTIME BEAT; a reverie and imaginative sleep-walk through the minimal avant-pop stylings of Nagoya's favourite bedroom tune-maestros. The Bedtime Beat is a vision of pop perfection, at just over 20 minutes long this LP confirms that minimal is certainly the new cute! Between the bath water solo of 'The Bathtime Beat', the incredible beatbox grooves care of Yoshima Tomida and some of the most elegant and evocative melodies (delicately recorded on tape) from Shawn Seymour, this record sets a new benchmark for micro-pop. "In the world of Seymour and Tomida, cuteness is merely beauty of another kind." Pitchfork |
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 AUD$30 postpaid |
Akira Kosemura It's On Everything RMSG002 AKIRA KOSEMURA is one of a number of young Tokyo musicians working at the nexus of acoustic instrumentation and minimal electronics. His album, IT'S ON EVERYTHING, typifies a new vision of melodic instrumentation and rich textural electronics sweetened with a beautiful pop overtone. |
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 AUD$30 postpaid |
Various Artists Add to Friends RMSG001 We live in a world that connects. And here's the proof. ADD TO FRIENDS a collection of the most exciting, unusual and effervescent avant pop you're likely to hear. A wondrous and rewarding journey through the sounds of the Asia-Pacific region including masters of micro-pop Lullatone, Taiwan's exception My Little Airport, the casio-eque tones of Pancakes, the unusual melodic pulses of Ytamo and the mastery of psychedelic folk, Tenniscoats. Not to mention Australia's The Rational Academy and Qua. "Excellent stuff, and a great way to find out about a whole host of new and undiscovered talent." BoomkatAkira Kosemura (B. 1985) is a musician, graphic designer and record label manager (Schole). His work has been featured on several albums and compilations including 'Drifting Skywards 2' Coldroom (France) and Electronics unplugged aerotone (Germany). "a pretty fucking amazing ride." Music Emissions "highly captivating contemporary electronica. Gorgeous stuff." Boomkat |
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