After a relatively lengthy period of dormancy while setting up
my new record shop, I have two new releases out on the label.
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| M.A.M. Grapes |
The first is a limited edition vinyl LP of eleven songs by the mysterious
Mark Alexander McIntyre. Don't let the floral artwork fool you, M.A.M.'s
Grapes is one of the bleakest records I've ever heard and I'm incredibly "pleased" to be hoisting this slab of depression upon you all. This is a very down-and-out album of original songs written from the point of view of man who seems to be close to the void, or perhaps already within its deathly grips, reaching out to us with his weary, wraithlike voice. The songs seem to be interconnected, with the same characters and themes appearing on multiple cuts. Some of the lyrics deal with pain and loss obliquely, while others confront the harshness of reality head on: stomach problems, factory work, cancer treatment. Most of the material is recorded onto a wavering and echoey tape machine with just acoustic guitar, but as the album progresses, electric instruments and a full band cut through the fog. It's truly a harrowing work, but one that I've been unable to stop listening to since I received these murky recordings nearly two years ago as an unsolicited demo tape. Volcanic Tongue called
Grapes "one of the premier outsider all-alone folk/psych burnout albums of the goddamn decade" and featured it as their
February 2014 Tip of the Tongue. Limited edition one time pressing of 300 LPs is
SOLD OUT here at the source and also from
Forced Exposure (US) and
Volcanic Tongue (UK). The last few copies left without a huge markup are
here.
Stream or download the complete album here:
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| OKF 010 |
The second project is One Kind Favor's first foray into printed matter, a book of Interviews conducted by
Joeri Bruyninckx entitled "I Bake Your Pardon? I Never Promised You An Avant-Garden." Subjects include:
Richard Youngs,
Matthew Bower (Skullflower),
Id M Theft Able,
Bill Orcutt (Harry Pussy),
Keith Fullerton Whitman,
Mad Nanna,
Cave Bears,
Spencer Clark (The Skaters),
Kevin Drumm,
El-G,
Leyland Kirby (V/Vm),
Billy Bao,
Paul Labrecque (Sunburned Hand of the Man), Mama Bar, Nathan Bowles (Pelt), Tim Goss (The Shadow Ring) and others. All of the artists are in a class of their own and the interviews are very thoughtful and revealing. Very excited about this one as some of these have only been published in translation, and never in their original English form.
Limited edition one time printing of 200.
Review of the zine in the Village Voice.
SOLD OUT
