The Tortoise

What’s Up Matador is a 2-CD (or 2-LP) compilation that was released by Matador Records that chronicles some of the best artists within their roster during the 90s. The first disc serves as a bit of a “best of” collection, featuring indie standouts by Yo La Tango, Pizzicato Five, Cat Power, Helium, and of course, Liz Phair. The second disc is what is particularly noteworthy, as it features previously unreleased material from many of the same artists. This marks the official debut of Liz’s “Stuck On An Island,” a b-side that fans would later discover was in the initial running for whitechocolatespaceegg.

When Watter first appeared fully formed in 2014 as a trio featuring founding members of Grails and Slint, most assumed the mercurial group would vanish into the ether just like the foggy echoes of sound they crafted on their debut album, This World. Instead, they toured the US with their longtime friends in Om, and returned home to begin work on an ambitious new recording studio, from which their new album, History of the Future was born. As with their first album, the songs on History of the Future evolved from many long days and nights of improvisation, experimentation, and collaboration. In many ways, the guests – which include, among others, Britt Walford (Slint), Dominic Cipolla (Phantom Family Halo, Torres), Rachel Grimes (Rachel’s), Bundy K. Brown (Tortoise), and Todd Cook (Shipping News, The For Carnation) – and the gear were as vital to the creative process as the core duo of Riles and multi-instrumentalist Tyler Trotter. It is this exploratory nature that breathes life into Watter, and turns ephemeral into eternal.

La Monte Young - Draw a Straight Line and Follow It IV (2010) {5CD Set, Otherside Recordings Japan}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.20 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 622 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 8 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2010 La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela / Otherside Recordings Japan | [none]
Classical / Modern Classical / Modern Composition / Experimental / Microtonal

La Monte Young, generally regarded as the father of musical minimalism, is one of America’s most important contemporary composers–and one of the most elusive. Early on Young eschewed the conventional musical institutions of publishers, record labels, and venues, in order to create compositions completely unfettered by commercial concerns. At the same time, however, he exercised profound influence on such varied figures as Terry Riley, Cornelius Cardew, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Velvet Underground, Brian Eno and entire branches of pop music. For half a century he and his partner and collaborator, Marian Zazeela, have worked in near-seclusion in their Tribeca loft, creating works that explore the furthest extremes of conceptual audacity, technical sophistication, acoustical complexity, and overt spirituality.

Stereolab took an unprecedented two years between 1997's Dots & Loops and 1999's Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night, as they tended to personal matters. During those two years, Stereolab's brand of sophisticated, experimental post-rock didn't evolve too much, even as colleagues like Tortoise, Jim O'Rourke, and the High Llamas tried other things. Since each Stereolab album offered a significant progression from the next, it would have been fair to assume that when they returned, it would be with a leap forward, especially since Tortoise's John McEntire and O'Rourke were co-producers. Perhaps that's the reason that the album feels slightly disappointing. The group has absorbed McEntire's jazz-fusion leanings – "Fuses" kicks off the album in compelling, free-jazz style – and the music continually bears O'Rourke's attention to detail, but it winds up sounding like O'Hagan's increasing tendency of making music that's simply sound for sound's sake.