Our weekly blog took a week's hiatus, to let us celebrate Record Store Day, which is both an enormously fun event, and an enormously large task! Online our customers enjoyed savings across the board, and we're happy to say that we united many avid listeners with great music during the full RSD weekend.
In store, the party was more immediate, as we set out wine and hummus, stacks of records not available online, and presented a day of experimental performances. Many thanks to our own Carl Kruger, plus Conor Augustine, Ryan Lewis, and John the Baptist, all of whom performed that Saturday. The highlights of the day to this ear were: the solo set of Ryan Lewis (Cheval Gris), which was enormously loud and succinctly short; the charged and exciting duo of Ryan Lewis and Carl Kruger (Baby Daddy); and the testament to vinyl that John the Baptist presented, with DJ Disturbed accompanying using an Anita Bryant album played mostly in reverse. It was great to see people out, buying records, and happy to hang out and enjoy the day!
On the bigger topic of Record Store Day, the event has grown in scope over the years, with hundreds of releases available. As you, a reader of our blog, knows, we are a specialty shop, and we only found 5 albums that fit our catalog. It would be great to see more improv labels participate in the event, and kudos to Sweden's Moserobie Records for reissuing Kullrick's Sing Sing Sing on a beautiful piece of 180g colored vinyl!
The flip side to the event is, it's a pity we need the day to celebrate what once was a ubiquitous variety of store in most towns: record stores. Statistics show that more people are choosing passive listening through streaming services, the modern equivalent to radio. While there are many options for listeners, most of what we sell at Squidco won't be found on any streaming service, and where you find it, you won't encounter the diversity of forms that the avid collector can find.
Personally I've collected music all my adult life, and referred to my collection as my own radio station, but better than any other because I didn't have to hear the same music twice if I didn't want to. And, through taking chances on releases that looked interesting, but which I wasn't assured would be good, I discovered music that would form an impression on me, leading me in new directions of listening that were uniquely my own. Tangible items that I can hold in my hand convey more meaning, as collecting is an active and intellectually interesting way to broaden the mind.
If Record Store Day helps new listeners to focus on active collecting then its purpose is true. And if our happy RSD is any indication, there are still many people who want to pursue music with their own mind.
New Releases for the last two weeks:
New Atlantis leads the charge with recent releases, particularly the new Ava Mendoza LP Unnatural Ways which is an amazing and twisted rocker, and Upsilon Acrux's Sun Square Dialect on CD & LP, a rock release that's as much compositional as it is maze-like instrumental rock. We also received a previous release that was somehow missed with our last order, TOTEM> (Eisenbeil / Blancarte / Drury) Voices of Grain. On the experimental rock side, Colin Webster + Mark Holub's Viscera lives up to its name in a strange and skronky album of sax and drums that's absolutely worth the listen; their technical prowess is as strong as their sinewy and raw approach to playing.
New Atlantis:
View: $19.95 - Mendoza, Ava: Unnatural Ways [VINYL]
View: $11.95 - TOTEM> (Eisenbeil / Blancarte / Drury): Voices of Grain
View: $11.95 - Upsilon Acrux : Sun Square Dialect
View: $19.95 - Upsilon Acrux : Sun Square Dialect [VINYL]
View: $11.95 - Webster, Colin + Mark Holub: Viscera
Three new releases from Satoko Fujii & Natsuki Tamura's Libra labels and related, including her Berlin Orchestra, and a new Kaze CD. All three are excellent examples of why we're such strong fans of her music, which combines grace and melody with free playing, both subtle and powerful. Kaze is a real treat, free improvisation with strong dramatic flare and superb playing.
Libra:
View: $16.95 - Fujii, Satoko Orchestra Berlin: Ichigo Ichie
View: $16.95 - Fujii, Satoko Tobira: Yamiyo Ni Karasu
Circum-Libra:
View: $16.95 - Kaze: Uminari
Bolt continues to impress with an eclectic set of albums that includes a title from Maja Ratkje performing in the Polish Radio Experimental Studio. Bolt is a sublabel of the Polish label Monotype Records, and their tastes and interests are far-ranging.
Bolt:
View: $15.95 - Maja S. K. Ratkje: In Dialogue with Eugeniusz Rudnik
View: $14.95 - Joanna Halszka Sokolowska: Msza
View: $14.95 - Arturas Bumsteinas : Different Trains
View: $14.95 - Candelaria Saenz Valiente / Marcin Masecki: Hymnen
View: $14.95 - Gintas K: Blind Man Tales
View: $14.95 - Marcin Masecki: Variations
Speaking of Monotype, two albums of note have been added to our catalog, listed below. Transmit with Tony Buck of The Necks and pianist Magda Mayas has received quite a bit of play at Squidco, and is recommended.
Monotype:
View: $15.95 - Transmit (Buck / Mayas / Dougherty / Welburn): Radiation
View: $15.95 - Frisch, Johannes / Ralf Wehowsky: Which Head You're Dancing In?
Four cassettes have arrived from Astral Spirits, who are quickly becoming one of our favorite cassette labels. Squidco fans will recognize Red Trio, with releases on NoBusiness and Clean Feed, but also check out the Nick Hennies and Boxhead Ensemble releases, which are closely tied to the music we sell. All of these cassettes come with download codes, so if you don't have a cassette player you can still own these great objects and enjoy the music.
Astral Spirits:
View: $8.95 - Boxhead Ensemble: La Hora Magica [CASSETTE with download code]
View: $8.95 - Nick Hennies: Casts [CASSETTE with download code]
View: $8.95 - RED Trio: Live in Munich [CASSETTE with download code]
View: $8.95 - Shit & Shine: Chakin [CASSETTE with download code]
View: $8.95 - Tredici Bacci / ENPSE: Vai! Vai! Vai!/Concetti [CASSETTE with download code]
Upcoming Soon
The latest from UK's Another Timbre label have arrived, shipped in 3 packages, the last of which arrived on Friday, so we're still getting a handle on them. Two releases are already on the site in our Just In section, with samples and a first pass at a description. More on those in next week's blog. New titles from The Netherlands label Unsounds also arrived on Friday, and should be on the site early next week. Last, these also arrived on Friday and will be up on the site very soon:
FERREYRA, BEATRIZ: GRM Works [VINYL]
REDOLFI, MICHEL: Pacific Tubular Waves/Immersion [VINYL]
ZACH/MIGUEL ANGEL TOLOSA, INGAR: Loner
MOTORPSYCHO: En Konsert For Folk Flest [VINYL 2 LP & CD & DVD]
WIRE, THE: #375 April 2015 [MAGAZINE]
BURROUGHS, WILLIAM S.: In Dub (Conducted by Dub Spencer & Trance Hill) [VINYL LP + CD]
STEPMOTHER (Simonis / Visser / Gilonis / Kerman): Calvary Greetings
PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE & GRUMBLING FUR TIME MACHINE ORCHESTRA: ggrrreeebbbaaammmnnnuuuccckkkaaallloooww!!! [VINYL]
GRUPPO DI IMPROVVISAZIONE NUOVA CONSONANZA: Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura [VINYL]
SHIPP, MATTHEW / MAT WALERIAN DUO: The Uppercut: Live At Okuden
ALVA NOTO: Xerrox Vol. 3
RUSSELL / BERESFORD / EDWARDS / LIAVIK SOLBERG: Will It Float? [VINYL]
SCHLIPPENBACH TRIO: Pakistani Pomade [VINYL]
FELDMAN, MORTON: Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello
FULL OF HELL/MERZBOW: Full of Hell/Merzbow [VINYL]
We've placed order for the following titles, which should arrive over the next couple of weeks or so:
erstwhile:
Jeph Jerman/Tim Barnes: Matterings erstwhile
Graham Lambkin/Michael Pisaro: Schwarze Riesenfalter erstwhile
Eric La Casa/Taku Unami: Parazoan Mapping erstwhile
Bocian (Poland):
Mats Gustafsson & Phil Minton & John Russell: A Duets [VINYL] Bocian
Lacerda / Manso / Nilssen-Love / Zenicola: Bota Fogo [VINYL] Bocian Records 2014/QTV/PNL
Reinhold Friedl: Golden Quinces, Earthed For Spatialised Neo-Bechstein Bocian
Squid Tech
Squidco is 100% Adobe Flash Free! The new players are on our website, currently in the product detail page, and in the "New In..." categories. They should be available in all categories, if we haven't forgotten any. You'll also see that the "Recent Releases" uses the same categories as all of the "New In..." categories, which allows you to hear one of the samples for each release, and read its abstract. And to be able to do so on you phone, tablet, phablet, and desktop.
We waited quite a while to implement this change - when we first added audio samples Flash was ubiquitous, and there were few other cross-platform options for presenting audio samples. Anyone who follows tech news knows that Adobe Flash has been implicated in many hacker's schemes, and Apple Computers started the charge against Flash by denying its addition on the iPad and iPhone platforms, and forcing users of their Safari browser to turn the plugin on manually.
Fortunately the World Wide Web Consortium saw fit to standardize the inclusion of audio and video when they created the HTML5 standard. We waited quite a while to insure that our customers had upgraded their browsers to be able to play audio using this new standard. And we also waited for Firefox (Mozilla) to add support for mp3 audio, which requires a license charge.
The wait is over, and the new players should work for the vast majority of our customers. And in fact, they're faster and more useful than the Flash players we previously used. Only The Squid's Ear is still using the Flash plugin, and that should change in the next few weeks.
In conjunction with our new media server, which allows us considerably more bandwidth than we previously had, we're encouraging our customers to listen to our samples. Which is why we've added the players to our category listings. And after we work out a few technical curiosities, we should have audio samples available on the homepage rotating player as well.
If you're curious, we currently host an astounding 15,000 audio samples for our approximately 7,000 item catalog. That's a lot of listening!
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