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viewing 1 To 10 of 10 items
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S-S 077LP
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"Istanbul, Turkey; Year 2006: Ekin Sanaç and Berna Göl form Kim Ki O. Sanaç plays synth while Göl hits the bass. They both come up with beats and sing. Their music is lo-fi minimal synth with a post-punk / cold wave feel. The cool / warm dual female vocals are eerie and dreamy, referencing classic post-punk as well as traditional Turkish melodies but remaining understated. Over the next couple years, the pair releases two very limited CDRs and tours Scandinavia. In 2009 they appear on Radio Resistencia, released by the great Dutch synth label Enfant Terrible. One year later, Enfant Terrible releases their first album Dans. KFJC writes 'The name of the band means 'Who is that anyway' in Turkish, and it reflects the ethereal nature of the sounds ... a lovely early '80s slow and somber electronic vibe (think Joy Division) combined with floaty, minimal lady vocals (sort of 4AD-ish like Cocteau Twins and Lush) ... sweet, but not saccharine.' The vinyl issue of Dans quickly sells out. Over the next couple of years, Kim Ki O appears on various compilations and tours Turkey and Europe several times. They collaborate with Turkish filmmakers Merve Kayan and Zeynep Dadak on the short film Elope and write music for the Turkish performance group biriken for their play Re: Fwd: die in good company. In 2013, Lentonia Records out of France releases Grounds. It inspires a followup album of remixes called Grounds Album Remixes, also on Lentonia. In 2014, S-S Records dips into the Kim Ki O vaults and finds songs from their early CDRs. While the originals were muddy sounding, the tracks used for Bir, İki... (Turkish for 'One, Two...') are crystal clear. The vinyl -- mastered by John Golden -- gives Kim Ki O's sound new warmth. These ten early tracks are a great addition to their catalog. Not content with music, film and drama, Sanaç and Göl are also involved in Turkey's pro-democracy and women's / gay rights movement. They strongly identify with other women in rock 'n' roll and underground culture."
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S-S 087LP
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"The small towns of California's northern Central Valley have an eerie loneliness to them. Cinematically, take Two-Lane Blacktop and fuse it with Neil Young's Human Highway. Fix that into music and you'd get something like Ghostwriter. Odd rock & roll from Orland, California, the home of the dearly departed Nothing People (and theater organ legend George Wright), Ghostwriter lurks in the dust-caked shadows of rusted old cars and 'obsolete,' solid state, electronic instruments. The Chrome-meets-psych sounds of the Nothing People is there, with some haunted rockabilly à la Alan Vega, Residents-like wooziness, and something that conjures the words 'paranoid closet.' These outsider/loner rock sounds will be listened to for years to come."
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CD
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S-S 085CD
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"In 1983, the release of The Proletariat's debut Soma Holiday was a shocker -- while American hardcore punk was becoming more generic, The Proletariat unleashed something strikingly original. The album's opening is a call to arms: the primitive, militaristic bass guitar and drums are sliced with razor-sharp guitar dissidence and vocals full of spit and bite. Avant-garde while remaining tuneful, their debut is considered one of the most brilliant albums to come out the early '80s American hardcore scene. The leafy suburbs of Southeastern Massachusetts, midway between Boston and Cape Cod, isn't where you would expect to find one of America's most revolutionary sounding and lyrically incendiary rock and roll bands, but that is where The Proletariat began. In 1980, straight from Apponequet High School, Richard Brown, Peter Bevilacqua, and Frank Michaels began pounding out noise, and soon they added high schooler Tommy McKnight. Inspired by The Buzzcocks, The Jam, PiL, and Wire, the young band tapped into the high energy hardcore punk swirling around and infused it with art-punk excitement. By the time that their classic debut hit, The Proletariat were being referred to as 'America's Gang of Four' and a more supercharged Pop Group. The intelligent anger of the band was a lifeline to many suburban American rejects, young people who knew that life under Reagan wasn't right. The sound of Soma Holiday not only sounds as fresh as ever, the thoughtful politics of its lyrics are just as relevant today in a world of drone strikes and Donald Trump, as they were when Oliver North and Leonid Brezhnev were household names."
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S-S 085LP
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LP version. "In 1983, the release of The Proletariat's debut Soma Holiday was a shocker -- while American hardcore punk was becoming more generic, The Proletariat unleashed something strikingly original. The album's opening is a call to arms: the primitive, militaristic bass guitar and drums are sliced with razor-sharp guitar dissidence and vocals full of spit and bite. Avant-garde while remaining tuneful, their debut is considered one of the most brilliant albums to come out the early '80s American hardcore scene. The leafy suburbs of Southeastern Massachusetts, midway between Boston and Cape Cod, isn't where you would expect to find one of America's most revolutionary sounding and lyrically incendiary rock and roll bands, but that is where The Proletariat began. In 1980, straight from Apponequet High School, Richard Brown, Peter Bevilacqua, and Frank Michaels began pounding out noise, and soon they added high schooler Tommy McKnight. Inspired by The Buzzcocks, The Jam, PiL, and Wire, the young band tapped into the high energy hardcore punk swirling around and infused it with art-punk excitement. By the time that their classic debut hit, The Proletariat were being referred to as 'America's Gang of Four' and a more supercharged Pop Group. The intelligent anger of the band was a lifeline to many suburban American rejects, young people who knew that life under Reagan wasn't right. The sound of Soma Holiday not only sounds as fresh as ever, the thoughtful politics of its lyrics are just as relevant today in a world of drone strikes and Donald Trump, as they were when Oliver North and Leonid Brezhnev were household names."
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S-S 086CD
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"bAd bAd started in 2012 when Christian Zamora and Eli Maness started making noise in the foggy outskirts of San Francisco's Sunset District. Joined by Christian's brother Michael and drummer Patrick Webb, the band obsessed on the faraway sounds of Peruvian '60s legends Los Saicos and the Turkish guitar melodies of Erkin Koray, as well as Link Wray. After a year or so of playing hyperactive spaghetti western instrumentals and now based in Oakland, they incorporate other influences: the pop-infused punk of Jay Reatard, one-chord Hawkwind power jams, and the highbrow playfulness of the Suburban Lawns. Disparate sounds, yes, but bAd bAd turns them into exciting buzzsaw-pop with Barrett/Floyd interludes. With recording starting in 2015, they perfected this album until it became a seamless psychedelic pop piece of punk energy."
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S-S 086LP
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LP version. "bAd bAd started in 2012 when Christian Zamora and Eli Maness started making noise in the foggy outskirts of San Francisco's Sunset District. Joined by Christian's brother Michael and drummer Patrick Webb, the band obsessed on the faraway sounds of Peruvian '60s legends Los Saicos and the Turkish guitar melodies of Erkin Koray, as well as Link Wray. After a year or so of playing hyperactive spaghetti western instrumentals and now based in Oakland, they incorporate other influences: the pop-infused punk of Jay Reatard, one-chord Hawkwind power jams, and the highbrow playfulness of the Suburban Lawns. Disparate sounds, yes, but bAd bAd turns them into exciting buzzsaw-pop with Barrett/Floyd interludes. With recording starting in 2015, they perfected this album until it became a seamless psychedelic pop piece of punk energy."
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S-S 084LP
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2021 restock. "From Sacramento via outer space comes The Twinkeyz and their Alpha Jerk LP, restored to excellence after 40 years! During the sizzling hot summer of 1976, Donnie Jupiter, Tom Darling and Walter Smith decided to break out of their boredom with a band. The group was named after Pink Fairies drummer Twink, and influnced by the Fairies, Velvet Underground, Thirteenth Floor Elevators and other underground favorites. In 1977, The Twinkeyz recorded and self-released their classic first single, 'Aliens in Our Midst.' 1978 saw its followup, 'E.S.P. / Cartoon Land.' And in 1979, the album Alpha Jerk was released on the Dutch label Plurex, run by Wally Van Middendorp of the Minny Pops. Though the songs on Alpha Jerk were great, the final mix was botched and the mastering job flawed. What should have been a classic stiffed as one of rock 'n' roll's 'could have been great.' Now it is! In 1994, Anopheles Records' Karl Ikola decided to do The Twinkeyz right. Ikola got ahold of the master tapes and, with Jupiter and Greg Freeman, remixed the entire album. In 1997, he released the restored Alpha Jerk, along with abandoned single tracks, live songs and other tidbits, as a CD entitled Aliens in Our Midst. The collection and its vinyl companion Cartoon Land went out of print more than fifteen years ago. Now after four decades, S-S Records presents Alpha Jerk as it was intended, with the original cover art and the superior Ikola / Jupiter mix. This version has been mastered by John Golden and pressed in an edition of 500 copies."
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S-S 006LP
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"The A Frames' second album -- appropriately titled 2 -- is the classic followup to their stellar debut. Influenced by their heroes Wire, the A Frames were not content to make their sophomore full-length a copycat of their first. Instead, they took their post-punk-cum-KBD / garage sound and expanded and twisted it. Recorded in a weekend by Chris Woodhouse, it is one of the best albums of the '00s. 'Finally, someone has released a worthy followup to Gang of 4's Entertainment,' wrote Go Metric. Blank Generation countered with 'You can throw all the Gang of Four / Fall / Wire references you want at this band, but all I can say is that the A Frames are quite simply creating some of the most captivating sounds around. Their second fulllength is even weirder than the first, adhering to the robot-wave construction of their first record, but tinkering with the formula enough to keep it sounding new.... These guys have put themselves yet another step or two ahead of the crowd with a record that may even be better than their first.' Maximum Rocknroll said, 'this sucker is flat-out classic... [Woodhouse] is starting to look like the Trademark of Quality for raw artgarage.' Roctober cooed, 'Though it seems impossible for robots to have souls this is basically the lost, brilliant, organic Kraftwerk LP (where they added guitars). This is so futuristic it makes my vision hurt.' The original 2003 vinyl pressing of 2 sold out in three months. S-S Records let it go out of print, but, like with the first album, the label has often been asked the question 'Are you ever going to release it again?' The answer is: Yes!"
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S-S 003LP
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"Originally released in 2002, the A Frames' debut album was a sleeper. That is hard to believe today, as the record has been called 'one of the few great new American rock records' (Byron Coley and Thurston Moore, Arthur), 'the best American rock record I've heard since 100 Flowers' (Jon Solomon, WPRB), and 'a truly amazing record made by a truly amazing band with a truly amazing sound' (Mitch Cardwell, Blank Generation). But back when it came out, people were slow to pick up on it. In 2002, S-S Records was still a young 'un, Seattle was recovering from a decade of grunge-commercialism, and punk rock had settled into a steady 1-2-3-4 count. The A Frames post-post-post punk, with its high energy angles and primitive smarts, was a bit new to the ears. A few people dug their first two singles, but most folks weren't quite ready for a garage punk attack on Wire, Devo and Joy Division... or so they thought. As more and more people heard the A Frames' debut, more and more became diehard fans. The record started to get rave reviews and make year-end 'Best Of' lists. Those skeptical of the hype listened to the record and found that the praise was well-founded ('It's rare to have an album this solid from top and bottom without an ounce of fluff or duff -- it is deserving of any accolades heaped upon it,' Jack Cole, Pataphysics Research Journal). Even with universal props, it took more than a year to sell out of the single vinyl pressing of 500. In another two years, though, the record started fetching good money on auction and record selling sites. It has now been thirteen years since A Frames' A Frames was first released and demand has not slackened. Though long out-of-print, S-S Records still gets requests from fans to repress it. So here it is!"
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S-S 082LP
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"Present-day San Francisco is a beautiful city but also a hyper-active, tech-grinding rat race. The money chase is on 24/7, the rats hustling for tiny morsels of cheese, praying for the day when a big hunk o' cheddar falls from the sky. If you've lived in the city for a good while and are some creative type or working Joe or Jane, you can be overwhelmed by it all. Life Stinks's second album You'll Never Make It is a perfect portrait of that mind-frame. Feelings of anger, self-doubt and vindictiveness weave though a sonic template that shifts from a Flipper / Fang arms-a-swingin' groove (as on the title track) to standout Velvet poppers ('Anchor'), Stooge-oid stomping ('Sliding Down a Wire'), and outright demented thuds ('I'm a Weed'). And then just when you are ready to take out a few windows, Life Stinks slyly slides in a gentle number which reminds you that the band paints from a complete emotional palette. You'll Never Make It is a great followup to their 2013 debut, which was called 'album of the year' by some yuks at Maximum Rocknroll and earned high praise at Raven Sings the Blues, It's Psychedelic Baby, Terminal Boredom and other places. Also like the first album, You'll Never Make It is produced by Kelley Stoltz and Mikey Young (Total Control)."
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