Excellent new country/psych/rock album from this NNCK-related group featuring Jason Meagher, David Shuford and Dave Nuss. This is as near perfect a slice of mind-fried rural psych yet laid by these guys, with the kinda sharp rhythm section, soaring unison vocals and crunchy period-perfect fuzz guitar previously unheard of this side of The New Tweedy Brothers. There’s also a heavy Dead feel, with some of the studio pyrotechnics of Aoxomoxoa, the roots feel of American Beauty and a nicely dazed fourth-world-is-this-world modal feel. When the passages of ginchy organ tone kick in it sounds classically teenage but there’s a level of smarts to the arrangements and the intellectual heft of the music that situates it firmly in the modern underground milieu, even if it’s a splinter scene that worships the Stalk-Forrest Group, SRC and San Francisco’s Charalatans more than Taj Mahal Travellers and Angus MacLise. Edition of 500 copies.

Edition of 340 copies archival release from NNCK documenting their earliest four-piece incarnation. This is NNCK at their most alien, with the abrasive sound of the classic “Clearing” 7” extended to two sides of abstract metal tones punctured by bursts of acoustic noise and the kind of all-devouring soundfields of AMM circa The Crypt. If you prefer NNCK at their most extraterrestrial and less ethnic/rhythmic focussed then this is a winning blat of early improvisatory refusal and makes a great companion volume to Locust’s At 6AM We Become The Police. Beautifully packaged with hilarious conceptual sleevenotes by Keith Connelly. Chris Morris couldn’t have done a better job. Recommended. 

Massive new limited edition LP on NNCK’s new imprint documenting a series of recordings from this ambitious American/European big band that unites Dave Nuss of The No-Neck Blues Band with Spencer Clark and James Ferraro of The Skaters alongside Jan Anderzen of Kemialliset Ystavat, Jonna from Kuupuu, Stellar Om Source, Mik Quantius from Embryo and Tiitus Petajaniemi and Jari Koho of Uton/Keijo. The whole entourage toured through Europe in the spring of 2007 and this LP collects the best of the jams. Three long tracks and one fragment, including two pieces recorded at VPRO Radio. The sound takes off from the kind of free goof blueprint of The Godz, with a lots of percussion and odd rhythmic dunting while The Skaters work lush keyboard parts and a wall of ululating vocal drone deep into the backdrop. Quantius supplies vocals that are somewhere between Don Van Vliet and Alan Bishop and the whole thing proceeds into this kind of weird ethno-zone where fragmented world rhythms and sounds are twisted to dark, psychotropic ends. But the real gravy is the side long fourth track, the most convincing update of the monochord bass/drum confusion of Skip Spence’s “Grey/Afro” ever improvised in real time, combining sublime vocal highs with a hypnotic bottom end. Highly recommended.

New live duo CD that pairs saxophonist Tamio Shiraishi, one-time member of Fushitsusha, with the mysterious saxophonist/pianist/vocalist Mico from The No-Neck Blues Band. Shiraishi has a phenomenal facility with phantom upper-register squeals, developing a whole vocabulary from lonesome feedback highs ala Kaoru Abe or Masayoshi Urabe and Mico brings a wild ritual edge to the deal, exploding into jabbers of unknown tongue and ripping darts of breath from her saxophone. The disc compiles live performances from across the world recorded between 2001 and 2007. Comes in a glossy hard card gatefold sleeve.

"Coach Fingers is serious about having fun and with the debut long player No Flies on Frank, no one is spared from the plentiful good vibes Frank has to offer. Packed with more hooks than a ship crowded with one armed pirates, No Flies on Frank is a meaty affair of giddy but bearded late '60s/early '70s outlaw boogie rock & roll prominently featuring three members of the New York free noise whatsit collective The No Neck Blues Band -- Coach Jason Meagher, Dave Nuss & Dave Shuford -- along with Meagher's brother Sean on keys and -- future guitar god worshippers take note -- the Coach's secret weapon, master shredder George Devoe. So come on, friends, it's time to join the Fingers friends & family in the Beaujolais Revolution; take a sip from a glass full of Ronnie Lane's boozy rock, the charming laissez-faire balladry of Kevin Ayers (circa Joy of a Toy & Whatevershebringswesing) & a whole lot of crazy fun." - Locust. 180g vinyl.

Excellent new collaboration LP from Denmark's VU-obsessives Family Underground and Mr David Nuss of The No-Neck Blues Band et al. "Summer 06 Family Underground (DK) recorded with Dave Nuss of NNCK at Black Dirt Studios in the woods of upstate NY. The yield was as characteristically unhinged as one might expect: sweeping electronic sounds backed with wood and bone percussion spirit-conjure. However also harvested was some new and especially tasty crop: sung and spoken song, electric guitar/conga 'rock' and an odd ghostly sheen coating the entire proceeding. Nuss comments on the session: 'I remember when we were recording, momentarily leaving the studio and going out into the night and feeling it thicken like a partition separating us from this intense state of clear consciousness we had in the recording, which was like... humankind's natural state. And then thinking about Jesper from FU, an adopted Vietnamese living in DK, and how much he resembles Michael Jackson, and realizing that across continents no man can be divided from himself. We had to make this music to provide for us some fantasy of fulfilment that would carry us through the weekend like rejuvenated suns born again climbing to heaven, after being washed in the deepest bluest sea....' Jacket by designer Susan Cianciolo and screened inserts by Stellar, NL." - Woodsist.

Deluxe limited edition LP with gold sleeves and multiple inserts released on a new sub-division of the great Italian avant garde label Alga Marghen from a one-off group that features Dave Nuss and Keith Connolly of The No-Neck Blues Band alongside Timo Van Luyk (In Camera/Af Ursin) and Raymond Dijkstra (Asra). Reputedly inspired by the work of Japanese film-maker Kyoshi Kurosowa and the theories of Franz Mesmer this is a spare, hypnotic set that combines a lot of low-level string and percussion work with a weird electronic/synth tonal centre making it a little bit more ‘explicable’ than much NNCK product while lending the tracks the feel of extended elegiac codas. Beautiful, delicate improvised music by four modern masters of the language, though reports suggest that this will be the first and last document of this brief collaboration. Edition of only 300 copies.

Rarity: OOP 2005 double LP from NNCK. Still one of their best sounding records, with plenty of minimal, creep-crawling keyboards and some of their heaviest, most hypnotic rock moves.

Deluxe 180g vinyl in heavy Stoughton gatefold sleeves from this offshoot from the No-Neck mothership led by David Shuford and featuring Marc Orleans (Sunburned Hand Of The Man), Hans Chew (Jack Rose et al) and Rob Gregory (The Suntanama). Distillation is an even deeper countrified pass through classic Americana given the kind of psychedelic nudie suit edge of The Byrds circa Sweetheart/Notorious or the first Flying Burrito Brothers album. Shuford’s vocals have an uncommon weigh that gives the songs a Biblical/basement tapes feel while the arrangements are weirdly sophisticated in a way that rewards repeated deep listening. Edition of 891 copies, bundled with a bonus CD that features a live set from the group and an MP3 download coupon.