Limited to 250 hand-numbered-copies from the band formerly known as Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice. This one features four 'phases' across one long 30 minute track that sees the whole cultus broke down into its constituent parts. First up we get a sumptuously stoned and minimal Diehl/Taveniere jam that then segues into a great "Dark Star -esque Crane/Toth face-off which in turn morphs into a Nolan/Toth jam before the whole group kick in with a fanfare of heavy psychedelic electricity. Recorded live at Strange Maine, Portland, Maine April 2007. Comes with tour diary extract on double sided A4 sheet on the inside of the package. Both the insert and the sleeve are printed on a very thing paper (kinda like newsprint) with tiny red flecks built into the paper.

Glorious new privately released album from Wooden Wand with a virtual goddamn big band line-up that features guitar, pedal steel, plenty of organ, drums and slide. Wand has really hit his stride recently after a wobbly period around the Ryko LP and this might just be his most fully-accomplished and all-out gorgeous recording yet. The band have that constant, unfolding/revelatory style of The Hawks/The Band circa ’66 or Dylan’s studio band on Blonde On Blonde, allowing Toth to really roll with the phrasing and his songwriting here has a similar visionary/infinite aspect as classic late-60s Dylan, pushing past simple verse/chorus arrangements in favour of a constant unfolding. His lyrics are still some of the smartest/funniest/rawest of anyone of his generation and the degree of underground smarts and hard-won knowledge he brings to the table – he served time under Matthew Valentine fer gawd’s sake – means even the straightest of pounders are surreptitiously bent. The backing band are fantastic:  powerful, euphoric, hard rocking and the combination of off-the-cuff backing vocals, ripping guitar solos and epic beams of organ makes this the most rewarding singer-songwriter record of the year. In a righteous universe Wand would be the dude on the front cover of Mojo but in a world where dweebs like David Gray are touted as the heir apparent to Bob Dylan, well, I’ll continue to file him alongside Arthur Doyle, NNCK and The Bummer Road and feel damn good about it. Edition of 500 copies, ‘official’ version reputedly due on Fire Records sometime in the future. On coloured vinyl. Can’t recommend this enough. 

Reissue of a bunch of key documents – the Golden Calves Money Band LP and Century Band 12”  – from this pre-Wooden Wand/Vanishing Voice freakout jam band led by Mr James Toth and released in the mid-90s. The sound has that classically fractured post-ESP Disk Siltbreeze feel fully down, with Skip Spence style oblivion ballads further dislocated by almost Shadow Ring-styled idiot avant and drug-dazzled cultic jam blasts ala early Tower Recordings. The spirit of Jandek hovers over the bulk of the recording and Toth makes expressive use of Sterling Smith’s barbed guitar sonorities while orbiting the kind of cultic downer ballads that he would base much of the Vanishing Voice material around. A beautiful sound from a beautiful time. Comes with some hilarious in-depth liners where Toth fesses up to the multiple inspirations behind these still-magical recordings. If you’ve never heard these before then it functions as a key to a whole lot of what was to come later. Highly recommended.