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viewing 1 To 25 of 46 items
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2LP
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NNF 400LP
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"Although many a vibe has shifted since the days of dubbing NNF001 one at a time on the floor of a Koreatown bachelor apartment in February of 2004, using stolen photocopies and tie-dyeing J-cards with wine, the label's essential premise has not. Then, as now, the vision was to elevate and enshrine outsiders, foragers, hidden gems, and hybrid sounds on cheap tapes or affordable records, to be savored and shared in the here and now. 399 catalog titles later, the center still holds. To toast the label's 20th anniversary and 400th release, Not Not Fun commissioned a gold roll call of alumni and affiliates: Alley Of The Sun. Named in homage to the Malibu mystic music fountainhead, skewed through a smoggy sideways lens, the 16-song, 90-minute, double LP suite spans every shade of NNF's Pacific palette: rainforest ceremony, skyway motorik, Tascam rapture, silhouette shoegaze, basement vapor, astral ascension, jazz shadows, fifth world tropics, lucid dream drone, desert quests, prophecy electronics, ritual wreckage. Equal parts snapshot, tapestry, and time capsule, the compilation reflects the breadth of NNF's two-decade exploration and evolution, from simple soil to a sea of dunes. True undergrounds have no set sound or fixed polarity, only flashes of transient magic and forking paths, to be cherished and championed for as long as the candle lasts."
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NNF 425LP
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"The concept for and palette of Crystal Dorval aka White Poppy's Paradise Gardens trilogy first germinated in 2016 as a notion of 'paradise music' combining new age, bedroom shoegaze, and bossa nova into 'transcendental Tropicalia.' As she filled tapes of recordings exploring the idea, many of the songs gradually gravitated towards the hermetic dream pop her project is best known for, becoming the albums Paradise Gardens (2020) and Sound Of Blue (2023). Dorval describes these collections as a sort of 'emotional purging or shadow work,' before arriving at 'the state of inner paradise:' Ataraxia. As the third, final, and most purist realization of the original Paradise Gardens vision, Ataraxia delivers. Nine instrumentals of nimble guitar, elevated bass, clean rhythm, and clear light, gliding like swans on a shimmering pond. There's a sense throughout of playful tranquility, of serenades at sunset, of kisses of blissful Muzak wafting along a boardwalk. But behind the music is a patience, grace, and levity born of Dorval's personal journey with spiritual healing that paralleled the trilogy. A process of transmuting pain into beauty, day by day, melody by melody, cleaving the darkness from the soul and re-entering one's rightful home in the Garden."
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NNF 413LP
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"The second LP by Tokyo ambient conceptualists Unknown Me began as a commission for historic Japanese cosmetic conglomerate Shiseido, conjuring audio approximations of seasons and scents, but soon flowered into its own refracted and rarefied environment: Bitokagaku. Translated as 'beauty and science,' the album is the foursome's first composed solely with software, reflecting the collection's utopian, laboratorial muse. From levitational electronica ('A Rainbow in Meditative Air') and vaporous downtempo ('Dancing Leaves') to planetarium reverie ('Kitsune No Yomeiri') and AI IDM ('Retreat Beats'), the music moves like weather patterns in a bio-dome: dazzling, microcosmic, and delicately calibrated. Percolating synths crossfade with field recordings from Shiseido's research division; the sound of streams and distant birds blur into a processed haze; clinical voices read lists of precious stones. It's a vision of new age as soft robotics, of serenity streamlined by sentient systems. UM's team of engineers (Yakenohara, P-RUFF, H. Takahashi, and Osawa Yudai) cite an eclectic swath of inspirations behind Bitokagaku -- molecules, stars, Kenji Miyazawa, Akira Kurosawa, even 'the sparkle of rainbows' -- but their guiding artistic principle is as ancient as it is eternal: 'beauty.'"
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LP
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NNF 395LP
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"Over a decade since its inception, Wave Temples continues to refine and refract the project's visionary mythopoetic exotica. Panama Shift presents a 20-track kaleidoscopic star map inspired by 'the euphoric cults, both then and now, that come and go in the vast ritual of night.' Bleached keys, devotional synth, and driftwood percussion align in minimalist vignettes shaded by tape hiss and field recordings of streams, waves, wind, and birds. Dedicated to the late Japanese-born American anthropologist Yosihiko H. Sinoto (whose portrait graces the cover), famed for his excavations throughout the Pacific and French Polynesia, the album embodies a similarly voyaging spirit: 'chasing ancient mysteries... and rekindling with the esoteric journey of the human spirit.' This is music of forgotten shores, sea air, and saltwater shrines, echoing in shells scattered across the altars of Atlantis."
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CD
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NNF 260CD
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"Stunning full-length debut by this Sydney avant-party trio. Busted drum machines, wonky synths, and talk-sung vocals collide in a chic, funked out magic mess. In the vein of ESG if they were way weirder and joyous."
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NNF 259LP
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"Vagabond American legend Carlos Gonzalez drops his first NNF full-length, and it's 10 of his greatest junkyard surf-slime tunes of all time. Edition of 500."
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NNF 250LP
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LP version. "Heartland synthesist Dylan Ettinger follows up 2010's widely lauded New Age Outlaws imaginary cyber-soundtrack with a stark, dark, and intensely different collection of misshapen new wave weirdnesses, Lifetime Of Romance. Recorded at a proper studio, and written over the course of a year, the seven songs of Romance reflect a heavy influence from the fringier strains of bummed out quasi-industrial synth-pop in the vein of Fad Gadget, certain Cabaret Voltaire, early Human League, etc, but dragged through his own warped, wonky filter. The approaches vary radically, from abandoned factory dirges ('Sport And Superstion,' 'Maude') to dubbed-out man-machine paranoia ('Disparager') to bouncy sine-wave robot radio singles ('Arco Iris,' 'Blue and Blue') and general electronic workshop exploration ('18.0'). It's always to be heralded when an artist braves terrain they haven't traversed yet, so it's a kick to hear Ettinger's secret circuitry language channeled into the pop architectures of twisted synth-wave melancholia for the first time. Another engaging step by an always intriguing American original."
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NNF 250CD
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"Heartland synthesist Dylan Ettinger follows up 2010's widely lauded New Age Outlaws imaginary cyber-soundtrack with a stark, dark, and intensely different collection of misshapen new wave weirdnesses, Lifetime Of Romance. Recorded at a proper studio, and written over the course of a year, the seven songs of Romance reflect a heavy influence from the fringier strains of bummed out quasi-industrial synth-pop in the vein of Fad Gadget, certain Cabaret Voltaire, early Human League, etc, but dragged through his own warped, wonky filter. The approaches vary radically, from abandoned factory dirges ('Sport And Superstion,' 'Maude') to dubbed-out man-machine paranoia ('Disparager') to bouncy sine-wave robot radio singles ('Arco Iris,' 'Blue and Blue') and general electronic workshop exploration ('18.0'). It's always to be heralded when an artist braves terrain they haven't traversed yet, so it's a kick to hear Ettinger's secret circuitry language channeled into the pop architectures of twisted synth-wave melancholia for the first time. Another engaging step by an always intriguing American original."
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NNF 238CD
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CD version with 2 exclusive bonus tracks (20 min. long) not found on the LP. "San Franciscan Peter Berend's mystery mixtape unit, KWJAZ, flashed forth this debut self-titled slab of 'post-plastic sublime decomposed luxury grooves' on cassette via his own rarified Brunch Groupe imprint early in 2011 and the 120 listeners lucky enough to grip a copy know who they are. It only took half a listen before we green-lit this tape-degraded gem for vinyl treatment and we are dee-lighted to present it thusly. Comprised of two side-long suites, 'Once In Babylon' and the oddly monikered 'Frighteous Wane,' KWJAZ nimbly ebbs and flows the proceedings through airy cloud-jazz passages (complete with smoky crystal vibes keys and narcotic hiss-hazed horn sections), bouncy weirdo dub-funk vignettes, stretched-out syrupy synth stews, and smooth faux-Steely D soft-rock abstractions, all without ever sounding schizo or style-hoppy."
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12"
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NNF 242LP
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Hare Krishna farmers/deep psych practitioners Prince Rama explore the link between music and utopia with music for exercise routines. This is a vinyl issue of "exercise rituals using music to explore the body as a vehicle for the utopian impulse..." originally released as a part of Impose Magazine's cassette series and performed in an unshaved armpit of Brooklyn.
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12"
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NNF 247EP
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"Vinyl debut by this Viennese rave abstractionist boils down pulsing LED beats and deep synth strobe FX into a cavernous laser-streaked fog. In blinding Alex Grey-style acid-body artwork by Mr. Cruise Family himself."
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12"
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NNF 251EP
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"NNF debut (after an EP on 100% SILK) by this Iowa City electronic maximalist. M.R.E.M. is the first purely solo Cuticle release, after working with a series of part-time collaborators, and it's freed him to let loose his wildest and weirdest impulses."
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NNF 241EP
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"Stunning five-song debut EP by this young Tokyo producer. Ghost-in-the-drum-machine rhythms layered with her exquisite Cocteau Twins vocal haze, but impeccably crafted into nuanced multi-movement compositions. Will be doing a full-length later in 2012 as well. Our fave new female artist."
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NNF 245CD
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"Tape-warped phantom band Rangers finally unleash the lush, soaring, expansive prog-pop opus we always knew was floating inside the fretboard (and imagination) of multi-instrumentalist mystery maestro Joe Knight. The north Dallas-raised, San Fran-residing head Ranger grew up taking classical guitar lessons from a dude who claimed to have 'toured with the Dead,' and some of that brain-wonked jam agenda obviously seeped into the young Knight, who began recording his own loose, lo-fi jangle sprawls in 2005. But whereas last year's critically lauded Suburban Tours LP found him condensing his cassette-crushed alien pop into 3 minute radio nuggets, Pan Am Stories uses the reverse strategy, letting each blurry strum pattern coast away and ride the breeze a bit before steering it into a fresh counter-melody or flanged-out guitar comedown. The extra breath and space gives the 13 songs a real sense of freedom and lightness and flight, layered in gentle blankets of fuzz, silky reverb, and audio collage riddles. A total saga, and a summit achievement of next-level invention for Knight as a musician (it's insane he played/recorded every instrument on this thing!) and artist. Have been soaking in these tracks non-stop since we first heard 'em this summer and are thrilled to get to share Stories with the world."
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NNF 212CD
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"Goblin-worshipping classic gets reissued on CD digipak. Prophecy Of The Black Widow is Umberto's sophomore album and while the badass evil Italo goth-synth horror-score blueprint of Grave remains, the main variation is subtle vibe-shift from '70s Argento/Carpenter-isms into more early/mid-80s new wave creep-scapes. There's still plenty of eerie nightmare keyboard riffs and vintage witch-disco breakouts but the synths squelch with more of a neon retrofuturist bent and there's even one brazenly feel good soaring-into-the-sunset closing credits anthem (the literally-titled 'Everything Is Going To Be Okay'). Whatever prophecy Prophecy is foretelling, we're on board."
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2LP
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NNF 245LP
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"Tape-warped phantom band Rangers finally unleash the lush, soaring, expansive prog-pop opus we always knew was floating inside the fretboard (and imagination) of multi-instrumentalist mystery maestro Joe Knight. The north Dallas-raised, San Fran-residing head Ranger grew up taking classical guitar lessons from a dude who claimed to have 'toured with the Dead,' and some of that brain-wonked jam agenda obviously seeped into the young Knight, who began recording his own loose, lo-fi jangle sprawls in 2005. But whereas last year's critically lauded Suburban Tours LP found him condensing his cassette-crushed alien pop into 3 minute radio nuggets, Pan Am Stories uses the reverse strategy, letting each blurry strum pattern coast away and ride the breeze a bit before steering it into a fresh counter-melody or flanged-out guitar comedown. The extra breath and space gives the 13 songs a real sense of freedom and lightness and flight, layered in gentle blankets of fuzz, silky reverb, and audio collage riddles. A total saga, and a summit achievement of next-level invention for Knight as a musician (it's insane he played/recorded every instrument on this thing!) and artist. Have been soaking in these tracks non-stop since we first heard 'em this summer and are thrilled to get to share Stories with the world. Black vinyl LPs (mastered by Carl Saff, who worked on Suburban Tours too) in gatefold jackets with micro-detailed collage art by Mr. Rangers himself; interior artwork by Knight and Anthony Yuen. Edition of 850."
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NNF 237LP
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Not Not Fun's most form-destroying release from Robedoor. Seismic future-primitive energies on side-long track "Parallel Wanderer." Continues the incarnation of Robedoor featuring MG Gengras (Personable, Pocahaunted) on drums, moog, bass and piano.
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NNF 240LP
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LP version. "Estonian Euro-beat enchantress Maria Juur aka Maria Minerva has had a lively 2011 already -- releasing a chic suite of glamour-pop abstractions via her debut, Tallinn At Dawn, as well as a sultry, sideways bedroom disco EP (Noble Savage) on 100% Silk. But time is money and money talks (or something) so rather than let a hot streak go cold Ms. Maria has crafted a fresh 11-song dream ride down fascination street, which we're pumped and proud to unveil: Cabaret Cixous. Apparently there's a tradition/inside joke amongst a fringe strain of Estonian bands where you have to name yr album something with 'cabaret' in the title, but regardless of one's knowledge of this micro-custom, Cab Cixous is a gorgeous, gauzy thrill, slip-streaming from cracked-crystal karaoke pop singles ('These Days,' 'Ruff Trade,' 'Soo High') to slow-motion synth-washed ballads ('Lovecool,' 'Spiral') to radical miscellzanies (the alien soundsystem banger, 'Laulan Paikse Kaes,' a cellphone-fidelity Abba cover, etc) and beyond. A beautiful, bizarre record, full of the weird vision and hazed-out soulfulness that's everything we love about music." Includes glossy one-sided color insert.
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12"
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NNF 235EP
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"Four-song 45 rpm EP of raw 90s-style body workouts by NNF head mistress LA Vampires and Brooklyn rhythm-head Ital. Gritty dancefloor anthems filtered through tape-hiss and graffiti'd concrete. Jacket art by Spencer Longo. Limited edition of 700."
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NNF 230LP
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"The hermetic kosmische lexicon of San Fran-based synth synthesist/composer Jesse Reiner (Jonas Reinhardt's founder and principal architect) has been simmering and swelling at a steady clip the past few years (2010's Powers Of Audition was def a highlight), but the added talents of drummer Damon Palermo (Mi Ami), bassist Diego Gonzalez (Citay, 3 Leafs), and guitarist Phil Manley (Trans Am, more) has levitated the JR Experience to a whole new head-music hall o' fame. Recorded in Berlin, mixed in SF, then mastered/cut back in Berlin at Dubplates, Music For The Tactile Dome is easily the most deep-trip micro-focus Jonas odyssey to date, nine technicolor fractals of glittering synthesizer skyways and master-crafted pulsing kraut terrariums. A handful of tracks ('Smokey Jotus,' 'Hander Zader,' etc) invoke more of the classic live JR vibe, with propulsive cold-grooved rhythm sectioning, but by and large Dome is designed for heavy headphone communion, an expanding magic eye tapestry of brainwave activity constellations. Black vinyl LPs in jackets with beautiful spectrum-assemblage cover art by Sean Patrick. Edition of 650."
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NNF 225EP
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"Amazing new pair of singles by this ever-evolving Iowa City kraut-pop duo-turned-trio comes in a stunning full-color 22-page pro-printed art book of brand new works by Wet Hair main-men, Shawn Reed and Ryan Garbes. Limited to 500 copies."
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7"
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NNF 227EP
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"After 2 full-lengths mining vintage horror scores and Italo/Goblin-isms for inspiration, Kansas City riddler and composition whiz Umberto slow-pans his focus out of the graveyards and black widow cobwebs into the celluloid-stained artificial streets of Beverly Hills police beats and pop culture ghost-busting. Freeze! is an inscrutable but impressively legit reinvention of Jan Hammer-style '80s soundtrack cheese: soaring keyboard lines, fast-tappin' piano, locked-in bass grooves, goofy canned drums, baroque purple haze soloing, etc. 'Put An APB On Those Bastards' kicks things off with a tension-ramping Corvette cruise into the heat of the night, while 'Illegal Entry With Intent To Zuul' is a pitch-perfect rooftop chase scene that ends with somebody falling fifty stories into a posh private pool (and is apparently also somehow about that horned dog demon that possesses Sigourney Weaver in G-Busters?). A bizarre and thoroughly enjoyable curveball from one of our fave current music-makers. Black vinyl 45s in pro-printed jackets with hilarious/hijacked Eddie Murphy artwork by Derek Goon. Edition of 500."
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NNF 217CD
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2012 repress. "Sometimes it feels so simple: two of our favorite people in one of our favorite bands release one of our favorite records of all time. 2009's Imaginary Falcons was its own genius slushpile of tape-hissy drift-dub haze anthems, no question, but 936 takes every facet of the Peaking Lights mighty diamond and shines it to fluorescent perfection. The songwriting is insane; 'All The Sun That Shines,' 'Amazing & Wonderful,' 'Tiger Eyes (Laid Back),' etc, all seep into yr mindstream and float there like melodic gold dust. Indra Dunis' silky soul-jazz keys and tranced vocals have never sounded so exquisite, and Aaron Coyes busts out the best bass/drum loops and sneaky dub guitar of his musical lifetime. Recorded by Luke Tweedy at Flat Black Studios in Iowa City (where both the NNF Wet Hair LPs were tracked) and mastered in Berlin, 936 retains the cool crate-digger grit of their earlier highlights, but within a much more vivid spectrum of sound. Could not be more jazzed and honored to unveil this total groove-wave classic. CD version includes two bonus tracks from the same recording sessions not chosen for inclusion on the LP. CD digipaks with vintage art by the band, plus some stills from their 'All The Sun That Shines' video. Edition of 500."
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NNF 216LP
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"Sadly (for us left coasters), in November 2010 Ms. Leyna Noel aka Psychic Reality decamped from SF to NYC, but before packing up her every worldly possession and road-tripping trans-America she eked out a sliver of precious time to hole up in the studio with Phil Manley (Trans Am, Jonas Reinhardt, etc) and recorded her long-awaited debut full-length on thick 2 inch tape. Vibrant New Age is the result. The name says it all. But Noel's New Age is not the '80s redux fad of healing crystals, pastel fades, dolphin consciousness, etc, but a living, electrified awakening. From the high drama drum machinery of 'Fruit' and 'Expla' to the naked, airy avant-pop of 'Hi High' and 'Fanta' through to the stuttery, mechanized power ballad finale, 'Soft Script,' this is Noel at her most majestic and fully realized and it's a wild life-force to behold. Vibe the Vibrant. Black vinyl LPs in jackets with art/design by Ms Reality. Edition of 600."
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NNF 213LP
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"In a weird case of life imitating art imitating life, Daniel Martin-McCormick's sophomore Sex Worker full length, Waving Goodbye, coincidentally gets released on the very day he embarks on his transamerican relocation road trip from the Bay to Brooklyn. Waving goodbye indeed. Sad times for California, but at least his parting gift/LP is as haunting and poignant and vivid as these six dance-damaged life/love/loss anthems. A huge evolutionary pole-vault upwards from 2009's The Labor Of Love, here the SW art-pulse echo-anguish aesthetic has been refined and reborn into fresh neon-smeared street grime crooner ballads ('Cool Boy,' 'Tough Love'), sprawling forlorn trancefloor fantasias ('Next To You,' 'Honeymoon Babylon'), plus a killer loner-ized Corona cover. Recorded over several months in SF and mastered in Berlin, WG is clearly his peak achievement to date and we've been jamming the shit out of it. Live, he brings a bizarro entertainer/MC vibe to the proceedings so for sure go see him when he's passing through yr zip code. Black vinyl LPs in jackets designed by Mr. DMM himself. Edition of 500." Last copies...
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