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Allen Karpinski offers up a solo affair, playing a tenor guitar with a single coil pickup, much the same way as Jason Molina did in Songs:Ohia. Having gotten his start alongside bands like theirs in Ohio postrock/Americana ensemble The Six Parts Seven, he’s now positioned in Seattle, and crafts a thoughtful sonic diorama through playing in a style that equates method with expression. This is quite the beautiful effort, and even bucks the acoustic frame in spots, care of the instrument’s wildly buzzing, vibrant construction when fed through distortion pedals. Gets better as it rolls along, with the last two tracks (one of which is a sidelong suite) really showing a wonderful progression of structured folk. Discovery has its pawprints all over this work, and the end result is a bit of a revelation. Beautiful record, 200 copies, letterpressed sleeve.
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Discordant ballads that dip into folk aesthetics but mostly stay Thurston-quality acoustic guitar –way chordy, lots of key changes, lots of the sort of bewitched, melancholy journey structure he’s been known to take (think the last song on Psychic Hearts). These are all written in tribute to the late Jack Rose, and the songs are all named after ales enjoyed by the departed folk guitar visionary. There’s no way Thurston could play like Jack Rose, but that’s not the point. There’s real discordant beauty here that goes a long way to capturing the larger-than-life spirit of Rose than any faithful, trepidatious soundalike ever would. Last two tracks “De Ryck and Dubbel” and “Lord Chesterfield II” are my favorites, I need to check out those beers (unless Lord Chesterfield is referring to Yuengling’s side brand, because I’ve had that and am not running back) 1000 copies, from a series that just gets better and better.
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Representing the village of Hiram, OH, a Northeastern hamlet between Cleveland and Youngstown, by way of Chicago (where he also performs on synth as Mego recording artist Fabric) Matthew Mullane presents two sides of elegant, fluid acoustic guitar instrumentals, a longform suite with gentle buildups that are distinguished without being overdone or meandering. When he finally does break into a pattern, the grace in which the melodies flow is very worth noticing. Mullane seems more polished and a bit more stoic than the wild, rambling folk that’s come of age in recent years, but that’s fine; he plays an ever-so-slight counterpart role with dignity and reserve. Beautiful music. 200 copies, letterpressed sleeve.
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Matthew Mullane is an up and coming solo artist beginning to make his nice ripples in the experimental waters. He's a mighty solo guitar player, having just released a solo acoustic record on Vin Du Select Qualitite, as part of the label's Solo Acoustic series, also featuring the likes of Thurston Moore, Mark McGuire, Allen Karpinski, Chris Brokaw, and more.
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Ah, Thurston Moore. Do you ever take time off to reflect on your awesomeness? There are many boys—and many more men—who wish to be you (beyond the urge to snuggle with Kim). We desire the floppy hair, the awesome riffs, and the perpetual cool that wafts from you.
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From Vin Du Select Qualitite‘s venerable “Solo Acoustic” series, which has brought us stellar records from the likes of Thurston Moore and Mark McGuire, comes this absolutely classic set from Fabric mastermind Matthew Mullane. Completely different from his upcoming electronic LP on Spectrum Spools (which will likely be reviewed here soon), this set features completely raw, one-take acoustic guitar compositions. Honestly, just some of the most beautiful, transcendent music I’ve come across recently and without a doubt one of my early shoe-in contenders for album of the year. Check out the sample up on Mimaroglu and grab this immediately. Totally and completely essential.
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Vin Du Select Qualitite, the ambitious acoustic guitar series, curated by Steve Lowenthal of Swingset Magazine and Plastic Records, released three new albums of diversity and exploration in the unplugged musical genre. This series — which has thus far featured musicians like Joshua Blatchley, Mark McGuire, and Chris Brokaw — adds more prestigious names to its roster with the possibilities of many more to come.
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Vin Du Select Qualitite sent its carrier pigeon over to our window to reveal that they have three new solo acoustic guitar albums coming out soon. The most notable: Thurston Moore will pay tribute to Jack Rose on a full record of solo, untreated 12-string compositions.
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With the glut of music available to the world with a few mouse clicks, and everyone wanting to prove their mettle as purveyors of good taste, there seems to be more record labels than ever starting up these days. But you’ll find few that know what they are doing as well as Plastic Records/Swingset Magazine head Steve Lowenthal. He has taken a curator’s approach to both of those products, hand-selecting content and releases that speaks to his love of the far-reaching, the arcane, and the sublime in music.
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Vin Du Select Qualitite is a series of limited-edition, vinyl-only acoustic guitar albums curated by Steve Lowenthal of Swingset Magazine and Plastic Records. The series has already included records from Emeralds' Mark McGuire and Codeine/Come/New Year axemaster Chris Brokaw. And early this year, avant-rock godfather and Sonic Youth member Thurston Moore will release his own entry in the series, 12 String Meditations for Jack Rose.
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Chris Brokaw is one of the most versatile guitarists in underground rock. Most notably he was a member of both Codeine (where he played drums) and Come (which has been playing reunion gigs lately and has an April 16 show in New York with Eleventh Dream Day), but he's also played in lesser-known acts like Pullman, the New Year, and Consonant, and his list of credits as a sideman would fill more space that I feel like using. He's one of rock's most thoughtful and selfless musicians, a guy who improves every band he's in but never angles for the spotlight. And over the years he's expanded his scope, writing quiet singer-songwriter material and pensive, cinematic instrumentals.
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3. Steve Lowenthal first appeared on the scene in NYC as the editor of Swingset, which was a fairly boss fanzine. Unfortunately, Lowenthal-the-man sometimes reminded me of Terry Southern’s great short story, “You’re Too Hip, Baby.” Lately, though, Steve has returned to school and he recently visited to do some interviews for his thesis work on John Fahey. He was a changed man, in our estimation, and he has also embarked on producing a very cool series of solo acoustic guitar records for the Vin Du Select Qualitee label. The first volume is by Joshua Emery Blatchey, a California-based dude who plays in Mountain Home with Greg Weeks and Marissa Nadler. On this LP Joshua plays very much in the American Primitive tradition, evoking Epstein-Barr-era Fahey as well as anyone this side of Terry Robb.
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courtesy of hot chip
This week we sat down with Alexis Taylor and Al Doyle of Hot Chip to talk about their new record, One Life Stand, which hits stores in February. While our full feature is still forthcoming, we wanted to recognize a project the band says they’ve been especially loving recently: Mark McGuire. Best known for his work with the Cleveland band Emeralds, McGuire recently released an ambient acoustic record for Vin Du Select Qualitite, which calls to mind Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno. “I would normally really hate solo guitar with a loop pedal,” says Doyle, “but there is something about the way he does it that is really amazing. I’ve been listening to his music a lot this year.”
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