50th anniversary reissue of the essential album from grateful dead, remastered and pressed on 180 gram vinyl.

the crispies sind tino romana (gesang), rob wolfe (gitarre), parsa sarraf (bass) und peter ferdinand (schlagzeug). die band wurde nach schulabschluss 2014 in wolfes keller gegründet, teils aus perspektivlosigkeit, teils aus spaß. so speist sich auch ihr selbstverständnis aus der spannung zwischen langeweile und exzess, zwischen selbstironie und der ernsthaftigkeit von rock n roll klischees in lederjacken und zerrissenen jeans. fragt man die band selbst, so vergleichen sie ihre musik gerne mit analoger fotografie: spontane momentaufnahmen, manchmal schoen, manchmal etwas kaputt. ihr debütalbum death row kids erschien im oktober 2016 auf seayou records. ihr zweites album fake leather erscheint ebenfalls auf seayou records.

new band name, new lp, the former max graef band toured and worked on new music all year. musical progress, and the impression of not enough edge and rawness in a lot of recent music, inspired and motivated a majority of the recording. the band has grown as a unit and wrote a lot of material together this year in late night sessions. during 2 weeks of recording the new songs in the studio the goal was to try all sorts of instruments, amps and effects and be open to any combination of sounds. furthermore, they and engineer lutz fahrenkrog-petersen tried to capture and maintain the raw feeling of the live recordings using almost exclusively analog pedals and racks as well as keeping the editing of the recordings to a minimum. although bands like et cetera (wolfgang dauner), embryo or xhol have heavily infuenced max graef and his band, the result turned out very original ranging from distorted jazz-rock to experimental soul, electronic percussion workouts to free sound experiments and psychedelic rock. with some tracks being around 14 minutes long, it is better to let the music speak for itself though.

sheik ‘n’ beik are a nyc based cohort specialising in promotion, production and outletting left­of­centre slices of electronic music. with previous releases from family members derek marin, voiski and peter corvaia their 4th release comes courtesy of danny wolfers (a.k.a legowelt) working alongside rush hour regular xosar under their xamiga alias. with this being xamiga’s 3rd release, the pair draw for their trusted arsenal of analogue gear and offer up the ‘bohemian grove’ ep, a woozy brew of foggy textures, gently frazzled hats and detroit­indebted grooves. the title track kicks things off with glassy pads sat atop a long­tailed thud and a sandy shuffle. a distant bass groove wades in ahead of a passage of intricate, band­passed percussion and a circling synth line before ‘cumulus versie’ sets sheets of ethereal vocals and synth strings gently ducking under a taught analogue pulse. ‘midwest’ then sets hissing kicks and frayed hi­hats alongside a rasping bass tone. pitch­bent synth lines then bubble into focus before ‘blizzard’ sets a dystopian tone from the off. a stout kick drum thunders under minor­key chord shifts and a menacing sequence that works to round off another fine addition to the sheik ‘n’ beik series.