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Jar double CD (Pickled Egg Records, Egg 50CD) "Jar's liner notes mention John Peel's passing, and allude to Pickled Egg as fostering a similarly adventurous listening aesthetic. Peel's shoes, of course, are impossible to fill, but the label does its best - not just by showcasing a wide, wide spectrum of obscure and eclectic artists, but also by demonstrating their knack for finding the most talented weirdos on the block. It's impossible to address everything here; just when you think you've found a favorite, another track begins to sink in, and you find yourself skipping back to it. After five or six listens, you'll finally accept that the "weak spots" have more to do with your tastes that very moment than with actual quality. Any label can attempt to be the strange kid, signing a bunch of oddballs with "diversity" in mind, but Pickled Egg isn't just in it for the gimmick. These miscreants deliver entire selves in their work; the only lame part of the deal is finding enough time in the day to absorb each of these wonderful bands and check out all their music. Can you say that about the Peel Sessions?" [Dave Madden, Spendid Ezine] "I am a major fan of the output of this superb British record label. Though I own a lot of Pickled Egg releases, a refreshing number of the thirty nine tracks presented on this double disc set are new to me, because they are exclusive to this collection, or I missed them the first time around. It would be worth it as a hits collection; but the many unreleased treats make this an essential acquisition for the novice or the already converted. Pickled Egg has an amazingly wide range of sounds; from the great Japanese duo Pop-Off Tuesday, to wild UK sonic explorers Volcano the Bear. They favor the surreal and slightly insane. We get Daniel Johnston, avant garde pioneers like Bablicon, Hassle Hound, Scatter, Butchy Fuego, Zukanican, and Need New Body. And the finely crafted melodic pop of Farina, Big Eyes, Caruso, Savoy Grand, and Oddfellows Casino. And much much more all housed in a handsome double gatefold sleeve. And yes, Evolution Control Committee’s flawless merging of Chuck D and Herb Alpert is present and accounted for" [George Parsons, Dream magazine] "Damn. How much confusion do you need? Since 1998, Pickled Egg and its artists have represented a very rewarding, particular form of eccentricity: rarely aggressive or brash, gleefully fermenting away - informed by mavericks like Robert Wyatt, Ivor Cutler, the folk-styling of Fairport Convention and the punk witticism of The Nightingales. Not that any of its artists sound like one another, or even themselves sometimes. There's so much to dip into - an embarrassment of riches, a cornucopia of found sound and Beefheartian rhythms and soulful singer-songwriters - that it's difficult to know where to start. The avant-jazz surrealism of Glasgow's Scatter squalls next to Daniel Johnston's tormented wail and Need New Body's genius staccato stammer. Pop-Off Tuesday, Bablicon and Big Eyes jumble through a disparity of styles, George is plain unnvering. And there's lots more. Think of Pickled Egg as a primer to the more radical side of Plan B's musical coverage: oblique but still very accessible. Here's to the next 50 releases" [Everett True, Plan B] "The only real determining factor when it comes to deciding whether a release ends up on Pickled Egg or not, seems to be if they like it.... and the result is one of the most consistently great, diverse and multi-faceted labels on the planet. If you don’t believe me, all you need to do is to listen to their brand new double CD compilation, which covers just about every single aspect of what they do. We get the collage/electro pop of Japanese Pop-Off Tuesday, the gloriously soft-spoken folk pop of Oddfellows Casino, the genre-defying improvisations and heavy rhythmic workouts of Bablicon, Need New Body’s sonic weirdness and humor, the loose but highly hallucinogenic folk jams of Scatter, the hazy sort of cinematic pop bliss that characterizes George, 100 Pets’ minimal pop-scapes, Hassle Hounds’ unusual samples and twisted electronics, the sublimely orchestrated pop of Farina and Big Eyes, the free-flowing improvisations, tasty Krautrock grooves and jazz flourishes of Zukanican and Volcano the Bear’s two contributions are just as completely free from any sort of constraint and structure as anything we’ve heard from these cats before. This is a great introduction to a label that continues to amaze. Join the Pickled Egg fan club today" [Mats Gustafsson, The Broken Face] "If Pickled Egg were a radio station, it would comfortably sit on the dial between Peel and BBC Radio 3’s Mixing It, reading the less contortionist critiques in the Wire and the Guardian’s Friday supplement. It would be a safe bet to say that there’s not another label around at the moment who quite match the varied multi generic output that attaches to Pickled Egg – I mean where else would you expect to find the noire-ish Beefheart gone ambient misshapes of Bablicon, the ghostly wayward loon pop of Pop Off Tuesday, or the wig flipping cosmic Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band meet Bill Laswell hysteria of Zukanican, rubbing shoulders with the Go! Team, Homescience and Farina" [Mark Barton, Losing Today] "Compilations are tricky. Most, suck. Let's face it, there are perhaps two or three good songs on a compilation and the rest are filler. How many compilations are regarded with the same stature as your favorite albums by a single band? Not many. Not knowing anything about this label, Pickled Egg, may have been an asset to my experience. This is a GREAT! comp. Two-and-a-half hours of beautiful music that is highly listenable while being off-beat and smart. I have not found one track to be a "stinker". With the music world struggling to find its next wave or trend, Pickled Egg has created a label that lives up to its own promotion and standards of avoiding trend and carving out its own niche of the highest artistic order. Rarely is art so listenable and experimentation so approachable" [James Kraus, gullbuy.com] More MP3s will be added shortly. Jar #1 1. Oddfellows Casino 'Road Movie' 2. Need New Body 'Show Me Your Heart' 3. Evolution Control Committee 'Rebel without a Pause' 4. Bablicon 'Silicon)(Bucktown' 5. Pop-Off Tuesday 'Unworldly' 6. Scatter 'Go Down Joe Downey Pt.2' (exclusive) 7. L’augmentation 'D is for Dum Dum' (from the out of print 7") 8. Daniel Johnston 'Sinning is Easy' (from the out of print 7") 9. George 'The New and Better Heart' 10. Hassle Hound 'Hallo to the Owl' 11. Big Eyes 'Beckerovka' 12. The Go! Team 'The Ice Storm' (from the rare 7") 13. Farina 'Just One/Still Three' (exclusive) 14. Caruso 'Spanish Boys' 16. 4tRECk 'Pong Ping' (from the as yet unreleased 10") 15. 100 Pets 'Mountain Cheer' 17. Pop-Off Tuesday 'Untitled' (exclusive) 18. Volcano the Bear 'Lubbaly' (exclusive) 19. Savoy Grand 'The Moving Air' Jar #2 1. Bablicon 'Blu Hawaii' 2. Scatter 'National Magick' 3. Zukanican 'Pay Never' 4. Now 'The Pump Room' (from the forthcoming mini album) 5. Big Eyes 'Threeleftfeet' 6. Pop-Off Tuesday '6/8 Sutra' 7. Butchy Fuego 'Changing the Public’s Image of the American Optician (edit)' 8. Le Bleu 'La Vie est Comme un Fleuve' 9. Gulliver 'a L’imparfait' 10. Valvola & DJ Spectra 'Departure from Universe' 11. The Go! Team 'Get it Together!' (from the rare 7") 12. Dragon or Emperor 'Deepened Automatic' (exclusive) 13. George 'The Track through the Woods' 14. L’augmentation 'Soleil' (from the out of print 7") 16. Farina 'Displace' 15. Bablicon 'Isroslynn' (exclusive) 17. Volcano the Bear 'Where are the Bounds?' 18. Big Eyes Family Players 'The Best Old Truck' (exclusive) 19. Marshmallow Coast 'Little Pythagoras' 20. Need New Body 'Mouthbreaker' (from the forthcoming album) Download Jar CD 1 Download Jar CD 2 Download Jar from Karmadownload |
UK: £10.00
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