nyctaper Recordings

concert discussion and free flac downloads

Strand Of Oaks: February 7, 2015 Brull Foundation Benefit – Flac/MP3/Streaming

February 20, 2015

We’ve previously discussed the fact that Tim Showalter is simply a good guy — he has a compelling story of redemption, heartfelt lyrics, and close friends with whom he collaborates. Tim is a musician’s musician and when we were setting up early for the Tommy Brull Foundation Benefit last weekend we discovered another aspect of his life that impressed us. A big reason why Strand Of Oaks became involved with the Brull Foundation and their charitable work with the special needs Camp Anchor was because when he was younger Tim Showalter worked at a similar camp. Additionally, the Brull Foundation was created in the memory of Tommy, who passed away in a car accident. Tim suffered severe injuries in a near fatal accident a mere 15 months ago. Perhaps buoyed by the inspirational work behind the Benefit show and the memory of Tommy, at this show Strand Of Oaks put forth a performance of remarkable power and beauty. The band worked through nearly all of their breakthrough album HEAL before finishing with a neat Replacements cover, but throughout the set Tim and the band took time to recognize the purpose of the show and the memory of Tommy. For the very sold-out crowd, that recognition was much appreciated because many of the people in attendance either knew Tom or have a connection to Camp Anchor, or both. It takes a conscientious performer to appreciate the importance of occasion and step outside of their stage persona to acknowledge important issues. On this night, Tim Showalter was the right guy for that task.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps on-stage mixed with a board feed. The sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

If you download this recording, you should donate the Brull Foundation. This particular show was a benefit to fund a special needs playground in Rockville Centre and continued contributions to Camp Anchor.

Download the Complete Show [MP3] or [MP3] / [FLAC]

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request, and feel free to repost the Soundcloud links.

Strand Of Oaks
2015-02-07
Tommy Brull Foundation Benefit
Cannon’s Blackthorn
Rockville Centre NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [engineer Billy] + On-Stage Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wavs > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, EQ, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3/tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:02:25]
01 HEAL
02 Same Emotions
03 [banter – surfing]
04 Last To Swim
05 Goshen 97
06 For Me
07 JM
08 [banter]
09 Diamond Drill
10 Woke Up To The Light
11 Shut In
12 [banter – Tommy]
13 Plymouth
14 [band introductions]
15 Sterling
16 Alex Chilton [Replacements]

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Strand of Oaks, visit their website, and buy Heal and the band’s other records directly from the band here or from Dead Oceans Records [HERE].

A Place to Bury Strangers: February 17, 2015 Music Hall of Williamsburg – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

February 18, 2015

By acidjack

[photos by acidjack]

A Place to Bury Strangers are one of several bands that incubated in the scene (and the sound) that grew up around Death By Audio and its line of effects pedals, making it fitting that they headlined Music Hall of Williamsburg just months after that venue’s untimely end. Though the band arrived on the scene just over ten years ago (in 2003), it feels like it’s been eons in musical terms. Today, their dark tone, blown out guitar sound, and relentless, ambitious live show feels vaguely foreign to the current indie mainstream, but that is as it should be. This kind of music may or may not always be a “trend”, but it will always have the ability to seize a crowd, and keep it.

It’s fitting that the band opened with “We’ve Come So Far”: The number comes from Transfixiation, the brand-new album whose release was being celebrated that night, and it also describes this band’s history. With only one consistent member throughout (frontman Oliver Ackermann), the now-trio has continued to hone a sound much more consistent than its personnel changes would suggest. From the obvious MBV homage of their self-titled 2007 debut, the band has both added layers and stripped them away, leaving them at the more tightly focused Transfixiation, which takes a few steps back from the wall of noise to find some new melodies — and a bit of extra weirdness — underneath.

Not that you’d have been able to tell at the album release show. From the first peals of guitar noise to the militaristic percussion of “So Far Away”, the band blanketed itself in noise, barely pausing between songs. Ackerman, drummer Robi Gonzalez and bassist Dion Lunadon were only intermittently visible in a sea of smoke, pierced by a frenetic light show and backed by abstract visuals. Ackermann and Lunadon hurled themselves around the stage as a mosh pit that churned below them; this was no polite Tuesday night show. It might be fair to say you can’t really get APTBS until you’ve seen them live, or at least, it’s very hard to convey the feeling of their music through a home stereo or some iPhone headphones. APTBS’ sound demands darkness, attention and crowd participation to fully land, and over and over on this night, it did.

Band and crowd literally became one during the encore portion of the set, when the band set up just in front of the venue’s soundboard to play three more songs as the audience closed in around them, the flashes of smartphone cameras replacing the strobe lights that had been up on the stage. If it didn’t quite replicate the intimacy of Death By Audio, it showed that this band deserved to grow to a level well beyond it, and to keep going. They’re the kind of band live music was made for, and they did right by us tonight.

I recorded this set with Schoeps MK41 supercardiod microphones set up inside the soundboard cage. APTBS’ FOH, Lex, was in charge of the house mix. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete set: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete set:

A Place to Bury Strangers
2015-02-17
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK41 (DFC, at SBD, PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>24bit/48kHz WAV>Izotope Ozone 5 (effects, EQ, imaging)>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (adjust levels)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 57:01]
01 We’ve Come So Far
02 I’m So Clean
03 Drill It Up
04 Fill the Void
05 Deadbeat
06 [instrumental]
07 Love High
08 Now It’s Over
09 I’ve Lived My Life to Stand In the Shadow of Your Heart
10 You Are the One [played from the floor]
11 Straight [played from the floor]
12 So Far Away [played from the floor]

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT A Place to Bury Strangers, visit their website, and buy Transfixiation from Dead Oceans here.

moe.: October 31, 1998 Utica NY – Flac/MP3/Streaming – Dedicated to ericv

February 15, 2015

By nyctaper

[Eric in 1996 at a moe. show – photo courtesy of Craig Hillwig and Eric Vandercar: In Memoriam]

If the horrific Metro North crash on February 3, 2015 that took the life of my friend Eric Vandercar and five others taught me anything it was only to reinforce the notion that life is inherently unfair and at times utterly senseless. Eric was a superior individual — a man with a profoundly successful career, a wonderful family and a large variety of engaging and eclectic interests. The news reports have described him as a “banker”, which is kind of like describing Lincoln as a politician. Eric was at the forefront in the creation of varieties of municipal bonds, essentially for nearly thirty years creating the finance mechanisms that allow cities to raise funds for development. In his free time Eric was also one of the most prolific and knowledgeable tapers of the last twenty years. He was also a skier, a diver, and a world traveler. Ultimately, there was very little that Eric Vandercar did not do in his too-short 53 years of life. But here we are two weeks removed from the accident, and its time that I choose to rise above the anger and the sadness and begin the healing process by remembering Eric for the good he brought to this world in the best way I know how — the recorded music.

In a way, Eric and I lived parallel lives. When we were both newly married and living a short distance apart in NYC we spent a lot of time together going to shows locally and on the road from about 1996 to 1999. When each of us had children and when the Vandercars moved upstate, we saw each other infrequently. But with Eric, it was easy to pick up where we’d left off before. The last time I saw him we chatted for a while in the taper’s section at a Phish show on Randall’s Island, and talked about those old days when we’d sit for hours in his Elizabeth Street apartment and listen and swap the latest DAT recordings.

One of the more memorable trips I made with Eric was the moe. Halloween show in Utica NY in 1998. On previous roadtrips we’d gone with groups of tapers but for this weekend jaunt it was just the two married couples driving north in Eric’s SUV. I’d never been to Utica (before or since) but my memory was a small city similar to countless others in Upstate New York. We’d booked a hotel a short walk from the venue — a classic old theatre that had been renovated and renamed the Stanley Performing Arts Center. moe. were dressed in holiday costumes and kicked of the show with a straight forward “Reaper” cover before working through familiar material from this era in the band’s history. The show is notable for the appearance of a then-obscure local guitarist Joe Bonamassa, who has subsequently gone on to have a terrific career including a Grammy nomination in 2013. Other highlights include a very lengthy segment in the second set of Timmy > Brent > Moth with varied teases and short jam interludes in the suite.

This show was recorded by Eric with his trademark B&K 4021 microphones from a position at the front and center of the balcony. I had a seat on the floor, so before the show I gave Eric my Sony portable DAT deck and a couple of tapes and he did the rest patching my deck into his deck. So while I technically have “master” tapes, these are really “ericv” masters. His master of this show has not previously circulated before now.

On playback, the second set was extracted flawlessly but the first set had a few bits of digital static. It took me three plays to get this transfer of the first set. Not bad for a pair of seventeen year old DATs that I don’t remember ever actually playing.

I will be extracting more of Eric’s DATs in the immediate future and posting them here. In a very large way, NYCTaper would not have existed without the influence of Eric Vandercar on my own personal approach to taping and trading. I’ll be talking about that influence in future posts.

This Recording is available for Download in Flac and MP3 at Archive.org [HERE]. Stream the entire show below.

moe.
1998-10-31
Stanley Performing Arts Center
Utica NY

Digital Master Recording
FOB Audience – First Row Center Balcony

B&K 4021 > Apogee AD-1000 > Tascam DA-P1 > Sony PCM M-1 DAT Master

DAT Master > Sony PCM R-300 > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 16/44 wav files > Soundforge (mastering) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac

Recorded by Eric Vandercar (ericv) (nyctaper DAT patch)
Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
Set 1
[Total Time 1:03:08]
01 Don’t Fear the Reaper [Blue Oyster Cult]
02 Akimbo
03 [banter – hell night]
04 Jazz Wank
05 Spaz Medicine
06 Buster
07 [banter – Utica]
08 Blue Eyed Son
09 [banter – canned food]
10 32 Things

Set 2
[Total Time 2:00:07]
11 Bring It Back Home
12 [banter – Joe intro]
13 Sensory Deprivation Bank*
14 Timmy Tucker
15 Brent Black
16 Moth
17 [encore break]
18 Plane Crash
19 Freebird [Lynyrd Skynyrd]

*with Joe Bonamassa on guitar

If you download this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT moe., visit their website and purchase their official releases from the moe. store here.

Horse Lords: February 5, 2015 Union Pool – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

February 13, 2015

By EricPH

Horse Lords take a collage-like, mixtape approach to song and setlist construction, balancing instrumental jams with electronic texture pieces. Rather than beginning and ending, songs morph into one another, blurring the lines between compositions and styles. Hailing from Baltimore, a city that’s become well known for its rich music scene, Horse Lords perform a tightly-wound mathrock that blends the influence of African polyrhythms with motorik beats. Opening up for Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band at Union Pool, their set features four untitled tracks followed by their signature tune, “Outer East,” a twelve-minute jam that explores each aspect of their sound. That song also appears on their second album, Hidden Cities, which came out on NNA Tapes this past November. It follows a few self-released mixtapes and a self-titled LP on Baltimore weirdo label, Ehse Records. What’s impressive about their performance is each player’s ability to play in the spaces between the other instruments. Nowhere does it sound like like these guys are playing over one another, despite the complex interlaced rhythms. Percussion is central to their mission. Many tracks feature two drum kits, but there’s also a percussive element to the way the other instruments (guitar, bass, saxophone, and electronics) are handled. While it was a New Yorker recommendation for Chris Forsyth that ensured a packed house, the crowd was up for diverse and experimental music and Horse Lords elicited a well-deserved, rapturous response.

I recorded this set with the AKGs clamped to the balcony combined with a board feed from Union Pool FOH Leah. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!

You can catch Horse Lords on tour with Liturgy in early April. Dates are listed on their website.

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Horse Lords
2015-02-05
Union Pool
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH

Soundboard (engineer: Leah) + AKG C480B/CK61 (FOB, PAS) > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV (24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, EQ, mixdown) > Audacity 2.0.5 (amplify, fades, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (16/44.1, level 8)

Tracks [38:17]
01. Untitled
02. Untitled
03. Untitled
04. Untitled
05. Outer East

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Horse Lords. Visit their Bandcamp page, like them on Facebook, and buy Hidden Cities from NNA Tapes.

Honey: January 28, 2015 Union Pool – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

February 12, 2015

By acidjack

[photos courtesy of P Squared Photography]

Honey are a relatively new band who showed up hungry as the openers for Viet Cong at Union Pool recently. Composed of Cory Feierman on bass/vocals, Dan Wise on guitar/vocals and Will Schmiechen on drums, these guys showed up ready to play, putting even the very talented headliners on notice that mediocrity would not be accepted. The band members’ skill reflects some their resumes; one or more of them have been part of Amen Dunes, Psychic Ills and Stupid Party. Likewise, early invites to play with the likes of J Mascis, King Tuff, Endless Boogie, Crystal Stilts and Destruction Unit tell us that other bands are taking notice.

The band plays hard-charging rock n’ roll with a punk edge, reminiscent of an early, less self-serious Soundgarden. After choosing the bold leadoff of a cover of Can’s “Connection”, the highlights of this set for me were “Monk”, a pounding number that made a fine lead-in to “Motherfucker Longhair”. Wise got his best showcase on “Enough”, where he was left plenty of room to solo despite the abbreviated set time. Honey expects to have a new LP release in the next couple of months, which should only continue to raise their profile in 2015.

I recorded the set with Schoeps MK4V cardiod microphones and a soundboard feed from house engineer Doug. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete set: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete set:

Honey
2015-01-28
Union Pool
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

Schoeps MK4V (FOB, DFC, PAS)>KCY>Z-PFA>Sound Devices USBPre2 + Soundboard (engineer: Doug)>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (align, mix down, compression, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, tape effect, imaging)>Audacity 2.0.3 (tracking, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

01 Connection [Can]
02 Monk
03 Motherfucker Longhair
04 Enough
05 Comes Down
06 Drive

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Honey, like them on facebook, and visit their bandcamp page to buy their album.

Parquet Courts: February 9, 2015 Palisades – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

February 10, 2015

By acidjack

[screen capture from this recent YouTube video. Other photos on this page are acidjack’s shots from the show]

Each succeeding year that we’ve seen Parquet Courts, they’ve become more and more assured and impressive. The Brooklyn band — who are now “big” enough to have headlined Webster Hall at the end of last year — decided to end their latest stint on the road in the best possible way. The foursome landed this time at Bushwick’s Palisades, a resolutely scrappy DIY venue where the room is spare, the drinks are cheap and the vibe is warm (even if the temperature is not) for a two-night stint. This level of ticket sell-out reminded me of the best days of 285 Kent (also, not coincidentally, booked by legend-in-the-making Ric Leichtung‘s Ad Hoc), with wall-to-wall bodies flooding the front, each step closer to the stage a squeeze you just might not be able to make.

Parquet Courts inspires that kind of loyalty, and deserves to. Their style may be rooted in garage and punk, but they play like serious musicians, shredding their way through material from both of their 2014 records, Sunbathing Animal and the newer Content Nausea (released under the name “Parkay Quarts”). Besides Andrew Savage’s lead vocals that are easy to actually make out (and display his obvious sense of humor), the band’s most notable calling card is their ability to construct earworm riffs that make you remember songs of theirs even if you’ve only heard them once. This set did a fine job of mixing up short masterpieces of the band’s like “Light Up Gold II” and “Careers In Combat” with pieces that give Savage, guitarist Austin Brown, bassist Sean Yeaton and drummer Max Savage a chance to stretch out and show their chops, especially the “Instant Disassembly” that came earlier in the set. At times it felt like the band wasn’t even taking a breath between songs, with the riff of the next number cranking up at the last downbeat of the one before. It made for a kind of momentum that reminded me of Parquet Courts’ current career.

Befitting their love for the hometown crowd, the set we got here was longer than than other recent shows, and included a new song mix, including a cover. At first, the Monday night crowd felt a little sedate, to the point that you can hear a fan screaming “Wake the fuck up!” at least once on this recording. But the only blame for that can go to how densely packed it was in there — sardines can’t dance, either. By mid-set, the true believers had assumed their rightful places up front, and the pogoing and pit were in effect. The band kept joking with the crowd about how any of us got tickets in the first place. But that’s one advantage of having your tour-ending shows at Palisades on a Monday and Tuesday night — you can make a pretty educated guess that the people who choose to be there are the ones that actually give a shit.

The band is off to Australia and New Zealand, and then the festival circuit, in March. At their current pace, they may as well have another album done by summer. Until then, we wish them well. Success sits well with them.

I recorded this set with spaced DPA 4061 omnidirectional microphones on a post right at the front of the venue (see the photo below), plus a soundboard feed set up by Ben of Palisades, with the mix created by Parquet Courts’ touring engineer (whose name I would appreciate having). The sound quality is in-your-face excellent. Enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Parquet Courts
2015-02-09
Palisades
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by acidjack

DPA 4061 (FOB, spaced on pole, slightly ROC)>Sound Devices USBPre2 + Soundboard (engineer: [Parquet Courts FOH — please share his name if you have it])>>Edirol R-44 [OCM]>2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (compression on SBD and AUD sources, channel adjustments, fades)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, tape exciter, imaging)>Audacity 2.0.5 (track, amplify, balance, downsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Total Time 1:08:31]
01 You’ve Got Me Wonderin’ Now
02 Bodies Made Of
03 Black and White
04 Instant Disassembly
05 Always Back in Town
06 Ducking and Dodging
07 New Age [Blitz]
08 [banter1]
09 Everyday It Starts
10 Master of My Craft
11 Borrowed Time
12 Careers In Combat
13 Dear Ramona
14 [banter2]
15 What Color Is Blood
16 No Ideas
17 Pretty Machines
18 Psycho Structures
19 Content Nausea
20 Light Up Gold II
21 Sunbathing Animal

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Parquet Courts, visit their website, and buy their albums here.

White Fence: October 26, 2014 Baby’s All Right – Flac/MP3/Streaming

February 9, 2015

By nyctaper

[photo by Dean Keim]

Back in October, White Fence was on an extensive tour that criss-crossed through NYC a few times, including during CMJ week when they played a bunch of shows. We were lucky to catch the band twice in less than two weeks at Baby’s All Right. The mid-October recording was featured on the site contemporaneously with the show but the second night at the Panache Hangover Brunch has waited until now. This White Fence set started at about 7 p.m. but certainly felt later as we’d been in the venue since the early afternoon. We’ve already posted two sets from this day (Juan Waters and King Gizzard) and the White Fence set was really gravy for one of the best complete days of music we had all year. White Fence did not replicate the set from earlier in the month as they mixed up the setlist and swapped in several different numbers. But as we had previously experienced, the current White Fence quartet (with Cate Le Bon on guitar) is a unit that has been together for a while now and the performance was tight and energetic. We are streaming “Sandra” below — a near perfect performance that had the band smiling at the end.

This set was recorded by House FOH Devin, who provided a superb live mix of the multitrack. There are also cardioid microphones installed near the lighting rig about 15 feet in front of the stage. In post-production, I mixed the two sources and the results are quite excellent. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “Sandra”:

White Fence
2014-10-26
Babys All Right
Brooklyn, NY USA

Digital Multitrack Soundboard + Audience Recording

Multitrack Soundboard (engineered and recorded by Devin Foley) > Devin mix Wav files + Room mic wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, setfades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and Tagging via Foobar)

Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 46:26]
01 Arrow Man
02 Like That
03 Trouble Is Trouble Never Seen
04 Its Confusing When You Wake Up
05 Fragility
06 Baxter Corner
07 Sandra
08 [banter – badass]
09 And by Always
10 Makers Nest And Words Freeze
11 Pink Gorilla
12 Get That Heart
13 Paranoid Bait
14 Harness

If you download this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT White Fence, visit the Facebook page, and purchase For The Recently Found Innocent from the Drag City Records website [HERE].

Heaven: February 2, 2015 Rough Trade – Flac/MP3/Streaming

February 6, 2015

By hiandlo

[photos courtesy of Jill Harrison and For the Love of Brooklyn]

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since we last saw Heaven at Mercury Lounge; the dreamy reverb of 2013’s Telepathic Love LP frequently finds its way on to my turntable as a welcome old friend. On Monday night, the band took to the Rough Trade stage for a snowstorm-rescheduled set, opening for fellow NYC-band Dreamers and Oklahoma-based headliner Broncho.

Between Mikey Jones’ touring gig with Swervedriver and semi-regular shows in the New York area, Heaven has been hard at work in the studio over the last year writing and recording a new album of material they expect to release in the first half of this year. Though the show on Monday included a handful of highlights from Telepathic Love (“Mountains Move,” “Colors in the Whites of Your Eyes”), the band also played several new, as-yet-unknown songs from the forthcoming album. For the sample track we’ve chosen their closing jam, Darken Fields, a slow burner and one we can’t wait to hear on wax.

I recorded Heaven using a pairs of Schoeps MK41 hypercardioids mixed with an excellent soundboard feed graciously provided house engineer, Nic. We hope you enjoy!

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

Heaven
Rough Trade
Brooklyn, New York
2015-02-02

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and Produced by hi and lo

Source: Soundboard (Engineer: Nic) + Schoeps MK41/CMC6 > Sonosax SX-M2 >> Sound Devices 744T @ 24 bit / 48 kHz

01. Telepathic Love
02. In Your Ruin
03. Mountains Move
04. (Unknown #1)
05. (Unknown #2)
06. Colors in the Whites of Your Eyes
07. Darken Fields

Running Time: 37:39

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Heaven by visiting their Bandcamp page and purchasing a copy of Telepathic Love on CD or 12″ Vinyl from their online store [HERE].

Ryley Walker: January 13, 2015 Baby’s All Right

February 5, 2015

By acidjack

[photo from October 2014 Rough Trade show by acidjack]

Ryley Walker will be a breakout star this year, and the reason won’t just be his forthcoming album, Primrose Green. Walker has been touring hard, working out the new material, and consistently wowing audiences. BrooklynVegan brought him to New York for a Red Bull Sound Select event at Baby’s All Right, and we couldn’t have been happier, having seen Walker last in a similar two-man configuration back in October at Rough Trade.

Once Primrose Green hits shelves, those versions of Walker’s songs might well seem polite by comparison. The title track’s single, available on Soundcloud and on other streaming services, is a fine version, but pales when up against Walker’s fierce version on this night, a ten-minute ramble through his mind featuring an elongated intro and a virtuosic guitar playing that mimicked some of the dissociative elements of the alcoholic beverage for which the song is titled. But if I had to pick from among Walker’s post-All Kinds of You material, I think it’s “Summer Dress” that will go down as his signature song, as it begins with its loping guitar line under a vocal turn in which Walker yelps, deploys falsetto, flirts with chaos. Watching Walker, you get the sense that he’s not even trying to play these songs to please you, but he does anyway. There’s a sense of abandon to his work that can’t help but grab you; he’s feral up there, without anchor. He makes many of the greats to whom he’s compared — Bert Jansch, for one — sound like choirboys. As to other distinctions, this set boasted a new song, “Funny Thing She Said”, as well as a cover of Van Morrison’s “Fair Play” from Veedon Fleece, the latter a worthwhile reimagining that again places Walker right up there with the rarefied company that came before him.

This set was recorded by Baby’s engineer Rubes, whose dedication to craft is obvious in his flawless mix of his board feed with the house mics. The sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

Walker will be back at Baby’s All Right on March 15 with another of our favorites, Kevin Morby. Get tickets here.

Download the complete show via the Live Music Archive: [FLAC] | [MP3]

Ryley Walker
2015-01-13
Baby’s All Right (sponsored by BrooklynVegan)
Brooklyn, NY USA

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded by Rubes
Produced by acidjack

Soundboard (engineer: Rubes) + Audio Technica 4051>digital multitrack>SD card>Adobe Audition CS 5.5 (mix down individual tracks, limiter)>Izotope Ozone 5 (EQ, compression, exciter)>Audacity 2.0.5 (fades, tracking, amplify, balance, downwsample, dither)>FLAC ( level 8 )

Tracks [Note that two tags of the FLAC and MP3 files need updating]
01 Funny Thing She Said
02 [banter1]
03 Summer Dress
04 [banter2]
05 Primrose Green
06 On the Banks of the Old Kishwaukee
07 Fair Play [Van Morrison]
08 [banter3]
09 Sweet Satisfaction

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Ryley Walker, like him on Facebook, and buy Primrose Green from Dead Oceans.

Noveller: January 29, 2015 Cameo Gallery – FLAC/MP3/Streaming

February 4, 2015

By EricPH

The word “cinematic” is an often lazy descriptor employed in order to say something/anything about abstract instrumental music. And yet when discussing Noveller née Sarah Lipstate’s music, it’s exceedingly difficult not to use the word. Performing live, I can’t recall seeing her incorporate video or visuals into her set, despite being well-known as a filmmaker. Perhaps it’s because her music itself is already a visual medium, suggesting and conjuring images in the listener’s imagination, as if environments and topographies are being transported by sound. Her album and song titles are filled with geological and elemental references—glaciers, deserts, dunes, mountains, fire—so listening at home there is often some specific direction for the imagination. But live, without immediate access to song titles, the experience is something maybe a little less directed, left to the listener’s own mind.

I caught Noveller at Cameo Gallery for her Fantastic Planet record release show. Already the album’s title carries filmic connotations—Fantastic Planet (La Planète sauvage) is a French stop motion animated film from the seventies. (Its soundtrack, by Alain Goraguer, has recently been reissued and Ad Hoc’s latest zine has a feature on it.) I haven’t read anything affirming the record’s reference to the film, but the connection, however tenuous, is likely. New songs like “Into the Dunes,” “Rubicon,” and the driving, rhythmic “Pulse Point” sound coincident to that film’s bizarre imagery and stark landscapes. “Growing,” along with album- and set-closer “The Ascent” build towards a resolution to the action of the preceding songs and seem to emphasize some knowledge or understanding gained.

Though this set focuses mostly on the new record, it also integrates three selections from 2013’s No Dreams: the title track, “Purchase,” and “Gathering the Elements.” Thematically, those songs fit in seamlessly with the new material and while there’s definitely a narrative arc to her set, I’d be hard pressed to put it into words. Better to listen with an open mind and let the songs take you where they’re going.

I recorded this set with the mics positioned in front of the board and a feed from Cameo Gallery FOH Gary. The crowd was a little chatty so this mix favors the board feed with the mics adding some room depth. The sound is excellent. Enjoy!

Noveller plays tonight, February 4th, at The Wick as part of the Tinnitus Music Series. Tickets are still available.

Download the complete show: [MP3] | [FLAC]

Stream the complete show:

Noveller
2015-01-29
Cameo Gallery
Brooklyn, NY

Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Recorded and produced by Eric PH

Soundboard (engineer: Gary) + AKG C480B/CK61 (FOB, PAS) > Roland R-26 > 2xWAV(24/48) > Adobe Audition CC (align, mixdown, EQ) > Audacity 2.0.5 (amplify, fades, downsample, dither, tracking, tagging) > FLAC (level 8)

Tracks [40:46]
01. Rubicon
02. Into the Dunes
03. No Unholy Mountain
04. Pulse Point
05. No Dreams
06. Purchase
07. Gathering the Elements
08. The Ascent

If you enjoyed this recording, PLEASE SUPPORT Noveller. Visit her Bandcamp page, like her on Facebook, and buy Fantastic Planet through her website.

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