Friday 23 December 2011

Half Machine Podcast 002

Podcast number 2 featuring music from Kevin Ayers, The Wild Swans, Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Tom Waits amongst others.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Roberto Cacciapaglia 'The Ann Steel Album' Delay



As you may have noticed the reissue of 'The Ann Steel Album' hasn't appeared in shops (or your postbox, if you'd pre-ordered). The album pressing has been delayed longer than expected due to some artwork issues. The record is in production and I'm waiting on Roberto Cacciapaglia to approve the test pressing I've sent to Milan. Hopefully this should be done soon, with that done we can get to finishing it! Sorry for the delays, these were unexpected when we set the release date.

Hopefully it shouldn't be too longer than a week or two, but if you do have any questions or concerns you can contact me at richard (at) halfmachinerecords (dot) com

In the meantime you can read some lovely reviews of the record here:
Pitchfork
The Liminal

And if you haven't already, you can pick up a copy here - Half Machine Shop - there's only about 30 copies left for pre-order from me. It will be available in these places too though:
ROUGH TRADE
KRISTINA RECORDS
PHONICA
THE STONE RECORDS (JAPAN)
CLINTON STREET RECORD & STEREO (US)
OTHER MUSIC (US)

Monday 24 October 2011

Holiday Shores 'New Masses For Squaw Peak' album stream



ORDER HERE

They're also in the UK and Europe playing some headline shows and supporting Twin Sister:

Wed 26th Oct Holland Rotterdam - Rotown*
Thurs 27th Oct Holland Utrecht - Ekko*
Fri 28th Oct Denmark Copenhagen - Vega
Sat 29th Oct Germany Berlin - Berghain Kantine*
Sun 30th Oct TBC
Mon 31st Oct Holland Amsterdam - Upstairs at Paradiso*
Wed 2nd Nov UK Brighton - Jam*
Thurs 3rd Nov UK London - Lexington(%)
Fri 4th Nov UK Oxford - Jericho*
Sat 5th Nov UK Bristol - Start The Bus*
Mon 7th Nov UK Manchester- Deaf Institute*
Tue 8th Nov UK Leeds - tbc
Wed 9th Nov UK Glasgow - Captain's Rest*
Thurs 10th Nov UK Edinburgh - Sneaky Pete's*
Fri 11th Nov Ireland Belfast - Limelight*
Sat 12th Nov Ireland Dublin - The Grand Social*
Tue 15th Nov UK London tbc
Wed 16th UK London - The Windmill(^)
Thurs 17th UK London - Old Blue Last
Fri 18th UK London tbc

* - with Twin Sister
(%) - with Gardens & Villa
(^) - with The Babies

Monday 17 October 2011

Holiday Shores - UK & European tour




Holiday Shores will be heading to the UK and Europe for their first non-North American tour dates in a couple of weeks.

They'll be playing around mainland Europe, UK and Ireland with Brooklyn's Domino-signed Twin Sister. They will also be playing some headline shows, see below. As you can see there's more to be announced.

If you live in any of the tour towns and want to be super kind and put the band up for the night they'll let you in to the show for free and shower you in beer (or your liquid of choice). Get in touch us (at) halfmachinerecords (dot) com


Wed 26th Oct Holland Rotterdam - Rotown*
Thurs 27th Oct Holland Utrecht - Ekko*
Fri 28th Oct Denmark Copenhagen - Vega
Sat 29th Oct Germany Berlin - Berghain Kantine*
Sun 30th Oct TBC
Mon 31st Oct Holland Amsterdam - Upstairs at Paradiso*
Wed 2nd Nov UK Brighton - Jam*
Thurs 3rd Nov UK London - Lexington(%)
Fri 4th Nov UK Oxford - Jericho*
Sat 5th Nov UK Bristol - Start The Bus*
Mon 7th Nov UK Manchester- Deaf Institute*
Tue 8th Nov UK Leeds - tbc
Wed 9th Nov UK Glasgow - Captain's Rest*
Thurs 10th Nov UK Edinburgh - Sneaky Pete's*
Sat 12th Nov Ireland Dublin - The Grand Social*
Tue 15th Nov Belgium Brussels - Witlo Off Bar*
Wed 16th UK London tbc
Thurs 17th UK London tbc
Fri 18th UK London tbc

* - with Twin Sister
(%) - with Gardens & Villa

Sunday 16 October 2011

Half Machine Soundcloud

If you're at all interested, you could head over to the Half Machine Souncloud page where I've been uploading the back catalogue to stream and download. It's (nearly) all HERE.

And if you 'like' the Half Machine Facebook page I'll post the tracks on there, with a little uninformative information about the release so you don't have to keep checking Soundcloud to hear that Neils Children b-side.

I'll also be putting mixtapes up on the Facebook with stuff I've been listening to. Here's the first one, which includes new tracks from the upcoming Holiday Shores record, alongside Ganglians, Adrian Belew, Walls, Alan Vega, Alex Chilton and & Ben Vaughn, etc.

CLICK>>HALF MACHINE PODCAST 001

Monday 10 October 2011

Roberto Cacciapaglia 'Media' Stream

Due to some manufacturing hold up's the vinyl reissue of Roberto Cacciapaglia's cult 1979 LP, 'The Ann Steel Album', will be a little later than expected. It was due to be in shops by Monday 24th October, but it looks as though it'll be a week or so late.

To apologise we've made bonus track 'Media' available here:
Roberto Cacciapaglia - 'Media' by halfmachine

'Media' didn't appear on the original pressing and is one of two tracks available on vinyl for the first time.

Friday 7 October 2011

Sunday 2 October 2011

Guatemalan Road Trip mixtape

Earlier this year I travelled to Guatemala, this is the music I listened to. It's all from South and Central America (or influenced by). This'll be the first in a series of Mixcloud mixes of my current listening, for better or worse...

Saturday 1 October 2011

Roberto Cacciapaglia & Holiday Shores albums



Along with being able to buy the Holiday Shores and Roberto Cacciapaglia albums from our online shop you can also pick them up from these places:

Holiday Shores - 'New Masses For Squaw Peak;':
Rough Trade
Boomkat
Piccadilly Records
Amazon (MP3)
HMV
iTunes (Pre-order for £5.99)
7Digital

Roberto Cacciapaglia - 'The Ann Steel Album':
Rough Trade
Juno
Phonica
Kristina Records
Insound (US)
All Day Records (US)

Any questions just ask - us (at) halfmachinerecords (dot) com

Monday 26 September 2011

Our Facebook Page




To celebrate Half Machine finally getting a Facebook page they had a big conference to announce it. They also mentioned some other shit.

You should head over and see my ruminations on some past Half Machine releases, loads of links to new music and what not. There'll be some Facebook only mixes going up soon too.

It's HERE

Thursday 15 September 2011

Holiday Shores - Havana, FL mixtape



Holiday Shores' second album, 'New Masses For Squaw Peak', is out in the US now, and out via us in the UK on the 17th October (order here). To celebrate they made a mixtape, which you can listen to here:

Holiday Shores Havana Mix by Holidayshoress

Friday 19 August 2011

Holiday Shores interview with The Beat



Read an interview with Nathan from Holiday Shores up on The Beat, where he discusses 'New Masses For Squaw Peak', Tears For Fears, Hare Krishnas and King Crimson.

Read the interview HERE

PRE-ORDER THE ALBUM HERE

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Mirror Mirror 'Interiors'

Mirror Mirror - Interiors LP by RVNG Intl.

Released on RVNG Intl on 22nd August.

You can also still order the debut 7" 'New Horizons'/ 'Lock Up Your Sons' HERE

Thursday 4 August 2011

So weightless as to have it fly away like a balloon

"In my music there is nothing to understand. It is so superficial that I can’t find anything to say. My music is ingenuous, there is nothing inside it and it is for this reason, that I like it. It can be listened to while sipping tea, watching television, or while speaking with a friend. Even in a moment when one has nothing to do or is bored, the music can be listened to attentively and millions of little changes can be discovered. It is certainly not the ideal music; it is just one type of music.
The computer has been indispensable. It is a marvellously poetic instrument that evokes the beauty of the new technologic environment and it gives everything a great artificial taste of grand actuality. This music can be utilized in many ways and listened to by different people, which is what makes me happy because I want it to be accessible to everyone. I would like it to be even more simplistic, in fact, and my aspiration is to uncover it on a weightless day – so weightless, in fact, as to have it fly away like a balloon."

Roberto Cacciapaglia

Roberto Cacciapaglia - 'Find Your Way' by halfmachine

PRE-ORDER THE VINYL HERE

Friday 29 July 2011

Roberto Cacciapaglia 'The Ann Steel Album' reissue



We've been dormant as a label for just over two years now, allowing the looming spectre of chill wave and witch house to come and go without so much as a download single release by //\\''&%$@@@$%&"//\\ to our name.

So it's as much of a surprise to us as it is you that we're releasing two albums this year, the aforementioned Holiday Shores and now with the reissue of Roberto Cacciapaglia's 1979 bizarro futurist pop LP, 'The Ann Steel Album'.

Roberto Cacciapaglia is an Italian electronic composer who's made albums using every possible permutation of the same six notes, right up to modern classical, with 'The Ann Steel Album' as the weird anomaly.

Made with an American model, who moved to Italy to make it big in fashion, Roberto took her languid, Laurie Anderson-esque voice and created a detached futurist popstar.

The odd sound of these European futurist pop songs make it sound like the machines are breathing, creating a weird organic/ electronic rhythm section. It has to be heard to be believed.

'The Ann Steel Album' will be a vinyl only reissue, the first time this album has been on vinyl since its initial small pressing in the 70's, available from Half Machine Records.

Monday 18 July 2011

Holiday Shores - 'New Masses For Squaw Peak'




After a lengthy hiatus spent in the Himalayan mountains considering the future of 7" vinyl sales, Half Machine is back in the record selling business!

On October 17th 2011 we'll be releasing the second album from Florida's Holiday Shores. 'New Masses For Squaw Peak' is real step on from their brilliant, zeitgeist spearing, debut 'Columbus'd The Whim'. This album sees them channeling 'Here Come The Warm Jets' era Brian Eno, Talking Heads and Can, but losing none of their trademark twinkling and zigzagging melodies.

Download 'Spells' from Abeano

'New Masses For Squaw Peak' is released in the UK via Half Machine on Monday 17th October 2011.

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Wednesday 25 May 2011

Rimar






Download the whole album HERE

Fire Sale!



Clearing out some old Half Machine stock, if you want anything make us an offer - halfmachinerecords (at) gmail (dot) com - list here - http://bit.ly/kiPDjq

Unfortunately no copies left of the Real Estate, Woods, Psychedelic Horseshit, Stardeath & White Dwarfs 7"s.

Thursday 19 May 2011

Lil B - emptying his brain on to the internet

Lots has already been written about Lil B everywhere on the internet, which has probably made it harder to get your head around what he is and what he does, it certainly took me some time to figure out if I liked it or not. Simon Reynolds' article in The Wire about too much information to truly identify with an artist nowadays rings true when talking about people like Lil B - "Fanatical identification with an artist/scene has given way to drifting eclecticism and partial allegiance"

I've had 'Red Flame' and 'Blue Flame' for sometime and never really got round to listening to much else. So it wasn't with great expectation that I listened to 'Rain In England' for the first time yesterday (whilst it rained in England), but I am now a total convert. Despite the occasional remedial synth line that interrupts the strings and synth washes, it's totally hypnotic, stream of conscious poetry. Ruminating on the state of earth, how all women are us and we are them and various other stoner theory's.

'My Window Sill' is where the album really coalesces in to brilliance for me



Suicide seem like an influence on this - the minimal backing, the yelps, the beat poetry:



I read an article about the Black Keys in Mojo recently where the writer dismissed hip hop in 2011 as on a downward spiral, but with Lil B, Wiz Khalifa, Wacka Flocka Flame, Odd Future etc I think it's safe to say that he's a fucking dick.

Thursday 28 April 2011

Mercenárias 'Inimigo'



In preparation of my trip to the Central American jungle on Saturday, I've been listening to a lot of Panamanian funk and Peruvian psych (as recommended by El Guincho) and this track from the really quite brilliant Soul Jazz comp, The Sexual Lift of The Savages.

I used to play this a lot at our old club night. Nobody liked it much, except me.

Wednesday 27 April 2011

Tom Trago 'Being With You'



Where Smokey goes mid-tempo synth boogie

'Iris' by Tom Trago is out now on Rush Hour, get it here

Wednesday 13 April 2011

James Fox - 'New Jack Swing'



I hated new jack swing when it was in it's heyday. But that was just an early onset of indie snobbery, deep down I loved quietly grooving to Guy and Al B Sure. This doesn't sound like either of those, it's house. Which is also good.

Jacques Greene - 'Another Girl'



The Koreless remix of 'The Look' is also amazing

Friday 8 April 2011

Monday 4 April 2011

The Supremes + Joni Mitchell = Krautrock!

In the 70's, long past their peak, The Supremes released this cover of Joni Mitchell's 'All I Want'. It comes from their Jimmy Webb produced self-titled album and was released in 1972, the same year Neu! released their debut album and coincidently features a Klaus Dinger-esque motorik beat!