Landlocked Music - 202 N. Walnut Ave. - Bloomington, IN
info @ landlockedmusic . com
(812) 339 - 2574
Hours of operation:
Monday - Saturday : 11:30 - 7:30pm
Sunday : 12pm - 5pm
Every week (or so...), the proud employees of Landlocked Music attempt to help guide you along the path of auditory redemption. We take time away from our busy schedules and craft, in our own words, a tiny little review of a great piece found in our bin that is for sale. We are happy as a clam when a customer purchases our picks, we gotta feed our egos somehow, right? But don't just take our word for it... or rather, DO take our word for it!
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Prayer is a concept album about death and why we shouldn't be so afraid of it. Produced by Secretly Canadian heartthrob David Vandervelde at former Wilco member Jay Bennett's studio, this record has an otherworldly, gospel-like quality to it, albeit filtered through their cosmic-psychedelic-blues style. The "heavy" ideals of the album are made concrete and totally effective by the layered and reverbed sound of the band. Thoroughly spaced-out guitar, wailing violin and tastefully employed electric sitar float over a truly thunderous rhythm section, giving the entire album the vibe of a middle-of-the-night thunderstorm in an ancient graveyard. The only ray of sunlight through the clouds being Blakeslee's voice, which has a slightly angelic, choir-boy feel as he sings his ruminations on death and existentialism from the highest echo-plexed mountaintop. - Cyrus
There's a lengthy back-story to this album, here's the condensed version: musically-gifted London kid gets into a car accident; woodsheds to proficiency on a Prince-like number of instruments while convalescing; gets hired as guitarist for recently reformed heavy psych-prog freaks, the Edgar Broughton Band, indulges in drugs; quits; cuts a demo of slick whiteboy neo-soul which immediately lands him a deal with Island (this is around 1994); UK music press freaks out over the album, but no one really buys it except Elton John and other celebrity fans; retreats to home studio where he records this, the intended follow-up; label says, "What's this sunny psychedelic soul rock? Sounds like Todd Rundgren meets Stevie Wonder? How are we supposed to market this, and to whom?" The rest is easy enough to guess. Thus, The Lost Album. - Jason
Mark Kozelek was known throughout the 90s for his output as Red House Painters. Over the course of 4+ albums on 4AD, he and his band of unmerry men laid down a somber bed of rich, mostly acoustic tunes. Known for slow, haunting melodies and heartbreaking lyrics (akin to Nick Drake), Kozelek parted ways with 4AD when he evolved into something a bit more rock'n'roll - extended Crazy Horse electric guitar solos filled completely reworked versions of songs by Yes, The Cars and Wings. Then came the acoustic AC/DC cover album. And covers of KISS, John Denver, Christmas classics and Modest Mouse. Somewhere amongst this, he released an amazing album under this new name - a revisit to his past sound but updated with a new confidence and a slightly expanded sound. Warm nostalgia abounds throughout and creates an atmosphere might just change your day in the same way that a scene from a film resonates for days, weeks. 2-CD reissue features six additional tracks. - Heath
No matter one's religious persuasion, we all like let our freak flag fly once in a while. And this traveling born-again Christian community certainly let it unfurl all the way. Founded in a NYC loft in the early 70s, these spirit-filled post-hippies soon took their show on the road, bringing their theatrical, pan-ethnic (dare I say psychedelic?) choral folk music to all who would hear for a good part of the decade. Sitars, flutes, guitars, harps, bells, hand drums, and all kinds of other things bowed and plucked blend to become the missing link between the Incredible String Band and the modern day beard-core of Devendra et al, as well as the long-form psych jams of bands like Sunburned and JOMF. This 4-CD collection includes the group's two LPs as well as two live performances recored at the Abbey of Gethsemani (Thomas Merton's abbey) in Kentucky. Also available as a single disc, condensed version. - Jason
My fave new band of the moment, Wooden Shjips are emerging as the rightful heirs to the San Francisco psychedelic throne. Their limited vinyl-only EPs and singles got them some truly glowing press attention from, among others, Byron Coley (Wire) and David Fricke (Rolling Stone), raising the bar fairly high for this, their debut full-length. This album marries killer Krautrock-inspired grooves with righteously fuzzed-out organ and guitar lines, all intertwining with and blurred by the most tape-echo drenched vocals this side of Comets on Fire. It's not all just fuzzy, over-the-top psychedelic mayhem, though. The emphasis here is more on the interplay of the rhythm section and the over-all sound picture than it is on singling out one player. First run of the CD comes with a bonus disc containing all of their critically-acclaimed pre-album vinyl output, all of which is just as good as (if not ocassionally better than) the album material. - Cyrus
One of the most unique and mysterious guitarists to record for John Fahey's Takoma label, Basho ("real" name Daniel L. Robinson Jr.) was one of the first instrumenatlists to effectively combine traditional western folk music/fingerpicking with eastern mysticism and Indian raga. Originally an orphan, Robbie didn't realize his true identity until the morning after a night spent taking peyote on a mountaintop, when it was revealed to him that he was and had always been the 17th century Japanese poet, Basho. A great overview of Basho's Takoma recordings from 1967-68, Bashovia is a beautiful collection full of mind-boggling 12-string guitar playing, otherworldly east-meets-west raga and, ocassionally, Basho's unique and operatic voice. Solo guitar music that will truly take you somewhere else. Featuring liner notes written by Fahey soon before his death. - Cyrus
Delia and Gavin are artists, but don't let that scare you. They embrace all mediums, from sculpture, music and fashion to dance, film, and magick. Their work is not a collision of egos, but rather the reflection of the core of the two together. Musically, the sound here can be lumped in with the works of early electronic artists such as Tangerine Dream, Popol Vuh, Goblin, Kraftwerk or Terry Riley. Pulsing analog momentum, a delicious potion, delivering 4 distinct levitations to the 7 chakra. Layer upon layer of simple keyboard patterns draws you into their innerverse instead of sending you out to orbit. Far beyond instrumental new-age cheeze, this is the real deal, the music you expect to hear as you spy the mothership's green glow over a Peruvian village. - Heath
I knew I would like this the first time I saw the cover; nerdy looking dude in basement cradling homemade double-necked guitar whilst surrounded by tape machines, amps and a jungle of interconnecting wires. However, I wasn't entirely prepared for just how ridiculously great it actually is. The 1968 album was recorded live in one session at a local studio in his hometown of Minneapolis, but wasn't released at the time. Sounding something like an angrier version of the Red Krayola circa 1967 with Syd Barrett on lead guitar, this album left me speechless. Incredibly modern and fresh sounding for a 40-yr-old record, jam-packed with great songs, terrifyingly effective production/arrangement (all done live!) and some of the coolest, guitar riffs/effects I've ever heard. In addition to this stone-cold classic, we at Landlocked were recently blessed with 3 NEW Yonkers releases, including the DeStijl reissue of his amazing psych-folky 2nd album, "Grimwood." - Cyrus
Hollis was the singer for 80s new-romantics Talk Talk, who are most recently famous for penning "It's My Life", which No Doubt covered a few years back. Talk Talk took a turn away from new-wave towards the end of the 80s to a more experimental chamber jazz, which also led them away from the chart success of their 80s period. The last two Talk Talk albums, Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, are hugely influencial to quiet bands, "post-rock", and more. Fast forward 7 years and Mark's final recording (he officially retired) is an even more sparse continuation. Achingly gorgeous, hauntingly stark, and beautifully recorded with only acoustic instrumentation (including horns, woodwinds, piano, etc), its sound somehow exists surrounding you, in the room with you. You can hear lips form the words, chairs creaking, fingers slide along their instrument. Essential for fans of late-era Talk Talk, David Sylvian, Red House Painters or Tindersticks. - Heath
Though an entirely different beast than their highly-regarded 1967 psych-pop classic "We are Ever so Clean," Blossom Toes' 1969 follow-up album "If Only for a Moment" is just as compelling. Shedding the highly-produced and ornately quirky elements of their previous work, you can hear the Toes rediscovering the joys of being in a real rock band. Filled with their pioneering harmonized guitars, amazing drums, great songwriting and killer psychedelic production touches, this is a serious departure from "We are Ever so Clean," but just as much of a classic. The super-heavy and undeniably classic epic "Peace Loving Man" alone is worth the price of admission. 2007 reissue CD/LP on Sunbeam contains 7 bonus tracks. - Cyrus
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