***With the death in 2020 of long-standing occasional third member Peter Stapleton (percussion / electronics), A Handful of Dust has regrouped as the core duo of Alastair Galbraith (violin, guitar, cello, piano, drums) and Bruce Russell (guitar, electronics). This new set of live-to-four-track recordings from January 2022 is the first album to be wholly recorded 'in the studio' since 1995's Towards a Soundtrack to the 'Anabase' of St-John Perse. Committed to tape at the Rugby Hotel in Dunedin, the four-track recordings were played back in the room where they were made and recorded again, this time to Android telephone, to make a digital mono master which you hear on this record. Unadorned, brutal and sonically austere, this new set captures the 'wild Mercury sound' for which this long-standing unit is rightly feted among cognoscenti of the Antipodean New Thing. Three pieces that will pop your third eye in seconds flat. Astral travel for now people. Duck and Sally continue their unplanned career in the extreme abuse of the rock'n'roll toolkit. Drowned Phoenician sailors bob disconcertingly to the surface while the captain's tower rocks to a sustained monomachy 'twixt Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, brought back from the grave for that specific purpose. Don't be shy - please jump out of your window. You know you gotta trust us, when you need a friend...
LP $25.35
09/01/2023
***Although only 23 years old, Liam Grant's become a leading force in a much needed third wave revival of American Primitive music. The path was paved from the blues by Fahey, Basho, Kottke and so on, followed with a second coming heralded by folks like Jones, Rose, Basho-Junghans and others. Despite his age, Liam's the very definition of "an old soul" and while he draws on a wide variety of contemporary influences, he also channels a comprehensive history of the blues as well as a deeper energy that informs both his playing and songwriting. Features contributions from Mike Gangloff of Pelt, Grayson McGuire, and Ethan WL.
LP $25.35
09/01/2023