The Tubular West
(Torpor Vigil Industries) CD $14.00 (Out-of-stock)
Avant garde pop with a modern composition vibe by Canadian multi-instrumentalist who plays everything from heckelphone to synth, stylophone to piano, oboe and English horn to, of course, wooden plank. Aided and abetted by bassist Andrea Agostinti; Ayako Okubo on piccolo and bass flute; Olivier Maurel on drums and vibraphone; his brother Léo on bass guitar, fiddle and, ahem, a box of bumblebees; and Steve Venright doing the real-time electronic modulation. Recommended if you like the song cycles of Van Dyke Parks, Club Foot Orchestra’s soundtrack to Metropolis, Andy Partridge’s recent collaborations. Includes twelve-page book.
The Further Somniloquies
(Torpor Vigil Industries) CD $14.00 (Out-of-stock)
The third album by the world’s greatest sleeptalker (following Dion McGregor Dreams Again [Tzadik 1999] and The Dream World of Dion McGregor [Decca 1964]) is just as hilarious, bizarre, poignant, macabre and charming as its predecessors. Recorded in the ’60s by McGregor’s songwriting partner and roommate Michael Barr. Twenty-four tracks, almost eighty minutes.
Dreaming Like Mad
(Torpor Vigil Industries - TVRCD007) CD $14.00 (Out-of-stock)
Fifteen previously unreleased somniloquies by the world’s most famous dream-talker — over an hour of enthralling and hilarious adventures from slumberland’s master orator, recorded by Michael Barr with the windows open and the atmospheric noises of Manhattan’s First Avenue traffic in the background. Just in time to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the initial release on Decca of the first batch of musings, stories, rants and screams of a man fast asleep.