baroque primitiva ALVARIUS B.

UPDATE: sorry to all but as you can see from the comments there is a CD version of this album coming very soon! it's gonna be just as awesome! so link is gone. My apologies to Kristin and Forced Exposure/Poon Village Records....go there to get a copy of the CD version shortly! very very excited to see Poon Village back in action...also the ridiculously beautiful cover for the album (see above) is Kristin's work, and seriously on the LP it looks incredible!


wow. thanks to the best record store in austin, End of an Ear, I was lucky enough to get a copy of this actual LP. only 300 copies, it was released on Tuesday (yes, 2 days ago) and it's already sold out! you're only hope is to find your great local record store and hope they are hiding copies somewhere. (end of an ear only had a few copies hidden behind the counter for select individuals, I was lucky enough to be one of those people). regardless of physical copies, you really NEED to hear this album.

for those that do not know Alvarius B is the nom de plume of Alan Bishop (of Sun City Girls). that being said certain connotations come to mind, and occasionally hold true (especially on "Humor Police") but the album is just....beautiful. not being familiar with his previous solo albums i didn't really know what to expect and i'm blown away. most of the tracks are simplistic, almost singer/songwriter-esque tunes that are surprisingly pop-oriented. in the hands of a less accomplished musician this could come across as fluffy and unnecessary, but Bishop wears his heart on his sleeve here and it shines through. his cover of "You Only Live Twice" is just amazing (honestly reminds me of Richard Swift recorded on a 4track, and I mean that in a good way). to read a better review of this LP check out Byron Coley's description:

"By my count, Baroque Primitiva is the sixth album cut by Alvarius B. and is, like its predecessors, a deep swim through mysterious waters. The 11 tracks here were recorded at various sessions over the course of several years and range from "Humor Police" [a track that imagines what Syd Barrett might have sounded like had he been a devotee of rembetika] to a trippily Beatles-damaged version of 'You Only Live Twice' [the sole surviving shard of the aborted Alvarius B. Plays The Bond Songbook project]. Baroque Primitiva is the first long-format telegram from Alvarius B. since he lost his mothership [the Sun City Girls, with whom he employed his slave name, Alan Bishop] and it also feels like his most consistently non-acerbic -- perhaps even most beauty-oriented -- work. The songs often have a meditative pace and are filled with gorgeous lo-fi blends of vocals, guitar, bass and keys. Eyvind Kang guests on several tracks, but the bulk of the material was broadcast direct from the naked soul of Alvarius B., which turns out to be a warmer, sweeter place than you might imagine. The record also marks the return of the equally-legendary Poon Village label, whose productions are always extraordinary in visual terms, and Baroque Primitiva is no exception. The cover's meditative human mandala is a brilliant ocular ode to shifting visions of feminine pulchritude, and is worthy of the best framing job you can afford. "

highest recommendation I could ever give for this one.