The Limiñanas tour single on Trouble in Mind Records

Got this one in from an offshoot label of Trouble in Mind, "TIM" Records, wait...that's what I thought they were called already? The band is The Liminanas, who are a married couple or siblings with that last name, could be from France...this unusual sleeve for TIM is a tour only single with two tracks from a minimal Young Marble Giants meets the layered cycles of Stereolab.

The A-Side of this one finds the pair alternating between french and english vocals repeating "I've got a trouble in mind", which must have been pretty cool for the members of Cococoma/CEO's of TIM to have a band like this basically write their theme song...which is completely appropriate after all. My friend used to say, well he still does, that the Turing Machine isn't just mathy post rock but a new genre - car chase soundtrack music. The Liminanas are working with their own cool, detached approach to a french beach soundtrack. Instead of the surfing and budweiser, you have cigarette smoking parties and wear ray bans...maybe ride scooter moped things around, with baguettes. It's kind of fancy, but that could be that anything in french sounds a little intimidating. The vocals here of course have a distant relation to Nico, with human emotion this time, and even the restrained guitar strums have a little Velvet reverb to them. They're making a lot out of very little, and I'm definitely into where this pop psyche '60s sound could go on a full length.

The B-Side, “Je m’en Vais” brings a heavy synth rhythm and the hyper tambourine again. These wrists are getting tired. The lady vocals this time are different from the A-Side, and they list two contributors, Mu and Nadge on the center label. There's more relation to Stereolab than just a language in these repetitive, hyptnotizing lines of melody. The whispery layered cool vocals are putting you into a deep sleep.....The full length, and their other single is all sold out from TIM themselves, but at the count of three you will pick this up at Permanent in Chicago, and even Florida's Dying Records.

Black Dice - Tour only single on Catsup Plate

Last night I caught Black Dice at Bowery Ballroom, after a pretty exhausting weekend of Northside fest shows, and I just happened to check the merch table because ....you never know there just might a single...even from an opening band, I'll always pick it up.
I asked the guy behind the table if this weirdo camouflage was Black Dice and sure enough it was. He pointed to a tiny stack of about 50 on a shelf next to him. "That's a tour only single and we only have this many left and then they are completely gone...forever. "
You already had me at 7"...
I was so excited this made it home ok and I put it on this morning to check it out.
The show was impressive, I've seen these guys in the past, but I don't remember it being this intense. So completely overwhelming, it takes everything over in volume and just continuous pummeling of sound and experience. There's nothing else but Black Dice making noise.
It's also weird to hear this live and I get self conscious I'm actually at a techno show, and everyone is on E or something. But just when that bass snare bass gets too repetitive they're on to the next idea.
They must have some kind of copyrighted processor because they just have this particular fucked up sinister sound. I think that's the other thing that saves them from ever crossing that terrible line. They want to rock you a little bit dance, but you're too scared to move...it's a nice combination. So I think 'What the fuck, this is good' and that's the end of it.

This single is completely unlabeled except for the Catsup plate CPR726 in the lower front corner.
Let me just say this is a different direction from the pure sound glitches on Beaches and Canyons. 'Chocolate Cherry': Right away they've sampled something and pitch shift it up and down with some vocals on top really slow. Then it works into an electric guitar chord, slowed down into another sound. There's warbly waves of high pitch ear splitting sound, but this doesn't really go anywhere. Maybe this is a unlicensed sample and someone could tell me that's the catch here...that would explain why it's so limited.
The B-Side 'Pop STD' is more manipulated samples, it sounds like the source could have been slightly reggae or dub, it's got that slightly delayed. An acoustic guitar is pitch shifted to create a new chord progression. I'm into pasting their sound on top of samples like this, but I've gotten this from Girl Talk, Panda Bear and a thousand others. I like when there's no frame of reference...they do that so well, it's weird to use a crutch like this. The last track 'Bob' does more of the same briefly...I guess they are evolving...and maybe like animal collective came to this otherworldly pop place after years of pure sound collage, Black Dice is finding something new in DJ mixing culture after going as far as humanly possible with pure sound.

From Catsup Plate records:

Ordering info
All copies currently with Black Dice on tour.

Black Dice's "Chocolate Cherry" seven inch comes hot on the heels of their album Repo (which is Catsup Plate's favorite Black Dice record) and finds the band pushing themselves further "out" and paradoxically making some of the poppiest sounds to come from their camp in some time.

If Repo was the sound of Black Dice making a funk record then "Chocolate Cherry" veers more towards soul, if you can believe that. The title track is all clipped ecstatic vocals and stuttering disco soul. "POP STD" pins a laconic guitar line and backmasked vocals onto a plodding drum line. And the record closes with the amazingly titled "Bob" which somehow merges insect like buzzing, an incessantly lazy rhythm and what this writer likes to think is a sitar drone (but probably isn't) into a piece of druggy brilliance.

Silkscreened on heavy chipboard in four colors by the fine folks at VG Kids.

Single edition of 500 copies only. All initial copies are to be sold on the band's Spring 2009 US tour. Any remaining copies will be made available upon the band's return.