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The recent delivery from the great Rough Trade Album Club (a music subscription service) was the outstanding 70s Retro Fusion Electro Pop Album by Beyond The Wizards Sleeve - this is SO cool!

BEYOND THE WIZARDS SLEEVE
beyond the wizards sleeve ark 1

Release Date: 25/08/2008
Previously released: 25/08/2008

Text from Rough Trade:

«we got a big one here! you don't wanna' miss this! richard norris, founding member of the grid, and london's premier dj, producer and remix maestro erol alkan have been releasing music under the beyond the wizard's sleeve moniker since 2007, when their first 12" sold out in a matter of days. then came the second, third and fourth releases, all selling out as soon as they hit the shelves. here is a collection of some of the finest moments from the 4 highly sought after 12's. this is a serious slice of esoteric, eclectic freakbeat weirdness. re-edited nuggets, long lost exotic psychedelia and krauty, disco beats are all mangled into previously unheard shapes. totally exclusive to rough trade, this is simply some of the most vital, mindbending and great music to be heard. do. not. miss.»

About the Album Club:

At Rough Trade we’ve been helping people discover great music for more than 30 years. Our customers love this personal touch, and it’s helped us to be regarded as “The World’s Best Record Shop”, something we’re pretty proud of.

The Album Club delivers the essence of this Rough Trade shopping experience straight to your door.

Every month we compile the ten hottest album releases. As a member, you receive the most exciting album from this selection – we call it The Album. It comes with exclusive bonus material and a fold-out guide (see examples right, click to view as a pdf) that includes a members introduction to The Album by the artist.

All for just £12 per month (including postage).

The remaining nine albums selected that month are expertly profiled in the fold-out guide, and available to preview online at the members' store, where every recommended album, past and present, is available to buy for £12.

Uniquely, many members like us to make further album selections on their behalf to suit their attitude and taste, so we also offer a handy option of sending a tailored selection along with The Album.

Whatever your choice, The Album Club guarantees a new musical adventure will arrive on your doormat each and every month.

www.thealbumclub.com

Roots Manuva & Nightmares on Wax - Nice one!

Young Marble Giants, «Colossal Youth» LP, Rough US 6, 1980. Alison Statton - Voice, Philip Moxham - Bass, Stuart Moxham - Guitar & Organ. Songs: Stuart Moxham except 3 songs with Philip Moxham, Alison Statton. Produced and Arranged by Young Marble Giants and Dave Anderson (Engineer)

What an astonishingly beautiful record..! The Young Marble Giants don't really compare, they produced a very unique sound. But if you like music as diverse as the Velvet Underground, PiL, Booker T & The MG's, Mouse on Mars, The Slits, Radiohead and Laurie Anderson – those kind of bands, you'll love this record too.

YMG in Cardiff photo by Andrew Tucker

The album was released in 1980 on Rough Trade Records as the band's debut release. It was an instant hit on the independent scene.
The trio are from Cardiff, Wales, and were together as band for only two years. They created an outstanding collection of stripped-down, marvellously austere music.
A three CD set of their entire material was put out last year in a nice package on Domino Records, including a booklet with photos and an excellent text by Simon Reynolds.

«Crucial to the band's crisp and dry sound was Stuart's Rickenbacker, "a very trebly guitar" which he played using "an extremely hard plectrum, called a shark fin, with a serrated edge." Throughout the YMG songbook, Stuart eschews lead-guitar flourishes and soloistic playing in favour of a signature style of scurrying rhythm guitar, its characteristic choppy quality reliant upon on a technique called "muting", where "you're basically resting the hand that you strum with on the strings." The result was a feel that was dynamic and propulsive yet curiously suppressed,subdued, even furtive. Philip played his bass high, sch that it was frequently mistaken by listeners for another guitar; indeed, with Stuart's playing so intensely rhythmic and stripped-down, the bassline was often the melodic thread in YMG songs. The brothers' instruments wound around each other like fibres twining into yarn. "We became immensely tight," says Stuart. He attributes their supernatural synchrony not just to fraternal closeness but to their use of machine rhythm. Instead of a human drummer, YMG twitched to the precision pulse of a very basic drum machine. "We were playing to what was effectively an electonic metronome", akin to the click-track used by sessions musicians in recording studios.
- Excerpt from Simon Reynolds text in the CD booklet

Uwe Wittwer at Cohan and Leslie Gallery, New York

more pictures here

April 4 - May 3, 2008
The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 to 6pm
www.cohanandleslie.com

138 Tenth Avenue
New York, New York 10011

It's mad but we toped the Il buco dinner. Last night we ate at Blue Hill Restaurant. I came across this on pims blog.

"with Dan Barber, chef and proprietor of Blue Hill in Manhattan and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills. Stone Barns is only 45 minutes from Manhattan, but it might as well be a whole different universe. A model of self sufficiency and environmental responsibility, Stone Barns is a working farm, ranch, and a three-michelin-star-worthy restaurant. (Note to Michelin: limiting your guide to the five boroughs means you've missed out on perhaps the most interesting and unique restaurant in all of New York.)

Dan's commitment to the environment is well known, but he is hardly a die-hard radical. He is a businessman determined to find a way to be both environmentally and economically sustainable - now that's the way of the future."

We actually wanted to go to Blue Hill farm but then we were running out of time and decided to go to the one on washington place.

Let me tell you we ate the most outstanding food. Here some of the delights we had:

Amuse bouche: a beet root burger, dried rucola with salt, home made butter and something tomato
Beautiful carrots and radish probably marinated in something like salt and lemon water.
With this we got absolutely lovely warm bread sticks.

Maine crabmeat, fennel, apple and stone hill barns panther soybeans, apple mustard broth.

Farona Beets from the farm with local goat cheese, walnut puree, dried fruit and nuts.

This mornings farm egg, foraged mushrooms and stone barn greens.

Wild striped bass, pistou of local vegetables and pureed basil.
With the main course we had a fantastic Delicata and hubard squash puree with honey in it and marinated beets.
Uwe had the lamb from the menu and I still have to find out how it was done.

Passion fruit souffle and passion fruit ice cream.

Steamed cheese cake, dark chocolate, roasted peanuts and and maldon salt.

I had of course the old and new world cheese selection which came with marinated cranberries and portulak.

www.bluehillnyc.com

Blue Hill Restaurant
75, Washington Place
Greenwich Village
New York

House of oldies
World headquarters for out of print 45's & LP's
35, Carmine St.
New York

www.houseofoldies.com

We had a late lunch at Schiller's . The tuna burger was fantastic.

Schiller's Liquor Bar,
131 Rivington Street, New York City

www.schillersny.com/

Since years I wanted to go to Nobu but sort off never really managed to go there. Mainly because I never think enough ahead to book a table and second because I was not sure how expensive it exactly is.
Thankfully uwe came up with the idea to go there for kevin's birthday.
I guess I don't have to mention that I had high expectations - but I can say Nobu exceed all expectations!
(Except maybe the interior which is a bit outdated)
So let me tell you what we ate: For starters we shared mixed tempura (avocado tempura was delicious), absolutely outstanding yellowtail sashimi with jalapeno a very nice sashimi salad with matsuhisa dressing and new style sashimi.
For main courses we had the Kobe beef toban yaki for uwe and andrew, mad good rock shrimp, miso cod and a mixture of sushi including salmon skin and japanese eel.
With all this we drank lovely warm sake.

And then dessert, the menu had so many fantastic things on it we could hardly decide. Luckily we were 5 so we could almost taste every dessert on the menu.
We had:
Bento Box - Warm valrohna souffle cake with shiso syrup, white chocolate sauce and green tea ice cream
Nobu beer ice cream parfait - bittersweet valrohna chocolate sauce and almond praline
Chocolate mousse, peanut butter cream, caramelized banana and miso peanut butter caramel
Pineapple Trio - Pineapple cake with wasabi ice cream, pineappe coconut rice pudding with rice cluster and vanilla bean roasted pinapple with sake zabaione.

Most of the dishes cost around 10 to 20 dollars so it is not overly expensive.

All in all a fantastic dinner - thank you uwe!

For kevins Birthday Breakfast we went to Balthazar 80 Spring Street in Soho. It's a nice, very old, french bistro and bakery where you get lovely croissants and Bread.

www.balthazarnyc.com

Last night we had a quick look at the Time Out New York guide to choose a restaurant. We thought Italian would be nice and after a quick glance decided on Il Buco on Bond Street between Lafayette and Bowery. The restaurant has a warm and welcoming atmosphere, maybe a few too many pots dangling from the ceiling, but otherwise nice and unpretentious. The service was adept and unintrusive, the sommelière a competent master of the impressive wine list, which comprised of not only excellent Italian, but just as impressive French and Spanish wines.

The food was simply the best I ate in any restaurant, ever. The Chef Ignacio Mattos, trained in Argentina and cooks the most accomplished classic italian meal - I repeat myself - I ever ate in a restaurant. All produce used were clearly of high quality and very fresh. For starters I had gambas: cast-iron seared Hawaiian king prawns with rosemary, garlic and chili, - perfectly delicious. Sarah had fantastic baccala (salted cod) in a claypot with potatoes and Uwe had cast-iron seared calamari with chickpeas, red onion, currants, dandelion greens and aioli.
As a primi I had a heavenly risotto with fave, goats cheese and chilli - I could hardly believe how simple yet absolutely delicate this risotto was.
My cowardly friends had decided on a two course meal, so I was left to feast on this one alone ;-)

My main course was a delicate sea bass, seared, with a mint and garlic sauce, on a bed of cold potatoe and cellery salad with a white balsamico dressing... This was a dish fit for kings. I could taste every single ingredient in its own delicacy and each complemented the other perfectly - this was absolute bliss. Sarah had the risotto I had as primi and Uwe had a lasagne - of which I didn't taste as I was too busy with my own little feast, - apparently it was delicious too.

I'm running out of superlatives, but the seasonal fruit tart surrounded by a delicate chocolate crust I had for dessert made my love for this restaurant complete. I had a beautiful Italian port to go with it. Sarah and Uwe shared a fabulous torta di aranccia with honey ice-cream.
The Nebbiolo wine we had was good, but in hindsight we shouldn't have set the $ 70 limit for ourselves, as this outstanding meal really would have asked for an outstanding wine - and for this we would have paid double... Prices otherwise are very reasonable at Il Buco, a main course is at around $ 24.-

We will be back :-)

www.ilbuco.net

Hours:
Lunch Tuesday-Saturday 12 PM to 3:30 PM
Dinner Monday-Thursday 6 PM to 12 AM
Friday & Saturday 6 PM to 1 AM
Sunday 5 PM to 12 AM

Location:
47 Bond Street (between Lafayette & Bowery)

Contact:
Phone: 212.533.1932
Fax: 212.533.3502
Email: ilbuco@ilbuco.com

Reservations:
Make a reservation online
Phone: 212.533.1932

Subway:
* #6 to Bleecker Street at Lafayette
* N & R to 8th Street or Prince St
* B,D,F,Q to Broadway/Lafayette

Credit cards accepted Amex, Master Card & Visa
Reservations recommended