Playlist Week of 2013-05-18

* Miles Davis: Pangaea (d.2) (CBS/Sony 2CD)

* Miles Davis/Bill Laswell: Panthalassa: The Music Of Miles Davis 1969-1974 (Columbia CD)

* Miles Davis/Bill Laswell/King Britt, et al.: Panthalassa: The Remixes (Columbia CD)

* Sun Ra: Night Of The Purple Moon (Saturn LP)

* Sun Ra: Continuation (Saturn LP/Corbett & Dempsey 2CD)

* Jimmy Giuffre 3: 1961 (Verve/ECM 2CD)

* Matthew Shipp: Piano Vortex (Thirsty Ear CD)

* Matthew Shipp Trio: Harmonic Disorder (Thirsty Ear CD)

* Matthew Shipp: 4D (Thirsty Ear CD)

* Mat Maneri Quartet: Blue Deco (Thirsty Ear CD)

* Myra Melford Be Bread: The Image Of Your Body (CryptoGramophone CD)

* Slobber Pup: Black Aces (Rare Noise 24/96 FLAC)

* V/A: I Never Meta Guitar (Clean Feed CD)

* Stephan Crump with Rosetta Trio: Reclamation (Sunnyside CD)

* The Jack Silverman Ordeal: The Jack Silverman Ordeal (JSO CD)

* D’Angelo: Brown Sugar (EMI CD)

* Lucinda Williams: Little Honey (Lost Highway CD)

* Lucinda Williams: Blessed (d.1) (Lost Highway 2CD)

* Grateful Dead: To Terrapin: Hartford ’77 (selections) (GDP/Rhino 3HDCD)

* Nick Drake: Nick Drake (Island LP)

* Elvis Costello: My Aim Is True (Columbia/Mobile Fidelity LP)

* Guided By Voices: English Little League (GBV, Inc. CD)

* Rachel’s: The Sea And The Bells (Quarterstick 2LP)

* Radiohead: In Rainbows (TBD CD)

* Lambchop/Hands Off Cuba: CoLAB (Merge CDEP)

* Hands Off Cuba: Hands Off Cuba (HOC CDEP)

* Hands Off Cuba: Volumes Of Sobering Liquids (Sebastian Speaks 12”EP)

* High On Fire: Blessed Black Wings (Relapse CD/DVD)

* Earth: Hibernaculum (Southern Lord LP)

* Anathema: Falling Deeper (KScope CD)

* Baroness: First & Second (Relapse LP)

* Baroness: Red Album (Relapse 2-45RPM LP)

* Baroness: Blue Record (Relapse 2-45RPM LP)

* Baroness: Yellow & Green (Relapse 2LP)

* White Hills: Abstractions & Mutations (Immune LP)

* White Hills: Heads On Fire (Thrill Jockey LP)

* White Hills: White Hills (Thrill Jockey CD/LP)

* White Hills: H-p1 (Thrill Jockey 2LP)

* White Hills: Live At Roadburn 2011 (Roadburn LP)

* White Hills: Frying On This Rock (Thrill Jockey LP)

* The Sword: Aprocyphon (Razor & Tie LP)

* Akron/Family: S/T II: The Cosmic Birth And Journey Of Shinju TNT (Dead Oceans 2LP)

* Akron/Family: Sub Verses (Dead Oceans 2-45RPM LP)

* Wild Nothing: Nocturne (Captured Tracks CD)

* Wild Nothing: Empty Estate EP (Captured Tracks CDEP)

†=iPod

‡=car

Commentary:

As expected, all the activity and excitement of last week resulted in my getting sick this week, complete with fever, cold-sweats, coughing, sneezing, aches, pains and—well, the less said about that the better. While I can usually shake these sorts of things in a couple days, this time the misery has lingered on and on. It is a reminder that I am no longer young—and that my usual sedentary lifestyle is not a healthy one. If I want to rock and roll, I need to get in shape!

However, I did discover that White Hills is the perfect music to accompany my semi-lucid fever dreams. This Brooklyn-based band has been around a while, aggressively fusing raunchy, teeth-grinding psychdelia with motoric, trance-inducing Krautrock grooves and the punky, proto-metallic spaciness of Hawkwind to form a uniquely American brand of face-melt. All of their records are terrifically twisted and great fun to listen to but the sprawling H-p1 is their masterpiece, a 72-minute voyage into the center of your mind, transcending whatever physical weaknesses found in the host body. Perfect for when you are flat on your back, unable to move except to turn the record over.

Now, I’m going back to bed.