Bing & Ruth – ‘City Lake’ 2xLP/CD/DL (RVNGNL31)
Before Bing & Ruth’s halcyonic opus Tomorrow Was the Golden Age, there was City Lake. Initially pressed in an unusually limited edition five years ago, the ensemble’s stunning full-length debut is now released in simultaneously refined and expanded form. With bonus tracks and new, visceral mastering, the album gleams all the more and signals a spree of live performances this fall revisiting the material. Director Alex Priestley captures the inner / outer expanse inherent in Bing & Ruth’s music with his video for “Broad Channel.” Priestley’s limitless lens documents the transcendence of a searching soul against vast, humbling landscapes. “Broad Channel” is a stunning visual complement to the lead composition from David Moore’s City Lake.
Anna Homler and Steve Moshier – ‘Breadwoman & Other Tales’ LP/CD/DL (RVNGNL31)
Breadwoman is a being who exists outside of time, yet surfaced on tape during the perfect storm of performance art, renegade DIY avant-garde, gallery culture, and esoteric mysticism of early 80s Los Angeles. This reintroduction of Anna Homler and Steve Moshier’s first cassette collaboration – accompanied by two additional pieces – captures the ritual of youthful meaning-making through sacred voices, minimal electronic gauzing, and a fable that both haunts and humors.