Pitchfork: New Sublime Frequencies Releases Due

A CD/DVD label that focuses on "an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience"? Sounds sublime. And that's what Alan Bishop, informal ethnomusicologist and Sun City Girls member, continues to aim for with each release on his Sublime Frequencies label, a collective that (like Bishop) gravitates towards sights and sounds either marginalized or completely overlooked by the music industry, mainstream media, academic research, and society in general. On June 20, the label will traverse new aural and visual terrain with the release of three obscure sound collages and one ghostly DVD.

The DVD release, Phi Ta Khon: Ghost of Isan, is a 75-minute film by Robert Millis, who traveled to the Isan interior of Northern Thailand in order to document a rare ghost festival, also referred to as "Thai Halloween" or "Mardi Gras From Hell." As if that doesn't already provide a vivid enough mental picture, the Sublime Frequencies website describes the fest as a hypnotic parade of "magnificent costumes, ornate masks, decorative phallic icons, strange ceremonies, drinking, dancing, and endless addictive Mo Lam music in higher doses than most souls can process." The DVD comes with a short bonus film about Thai spirit houses, plus an eight-page insert with lengthy liner notes and full-color pics.

The three audio offerings transport the listener to other mysterious frontiers: Ethnic Minority Music from Northeast Cambodia presents vocals and local instrumentation from the tribes of the region, Radio Algeria is a diverse sampler of audio culture-- from Andalusian orchestral music to Arabic pop, and Radio Thailand: Transmissions from the Tropical Kingdom contains two CDs-worth of "mind-melting Thai radio collage" recorded over a 15-year period. Try to find anything like that on iTunes!

The Sun City Girls' Abduction label also has some new offerings. First, a CD reissue of the self-titled 1994 album from Bishop's Alvarius B alias, a collection of "instrumental acoustic guitar excursions" originally available only on limited edition vinyl. And second, May I Light Your Cigarette?, the debut album from crooner Herb Diamante.

As for Sun City Girls themselves, a new studio album is currently being worked on, but with all the label activity, the group is understandably otherwise occupied. Fellow Sun City Girl Sir Richard Bishop has a few solo shows scheduled, including a performance at the Devendra Banhar-curated "Hypnorituals and Mesmusical Miracales Hanging in the Sky" festival and a gig opening for Os Mutantes:

06-27 Seattle, WA - Triple Door *
06-29 Seattle, WA - Sunset Tavern #
07-22 Los Angeles, CA - El Cid (Hypnorituals and Mesmusical Miracales Hanging in the Sky festival) %
07-26 Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre $

* with Kaki King
# with Lichens, Cloudland Canyon
% with Michael Hurley, Stuart and Caan
$ with Os Mutantes