A. J. KAUFMANN
“Stoned Gypsy Wanderer” KSE #289
(AJK 10/2014, Photography: Karolina Fiszer, Stylization: Laboratorium Loo)
new CDR album featuring 14 original psychedelic songs from the Poznan, Poland, poet-songwriter-musician
all songs written and performed by AJK
original cover artwork by Justin Jackley (Austin, Texas)
check out Justin’s work at justinjackley.com
$8 ppd. in the US / $11 ppd. elsewhere paypal funds to DJANGO5722(at)YAHOO(dot) COM
and include note w/order listing what you are ordering and also your mailing address….thanks!
a sound worthy of a big-ticket private press monster for the price of two cups of Charred-bucks coffee!!!
When KSE moved beyond poetry chapbooks and into music CDR’s a number of years ago, one of the musical genres I wanted to support was contemporary psychedelia. No, not revival bands who try in a futile manner to recapture 1967, but musicians who have drunk deeply of the waters of the 13th Floor Elevators’ EASTER EVERYWHERE and/or Bent Wind’s SUSSEX and/or Ya Ho Wa 13’s PENETRATION and who then took the baton handed to them over the decades by these artists and went on to create their own contemporary works rooted in their own higher-key experiences and their own transcendent realities. Having featured artists such as Sir Plastic Crimewave, Book of Shadows, John Stanton (Kuschty Rye Ergot), Lisa Cameron, Djin Aquarian, ST 37, and the many artists in the drone-noise vein whose works are essentially extensions of psychedelia (Derek Rogers, Parashi, Rambutan, Fossils, etc etc), I feel we’ve been doing a good job of keeping contemporary psychedelia alive and supporting artists dedicated to extending the boundaries of this seemingly infinite art form. Much of the poetry we publish also is an extension of the psychedelic ethos and also much of the artwork on our albums and chapbooks is equally rooted in the Warhol-esque side of psychedelia.
A. J. Kaufmann is well-known to followers of Kendra Steiner Editions as a poet….he and Doug Draime have issued the largest number of poetry chapbooks of any KSE authors, and I have worked on three collaborative chapbooks with him as well as a joint chapbook, so I not only know his work well, I have worked alongside him and know HIM well. He never fails to surprise me with new angles to his work and his unique and exciting insights. A. J. has also always been a musician and songwriter, and his earlier album SECOND HAND MAN was widely praised for its fine songwriting and eclectic mix of styles. That album was a professional studio production and even had session musicians beefing up the sound. For his second studio album, however, AJK decided to go to the other extreme…..essentially do an album of DIY home recordings featuring the songs front and center and go for a blurred lo-fi mindfry of a listening experience. AJ sent me a link to his bandcamp page, where he was going to release the album, STONED GYPSY WANDERER, digitally, knowing I’d enjoyed his previous album and wanting me to hear this one. Before the first song was half over, I’d hit the ceiling in ecstasy, and when the last track ended, I sent him an e-mail asking if the CD rights to this album had been given to any label yet because if not, IT NEEDED TO BE A KSE RELEASE….and now it is.
From the first multi-layered seconds of the opener (which sounds like Robyn Hitchcock on steroids sitting in with Country Joe and the Fish if they’d been doing DIY recordings in 2014), we’ve got a first-rate collection of 14 new and diverse psychedelic anthems…..all with interesting chord progressions and the kind of lyrics worthy of a poet….some have a trippy singer-songwriter vibe a la Dino Valenti or John Wonderling….others offer kaleidoscopic swirling ships of sound in the “Scream Thy Last Scream” vein…and post-60s influences such as Scary Monsters-era Bowie or the Psychedelic Furs are swirled into the mix…along with the DIY genius of someone like Bobb Trimble. Yet knowing AJ as I do, I know that the album is not an assemblage of influences (he hadn’t even heard of John Wonderling when I mentioned the comparison)….it’s a songwriter and creative tour-de-force standing in the musical soil once walked on by the 13th Floor Elevators (they may have even gotten high there) and heading full tilt toward the sun. As AJ is a serious fan of Krautrock and obscure European bands of the early 70’s, I’m sure there’s some heavy Space Rock influences too, but unlike those bands, the tracks on STONED GYPSY WANDERER are relatively short and like a good 40’s B-movie that wastes no time in getting to the meat of the story and the conflict, AJ’s music starts in high gear….all killer, no filler. After getting a copy of this sent to him, Brad Kohler left a message on my voice mail saying, “This new album by AJ Kaufmann is stunning….it’s got many different styles, all equally well handled… it compares to the best things Julian Cope has done.”
STONED GYPSY WANDERER, unlike much of what labels itself “psychedelic” today, is NOT a revival work….it SOUNDS like a 2014 recording and is forward-thinking and forward-sounding, but it has all the independent spirit and originality and everything-but-the-kitchen-sink low-budget raw production and fully-formed-style-from-seemingly-out-of-nowhere that one finds in the best and the biggest-ticket private press psych masterpieces. Had this been recorded in rural Maryland in the early 70’s and been a private pressing, it would have been pirated on a label like Psycho or Breeder and would have become “legendary.” But it’s not….it’s BRAND NEW songs that are timeless from a man who’s a major creative force….perhaps best known so far outside of his native Poland for his poetry, but soon to be equally well known for his music. And I’m told by those who partake, that the album passes with flying colors the ULTIMATE test of any psychedelic album….
And the cover features a stunning original painting from Austin’s JUSTIN JACKLEY….what’s NOT to love!
KSE #289 (CDR album), A. J. KAUFMANN, ‘STONED GYPSY WANDERER”
$8 ppd. in the US / $11 ppd. elsewhere paypal funds to DJANGO5722(at)YAHOO(dot) COM
and include note w/order listing what you are ordering and also your mailing address….thanks!
OTHER KSE CDR’s NOW AVAILABLE:
full-sized CDR’s ($8.00 each, ppd. in US—outside US $11 )
ALL ARE AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DELIVERY
new releases for 2014:
KSE #285 (CDR album) SMOKEY EMERY (aka Daniel Hipolito), “Live At The Hideout Theatre”
KSE #283 (CDR), SMOKEY EMERY (aka Daniel Hipolito), “Incident at Town Lake”….reissue of 3″ mini CDR from 2011
KSE #288 (CDR, spoken-word poetry), BILL SHUTE, “Worried Men and Wooden Soldiers: Bill Shute reads selected 2013-2014 poems,” produced by Marcus Rubio
KSE #275 (CDR), ALFRED 23 HARTH, “China Collection”
KSE #281 (CDR), FOSSILS, “Wooly Bully” (a co-release with Middle James Co., only 20 copies available from KSE)
KSE #279 (CDR), ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE, “Wistful Entrance, Wistful Exit”
KSE #277 (CDR), URKAS, “Stamen and Pistil” (URKAS is the duo of Parashi and Xanthocephalus)
KSE #274 (CDR), MASSIMO MAGEE/TIM GREEN/MAX FOWLER-ROY, “Relentless Communion”
KSE #268 (CDR) CATHAL RODGERS (aka Wereju) , “Instrumental Conditioning”
KSE #271 (CDR), FOSSILS/BILL SHUTE, “Diesel Fallout Dixie Stampede”
KSE #257 (CDR), ALFRED 23 HARTH, “Micro-Saxo-Phone, Edition IV.”
……………………………
and coming in the last quarter of 2014 (not available yet)….
new CDR album releases from MATT KREFTING, MARCUS M. RUBIO, FOSSILS, and BRENT FARISS
Thank you for your support of Kendra Steiner Editions and independent, non-aligned lo-fi arts organizations…the PRC Pictures of the alternative arts world…we can release THREE albums for the cost of an ad in THE WIRE (meet the new boss, same as the old boss)…we rely on word of mouth…please tell a friend if you’ve enjoyed our various music and poetry releases…..best wishes from San Antonio, Texas…
Kendra Steiner Editions (Bill Shute) 
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