Cleo’s Staff Picks

Scroll down to read an archive of Cleo’s staff pick write-ups.

Nico, Desertshore

“The ultimate winter album.”

Lori Vambe, Space-Time Dreamtime: The Four-Dimensional Music Of…

“In the same zone as Moondog and Laraaji, outsider minimalism. You can have it on and you won’t be hearing it, but you’ll be feeling it.”

Famous Mammals, Instant Pop Expressionism Now!

“Taps into the Wire/Swell Maps/Rough Trade era of post-punk without being derivative.”

Davy Graham, Folk, Blues, & Beyond…

“Perfect fall bummer record.”

Alejandro Jodorowsky, Allen Klein Presents Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain

“Almost as mind-bending as the movie itself.”

Amateur Hour, Framtiden Tillhör Inte Oss

“Come for the Television Personalities cover, stay for the fried out bummer noise pop.”

Gherasim Luca, The Passive Vampire

“Incredibly underrated and underread surrealist work.”

Silver Jews, American Water

“‘In 1984 I was hospitalized for approaching perfection’ is probably the best opening statement of an indie rock album. RIP David Berman.”

C.O.B., Spirit of Love

“Weird little hippie folk relic”

Harry Pussy, You’ll Never Play This Town Again

“Probably the greatest band of all time to be honest.”

Dead C, Operation of the Sonne

“The weird, undersung cousin of Tusk & The White House. Operation Of The Sonne is the closest Dead C’s gotten to touching on the territory of Kluster and other kraut bands, but still maintains the basement frying aspects of their other work. Jon and Alex may disagree with me, but in my opinion, it’s Dead C at their peak.”

John O’Brien, Leaving Las Vegas

“Forget the wack and overly sentimental movie, John O’Brien’s first novel is both a disturbing descent into hell and the best thing to come out of Oxford, Ohio.”

“Blue” Gene Tyranny, Out of the Blue

“Worth it just for A Letter From Home. ‘This train is lit by the luminescence of the town and the faint morning light, and the light it gives off. That light defines the area all around the train just as your love defines the way you see the life closest to you.’ Jesus.”

V/A, Klar!80: Ein Kassetten-Label aus Dusseldorf 1980-82

“A sick hyper-specific german minimal synth comp. Tons of bleeps and also some bloops too.”

V/A, BIPPP: French Synth-Wave 1979/85

“The little beep/boop drum machine that kicks off Marie Moor’s Pretty Day is my favorite sound.”

Max Roach, We Insist!

“‘No, don’t splice. When it’s all perfect, especially in a piece like this, there’s something very wrong.’ -Coleman Hawkins on the recording of We Insist!”

Fantasy Sex, Fantasy Sex

“Sounds like a melting exotica record. A real barn-burner.”

J Dilla, Donuts

“A minimalist masterpiece that gives more and more, the more you listen to it.”

DAF, Alles Ist Gut

“An incredibly cold & efficient record that still rips hard 40 years later.”

Arca, Kick II

“Sad reggaeton, like you’re hearing it from down the block at 2am.”

Cat Power, Moon Pix

“My favorite Christian indie rock record. ‘The earth started shaking, and dark spirits were smashing up against every window of my house. I woke up and I had my kitten next to me…and I started praying to God to help me…So I just ran and got my guitar because I was trying to distract myself. I had to turn on the lights and sing to God. I got a tape recorder and recorded the next sixty minutes. And I played these long changes, into six different songs. That’s where I got the record.’ – Cat Power on the composition of Moon Pix”

Sonny Sharrock, Black Woman

“The best the guitar has ever sounded.”

Suburban Lawns, S/T

“Everything else is irrelative.”

Sand, Golem

“The spookiest acid-folk you can imagine.”

Roxy Gordon, Crazy Horse Never Died

“Fried out post-punk country spoken word about the history of America through the perspective of Choctaw poet. Brutal, honest & funny. At points, it feels too sonically weird to exist as cohesively as it does. RIYL if you like: Otis G. Johnson, Tom Diabo, Suicide, 80’s Leonard Cohen”

Skullflower, Fucked On a Pile of Corpses

“Madman cyclone power electronics. Hardest $7 cd you can get.”

Everything Keeps Dissolving: Conversations with Coil

“Essential reading about an otherwise secretive band.”

McNeal and Niles, Thrust

“Incredibly misleading cover-art hiding a jazz-funk masterpiece. Pretty cool that you can pay $30 for this one, instead of the $1600 that other copies have commanded.”

La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela, 31 VII 69 10:26 – 10:49 PM / 23 VIII 64 2:50:45 – 3:11 AM The Volga Delta

“‘Composer La Monte Young Does Not Understand His Work’ – Tony Conrad, 1990”

Cookie Mueller, Walking Through Clear Water In A Pool Painted Black

“Essential reading.”

glas, Two

“Heavy zoned out synths that feel like you’re cascading down a pit. Listened to this while eating potato skins the other night and it was good for that too. I heartily endorse Glas both as individuals and as a musical project.”

Can, Monster Movie

“Scariest and most paranoid Can record.”

Les Rallizes Denudes, Heavier Than a Death in the Family

“Absolutely essential.”

Merzbow, Rainbow Electronics

“Really gorgeous cassette edition of a Merzbow classic.”

Ann Quin, Tripticks

“A joyful & experimental deathtrip of a science fiction novel”

Parson Sound, S/T

“Unreal to think this came out in the 60’s. Sounds like the heaviest side of psych possible (think something closer to Earth) but with the idiosyncratic tendencies of the Dunedin experimental scene, i.e Dead C or Dadamah.”

Liaisons Dangereuses, S/T

“Beate Bartel.”

Sonic Youth, EVOL

“‘Mystery train/three-way plane/expressway to your skull.’ Enough said.”

Darkthrone, Blaze In the Northern Sky

“Essential winter dread & gloom. Metal only got worse from here.”

Nico, Femme Fatale Live ’85

“Wonderful live set from Nico’s best era. Winter music for real.”

László Krasznahorkai, A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East

“A beautifully minimal one from a Hungarian master.”

The Smiths, Meat Is Murder

“Still one of the best, haters be damned”

Panda Bear, Person Pitch

“Better and weirder than any Animal Collective record.”

Unica Zurn, The Man of Jasmine & Other Texts

“A unique and disturbing memoir from an underread surrealist master”

Missouri Williams, The Doloriad

“An amazing and dark first novel about the different forms that humanity and perseverance can take. Probably the best and most troubling book I read all year. The book of the times.”

Nico and the Faction, Camera Obscura

“Perfect for the impending doom & gloom of winter.”

David Markson, Wittgenstein’s Mistress

“The most convincing post-apocalyptic book of all time.”

Alan Licht, Three Chords and a Sword: Solo Cover Versions 1988-2021

“Nobody could make Van Halen sound pretty but Alan Licht.”

LA Plays Itself: The Fred Halsted Collection

“Weirdo gay adult film classics, essential for fans of car films.”

Iggy & the Stooges, Metallic K.O.

“Absolutely beyond Raw, Stooges at their best.”

Sonic Youth, Simon Werner A Disparu

“If i could listen to only one band for the rest of my life, it’d be Sonic Youth.”

Ratcatcher

“A bleak & beautiful movie. Everything Lynne Ramsay’s made is wonderful, but her debut is in a league of its own.”

Big Thief, Capacity

“Mythological Beauty still gives me chills. Heavy hitter.”

Henri Lefebvre, The Missing Pieces

“A catalog of unfinished & lost works by artists, writers & composers. Imagine something similar to Baskinki’s Disintegration Loops but for cultural history. What is missing often defines what remains.”

Nurse With Wound, Homotopy To Marie

“Definitely my favorite Nurse With Wound release and probably one of my favorite pieces of experimental music. Frightening, funny, surreal and everything in between – basically everything that’s great about Nurse With Wound on one album.”

The Body & Full of Hell, One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache

“The masters at their peak. I fake it so real, I am beyond fake.”

Titane

“My favorite movie that came out last year. Tender and disturbing and completely unpredictable.”

Pierre Guyotat, Coma

“While primarily known for his grotesque exploration of the Algerian War, Eden Eden Eden, Guyotat’s Coma is just as piercing. An introspective exploration into what it means to be human in a world removed of humanity, Coma is a singular book that could only come from Guyotat.”

Thriller: A Cruel Picture

“A grotesque & bleak movie that’s so stylistically insane that it works. Slow & methodical pace, a loping camera and one of the weirdest soundtracks make it rise above mere exploitation movie.”

Virginie Despentes, King Kong Theory

“A truly piercing book.”

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

“Probably one of the most haunting movies i’ve seen recently. To talk about it too much would spoil it, but completely left me torn open, gasping at the screen when it finished. Real true horror.”

Kathy Acker, Empire of the Senseless

“My personal favorite Kathy Acker book, a deep & kaleidoscopic journey into hell featuring pirates, androids, God and what it means to push one’s body to the absolute limits.”

Larry Clark, Tulsa

“The only time glamorizing self annihilation as art has worked.”

Ann Quin, Three

“Beautiful example of a book as a mobius strip. ‘The boat is ready as planned. And all that’s left is a note. I know nothing will change’ are some of my absolute favorite bleak lines in a book.”

Fernanda Melchor, Hurricane Season

“A work of true cosmic bleakness and power, Hurricane Season transcends both the murder mystery genre & novel in general. Needs to be read to be believed.”

Human Rights

“Absolutely massive tome of cutting edge ‘science-fiction’ novellas & essays. A must have for any lover of transgressive writing. Has an equally essential bibliography of classic science-fiction texts to continue falling down the rabbithole”

Steve Finbow, The Mindshaft

“A daring collage of a place & time that doesn’t exist anymore. You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”

Brion Gysin, Permutations

“One of the ultimates in psychedelic writing & concrete poetry. No one matches Gysin”

Michael McDowell, Toplin

“Absolutely insane black comedy existential horror. Like Eraserhead but simultaneously bleaker & funnier.”

Katherine Dunn, Attic

“Dunn’s masterpiece about a disaffected woman trapped in jail for a crime she didn’t commit, Attic reads nothing like Geek Love and is true testament to Dunn’s abilities as a writer”

Charli XCX, Crash

“Eulogy for late 90’s/early 00’s pop music.”

Rites of Spring, End on End

“I don’t really care about punk or emo music outside of this record, but god,,,,,,this record”

Katherine Dunn, Geek Love

“Classic dysfunctional family novel. Heartbreaking, bizarre & darkly funny. Arturo is one of the best written characters in fiction.”

Coil, Musick to Play in the Dark 2

“The second half of Coil’s album of moon music is much more somber than the first. Perfect soundtrack to zone out to at 2am. Batwings might be Coil’s finest moment”

Santa Sangre

“Forget El Top. Forget Holy Mountain. Jodorowsky’s magic realist horror satire of giallo movies is his true masterpiece”

Dan Graham, Theatre

“RIP Dan Graham. Nice facsimile reissue of an early artist book by Graham, documenting early performances. Essential for anyone looking to dive into the work of this criminally undersung artist”

J.G Ballard, Conversations

“A collection of key interviews with the ever-prescient writer & social theorist. My hot J.G Ballard take is that his interviews are the best thing he wrote.”

Jack Spicer, After Lorca

“Jack Spicer ‘translates’ and rewrites a selection of Lorca poems, often creating a hybrid mix of both. Anyone that says that poetry is overly serious or can’t be playful should take note”

Flora-Yin Wong, Liturgy

“A stunning book that delves deep into how we process and understand traditions, holiness & superstition. Unlike anything i’ve ever read.”

Constance DeJong, Modern Love

“An essential reissue of this autofiction classic.”

Dave Gilden, Texas Chainsaw Dopefiend

“American noise at it’s best and most raw. True caveman electronics.”

Andrea Dworkin, Last Days at Hot Slit

“The only writings you’ll need from this controversial feminist figure. Dworkin’s writing is often overlooked because of some of her more extreme stances, but her collagelike essays are emotive and transgressive in ways that few of her contemporaries ever were. It’s a comparison that i’m sure she’d loathe, but elements of her work remind me of Peter Sotos in their rawness. The introduction to this volume is also well worth it.”

Ryu Murakami, Piercing

“Equal parts disturbing & funny, an intense masterpiece”

Samuel R Delany, Dhalgren

“An avant-garde sci-fi classic, I’ve never been so simultaneously angry & enamored with a book as I have with Dhalgren.”

James Purdy, In a Shallow Grave

“James Purdy is one of the most underrated american writers of the last 100 years. His writing is grotesque, funny and heartbreaking, often in the same sentence. In A Shallow Grave shows Purdy in top form. I don’t want to spoil any of the twists and turns, but as I set the book down, I had to step outside to catch my breath. RIYL: the early films of John Waters, Denis Johnson, Flannery O’Connor, a gentle empty feeling”

Robert Ashley, Automatic Writing

“Falling asleep to Automatic Writing, having a nightmare during Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon, waking back up to She Was A Visitor and going about my day.”

Robert Gluck, Margery Kempe

“A masterpiece of autofiction. Century spanning religious lust & obsession.”

David Wojnarowicz, Weight of the Earth

“Transcriptions of the audio-journals of one of the most important artists/writers of the 80’s Downtown New York scene. Equally bleak, charming & rambling.”

Jean Baudrillard, America

“A fractured and poetic analysis of America in the 80’s that feels almost like science fiction”

Jenny Hval, Girls Against God

“Mystical feminist theory meets body horror meets exploration of gender roles in black metal/Norway. A suffocatingly angry and dreadful atmosphere pervades this book. Truly unlike anything else you could read.”

VA, Live in Los Angeles: A Small Mercies Compilation

“Spooky Action At A Distance.”

John Cale, The Academy in Peril

“The only classical/rock fusion album that works”

Richard Pinhas, Chronolyse

“The best sci-fi synthwave there could be.”

The Velvet Underground, VU

“Best record with a song talking about the weather in Alaska”

The Body, All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood

“Grips you and won’t let go”

Sarah Mary Chadwick, Me and Ennui Are Friends Baby

“RIYL: Joanna Newsom’s piano tracks, bummers“

The Nihilist Spasm Band, Vol. 2

“The greatest band in the whole world”

Richard Ramirez, Volume 1

“Ramirez’s best work has always been the work recorded under his own name, and this boxset proves this time and time again with each disc. Truly an essential compilation of noise from the master.”

Crazy Doberman, “Everyone is Rolling Down a Hill” or “The Journey to the Center of Some Arcane Mystery and the Entanglements of the Vines and Veins of the Cosmic and Unwieldy Millieu Encountered in the Midst of That Endeavor”

“Warped electronics, reeds & improvisations that recall 70’s trip classics like Can & electric era Miles”

Aaron Dilloway/Jeph Jerman, Casual Collisions

“Noise at its most minimalist & unsettling.”

Blue (Derek Jarman)

“Hardest movie i’ve ever watched.”

The Chills, Submarine Bells

“Perfect bummer pop to ease into fall”

Cindytalk, Wappinschaw

“Cindytalk’s Wappinschaw stands at a wild intersection between dreampop and industrial and manages the dichotomy extremely well. It’s also hard not to love an album that cites Bashō and Sade Abe as influences.”

Faust, S/T

“The first Faust record still hits the hardest. The warped sample of All You Need Is Love is still just as startling. Absolute best”

Joe Potts, Daily Planet

“Uniquely nauseating and disquieting early photocopy/xerox art by the mastermind behind Airway”

K&S, Vex Palladium

“Enveloping and pulsating noise at its most Byronic and baroque”

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  October 8, 2021  |  Staff Picks