I think this has been asked about before but in my irremediable appetite for bankrupcy, I'd like to listen to some stuff from the SCG's enormous discography. I know that most of their stuff is Oop or quite hard-to-get. What's the best place to start, limited to available cds? (no lps please!) Also, in which albums is Eyvind Kang collaborating with the SCG? Are these available?

The SCG are one of those bands that, if you listen to the wrong record, you'll never listen to them again. I can't say I am a SCG expert (even though I have about 20 of their releases), but the ones I would recommend are: * Torch of the Mystics - this is the instant classic SCG album. It seems to be everybody's favorite, and rightly so. * Bright Surroundings Dark Beginnings - this one focuses on long, Middle-East flavored instrumental jams. I see it's recently been re-issued on CD. * Carnival Folklore Resurrection Series - typical hit-or-miss series of archive and live recordings, field recordings, etc. There are 12 volumes in this series now (#11/#12 via mail-order only, in a ltd.ed. of 400 copies). The ones to get are "The Dreamy Draw" (#2), "Libyan Dream" (#7) and "High Asia/Lo Pacific" (#9/#10). Eyvind Kang appears on "330,003 Cross-Dressers from Beyond the Rig Veda", which I haven't heard yet (unfortunately). He also appears on a few tracks on the "Box of Chameleons" 3CD, if I'm not mistaken. Apart from the Girls' own releases, you should definitely get your hands on some of the stuff they are releasing in the Sublime Frequencies series. They've released 7 CDs and 3 DVDs released in the space of three months. I would definitely recommend "Night Recordings from Bali", which is a great collection of gamelan, kecak, and field recordings, and the absolutely incredible "Princess Nicotine", probably some of the most insane music you will ever hear. I own the original vinyl album and played some of it at a Fantomas show in Eindhoven to the utter delight of Mike Patton.

From what I've heard, the real gem in the series so far is the "Nat Pwe" DVD, but I haven't seen that one yet.

Waiting for the Electro-Magnetic Azoth to rear its head... (May?) Frankco