
Yonatan Gat - Universalists LP
ID: #1635620
Description
YONATAN GAT Universalists Release date: 05/04/2018 Format: CD / LP / Bone Vinyl LP-C1 Catalog number: JNR256 Label: Joyful Noise Recordings UPC: 714270692147 / 714270692154 / 714270692161 Price: $8.50 / $12.00 / $12.50 Yonatan Gat is a guitarist, producer and experimental composer based in NYC. Gat became known as one of the world's top performers as founder and guitarist of Monotonix, hailed by SPIN as "the most exciting live band in rock'n'roll," with concerts that destroyed the border between performer and audience, and were controversial enough to get them banned from playing their home country of Israel. Gat then relocated to New York City. He began recording and performing as a solo artist, and in 2014 released the Iberian Passage EP, a debut that maintained his signature raw energy while switching the focus away from the shock-performance style of Monotonix to a more ritualistic, improvised, shamanic musical exploration. In 2015, the genre-bending full-length Director was released. Composed mostly of live-to-tape improvisations by his trio and field recordings made by Gat, the record was a mind-melting exploration through many different styles of music, from Brazilian psych and Afrobeat to free jazz, surf, and 20th century avant-garde. Three years on, Gat returns with Universalists, an album that marks an ambitious and expansive next step. As on Director, Universalists once again showcases the muscular trio of Gat on guitar, Gal Lazer on drums, and Sergio Sayeg on bass. The performances are breathtaking, showcasing a band of fire and finesse. Charged with a confrontational urgency and hurtling through space on a helter-skelter global time warp, this is a record that bursts with transcendent energy – ripping punk, brutal noise, composed moments of pristine beauty, live-to-tape improvisation, cutting-edge vocal sampling, all brought together by Gat's sui generis guitar playing. Universalists is a conceptual and crafted snapshot of an artist evolving and experimenting, fusing the physical garage punk and freewheeling improvisational sounds of Gat's past with elements of avant-garde composition, electronic production and the signature sound of his genre-bending inimitable guitar. Released in the hostile political climate of 2018, the album is inevitably charged with a sense of confrontational urgency. While Universalists is indeed a provocative work, it goes beyond exploring the distress of our time. It not only reveals the distinction between cultures, but the complex similarities, expressing our shared need for musical ritual celebration - in any time and at any place. " Since Mr. Gat moved to New York... and started his own band, a mostly instrumental trio... his playing has bloomed with the patience to develop any shred of riff or groove into collective improvisation. He's pushing outward, drawing from some of the great cross-pollinated grooves in '60s music. " - The New York Times
Price
$19.98
Last Updated
17 August 2026, 04:20 UTC
Store Information
physical store
Location
More from Bull City Records
View all
NxWorries - Yes Lawd! 2LP
$29.98
Anderson .Paak + Knxwledge! "NxWorries appeared in early 2015 on Stones Throw with "Suede." Knxwledge provided the dazed production, its beat a clipped gait -- Gil Scott-Heron/Brian Jackson's "The Bottle" stretched and dragged to support Anderson Paak's freewheeling vehicular exhibition and macking seminar. Dr. Dre then sought Paak for extensive work on Compton, while the rising Knxwledge produced "Momma" on To Pimp a Butterfly and released a Stones Throw album. As Paak and Knxwledge sustained their prominence with separate collaborative and solo work, their activity as a unit gradually escalated to this full-length, released during the fourth quarter of 2016. It includes "Suede," two other cuts from an EP originally released as a download in late 2015, and 40 additional minutes of keenly bent and smudged soul loops. Though Paak is an accomplished musician and bandleader, as seen throughout 2016 in several televised performances to promote Malibu, he sticks strictly to singing and rapping, leaving Knxwledge to handle all the music. Reflective of their collaborative alias, Paak doesn't sound particularly bothered, apart from some irritation related in "H.A.N.," a deflection of leeches and critics, and some serious concerns and confessions within the supremely dreamy "Khadijah." Otherwise, he keeps it lighthearted as an irrepressible rolling stone. Audibly and lyrically coarse, he rarely sounds less than entirely self-satisfied and at least a little amused, whether he's dealing out wisecracking wordplay or quoting J Dilla as he deftly coasts over and darts between the beats. If not quite as substantive as Malibu, this is one of those albums that can be played continuously without risk of depreciation. Knxwledge and Paak are so occupied with other pursuits that this seems destined to take its place in the Stones Throw discography as one of the label's fine twosome one-offs in the manner of Madvillainy and Champion Sound." -All Music Guide

Lambchop - FLOTUS 2LP
$24.98
"FLOTUS (For Love Often Turns Us Still) is a new full-length from the seminal Merge band Lambchop. Kurt Wagner, inspired by hip-hop, minimalism, and early electronic music, brings us a new sound for the band—one that's totally original and refreshing, yet distinctly Lambchop. The album's closer, "The Hustle", is an 18-minute whopper, which premiered with the album's announcement back in August along with a Stereogum interview . It was the soundtrack to the archival footage film The Dockworker's Dream by Bill Morrison, which was shared by NPR's First Watch. The album's second single,"NIV", was featured on an All Songs Considered's New Mix, and a video directed by William Tyler's sister Elise premieres later this month. A long-form essay by Wagner on the inspirations behind the record will run on Medium. NPR First Listen will stream the record in advance of the release date. Another single is set to be release ahead of that, and features, interviews, and reviews are set for Magnet, The Rumpus, American Songwriter, Ghettoblaster, The Big Takeover, WUNC Morning Edition, Dinner Party Download, and more." -Merge

Goat - Requiem 2LP
$22.98
Mysterious masked Swedish psych group dabbling in Afro-beat 'n' Japanese psych influence rock. 3rd LP. "GOAT’s only outright declaration for Requiem is that it is their “folk” album, and the album is focused more on their subdued bucolic ritualism than psilocybin freakouts. But GOAT hasn’t completely foregone their fiery charms—tracks like “All-Seeing Eye” and “Goatfuzz” conjure the sultry heathen pulsations that ensnared us on their previous albums. Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of Requiem comes with the closing track “Ubuntu”. The song is little more than a melodic delay-driven electric piano line, until we hear the refrain from “Diarabi”—the first song on their first album—sneak into the mix. It creates a kind of musical ouroboros—an infinite cycle of reflection and rejuvenation, death and rebirth. Much like fellow recluse Pynchon, rather than offering explanations for their strange trajectories, GOAT create a world where the line between truth and fiction is so obscured that all you can do is bask in their cryptic genius." -Sub Pop

Hiss Golden Messenger - Heart Like A Levee LP
$19.98
"The writing of the songs that became Heart Like a Levee started in a hotel room in Washington , DC , in January of 2015 during a powerful storm that darkened the East Coast. At that time I was feeling—more acutely than I had ever felt before—wrenched apart by my responsibilities to my family and to my music. Forgetting, momentarily, that for me, each exists only with the other. How could I forget? Though maybe my lapse was reasonable: I had just quit my job, the most recent and last, in a series of dead-end gigs stretching back 20 years, with the vow that my children would understand their father as a man in love with his world and the inventor of his own days. They would be rare in that regard. And then—driven by monthly bills and pure fear—I left for another tour, carrying a load of guilt that I could just barely lift. But in that snowy hotel room I found the refrain that became my compass: I was a dreamer, babe, when I set out on the road; but did I say I could find my way home?" -M.C. Taylor

Girl Tears - Woke Against The Tide LP
$16.98
"The Los Angeles/Orange County punk trio Girl Tears has mastered the art of the three-chord attack, delivering volatile blasts to the point of fury. Four tours and 100+ shows later, playing art spaces, houses, DiY venues, bars, barns, backyards, basements, and everything in between, Girl Tears has delivered a natural, confident progression from their debut. Woke Against The Tide wrestles with themes of Love/Hate, Good/Evil - and in particular - the space between these polarizing ideas. Cold Thoughtsand Uneasy personify the album's conflict. There are hooks, melody and structure, but also a bit of chaos built on a more complex arrangement that's constantly shifting and evolving, much like the band themselves. Whereas their debut Tension was more a discovery, Woke Against The Tideis more abstract. It creates a dense and unforgiving experience, really challenging the listener to keep up."

Bull City Records T-shirt! (Brown Shirt / Gold Ink)
$12.00
Printed locally by Holy Mountain Printing on Gildan Heavy Cotton shirts.