New Arrivals
Fugue
I began writing about this Tape & Bill Wells 'Fugue' record yesterday but I gave up as the words just were not coming to me. I guess that's probably a good sign though as I was just kind of getting into the melancholy zone of the record, which certainly is a thing of beauty. Wells' guitar playing is delicate and magical. The Tape guys really give him space to do his thing adding wonderful little details and twinkles into the mix. This quite simply is the prettiest, most charming record I …
Double Demon
What mischief can be made with just cornet, vibraphone and drums. Rob Mazurek has scaled back considerably since Stars Have Shapes, the 2010 record from his Exploding Star Orchestra. His new project, the curiously named Starlicker, is a mere trio, with Chicago vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz and Tortoise drummer John Herndon. But this group emits more sound and energy than do some sextets. Double Demon is Out to Lunch! for a new generation. Powered by Herndon’s hyperkinet…
Live On
Follow-up to last year's well-received full-length of collaged live performances released on SHDWPLY. This is another half hour-plus of the Baltimore drum/drone collective at their most zoned and loose-limbed.
untitled
Five tracks, totalling approximately fifty minutes. Packed into the small horrible room (rip) inside the cedar house (rip) down in Lexington ky (still alive), individuals huddled in every corner, painting the room in colored cables, glossy wood and metal boxes. Deafness and disorientation was administered through the afternoon on into the night. Summoning over two hours of recorded tape, it was decided to cut the baby in half for adoption between two imprints. Heavy blossom ferried away the long…
The Very Heart Of The World
LP version. Edition of 500 copies. On The Very Heart of the World, Burning Star Core (BXC) has created an incredibly heavy record, built on dense, layered drones, pulses, splintered vocals, and deep rhythms that euphorically build to total overload. With a line-up including the Hair Police front line and other luminaries from across the exploding Midwestern psych-noise-folk underground, BXC's C. Spencer Yeh has assembled a group that seamlessly shifts through epic movements and pushes pure elect…
Split LP
Delving into the realm of deep listening, transported by way of analog synthesizers, Family Battle Snake weaves an electronic web that cocoons the listener in warm cascading frequencies. Calls to mind classic electronic composers such as Charles Dodge, Charles Wourinen and even a hint of NWW. Family Battle Snake is Bill Kouligas, a London-based Greek who also performs and records with Sudden Infant. Astro is Hiroshi Hasegawa of the legendary and now defunct Japanese noise unit C.C.C.C. Sonic wav…
And
Derek Bailey, electric guitar. Pat Thomas, keyboards. Steve Noble, turntables. Recorded at Moat Studios, London, August 1997.
1978-1983
The sound of CHEN YI is rough & brutal... electronic music, soundcollages that reminds to Throbbing Gristle or (early)SPK aswell as electro-pop-tracks & songs like early Cabaret Voltaire, Chris & Cosey, Severed Heads...The Chen Yi Commune was founded in 1978 by about 20 women & men from London. The aim of the commune was to create a closed subsystem, a kind of subsociety and to narrow down its contact to the outside world only on very few specific actions.The Chen Yi commune never was interested…
beet5 / Nervures
Limited edition of 200 copies. beet5 takes Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto as its starting point. The slow movement was recorded using a special turntable for the blind that plays back records at quarter speed. I had an old recording of the piece lying around; I forget who the pianist was. The slowed down version was very striking, recognisable as Beethoven’s music but much sadder, more fragile. I developed a piece around this, using my usual array of synthesized sounds, field recordings, ‘borr…
The Immeasurable Gift
The Immeasurable Gift is a testament to cathartic possibilities and the role of creation/release as a means of understanding. Recorded throughout the past three years in a variety of locations and personal moments; encapsulated by a common, unrelenting concern. Beautifully delicate, elegiac melodies concealed within curtains of dense electronic ambiance reveal themselves like the light at the end of the tunnel; a signifier of the temporary vessel form. Balancing recklessness with care and…
Music From Italian TV
New LP - The Phantom Family Halo - Music From Italian TV - The label behind this release is using a very cryptic description for this record. One that, unfortunately, won't help sell many copies of a very enjoyable record. We won't be reprinting said description here, but what we will tell you what we know. Phantom Family Halo Band is from Louisville, Kentucky. At least one member of the band Sapat (remember their great LP on Siltbreeze from a couple years back?) is involved, but thi…
Astra & Knyst
Now Voks is finally presenting his first full-length album (though only 30 minutes long this is epic in Voks' universe - both 3"CD's included 10 tracks each within 20 minutes). While keeping his trademark style of hyperactive and nervous high-pitched twisted pop songs a newborn interest in (italo-western) movie soundtracks seems to be evident. The sound of super fast surf guitars is colliding with what seems chinese opera samples, world music is combined with children's whisteling tunes. Think R…
Weighted Ghost
It's no secret that Aaron Dilloway is one of the best around. Opening with some seriously demented synth growl, Weighted Ghost gets down to business in no time at all. Stoically repetitive sequences build and build until the pressure in your skull reaches the breaking point. Dilloway pushes past the point of no return, scowling all the way until each layer is sufficiently soaked in dirt and brine. This isn't pretty and it isn't meant to be. The flipside fakes you out in the beginning,…
Sensacao Do Principio
Sensacao Do Principio is the third release proper from Tropa Macaca and their first with an American label. Their previous efforts on Ruby Red and Qbico were magnificent (though hard to find) efforts of blotted, aural sci-fi codifications somewhere between Anar Band and Blues Control. The two-track full-length continues their foray into post-psychedelic instrumental morphine, where Moolah's LP and Pink Floyd's "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with …
And In The Endless Pause There Came The Sound Of Bees
It probably wouldn't surprise most, but the Type label was originally formed with soundtracks in mind. The moody music that usually accompanied their favorite independent films was a starting point for the label, so it seems perfect that nearly seven years on, they are going back to their roots, if you like, with this album from acclaimed Icelandic musician/composer/producer Jóhann Jóhannsson. Jóhannsson emerged on the influential Touch label with the genre-defining Englabörn (TO 052LP) album in…
Daydreaming
When you think of Seattle, what do you see? No doubt it revolves around Grunge, rain or Frasier... Well prepare to have your cultural preconceptions realigned by the stunning new album 'Daydreaming' from Seattle's Rafael Anton Irisarri, an artist better known under his 'The Sight Below' moniker. Whilst the notion of another record combining modern production with a set of ivories may seem something of a cliché, Rafael Anton Irisarri ensures any such misgivings are dispensed with soon afte…
Home
Home is a collection of folk songs recorded at the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008. Recorded in various places in various parts of the world, it is an album about finding a home. Written, performed, recorded, and produced by Peter himself and mixed with his good friend and sound wizard from Efterklang, Mads Brauer.
In Vogue Spirit
With their recent split with Naked on the Vague acting as a dip into pop's waters; Wet Hair's follow up, In Vogue Spirit is practically a jump into the pool. The band's most accessible batch of tunes to date boil with Krautrock rhythms, buzzing synths, and a new focus on vocals that has previously been mostly absent in the band's back catalog. It's not all motion and melody here though, the band still retains their experimental spirit, giving the record plenty of teeth to sink into any of …
Birdland
This is the deluxe remastered LP edition of the previously cassette only release on Beniffer Editions. It is their third official full length, described as 'a totally peaced out collection of destructo boombox symphonies'. Sounds about right to us. This French Canadian duo, who’s output has been prolific already - two full lengths, two cassettes, a single and an appearance on the “World’s Lousy Vol. 2” comp - is mining territory similar to Chrome and Suicide channelled through warm layers…
Capricorn Born Again
Amanda from Pocahaunted joins Robedoor for this first full-length as Topaz Rags, and the album's a real winner, kicking off with 'Darker Sooner' sounding like a Portishead album recorded over the phone. Elsewhere, twisted blues and moaning, haunted house vocals convene for 'Sightings', and 'Wear You Thin' is like a chill-wave night terror. An uneasy listen, but Capricorn Born Again is a druggy, beautiful raincloud of a record that's got appeal beyond the more conventional parameters of the Not N…