New Arrivals
VPRO RadioNome
Kaa Antilope from Belgium is possibly one of the better kept secrets from the 1980's. Known to few people but loved by those. The reason is simple... this band was unique with their wonderful neo romantic, playful and melancholy sound. Their songs are best described as experimental synthpop with a poetic touch. Only one 7" record was released in 1982. Even today their music stands out with its very special sound of its own. There has not been a single other band since the 1980's that can be comp…
Ghost with chains
Long-running Twin Cities horsepower trio Daughters Of The Sun have been subtly chugging out their faded-tattoo spirit-in-the-sky psych exhaust for at least half a decade now but we didn’t catch the drift till March ’09, when we got to witness a packed post-midnight smoke-soaked Minneapolis loft set and waved our lighter with the masses. Ghost With Chains is their third official full-length (not including some EPs and a killer split) and it’s as beautifully moon-burnt and highway-swept as anythin…
Picture Disc
What's been described as a trumpet player trapped in a two dimensional universe is in fact the unique work of Justice Yeldham (aka Lucas Abela), a maverick musician with an unhealthy obsession with sheets of broken glass. In his infamous show that has astonished and bemused countless people in over 40 countries, yeldham ecstatically purses his lips against sheets of amplified glass whilst deftly employing various vocal techniques ranging from throat singing to raspberries, turning discarde…
Bright Failing Star
Bright Failing Star is probably one of the most straightforward albums I've made, and under some of the most trying circumstances I've encountered in recent years. The south London flat we were in at the time had suffered flood damage during the summer before we moved in, and our room had it's sodden carpet ripped out and the bare concrete floor exposed. This was never fixed in the duration we lived there so by December it was bloody freezing. To compound this we had no hot water for 5 months, c…
Belles Betes
“Belles Betes” features 4 new tracks fuzzed-out heaviness. The track ‘Green & Cold’ is currently streamable from Nadja’s MySpace page, and it sounds awesome - dark and brooding yet subtly melodic. Like most Nadja releases, “Belles Betes” is annoyingly limited. It’s being released as an LP and will be limited to 500 copies. Click the Beta-lactam link below for samples from each track and additional album info.
Badlands
If you think something’s wrong with your speakers, you are mistaken. No, you can’t turn up the bass. You’re just listening to the raw, stripped down wail of Alex Zhang Hungtai, better known as Dirty Beaches. His MySpace describes the music as “minimalist rockabilly,” and those are probably the two best words I could think of to describe his newest LP, Badlands.At times, Hungtai’s vocals sound quite Elvis-esque; at other times, you can barely make out the mumbling echoes over the subdued drum bea…
Glare Luring Yo
In the spring of 2011, Michael "Powderfinger" Morley was in the U.S. for a short visit. There had been some talk of doing a Gate show or two, but when he visited Western Mass., Feeding Tube Records decided to put use to his collaborative talents. He played one night at the Yod space in Florence with Kim Gordon and Bill Nace, then at Feeding Tube with Spencer Yeh and Meg Clixby. Both sets provided jumbo pleasure, and Michael managed to record the Yod set for our presentation to you. Kim and …
Pachyderm
Revered, veteran guitar maverick, Michael Chapman of Cumbria, England, presents the hushed, radiant 24-minute improvisation 'Pachyderm', alongside an electronically tempered remix by Robert Antony. It's the 2nd in his more recent series of improvisations, making a move away from the structured songwriting much loved by the likes of John Peel, Thurston Moore and Jack Rose, to an absorbingly patient, simple and meditative style exploring the potential of a single ambient chord. Robert Anton…
Eskra
Temperatures are a London-based duo formed by Peter Blundell (bass, voice) and James Dunn (drums, synth). Blundell's rumbling delayed bass runs against Dunn's bursting drums that simultaneously trigger an unruly ARP 2600. Vocals are both muffled and shouting at times and eventually end up getting buried under a (controlled) landslide of sounds. Thanks to their instinctive but thoughtful approach to noise, Temperatures can express a suffocating sense of alienation and mal de vivre, as well as tod…
Voices Of Packaged Souls
Debut release on this new imprint brought to you by FInders Keepers, Pre-Cert Home Entertainment and Boomkat, "Voices Of Packaged Souls" was the first album recorded by Suzanne Ciani, originally pressed up as a private edition of just 50 copies and now available in this limited run of just 1000 housed in screenprinted silver foil sleeves faithful to the original pressing** Dead-Cert is a brand new reissue venture with a focus on genuinely rare archival curiosities of early computer music, …
My Estrogeneration
Not Not Fun records are knocking out a vinyl compilation in celebration of the diversity of women artists currently working within the US underground. It's cleverly entitled 'My Estrogeneration' and features unreleased and/or rare tracks from Zola Jesus, Pocahaunted, Tickley Feather, Inca Ore, Valet, Talk Normal, Topaz Rags, Islaja and a bunch of others. The track listing is a little tricky to make out so I'm not entirely sure which track is which but certain things are obvious to me because I l…
Paper of pins
"the coming together of this quartet on "paper of pins" has resulted in mature, yet unforced sounding compositions. the touching number "brown reduse" wins you over with its catchy piano sounds and subtle trumpet which is rounded off by the electronica. it's a small orchestral gem in the jazz style which is still edgy despite its perfection. this is highlighted, for example, by the fact that you can hear the brass player drawing breath on some tracks. certainly, the scottish composer is no perfe…
Pre Language
Right on cue, the third annual report from Chicago's Disappears is submitted for your consideration. Following up on the acclaimed Guider album released just over a year ago, and with new drummer Steve Shelley now fully integrated into the group, these songs were again forged into proper shape during live shows before heading to the studio and the tape machine. Never ones to dither or be indecisive, it's a full-bore assault from the opening track to the last as Disappears attack these new…
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…
What I Became
"If string theory is correct, this is approximately the thirteenth album Matt Valentine has released that definitely shouldnt be filed under a group name (Tower Recordings, Bummer Road, Golden Road, etc.). On the other hand, if string theory is correct, this might also be his 11,000th album. The truth, one suspects, is somewhere in between. Since bedding down in southern Vermont at the dawn of the century, MV has been as cussedly prolific as anyone. The gout of LPs, cassettes, CDRs, singles and …
Ask me no questions
"Her first classic album originally released in 1969 on John Peel's legendary Dandelion Records. A wholly acoustic, almost wholly solo folk affair like a female Nick Drake or Nico recording a folk album. A calm, beautiful and somewhat melancholic batch of songs sung in that sunny low register always associated with Bridget make up this beautiful but criminally forgotten debut album. John Martyn adds second guitar and backing vocals while John Peel serves as producer. A magnificent sound p…
Direct Current
Again, ultralimet release on qbico, the original music was rec. @ the qbico u-nite XIII which took place @ Issue Project Room in NYC back in Feb. 2009. for sure the opening set by Atiba & Dave Nuss was one of the most original live set i had the pleasure to... see i remember talking with Dave, trying to set up this gig... he came out with this duo, saying that Atiba is the best well kept secret in the NYC... he spotted him playing in Harlem Clubs... nobody knows him, Andrew Barker or Steve... no…
Sentinelle
Inspired by the likes of the largely unknown first wave of continental European minimal electronic bands of the early ‘80s (Absolute Body Control, Twilight Ritual, Martin Dupont, Snowy Red), the seminal early industrial bands, as well as the emphemeral, psychedelic atmospheres of the British shoegaze bands of the 1990s, Xeno and Oaklander perform using entirely analogue synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines to produce a highly-crafted, complex of form of moody, electronic pop music that is…
Lux Aeterna
greay-area LP reissue, Lux Aeterna, was originally composed to celebrate a friend of William Sheller's wedding, thematically driven by concepts of union and togetherness, and ostensibly based on the Catholic mass, this is far from any sort of religious music you've ever heard. Following in the footsteps of other iconoclastic composers, like Serge Gainsbourg, Jean-Claude Vannier, Lee Hazlewood, David Axelrod, Scott Walker and of course Magma (more on that in a second), Sheller conjured up w…
Hiranya
Another excellent installment in the Noiseville series, this time featuring the master of Japanoise! Limited to 1000.