This could be a first: an album split between Cassette Concréte and Joshi, both of whom are the same guy in real life. When he’s not making up names for himself, Joshua Carrigan also records under his own name, which is to say that he takes on many personalities with ‘A Tape Gone Leaves No Trace/Animal Faith’, the first release by Massachusetts’ Leisure Class Records. The manifesto-style notes of ‘A Tape Gone’ read like someone maybe took a class on Lucier but maybe not regularly, but no matter because the music inside reflects not this streak of rigorous experiment but a more fluid improvisation which appears to follow much practice and natural musicianship. In a word (not really), the “free” and “weird” of Animal Collective best distills much of Carrigan’s recordings, with strum/picked acoustics and layers of vocals and percussion alighting here and there and everywhere like fireworks seen through blurry eyes. Similarly, stripped-down (for the album) yet embellished (for the genre) folk-rock songs litter the forest of otherwise airborne campfire freak-outs, with early hits like “Nest Where We Tape” and the water-logged Appalachian spiritual “Flow’n’River” (that is, less the appearance of lyrics like “iteration”, “simulacrum”, and “conch shell”). The album’s lots of self-backing, self-harmonizing recreates the euphoria of group play while perceivable tape edits induce a supernatural quality, a clever stain on handsome compositions like “It Leaves No Trace” and the percolating piano song “Icefishing The Americas”. While compositional experiment is kept within rather conventional borders, instrumental experiment is applied quite liberally, with the vocal manipulations of “Yours To Mold” stuttering over pointillist percussion and bass frequencies patched through software and the sheer mass evoked through drone and sequencing on “Drone In The Desert”.

I’d like to say there is a palpable partition between the songs of Cassette Concréte and Joshi, and by the first full song on the ‘Animal Faith’ half it seems there may just be, the title-track a sunny composite of ringing steel-strings and humming keyboards, Carragan crooning French Kicks style over a patty-cake drum machine. Apparently, whatever software were used on the previous half have apparently been dispensed with (as the notes go: “On 4trk only, f**k your laptop”), but really, the quality (and at times, intentional lack thereof) alters only subtly, suggesting the switch occurs in theme and theory. There is a definite upward-lilt in the man’s voice now, as songs like “Noistereo” grin recall the Animal Collective of the previous half, but now with a glee club/dork affectation paired with a warmer, closer (because of recording) guitar sound and handmade percussion. Continually disrupting the perception of difference, the swirling collage “Twelve Tribes” and the sparse folk of “My Hands” which surround the electro-pop instrumental “From Childhood” set us back in the ‘Spirit They’ve Gone’ woods (not that I’m complaining - I like it there). There’s even a song called “Animal Collection” in case you stopped paying attention. It seems the separate masks seem to make less of a difference than the overall concoction of sounds that two identities provide, but I don’t think this really makes a difference to anyone but maybe Carragan himself. Though not devoid of such additions, the first half does not utilize samples as integrally as the second, as unaltered skits (as they say in the hip hop game) “Play My Song ‘87” and “Learning My Words ‘87” bookend ‘Animal Faith’; the regular interweave of this self-same young voice contrasting strongly against Carragan’s aging voice on final song “Don’t Let a Ghost Tell You How to Sleep”, the track equal parts somber guitar ballad and cartoonish daydream with rods and cones bouncing across the page as we vaguely recognize the conversation between a father and child. At over an hour, the disc is a pain in the ass for someone late with their homework [indicates self], but if you’re looking to get your dollar’s worth, you can’t go wrong. Unfortunately for you, according to the one-sheet, the album “contains no foul language”. I guess you can’t win em all. Real deal CD comes in a hand-sewn, hand-painted paper sleeve. Recommended. (Leisure Class CD, $11 HERE)

An earful and some new releases from Brad and everyone at Digitalis HQ:

hey everyone,
So while we're _technically_ still on our post-festival break, the whole weekend was so ridiculous inspiring that we've been hard at work. So while it may take us a little bit longer than usual to get orders assembled and mailed out, we are, in some ways, back in action. So that means two awesome new releases, including the first in our new arts & crafts editions. But first, a few bits of news that's pretty exciting…

First, we're having another big sale. Well, maybe not quite as extensive as last summer's foxglove sale, but pretty sweet nonetheless. So all digitalis releases through cat# DIGI031 (Tirath Singh Nirmala) are on sale for $8/each. Further, if you get 7 CDs, it's $50, and if you get 10 it's $70 and you get a free foxglove of your choice. To take advantage of the latter two deals, EMAIL ME. Otherwise, the catalog page has been updated to reflect the sale prices, so you can just use the cart system as usual.

Second, if you've been wanting some old, out-of-print digitalis releases for a while, you can now purchase most of them digitally via http://boomkat.com . Old stuff like Dead Raven Choir, The Lost Domain, & Birdsong For Sewers (Peter Wright + Uton) are available for download. also, the highly limited bonus CDR compilation that came with pre-orders for "Gold Leaf Branches" is also available. We'll have a few digital-only releases down the road, and later this week should see the "release" of two label samplers, featuring tracks from every release for an extremely low price (2 gbp each or so).

Third bit of news is that we're planning on launching a new subscription series in the next 4-6 weeks. Sort of a post-fest celebration, way to wrap things up the same way they began. It'll be similarly priced to the last one, at least nine full-length CDrs from the likes of Starving Weirdos, The North Sea, Gregg Kowalsky, Terracid, Taiga Remains, & more. Packaging will be completely different than last time, but it's gonna be awesome... so start saving some pesos!

ace002: WOLFMANGLER – ‘Cooking With Wolves’ CD $13
”Where there are wolves, there is the digger Smolken. Left for dead two years ago when he left the murderous heat of Central Texas for the place of his birth, Poland, WOLFMANGLER has now been recast in rusted iron for its latest incarnation. Once a revolving door of different lineups, WOLFMANGLER is now the sole brainchild of Smolken. One thing remains the same, however. This is still some of the grimmest, most desolate doom metal on the planet. Following a split CD with Moss and a full-length release on UK metal institution, Aurora Borealis, "Cooking With Wolves" is Smolken's first WOLFMANGLER release in it's new Polish form. What he concocts barely qualifies as music. It's more like the sonic equivalent of the Black Death. Heavy bass riffs, pounded and beaten into tracts of molten lava, spew pure dissonance like venom from a forked tongue. It is music for the funeral of civilization, an epic dirge to finally burn out the fire of the sun. Packaged in silkscreened black gatefold cardboard jackets.

digi043: (VxPxC) – ‘Porchmass’ CD $12
”In the past two years, (VxPxC) has grown from a Golden State oddity to a Los Angeles institution. The trio of Grant Capes, Tim Goodwillie, and Justin McInteer have churned out an entire catalog of blissed-out improvisations that range from the organic and melodic to overblown chaos. There's never a dirth of new ideas flowing out of their collective minds, and on "Porchmass," their first proper CD release after a slew of CDRs and cassettes, they push the envelope into a whole new realm. Recorded entirely on McInteer's porch in Terrace City, in East LA, "Porchmass" is a ramshackle choir singing in effigy to the orange polluted sunsets of Southern California. (VxPxC) only use a small arsenal of acoustic and battery-powered instruments, singing bowls, and pots & pans as makeshift-percussion, but it is magic junkyard orchestra. This is also the first appearance of the now-trademark accordian that graces recent (VxPxC) sessions. By using this array, the group traverses new territory somewhere near the islands of Jewelled Antler or The Vanishing Voice.

… Thanks again to everyone who came out to the festival... it was a blast. Bottled Smoke 2 is already in the planning stages... Much love, Brad

WEBSITE

dba079 KEVIN SHIELDS - 'The Death of Patience' CD
US/Canada: $10 / WORLD: $16
"First true full-length solo effort from Eva Aguila, aka Kevin Shields. The pieces on this release focus on various combinations of function generator, omni-chord, and a homemade mechanical device. Sheer cliffs of feedback ice, throbbing and grinding gear distortions, and angelic digital bursts slowly cancel each other out... creating additives that are neither impatient nor dead. Here Eva shows how much her sound has developed through extensive touring of both the US and Europe, with recordings made all over the world (from France & Belgium to her home in Los Angeles). An epic with sounds to surprise even the most dedicated of Kevin Shields fans. Member of Gang Wizard. Previous releases on RRR, Weird Forest, & EMR." (co-release w/ emr & entropic tarot) Sample and order HERE

dba080 TIK///TIK - 'An Early Winter' CDr [available only on US tour w/ Kevin Shields & Realicide]
"This special, US tour only CDr collects all of tik///tik's releases on Deathbomb onto one disc. Why? Because tik///tik is going to be out there, exploring America and making new friends, and it would be just plain rude to expect them to buy a ton of different comps and shit just to hear everything. But that is also why this release is only available to people who come out and support! Of course, if you like in the Czech Republic it is a little unreasonable that you could make it to a show, so those living far from the tour should write about how to become a special pen-pal style friend and get a copy of this. The disc collects everything from the unrelenting World War Zero track to the beat static of Fruit Will Rot 3 to the Sea Door tracks that gave some hippies the wrong idea! Even includes the tape club track and the Captain Ahab remix! EVERYTHING. NOTE - If you live further than 30 miles from any show, please email us to make arrangements for purchase."

[PRE-SALE]
dba069 'Thrash Sabbatical' - THURSTON MOOORE / MEN WHO CAN'T LOVE / KEVIN SHILEDS / BARRABARRACUDA 4-way split 12" + 2x7"
US/Canada: $16/WORLD: $26
"An elaborate box-set of vinyl, pairing Thurston Moore 3 times with a selection of amazing Los Angeles acts. Box set will include equaly amazing art designed/curated by Britt & Amanda of Not Not Fun. Thurston Moore (you know the dude, he is in Sonic Youth) contributes music that ranges from beautiful acoustic guitar work to fierce noise and charging thud rhythms. Men Who Can't Love is the gang of young LA noise dudes that do the tag team thing like it is the ultimate party. They share the 12" w/ Moore, and hit you over and over with the tagteam efforts of Solitary Hunter, Impregnable, Moth Drakula, Haircut Mountain Transit, Toxic Loincloth, & Privy Seals. Barrabarracuda are the much more friendly sort, but welcome at the same party. Featuring Grace of Foot Village and Amanda of Pochahaunted on fireworks... erm drums and vocals, plus Britt of Robedoor on guitar and Nichole of Child Pornography on keyboard. Their split 7" w/ Moore is definitly the most melodic of the bunch. Kevin Shields (here as Eva Aguila of Gang Wizard & Amy V of Yuma Nora) fuses searing walls of aluminum with angelic harmonies for a tension that evokes pure joy. Their split 7" with Moore is matched with equal amounts joy and angelicism, but in soothing rather than tense manner. Mastered by Pete Swanson of Yellow Swans. FYI - This was sent to manufacture yesterday, so prob an Aug release date. PreSales will be sent out just before released. Price will also be slightly raised once announced." Order HERE

WBESTIE

Phase! has a new WEBSITE and some new jams:

PHR-40 FOSSILS - 'Zoo Diaries' C30 4€
"The mysterious Canadian unit w/ thee countless releases (they're reaching even Wolf Eyes) offers us here an electronic mind blowing zoo trip. String rips, distorted breaths and analog steering melt together in two 16-minute free-form frying jams. Have you ever imagined how animals feel in a cage? Staring eyes, flash lights, day after day..." Color heavy paper w/ silver acrylic and white spraypaint, handwritten stenciled typography, stamp-numbered to 50. Also, each cover features an animal sticker, different on every cassette!

PHR-41 REVERSE MOUTH - 'Gay Control Icon' 3" CDr 5€
"Three of the most intense tracks (Little Bodie, Fashion Blog Whatevah, Go Out w/ Crap In Your Pants) Reverse Mouth ever jammed gathered in this *fancy* 3", if you panzies can call that. Gross vocal vomitings and hi-end feedback dance along w/ garbage percussion and lo-fi fx. It's so much black trance, as Stalone never was gay in "Lock Up" or any other tender movie." Stenciled grass pattern + rubber stamp on 10cm x 20cm color heavy paper, spraypainted label and xerox insert, numbered to 50.

New tapes from the darkest horse, Black Horizons:

BH-03 Pulse Emitter - 'Progression to Desolation' LP $13(US)/$20 (rest of world)
"Finally Pulse Emitter gets the treatment he deserves, a full 12" of vinyl to lay down two prog flavoured tracks of synth drone. Created using homebuilt synth modules, and meticulously contructed into a sci fi storyline, this could be a soundtrack. Suffocating layered heavyness, dry synth hiss, oscillator click terror meets equally with beauty, a quality rare among Pulse Emitter's peers. Each cover and insert is a unique paint marbled design, silkscreened / designed over by Nick of Seizure Palace. Edition of 300 copies on black vinyl."

BH-08 Glass Organ - 'Untitled II' C20 $6(US)/$9(rest of world)
"Now 3 tapes in the duo of Glass Organ continues on from previous efforts creating a sound their own. Crackling prisms of guitar drone flow forward, carried by minimal tape loops and a penchant for abrupt editing. Dreamy and dreary at the same time. These tracks were both caught live in the fall of 2006. Color cover on white gold cardstock, individualized clear color labels. Hi-bias chrome tapes in an edition of 130."

BH-09 Mlehst - 'The Longest Lie' 3xC40 $20(US)/$25(rest of world)
"Now back in full force from an extended hibernation, Mlehst brings you 2 hours of material from prior to said absence. A sort of best of, most tracks previously released, but worked over to varying degress, as well as some new material. The sounds wander through a desolate and cold world, occupied by snippets of voices and other field recording manipulated via reel to reel tape, sterile sheets of white noise, and silence. Offset printed silver and black on charcoal linen cardstock covers, xeroxed charcoal and black linen cardstock insert, in a black vinyl box. Hi-bias chrome tapes in an edition of 75."

WEBSITE

CDr sale from Students of Decay:

Hey friends, Students of Decay is having a CD-R sale this month in an effort to both hasten the release of the next batch of SOD releases (Peter Wright 2CD and CDrs by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Slow Listener, Procer Veneficus, Robert Horton, Meursault and Fabio Orsi) and begin the long, slow process of amassing funds for the impending Taiga Remains/Heavy Winged East Coast tour which we're hoping to embark upon this Fall. So, without further ado, the details of the sale!

ANY 5 in print SOD CD-Rs (that includes Jade Emperor [last copies!], David Kirby [last copies!], Tombi, Wire Thicket, Andy Jarvis, Valerio Cosi, Imperfect Masters, Uton [last copies!] and Fabio Orsi) may be purchased as a bundle for $28ppd in the US and $35ppd worldwide. This offer expires at the end of June. Thanks and all the best! -Alex

New from MUSICYOURMINDWILLLOVEYOU:

Mymwly0062 The holy see - untitled CDr $10
"From the east coast of scamerica comes one track , one mind opening , sparkling dense storm of electrical charge…shards of white noise grinding the air into a void of atomic vibration…swallow then be swallowed , good for the night"

Mymwly0068 Keijo and the free players - 'touching together' CDr $10
"These guys make some of the most beautiful drift on the planet .the companion album to endless clouds more gloriously free psych stumble and rock flutter that falls about the ears like gentle shimmering sand."

Mymwly0069 Bunnybrains - 'wave farm 05' CDr $10
"there is weird and then there is weird…and this is weird. Radio transmission pop songs as insane singalongs…song fragments and subliminal cultural decay a strange head room with friends and strangers acting friendy giving a collage and readymade soundtrack to you."

and we now have copies of the 'suppressed (detached) orchestra' LP with handmade sleeves available... $20 (US) World or $20 (AU) australia.

WEBSITE

Burial Hex is the unholy experiment of Wyrdskull Widdershins, better known as Clay Ruby (Davenport, Zodiac Mountain, Skulls of Heaven, and so on forever) and this self-titled long-player is the project’s first vinyl outing, and only the second release thus far (following a cassette on Ruby’s own 23 Productions). A collection of six discrete pieces of roughly equal length, the record is a spiritually-devoid space of ex-human vocal incantations, feedback menace, dark, synthesized atmospheres, and field recordings of horrific detail. The insert suggests “Oppressive Necro Electronics”, but the wide lens of the LP format reveals much more than any one title or one cassette may intimate.

Like with many a fine ambient record, the explicit title imagery of these tracks is crucial to delineating body and direction of the sound, and it just so happens that these bodies are corpses, arrested, eroding as they expend phantom energy. “Night stalking the unsilent boneyard” fulfills its titular promise, a descriptive pieces like a film carrying the ear through an autumn storm, groans and the whisper of a taskmaster propelling footfall and stagger in dead leaves; metal paraphernalia clatters like jewelry as supernatural effects multiply, shifting the terrain to another plane. An impeccable transisition, the murder of crows which usher in this intro return for the violence of “A murder of dead crows”, a tortured duet of throaty vocals and a Robedoor-esque dungeon ritual of whole-tone feedback and underground percussion. Unexpected, yet apropos, the undistorted demands of a hostile belligerent are sampled to enforce the doom of “The storm of ancient Nightcrawler”, a groaning, howling heavyweight propelled like a cyclone which microphones can barely contain. The second side reads like the aftermath of the first almost in its entirety, “The Great Undertaking” a cold, vacant, yet all the while convalescent meditation which stirs with the hum of quiet and ghostly oscillations. The monochromatic synth torrent “blood, hair, spit and semen” is the shortest track, and as the title might suggest, the most regrettable (though the ending flourish is quite nice), landing us at “Feasting the nightsoil communion”, at first a distillation of the previous two tracks with submerged Prurient screams mixed-down behind Prurient pitch-whispers, the hollow percussion of wind on barren land. The chugging sound of this concoction rails through the duration of the track, downward, like a train into the earth.

Though the flipside more resembles one piece in several movements, the LP offers a diverse palette (pallet?) of experiences and environments, produced through the ingenuity of experimentation, a learned ear and imagination. Black vinyl comes professionally labeled with insert and postcard, housed in a heavy sleeve with two paste-on prints on fancy paper. Edition of 308. (SNSE LP, $12 HERE)

From my new neighbor, Abandon Ship:

4 new releases up on the site today, check the myspace page for song samples. There's about 15 copies of the (VxPxC) tape left, so grab that while you can.

ASR004 The Futurians - 'Zenit' 3" CDr $6(USA)/$7(Canada)/$9(World)
"An unprecedented surprise from these New Zealanders. This one definitely stands out amongst the sludge-punk releases of old. Completely different approach here. The first main difference you'll notice will be the absence of any vocals. The second will be the absence of any drummer. And the third will be the absence of any common Futurianistics you've grown to know and love. Fear not, for it's just as punk-fucking-rawk as anything they've ever done...just in a different way. If you really do love them, then you will love this release. If you have yet to discover this unbelievable group, then this will definitely get you started on the wrong foot. Albeit, an unusually great one." - Nate Rulli Edition of 100.

ASR005 CJA/Smokehouse - 'Whisky & Freedom' C30 $6(USA)/$7(Canada)/$9(World)
"Futurian Clayton Noone (CJA) and Kaaterama Morehucan (Smokehouse) unite for this recording and churn up some of the most lackadaisical and hazy sounds in recent history. At times Morehucan evokes the presence of Flying Canyon's Cayce Lindner with his soulful voice and gentle nature. Yet he is subdued and even more laid back than the late, great Lindner. When Clayton presented me with this recording he said of Morehucan, "He can actually play and sing and some of it sounds rather smooth and in tune, until I come along and wreck things." I think he summed it up perfectly with that statement." - Nate Rulli Edition of 100.

ASR006 Buck Paco - 'I've Wasted My Breath' 3" CDr $6(USA)/$7(Canada)/$9(World)
"Over the last ten or so years, Buckland Oswald Paco and company have amassed a collection of recorded material in excess of 100 songs (for lack of a better word). About 95 percent of which have never been released. Falling short of wasting no part of the animal, the band have done their best to whittle down their portfolio small enough to fit the three-inch format. Clocking in at somewhere in the 20+ minute range, "I've Wasted my Breath" is a rather abridged, but cherry-picked survey of The Buck Paco Band's catalogue. All the slag has been neatly scraped away, leaving five solid gems on which to ruminate just long enough to realize the disc is already over and you need to start it up again." - Eric McDade Edition of 100.

ASR007 Nonhorse - 'Xol Mic' C90 $6(USA)/$7(Canada)/$9(World)
"Xol Mic is a double burning cry for help and cleansing. I was moving out of bad trauma and into good trauma after traveling the US and Canada and all was unmoored and wierd. I was scratching at something, and brooding over bad old tapes of long winded effected harp and reeds and good new tapes of pure house sounds at my new diggs, where the only thing i could focus on was wandering around vaguely with a tape recorder. The A side was recorded after a fateful exposure. My mother is a science teacher at PS39 in Brooklyn where i myself went and was young, and in the thrash of oving boxes full of utter trash i stopped home. "Xol Mic dissapeared two days ago" she said gravely when i walked in. Xol was one of my favorite of her classroom stories, as him and his brother 'Cruise Mic' had a massive intimadating mother who wore cornrows and team jerzies that matched her Timbalands and boasted of her massive wealth and propensity for violence to the other mothers at every turn. Poor Xol always looked pained and embarrassed. "we called his mothers cell and she's like, 'oh sorry yeah, we all had to go to LA to return a fur coat...i gotta go...' im worried about the kid." 'Torquque binder' was recorded that night. The B side is for Tony Miller, who's room i moved into. The bass claranet is played by my pal Foxy Pink gloves. During the recording, a smoking brazer cracked in half and the coals fell into my sock drawer, setting it ablaze. Foxy kept playing as i put it out with beer, and we continued for 20 more minutes in the smoke filled room. Thanks Tony.... " - G. Lucas Crane Edition of 300.

WEBSITE

Jelle Crama sent the word down on new releases from Zeikzak and Puik:

THE RAY PACINO ENSEMBLE - 'Be My Lonely Night/Golden Greats' dbl-LP 15€
(zeikzak/lal lal lal co-release)
"The ray pacino ensemble is a troupe of bizarre countryfolks from the swedish jarna. They love horseriding and car accidents. Unlike the rather polished electric sound of their recent live rockouts the older original songs compiled on these two LP's radiate a joyfull lo-fi-ness filled with a healthy interest in the 'wrong and absurd'. Some songs sound as if they where made to be played at multitoxicomanic lesbian weddings in a middleaged countryfield at the moment where the partiers arent hinderd anymore to act as ill or as ecstatically happy as their mind wants them to be. Sometimes the band takes it so far that it seems as if playing their own music became too difficult for them. But mostly the ray pacino ensemble simply freaks out here as fresh as spring!" - 'Be My Lonely Night' was first released as a cassette on lal lal lal. 'Golden Greats' is a new album of unreleased songs from the same period. edition of 330.

MICHT - 'Autoreverse Variations' C47 4€ (puik 28)
"After years of being a loner musician in his hometown namur and having done a couple of releases on audiobot, imvated and australian smell the stench label Francois Haidon finally overwon the stage fright and started to play his dense minimal drones in front of real live audiences. This release captures one of his first performances where he worked with simple but effective tape manipulations (Brussels january 2007, very polite people at the end btw!). This one reminds me a lot of the horrifying 'cooper test'." edition of 50

WILDLIFE TAPES PORTAL JAMS dbl-cassette 6€ (puik 29)
"Slow otherworldly athmospheres, living creatures turn into coloured shapes and try to escape from a melting solid mass. Phat voluminous tapesound constantly kneaded, tiny parts get stretched to sharp prickles, all without loosing the actual massive volume. Its a pity, but sonic just sank in the blubber.. this is a harmonic beauty!" edition of 100

To order, send an EMAIL *Happy Hour: shipping wont be charged if your order comes in at an uneven time!

Three new ones (including an inaugural cassette!) from Phantom Limb:

ARM 009 - Cahier (Orchestra) - 'Ciudad' CDr $7(US)/$9(world)
"Marko of FInland has been making music for a long time (with releases on Foxglove, Cut Hand and Sloow Tapes). But he has never made a collection of sounds as brutal and intense at this yet. Phantom Limb is honored to release this truly epic set of sonic mayhem, blasted rhythms and blurred soundscapes. Glitched out bliss from across the sea!"

ARM 011 - Bjerga/Iversen - 'Drawn to the light, like moths to a flame' CDr $7(US)/$9(world)
"First group that I wanted to release a cd-r for that wasn't friends of mine... and now I have the chance... And "Drawn to the light..." is a doozy. One monumental track of hiss and spark and growing tension, a vector dance through the eye of a needle or an eye of the hurricane. If you know these two mens' work, then you will realize this is essential... If you don't, this is a damn fine place to start."

LEG 001 - Fantastic Sleep - 'New Master' C54 cassette $5(US)/$7(world)
"Recorded on the two most harrowing days of the year (Halloween and Tax Day), this cassette documents the on-going assault on boring drone music. Created by Ged Gengras (Fantastic Ego, Antique Brothers, and Thousands) and Grant Capes (Sleepwalkers Local 242, (VxPxC), and Thousands), this sounds like none of that... OR this sounds like all of that mixed together and shot through broken subwoofers, chewed on by an electric dog and then shat out onto a landmine! For fans of Sunroof!, Birchville Cat Motel, and Neil Diamond."

WEBSITE

We drove 16 hours yesterday from Arizona to Oklahoma, now we're in Missouri. What's more, here's something from Shut Up! I Love You:

Found Objects - 'Habit Down The Day' tour EP CDr $5
"There are those strange early morning moments when the boundary between dreams and reality starts to blur and you find yourself dreaming about sleeping. Slowly you begin to wonder if you're truly dreaming. Habit Down the Day begins with the subtle ebb and flow of these moments of dreamy confusion. It slowly whisks you away to a world of night terrors and eventually ends with a blissful crescendo bringing you back to your bed unscathed. Found Objects strikes a balance between dreamy shoegaze landscapes and feedback nightmares. Blissed out, reverb drenched vocals meet up with looming keyboard pads. Habit Down the Day's beautiful laptop glitches, rumbling drum crescendos and warmed up guitar fuzz are such a beautiful start for a band destined for great things." WEBSITE, WEBSITE, BAND

In essence a multimedia remix of the late, fantastic ‘God’s Money’ LP and the surrounding experiences, Gang Gang Dance have released the ‘Retina Riddim’ DVD/CD double feature in early anticipation of a forthcoming full-length. Central musician and band artist Brian DeGraw is largely to blame for the film, a mad ‘Meeting People Is Easy’ collage of assorted, rarely band-centered footage and GGD’s usual pastiche of fetishized icons (gorillas, kaleidoscopes, and so forth) and Masonic imagery. Like the band’s frenetic musical style, the video is at first jarring, disorienting, and at times even frustrating for its clipped attention span. And like the band’s music, it is with second, third, and sometimes more listens that the brilliance of the method reveals itself as an infectious habit. Such is the first moment of clarity when an excerpt of “God’s Money VII” is remixed alongside impressionist footage of ink drops in water, aquatic visions, and a sort of Bloodland crump party. On not infrequent occasion, to bridge the space between the sound and difficult to reconcile visuals, snippets of performance with audio will be introduced as samples, re-played and re-paced as a sequencing device for the reckless tempo of the film. A gunshot-and-gabber beat funds some of the best original musical material, a few well-arranged brass notes and vocal samples see-sawing over throbbing visuals of missiles, prayer rugs, and a quietly-altered Iraqi flag implicating the world at (holy) war. Crouching riverside whilst observing a Germanic rowing-instruction and breaking out of a portion of particularly heavy pretense with a reporter, DeGraw reveals a sense of humor with the “build/destroy” segment, folding a silly dance within his own melodramatic language. Whole minutes of live performance are observable at times, filmed from all angles – a view inside the machine – and for those who have yet to see the band’s live performance, a welcome peak at the band at work in their dubbier, jammier moments, and possibly a view of a few jams to come. Loose and undemanding - though certainly watchable – ‘Retina Riddim’ is perhaps ideal as an ambient piece, for projection at parties and psychotropic sojourns.

Also included is the 13-minute “fan film” ‘GGD by OP’ created by friend/tour-buddy Oliver Payne. A more subdued take on ‘Retina Riddim’, ‘GGD by OP’ features far fewer cuts yet an equivalent mix of random, (South Pacific) tour-derived images and band footage (heavier on the latter, and from the complimentary audience angle); the live performances included attract more toward the band’s pop polarity - immediately recognizable hooks, etc. - more crump prevails, and a number of fun GGD-themed collages appear throughout. Finally, the 24-minute, single-track ‘Retina Riddim’ companion CD features a significantly alternate soundtrack, repeating several of the main themes couched within different beat structures and creating an entirely different collection of textures when freed from the qualifier of a visual layer. Both discs enjoy their own pockets in a full-color, book style sleeve including a mini-poster featuring a piece of killer photography. A unique compliment to a modern classic of a record, ‘Retina Riddim’ is an impressive advancement within GGD’s already futuristic catalog. (Social Registry DVD/CD, $12 HERE)

In anticipation of a coming weekend of shows, the C & C music factory cranked out ‘Space Gallery Jan. 27, 2007/Sahara Club Jan. 28, 2007’ - the metanarrative of Caleb and Colleen’s Big Blood discs now holding that there is greater difference within discs than between. It’s cheap of me to say, I know, but the opening accordion strains of “Glory Daze” immediately presume the Francophilicism of Yann Tiersen and Satie to continue the European folk of previous discs, yet leading to the unexpected Fleetwood Mac of the central tune, Colleen cutting the air with the sharpest, most obnoxious character in her vocal repertoire – let’s call it the “songbird, the one who shatters glass” - probably an aunt or the church lady who uses the utmost register to nip the heels of Jesus. Despite this (and indeed, because of this), the anthem is infectious in its simplicity: a stop-start accordion song with a little bit of banjo. A sequel, chronologically, “The Rise of Quinnisa Rose” is a nice rejoinder to her previous “Fall”, a parental duet in praise and apology to their mighty heir in the fashion of Wooden Wand’s “The Witness Figg”. Lots of banjo domination on this disc, as the “Troublesome Lot” solo suite surrounds banjocentric songs “Shrining Light”, a Colleen-led/tambourine-paced waltz complementing the sobriety of guitar amidst so much sun-drunk twang, and personal favorite “She Said Nothing”: reminiscent something plotted between Jackie-O Motherfucker, Akron/Family and Devendra Banhart, and the closest thing to a Neil Young/Jana Hunter duet, with a refrain pulled from the same brilliant stream as any of the latter’s un-dateable songs, mounted upon the natural ambience of outdoor recording. Label name-sake “Don’t Trust the Ruin” uses some wicked Young/ODAWAS harmonica work to accent the dark drone under the pair’s falsetto cries, also a reminder that such thick layers texture nearly all of Big Blood’s incredibly rich songs. Final piece “Sequins” was written by friend Alex Lukashevsky for the band’s ‘Earbait’ collaborative project, this Big Blood rendition a fond reminder of late-Cerberus Shoal at their most mix-tapeable: Caleb on bullhorn directing Colleen’s weird-opera – a foreign-traditional pop song fitting a Bishop brothers/Sublime Frequencies excursion, with unintelligible yet pleasing lyrics, lyricism, and harmony. Another impossibly wonderful album, the disc spills with a home-brewed brilliance.

The ‘Sew Your Wild Days’ Tour discs share no more than any other pair of discs; in fact, Volume I may be the most fractured collection of songs found on any of the discs, beginning innocuously with the casual honky-tonk anthem “Adversaries & Enemies” – a familiar mix of lone, plucky banjo and Colleen like an army of voices – but breaking miraculously into a rendition of CAN’s “Vitamin C”, a brilliant reading with acoustic instruments of hand claps, accordion, and guitar; the first instance that Colleen’s delivery is anything less than confident (perhaps it’s the daunting task of replicating Suzuki), her doubled shriek/quiver is stabilized with slashes of distorted guitar which echo like a departing electric storm. Rather than return home, “Spit Shine” continues to push in new directions with a quickened rock’n’roll gait, sort of Meat Puppets, with sharp, high-end guitar leading a chugging army of weaving strings, cymbal percussion, and a possible singing saw; “Don’t Trust The Ruin II” introduces a new electronic element, with crackles and whispy streaks over a distorted loop of piano, Colleen’s sing-song a pleasantly different, free-form pop recital which indicates no continuity with the tune’s prequel. The unusually brief (1:55), unusually dancey “Moonin’ Away” features looped guitar riffage with a weird bass bounce, sliding into the Isaac Brock carnival of loops, “Wrinkles & Ribbons”. Cutting ahead to Volume II, the gauze of static on the recording “Haystack (a.p.)” materializes Colleen’s words as she begins “sitting in this bedroom/…/and all my dreams have turned to static” over a gentle acoustic guitar and the echo of her own voice. Another sequel, “She Said Nothing II” actually recalls the melody of the original, this time a wordless reissue with an added patina of cross-channel noise, then fading as Caleb does his best Uncle Charlie [R.I.P.] for the weird Sun City Girls pop song “Rodin Deadpan” (SGC again recalled ‘Torch of the Mystics’-style on the sardonic “Got Wings?”), and again switching attitudes with “Frost Farm”, a melancholy song of banjo and what is likely thumb-piano, Colleen’s vocal part somehow reminiscent the Brit-pop gloom of The Sundays, etc. “I’m So Glad” is a painfully brief Skip James cover sung by Colleen, funneled through an aging machine which washes all trace of era from her voice and lone guitar. A curveball, the John Fahey guitar of “Moon Perfume” comes out of no where like a David Grubbs instrumental, accented by recorded rainfall and traffic. In the end, “I’ve Been A Baby All My Life (I Hope You Don’t Expect A Man)” returns the thick atmospheric of the opening song, summarizing the album’s “roots” feel with a folksy guitar song only slightly-skewed by Caleb’s falsetto.

A special treat rather arbitrarily included with Volume I, ‘A Quiet Lousy Roar’ is a 4” x 4” comic book by artist Michael Connor inspired by Big Blood’s first CDr. The imagery is reminiscent of the Tony Millionaire fantasy ‘Billy Hazelnuts’, yet with that book’s dementia replaced by an adoring, almost fawning optimism inspired by the Kinsella-Mulkerin family. As with previous Big Blood CDrs, each printed disc comes packaged with handmade covers designed by Colleen, assorted art scrap, vellum set list, and family pictures. In my transparent efforts to gain honorary membership in this band, I exhaust myself; as I wait with baited breath, I simultaneously fear the day a new bundle of songs arrives which I will inevitably prostrate myself before (figuratively, of course). Such is my fate. (Don’t Trust The Ruin CDr, available HERE, HERE, and maybe HERE; reach the band by EMAIL and HERE; See Animal Psi vs. Big Blood HERE)

Boom! DNT:

DNT036 - Moonmilk - 'Hidden Speech' cassette $6(US/Canada)/$11(International)
"Lia Tsamoglou and Kell Derrig-Hall make up this Australian drone duo. Umm.. tape effects and dronescapes. partial field recordings? If I were good at writing descriptions I'd write like 10 pages on how good this tape is..but uh, yeah.. Anyway, crazy swirly intricate black and white cover art design by Zachary Fleming (who also comprises 100% of the project Nomen Dubium) in a DIY shrink-wrapped case with label-maker labels and red cassettes. Hand-numbered and limited to 100 copies."

DNT015 - Mudboy - 'Livish 2007' CDr $6.5(US/Canada)/ $11(International)
"Beware of Mudboy, it creeps and leaps and glides and slides across the floor..right through the door and all around the wall a splotch, a blotch. Be careful of Mudboy! Crazy full-color artwork by Matt Lock (puffandmagic.com) plus a giant green cardstock monster insert! Limited to 50 copies! 7" coming in July!!"

DNT038 - Nomen Dubium - 'The Bering Sea' cassette $5(US/Canada)/$10(International)
"Nomen Dubium (aka Zachary Fleming) and I have been sharing music for quite some time now. And although I've always enjoyed his music, it's never quite fit in to the DNT-framework, but I've always been waiting for something that did. So when he sent me this song [sample at the website], I was excited and eagerly awaiting more. Well, now this tape is complete and ready for the world! He did the artwork too! (what you see right now might be the temporary image though..problems with the camera). Black cassettes with labels also designed by him. Limited to 100"

[PREORDER] DNT023 - Shepherds 7" $5(US/Canada)/$11(International)
"Vinyl debut by Brooklyn's Shepherds. Originally this was going to be used for the DNT 3" series, but it was far too long to be used for a 3" split, so we decided to upgrade it to a 7"! The best way to describe them would be free-form psych-drone, with different tape effects thrown in their too. Members of Woods, Non-Horse, and others. Pro-printed full-color glue pocket sleeves. Pressing of 500. 400 on white and 100 on gold. First 100 pre-orders receive gold!!"

[PREORDER] DNT024 - Gay Beast - 'Discrobics' LP $10(US/Canada)/$18(International)
"Somebody give me some dope. (Just kidding mom) DNT has finally entered the LP realm--and all this time you thought we were only going to release cdrs and cassettes. "Discrobics" was originally self-released on CD by the band, but I felt it needed to be heard on vinyl. Gay Beast are a skronky neo-wave group of kiddos from Minneapolis, Minnesota and if you're lucky you can catch them on their US tour this summer! Silk screened covers and black vinyl. Pressing of 500. All preorders will receive a gift of some sort."

Just go to the WEBSITE

Here's something you don't see everyday, jams from Erstwhile:

(ErstSolo 001) Keith Rowe - 'The Room' CD $15
'This was one of the first occasions on which I worked with Keith Rowe, who bore more or less the same relation to the electric guitar as David Tudor did to the piano (I put that in the past tense because by no stretch of the imagination could you now call them guitarist or pianist respectively).' -Cornelius Cardew, 1966 "More than forty years later, Keith Rowe is still adding to his remarkable legacy of sound and color. This latest release, The Room, marks the third full-length solo recording of his career, following A Dimension of Perfectly Ordinary Reality (1989) and Harsh (1999). Each of these prior recordings marked the end of a phase of Rowe's work just before he switched to a new guitar, whereas The Room is a continuation of his recent collaborative work, as captured on records like between, cloud, A View From The Window, November Quebec and the ErstLive 005 box. The Room is a very personal project for Rowe, and he struggled with its precise conception over the last few years. It's in part a tribute to two of his most important influences, Cardew and Mark Rothko, and the creation of a recording that did justice to his feelings about these two was a long journey. After many months of thought and numerous attempts to transfer the ideas in his head to a concert context, Rowe began in early 2007 to record at his home each day. He recorded dozens of hours before finally arriving at an end result that he could live with, and those results are here. For Rowe, The Room represents an emotional state made audible as well as an attempt to reject virtuosity�, a philosophy which has been guiding all of his work over the past few years. Erstwhile mastering engineer Earl Howard did some crucial (and uncredited, due to the minimal text on the package) postproduction on Rowe's home recorded master, just minor tweaks on their own, but resulting in a decided overall improvement in the sound quality." The Room is the first release on the new ErstSolo imprint, and is the first standalone digipak on Erstwhile, with the entire design consisting of two triptych Rothko-influenced Rowe paintings, one on the outside and one on the inside.

ERSTWHILE and ROWE

Two more gems from Arbor:

arbor34 Birds Of Delay - 'Live From Mind Avalanche' C25 $6
"Beneath the mounds of tape loops and vocal séance rests the human forms of Luke Younger and Steven Warwick aka Birds Of Delay. “Live From Mind Avalanche” is a particularly deep work. It sounds as though it was recorded live on the wing of a flying plane or at the top of some epicly huge mountain in India. Frozen delays and deprived electronics ache for freedom from desolate captivity. Drowned static screeching into an abyss of grey tumbles down the side of a snow slicked slope. Icy smoke envelops whatever remains." In a numbered edition of 90 sprayed/stamped tapes with art by the band.

arbor45 Mef Teef/ Owl Xounds - 'Exploding Galaxy' split C40 $6
"Pure energy and total expression are the only boundaries around the free-jazz/music movement. Primitivism and psychedelic confusion act as the main themes. Mef Teef of Iowa City, a relatively new collective, have one past release on Raccoo-oo-oon’s Night People Label (of which MT percussionist Andy Spore is a member). Spastic drumming acts as the basis for which brass, piano, and silence interweave. Culled from a hometown live session, “Dark Star Voyage Pt. 1” features unique instrumental interplay causing the piece to progress almost theatrically with definitive mood changes. Brooklyn’s Owl Xounds Exploding Galaxy is a heavy hitter in the free jazz underground. Comparisons to avant-garde greats are not unjustified. With a recent LP out on Wooden Wand’s Mad Monk label and a plethora of sold out self released jams, this is the collectives first tape. Focused on the youthful energy of punk music and centered around the drumming of Adam Kriney (La Otracina, Castanets), in “Transmission To The Pineapple Universe”, Owl Xounds produce pure blown out oblivion never faltering in its onward progression. Recorded live at the Cakeshop featuring Gene Janas on upright bass, Darius Jones on alto sax, and Greg Vegas on electric guitar the jam is a total freak-out, seething equally with nods to Sonny Simmons as it is to Sonic Youth." In a numbered edition of 100 tapes with printed labels, art and an insert by Andy Spore.

WEBSITE

Huge! From Fuck It Tapes:

NNCK - 'The Large Taquat' C37 $10(US)
"The Large Taquat was recorded in 1996 at 195 Chrystie St., NYC, the first rehearsal and performance space for the No-Neck Blues Band. The sequence was originally slated for an LP release and hence captured a Sound at One catalog number, #25, but alas the record never materialized. It is with great pleasure that the band now offers this historical document featuring the earliest document of NNCK operating from its own laboratory." Full color double sided printing with two fold out panels. limited to 200.
WEBSITE or PayPal to cassettes@gmail.com (please add $0.66 for paypal fees. thanks)

So: I’ve finally found an album by My Cat Is An Alien that I really enjoy, and maybe I’m not totally alone in my sentiments as it is, after all, a reissue. Not to delve into my own disdain with prior offerings, I can say that the expanded reissue ‘…Ascends the Sky’ (Rebis’ first release via the Whitened Sepulchre imprint) is great where others are okay, substantial where others are lacking, and refined where others fail to discern. To start in the middle, the original recording of “…Ascends the Sky” begins on track two and - despite the cleavage – concludes on three. From MCIAA’s first year - a very early, completely different recording by the extremely prolific Opalio duo – the first segment of the song (not “song”) is made of a lone verse of clean guitar, strummed repeatedly with underscored feedback textures at a Slint’s pace. At the ten minute mark (the total track is 34 minutes), a syrupy voice speak-sings in English (Maurizio, with lyrics by William Blake), punctuating and reiterating the phrase “ascends the sky”. The man’s drawl is reminiscent that Australian/New Zealand slur, delivering his lines with a smirk, even letting out a “ha” in between words as he holds back his distraction. Once the voice leaves, it occurs that the strum has fallen away as well, leaving only the residue of scratched steel strings, and a rising soundscape of alien chirps, vibrations, and the momentary clatter of metal chimes. Part two/track three has apparently been demarcated by the reentry of voice, repeating the title almost inaudibly until a new verse of guitar reenters – suggesting more Tarantel than Pajo – repeating, the voice raises (this time a raspy Roberto repeating the title phrase) in a moan over an electronic wind; each element peels away until nothing is left but the guitar faithful, evaporating into silence. Back in the front, “Meditation on …Ascends the Sky” is a recording from late 2005, a retrospective which takes no evident strands from the former but perhaps a new approach toward the original, standing at the back of the track where the oscillation and droning swirl is heaviest, with a wayward guitar twang escaping now and again to the front from the back of the room. Channeled into a single torrent, the hum raises pressure, wordless chants entering with vibrations as gusts of thin chimes (by guest Ramona Ponzini) sway over a bare, ragged hand-percussion. Something like a dial-tone comes on hard when a single beat ends the session. Recorded without overdub or outtake, “… Ascends the Sky” is an impressive feat at over 50 minutes with such long stretches of structured playing. The juxtaposition of new and old tracks does well to illustrate the distance between and reiteration of the group’s musical themes. CD comes in a jewel-case with all-new artwork (replacing the wooden case of the original). Recommended. (Rebis CD, $14 HERE)

Two new discs from Rusted Rail:

Phantom Dog Beneath the Moon - 'Through A Forest Only' 3" CDr
"Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon (formerly known as Snowmachine) are Aaron Hurley (vocals, guitars, piano) and Scott McLaughlin (bass, guitar, cello, vibraphone, spoken word). The duo hail from the west of Ireland but are currently resident in Yorkshire, England. “Through A Forest Only” is their second release following their acclaimed album “In A Light” (Deserted Village) and builds on that albums ‘acoustic meets electronic’ aesthetic by adding more instruments, electricity and percussion. Their “Through A Forest Only” extended player for Rusted Rail features twenty minutes of delicate, driven, dreamy and haunted hymns on a 3 inch EP in a handmade sleeve."

Phosphene - 'Phoenix Trees' 3" CDr
"John Cavanagh is many things to many people - unearther of rare Delia Derbyshire recordings, longtime music broadcaster, psych-writer and serial analogue synth botherer. Phosphene is his musical project and “Phoenix Trees” is his latest interstellar installment of radiophonic vibrations from Glasgow, featuring abstract acoustics atop antique science fiction sounds, Meek melodies, tone poems, otherworldly violin and what sounds like a requiem for a dying star. Following releases on labels such as Secret Eye, Enraptured, Ochre and Static Caravan amongst others, Phosphene’s sonic quest continues with “The Phoenix Trees” on Rusted Rail. Immerse yourself in the world of Phosphene and allow your soul to be psychedelicized by a 3 inch EP in a handmade sleeve."
Go to the RR WEBSITE

And: To quote Rough Trade Digital “We're very proud to announce the arrival of a bedroom-run record label we've long admired, Rusted Rail”. That’s right - all the releases on Rusted Rail (music by Agitated Radio Pilot, Autumn Grieve, Cubs, Loner Deluxe, Mirakil Whip, Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon*, Phosphene*, Plinth, So Cow and United Bible Studies) are now available to purchase as a digital download from our friends at Rough Trade Digital – so feel free to spread the word! HERE

Wise-guy Tynan over at DNT waited to send a huge bundle of all his awesome new releases, and in the interim a bunch of savvy shoppers beat the buzz now half the joints are sold out! Oh, brother. Apparently I love this label, because I will continue to explain/flaunt regardless. First is the eye-catching split (brilliant art by the kinda smart Jeremy Earl) between Apple Snails and The Mighty Acts of God. Featuring the very chic yet-identical grid labels, the tape offers no advice as to which side is which, who’s done what. I should probably qualify things by adding - and know that this was my first encounter with both outfits – that I thought ‘The Mighty Acts of God’ was the name of the album; in other words, the sides sonically commiserate.

Based on the DNT description of the tape – and I apologize if I get this wrong - I wager it is Niwi, aka The Mighty Acts of God, who plays the four tracks of side B, beginning with the electric guitar minimalism “Song of the South” – plucking, and strumming a whale’s squall; drone almost like some Growing, but with notes that root deeper like teeth. The clatter of a fixed-wrist wrenches the strings for “Words are Spelled”, reminiscent a Japanese koto with a western jangle; “Vegetable Lamb of Tartary” involves some harped-strings like Cowell inside the piano - though these sound smaller, like guitar – outdoor recording and bean shakers add a layer, then vocal loops and other helter-skelter sounds, a flute, then dissolve. Last one, “This Toiler in Light”, is folk babble acoustic guitar and maybe harmonica (the recording is quite liquid), a short jam that rattles in a minor hurry toward a Wooden Wand one-off or some more abstract Hush Arbors, ending on a nice, full note. I realize now that the song titles are kind of odd.

On the probable Apple Snails side, “Wind Presses Against Stubborn Beams” sounds like a symphony warming up from outside the house or the soundtrack to a Cremaster Cycle: a wind drone that groans, carrying irregular string notes, and then a surprisingly-lucid steel guitar riffing some casual, capable western blues; “Blood Rain Falls No Matter” swells with a similar drone like a depressed organ, a few glints of distant music cutting through so that you squint toward the speakers. Preferred track “Ten Mile Circle of Fog and Thundr” [sic] begins with an introductory shot, real short, and real sharp in comparison: a few choice strums of electric guitar over an oscillation of Lamaze breathing exercise. The song that returns recalls a sun-worn Thuja recording of some Blade Runner scene, synthesized notes over a clambering drone, sharp, cresting static - refracted light which clears with a final stomp. “Death’s Seed Runs From Her Thighs” is another rousing number: a pilfered opera drowned beneath radio and battered microphone static, intense, Hive Mind slithers, chimes and broken piano. I think these titles make more sense, so I’ll stick with my original estimate. Both heavy trips of high and low, though ultimately headed in different directions. Paper labels on red cassettes, full-color inserts, edition of 100. (DNT cassette, $5 HERE)

Now available from De Stijl:

Jakob Olausson - 'moonlight farm' CD
"is finally available on CD, and you can grab one just about anywhere. Jakob Olausson is a Swedish cat who usually records under the moniker of the Joshua Jugband Five. From what I remember of the CDR released on the Slippytown label a few years back, the JJ5 stuff was the kinda fuzzed out hippy dementia that would drive both punkers and grandmas out of the room in disgust. This 'solo' LP of his on DeStijl, Moonlight Farm isn't too disturbing at all. In fact, it's downright beautiful. Jakob's lonerisms sound legit and the way he shoots them across the night sky is something that'll please anyone who was knocked out by Benny Chasny's first vinyl etchings or St.Mikael's first one. It's the kinda record that fetches the slippers and the pipe and lets you know the day is over en when it's 10 a.m. Just my style.."

Lee Rockey - 'lee rockey music' LP $15(US)
"Jazz drummer Lee Rockey is an unlikely floating member of the Smegma cult and one who has served to connect the group to a parallel jazz stream. Rockey first cut his teeth with jazz flautist Herbie Mann in the 1950s before dedicating himself to free improvisation and multi-disciplinary avant garde sweat. His scattered appearances across a bunch of Smegma records - most noticeably on 1996's The Mad Excitement, The Barbaric Pulsations, The Incomparable Rhythms Of Smegma - have helped contribute to his critical rehabilitation, although he remains relatively unknown outside his native Portland. "Lee Rockey remains my biggest inspiration and one of the most mindblowing people I've ever met," Smegma's Ju Suk Reet Meate insists. "He was a guy who had been a jazz musician starting in, like, 1945, moved to New York and lived on 52nd Street in 1955, is on the first Herbie Mann record, just a true jazz musician, unbelievable. In the 1960s, kind of inspired by Ornette Coleman, he didn't want to play bebop any more, and by the time we met him he was one of the best jazz drummers you ever heard, in the kinda Gene Krupa style, a free, open swing drummer, but he refused to play any jazz or anything normal. When you played with him he would just drag you along on this journey, playing things on three different layers at once, all the time, and you could just pick how you wanted to interact with it, fast, slow, medium, whatever. He was somebody who made us realise that Portland had something that was real. When we arrived in Portland, the city was just dying, but we made that connection with Lee Rockey and that just changed our life. Rockey has never had a real job in his life. He was just a musician. Totally inspirational. For our first show in Portland we had him and his friend do a piece that we kind of played along with - this was back in 1977. He was the kind of guy that you'd think would see us as just a bunch of dumb hippies, but no, he heard something in us and he was right on it. That was some kind of validation. He knew what was what." Lee Rockey Music is the first ever document of Rockey's amazing, intuitive multi-disciplinary approach to liberated musical form culled from recordings made between 1959 and 1973 that might well have originated in 2008. The combination of loops, home made electronics, horns, violin, cello and drums births the kind of modern art/punk hybrid that would've sat just as well at a late-60s Fluxus happening as at a late-90s Chocolate Monk event. Alongside the kind of (instant) compositional rigour that composers like Takehisa Kosugi, Toshi Ichiyanagi and Cosey Fanni Tutti brought to 20th century materials there's the kind of wild, loose, ass-slapping edge that occasionally took possession of jazz players like Ornette Coleman (especially his ESP Town Hall disk) and Anthony Braxton as well as the classic hobbyist glue-tape-and-found-sound feel that the Los Angeles Free Music Society built much of its foundations on, with fluttering delayed violin hovering over time-lag accumulations of electronic sound, Industrial scale dissonance and analogue squonk that could almost be Todd Dockstader. Due to an uncompromising commitment to the arc of his own muse Rockey is virtually unknown in the field of liminal free jazz/modern composition/American primitive that would surely have embraced him decades ago. But now's your chance, so don't pass it up. Comes with full-colour paste-on wraparound sleeve and insert featuring notes by Ju Suk Reet Meate."

Go HERE

A 10” split, ‘Air Lice’ is also a label split administered by the heads of noise stalwarts SNSE and Tapework Tapes. The latter is operated by Miles Haney, who along with partner Joel Rakowski appears as Taliban. The duo’s untitled contribution is a varied terrain of dense noise improvisation, sounding off first with a sort of Dave Philips bass/skree exchange before hunkering down in a bunker of concrete acoustics, the world at war above our heads: laser beam squeals satisfied by ground-shaking thud, air-raid howl and a harsh wind of static – a belligerent orchestra of simultaneously one and a million pieces, mercifully meted out in an alternating current of high and low. Making his vinyl debut as Paranoid Time, SNSE boss Pat Yankee presents two pieces of relentless, maximal noise - a substantially more direct presentation when compared to his album mates. Without hesitation, the first piece begins (likewise there is no lead into the second) with thick-bodied ribbons of feedback, pockets of shredded psychobabble and other human vocalizations, spiked with plenty of Prurient collisions (think Fernow remixing Hive Mind’s ‘Sand Beasts’). A ruthless contest of man and machine (or maybe man in machine), the authorial position is certainly misanthropic, as the contestant in this no contest is only drowning if he ever appears, throttled in a torrent, miserable. As enticing as this may already sound, the merger of the two tracks creates a single progressive piece which repels monotony with sheer mass if nothing else, moving through subtle phases of free-form and thrash, and providing a new stream of entry with each listen.

Submerged in the zeitgeist it’s often difficult to say so, but my guts says that for lack of fluff, fat, or filler, ‘Air Lice’ is one of the vitals, the [harsh noise] disc to buy before all the others (but buy some of those too). Black vinyl comes in a thick sleeve and thicker cover with wicked paste-on art (by Yankee?), modest insert (art by Haney?), and if you’re lucky, a postcard. In a bold edition of 300. (SNSE/Tapeworm Tapes 10”, $10 HERE)

I say, this shit looks alright! From Tipped Bowler Tapes:

TBT 001 The Reggaee – 'Balthar' c20 $6(US)/$7.5(world)
"Fifteen-plus minutes of astral debris from the Reggaee, aka Florian Tositti of Angers, France. With previous releases on Ruralfaune and his own Vilaaaviivivi imprint, Tosittiti has mapped a space of eternal-drone now sound channeled through a roomful of instruments and old tape decks. Balthar’s two side-long tracks of blissful whirring and buried, distant percussion catch the Reggaee at his best. The A-side is lodged inside a dream of vocal clouds and scattered bells, with the nocturnal kicking of the dreamer audible in the fog. The B-side ebbs to nightmare, ending in bleak tonal decay. Full-color cardstock covers with two inserts and sprayed tapes." Edition of 68.

TBT 002 Mrtyu – 'Ritual Terra Continuii' cassette $6(US)/$7.5(world)
"The second stateside release from the murky Mrtyu following the double-disc goliath on 20 Buck Spin. Ritual Terra Continuii retains the morbid intensity, hard-edged rumble, and gruesome death-knells of the debut, packing the visceral shudders into a dense but digestible c30. For those in the dark, Mrtyu is New Zealand’s Antony Milton, of Nether Dawn, The Stumps, and nearly half the projects of note from the Pacific outpost. Tantric doom of the highest order. Cardstock covers with two inserts and blood-sprayed tapes." Edition of 120.

PayPal to tippedbowlertapes@gmail.com

Yeah! Unread:


THE WEBSITE and THE MAN