Irish duo Phantom Dog Beneath the Moon (née Snowmachine) and Rusted Rail present the 4-song, 3-inch EP ‘Through a Forest Only’, the sequel to their Deserted Village debut ‘In a Light’. With connections to many a Deserted Village/Rusted Rail band – United Bible Studies, Agitated Radio Pilot, Cubs – and with contributions from members of many more, Phantom Dog remains a uniquely other band, playing dramatic yet conventional (in relation), highly-accessible indie rock music with just a gentle influence of their companions’ folk designs. With muffled drums and squat, clean guitars the band plays “Slow to Appear on the Moon”, a subdued rock peeled directly from Boy’s Life’s classic ‘Departures and Landfalls’ (minus the jangle), with Akron/Family melodies solely and more solemnly interpreted by Codeine or Low. Sweeps of cello and vibraphone are added by Scott McLaughlin lending the warm lushness of a My Bloody Valentine while singer Aaron Hurley’s falsetto alternately mopes and soars from swell to swell. A crisper wooden percussion is brought to the fore of “To Be Kind” while comparisons to the Missouri band still stand, and now a little nearer Nick Drake as Hurley’s lines come in lethargic, clipped moans. Spoken word fills out “When Nights are Warm”, the windows open to capture an exchange between woman and man over the band’s smeared rave-up. Not afraid to jam a little, the song boils slow with throbbing strings and rolling beats, vocals in chorus - it all swallowed in warm hearth of the vibraphone. The spooky balladry of final entry “A Web Emerging from Fog” could easily be among Johnny Greenwood’s best unrealized compositions: a baroque piano, sleighbells, and heavy reverb leading a steady waltz into a melancholy refrain of acoustic guitar joined by cello and Hurley’s imitation of the strings. High recommendation. (Rusted Rail 3” CDr, 5€ HERE)

From Without Dead Time:

WDT029: Heroines of the U.S.S.R - 'Last Night' CDr £5
"Whilst working one dark and stormy night in an unpleasant supermarket, Heroines chanced upon the sound of a freak radio signal coming through the usual broadcast. Bingo! Last Night is a 40 minute digital storm, created from the sounds of mangled radio broadcasts and distant rain, punctuated with the haunted melody of a ghost buried somewhere inside." Comes in a jewel case with artwork by Rory

WDT015: Tomfire - 'Lincoln 1908' EP CDr £3
"Ultra long EP (50 minutes) showcasing tomfire's unique collapsing sound. Three guys playing a variety of instruments from trumpets and tangled guitars to beat boxes and homemade reverb units. This EP features four of their older tracks (Pipe, Pillows, Grapes, Bank) plus four new experimental works, each recorded live at an empty Victorian house in Lincoln." Comes housed in its own hand printed jacket.

WDT014: Uncle Mum - 'Make Your Own Hole' CDr £5
"3 long numbers, of looming bass tone and prehistoric crackle. Uncle Mum (one Ceri Jovicich) creates creeping foreboding and unknown fears via ancient effects and odd manipulations. Unsettling but strangely alluring." Artwork is provided by Ceri, and changes with each CD.

WEBSITE

From Phantom Limb, really hitting their stride:

ARM 008 Stone Baby – 'Broken Wings and Bandages' CDr $7(US)/$9(Worldwide)
"A massive follow-up to an already stunning debut on House of Alchemy, upstate New York's finest chamber noise ensemble returns with a harrowing audio document and it is both dark and delightful. Packaged in a printed wrap around cover designed by one of the Babies, the beauty on the outside is only matched by the curious beauty on the inside. Cutting their teeth on live shows and changing up their instrumentation for each track, this is the most diverse Stone Baby release to date, bringing to mind their peers; Grouper, Loren Chasse, and Birchville Cat Motel."

ARM 010 Quetzolcoatl – 'Sleeping within the Sun' CDr $7(US)/$9(Worldwide)
"Easily one of the hardest working young artists in the free-form music world today, Tim Hurley, aka Quetzolcoatl, has been releasing his sonic bliss like a hundred flowers blooming. Luckily, he stopped by our garden and gave us this collection of works, a cosmic swirl of keyboard pulses and vocal loops. Guaranteed to make you nod out and then undergo some powerfully transformative dreaming. And you can check out Tim’s lovely manipulated photography on the printed insert."

ARM 012 Century Plants – 'Fingers' CDr $7(US)/$9(Worldwide)
"Another upstate New York free-form group (must be something in the water?); Century Plants' two members hail from Albany and lay down some heavily crazed guitar action on this release (their second one). Featuring members of Burnt Hills, Century Plants have crafted a diverse world out of just three tracks, showing a complexity only outweighed by the passion that created it. For fans of Loren Mazzacane Conners or Lee Ranaldo... Guitars that don't always sound like guitars. Hallelujah!"

ARM 014 6Majik9 – 'Rubber God Head' CDr $7(US)/$9(Worldwide)
"From the musical collective broadcasting Terracid, Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood, and other celestial craziness comes the majikal sounds of 6Majik9. Channeling Coltrane through a cracked mirror image of the No-Neck Blues Band, the music of “Rubber God Head” is a new form of world music, a world of not just distance and space, but of time and past and future. Take the lysergic rollercoaster ride on this monumental track and keep a look out for their work on many other labels this summer and beyond."

ARM 015 Changeling – 'Five Hundred Nights' CDr $7(US)/$9(Worldwide)
"Recorded at the lavish Phantom Limb Recording studios, aka my house, this new cd-r from Los Angeles' premier composer of blissed out loops sounds like it was transmitted directly through time and space from Kevin Shield's brain while recording “Loveless”. Lush and yet desolate, this is the best work of Changeling so far (who also releases music as the Buried Valley label), and it only promises to get better. Two massive guitar and keyboard compositions, flying high above the ground, casting shadows on our hearts, “Five Hundred Nights” feels like an eternity… as eternal as the psychedelic artwork created for the cover by Changeling Roy himself."

WEBSITE

Yet another postal-collaboration of the workaholic/agoraphobic Brad Rose, Autumn Galaxy (re)weds the Oklahoma strummer to Finland’s Ville Moskiitto [I’ve stayed there – unpleasant], last seen in 2005 under the same name for ‘Harapaa’ (MYMWLY). ‘An Emperor’s Garden’ is a five track daydream of guitar-centered freeform/drone pieces, with elaborate titles and fantastic imagery not-vaguely suggesting the courtyard stories of Italo Calvino’s ‘Invisible Cities’. Somewhere between Varèse and My Cat is an Alien, overture “Moon, Waiting for the Stars” opens on a dark analog drone, spotted with comets of attenuating frequencies and an early, swirling climax which holds for the duration of the ten-minute track. A piece of folksy, near-banjo guitar creates “In Your Silver Secret”, with sparse gong-percussion accompanying the strolling meter of this Fahey plucking. “Lighthouse on the Open Sea” is a dark jazz of reverberating guitar and walking bass-thud illustrated with ocean noise and the call of ships; a slumbering, droning electric guitar soon awakens with a big muff solo all sizzle and sharp angles in good krautrock-fashion. The atmospheric gamelan/guitar free-play of “Book of Spells” is complimented by the reedy shanty “The Emperor & Impaler”; its lanterns rattling a gentle percussion, the men’s raspy hush join the song with restraint and something nearing disdain. From a similar place as (VxPxC)’s ‘Reticent to Manifest’, these songs reflect more than a seafaring life, but voyage by ancient means, and in ways far smarter than any CD of pirate songs. Black-bottom CDr comes in chip-board arigato pak with colorful labels and stamps all over. Limited to 123 copies.

Released slightly later than scheduled, the delay behind ‘Dreamlands’ becomes clear when holding this monster release in yr hands: with multiple transparency/vellum inserts aligning as a metaphysical blueprint, the vessel in which Grant Capes aka Sleepwalkers Local 242 packs his latest recordings is befitting the mass of music within. Six tracks bowing to the heft of the 27 minute central track “Horrorshow (remix)”, these guitar- and machine-derived pieces split between heavy impressionism and practicum: tracks “Casio and Guitar No.1” and “Eternal Loop Mantra” assert a very explicit technical thesis – though no more or less abstract – phases and loops of guitar, horns, and more creating a swift drone symphony; “Boxing the Buddhas” - unless I’m wrong - pits a leading guitar drone over the voices of many echoes of what sounds to be various segments of Buddha Machine, and regardless, a thick of loops which pass through each other as resonate spirits. From the other tact, the muffled swells and above-surface percussive clang of “Walking Underwater” provides nothing but elation for the experience, the silent exit resisting a temptation to drown the listener as some childish author might. “Insect Metal Hive Slaughter” continues down this impressionistic, illustrative track, layered guitar forming the low-end drone of conflict and integration in community over which a royal buzz of harmonica hovers; in the end, a cloud break of reverb silences the hive with the mandate of stillness. Whether “Horrorshow” appeared before in an original form I cannot say, however I am quite confident that it holds no resemblance to this (surely elongated) “remix”: less horrific than suffocating, the track creeps along with chimes and hiccups beneath a steady gauze of helicopter static, slowly eroding at the senses with dull, prolonged Throbbing. An interesting choice for place in the middle, this beast of a track effectively cleanses the aural pallet while partitioning the back of the disc from the front. Of course, I cheated and saved it for last, but it works either way. On purple-bottom CDrs, stamped and bagged. Limited to 123. Recommended. (House of Alchemy CDr, $9(US/Canada)/$14(World) HERE)

Consider this fair warning. From The Social Registry:

To celebrate our 4th anniversary we are very pleased to announce that on August 11th and 12th we will be hosting a two-day outdoor festival. This will feature a whole host of bands including Gang Gang Dance, Psychic Ills, Artanker Convoy, Samara Lubelski, TK Webb and Electroputas. Many new signings to The Social Registry will be performing such as Growing, UK-based Sian Alice Group (playing their first ever US show), Mike Bones, Christy & Emily and Douglas Armour (his East Coast debut). As a special suprise we also have a reunion show from Ghost Exits, their first live performance in about three years. The full line-up is as follows:

Saturday August 11th:
Psychic Ills, Artanker Convoy, Ghost Exits, TK Webb, Samara Lubelski, Mike Bones, Sian Alice Group (acoustic)

Sunday August 12th:
Gang Gang Dance, Sian Alice Group, Growing, Electroputas, Douglas Armour, Christy & Emily, Octis (Mick Barr)

Venue: The Yard
Address: 400 Carroll Street btwn. Bond and Nevins
Directions: F or G train to Carroll Street / N or R train to Union Street
Price per day: $15
Price for both days: $25 *Advance tickets are available through TicketWeb
Hours: 1pm-9:30pm

New new label adubbin, it's Burial Mound Tapes:

Graveyards - 'Violent Forms of Laughter Pt. 3' C30 $6
"You know that creepy sort of ambiance when you walk through a dark hallway? Nothing making any sort of sound that you would pay attention to any other time, but suddenly everything is so loud and so haunting. Nails on stone floors echo behind you so you walk faster and faster only to come closer to a new sort of terror. Featuring the amazing duo of John Olson of Wolf Eyes fame and Ben Hellhall of Death Knell." Pt. 1 on Arbor CDR, Pt. 2 on Meudia Morte. Limited to 50.

(VxPxC) - 'Acceptance of the Existence of the Unobserved' C40 $6
"Inside this cassette is an old drunk in an alleyway. A bottle of wine in one hand, a harmonica in the other. A storm brews in his drunken mind and he begins to dance with it. He stumbles into step and all is good, and he trips right back out and begins fighting. In and out in and out. Peace and chaos. Harmony and discordance. Fourty minutes of psychedelic instrumental jams." Limited to 50.

WEBSITE

From MYMWLY:

Mymwly0081 Innig – 'liminal chorus of dawn' CDr
"Debut outing from the alchemically co joined machine goddess and xelalex. outcasters who run with the 6majik9 horde . now in graven heads and sparkling thoughts they come to this , sounds assembled and laid in brutal rows like toxic flowers or apache drift , heavy space , alien folk through broken windows ,chrome drones ascending upon mind scones and bones “a reflective,meditative, raw impression of our cosmic lives... unplanned,flawed and eternally surprising... the past, present and the future swirling endlessly within all our minds eye...." with super deluxe sleeve with unique handmade insert $12/with super deluxe sleeve without unique handmade insert $10

WEBSITE

Nerd Party is an Oklahoma-based label dedicated to the local scene – dedicated to the point that you find a little of everything in their crazy catalog. [We found each other after a recent favorable encounter with OK’s Anvil Salute HERE] Stepping in from out the neighborhood, it behooves me to pick what I like, as a speculator does, and so we survey what Oklahoma calls noise:

Projectile Cesarean is here (and currently) comprised of Nerd Party’s own Lucas Dunn and Austin Tackett; a self-described as an unambitious 2 piece "noise" "band.", performances and recordings arrive arbitrarily as do performers. Made of two tracks, 24 minutes and 15 minutes, ’40 Acres’ is a touch of outsider/amateur New Music, the boys creating an open-ended horror soundtrack with homemade instruments sounding like abused piano and guitar, lurching bass-strikes stretched to their ends. Flutes and other winds are utilized in the second half, randomly pursued by disparate segments of percussion. Feedback is used shyly, sparsely, but effectively. Side two increases the guitar torture juxtaposed against the drone of conversation and other mundane samplings. Completely improvised for certain, these pieces are at home with the dark-ambient works on Chondritic Sound and 23 Productions. Appropriate the title, the couplet suggests the hopelessness of barren land with no mule to work it. Jewel-cased with spray-painted construction paper inserts. Limited to 50 copies. (Nerd Party CD, SOLD OUT from label)

Nerd Party’s first and thus far only compilation, the ‘Melted Mind’ cassette is a collection of 14 tracks by 15 unsavory noise makers. As I’ve mentioned, the label specializes in local color, and I assume for the most part that these are local artists (only band and song names are listed), though neither of the names I am familiar with - Oubliette, Anakrid - are from Oklahoma, so this seems faulty logic from the start; others seem familiar – Warm, Broken Face – but this is due to proximity to other bands, etc. of similar name. Enough of this – the “music”! With all apologies to the artists who I malign, but tape comps can be tricky to call, as the partitions between tracks are not always so easy to define, leaving a lot of guesswork to who’s doing what. This one is particularly bad – I wrote about an entire side when I realized I was listening to the other - and such is the case with the first track, a warped segment of guitar at about 40 seconds long not a solid contribution, but very different from the staticky bombast which follows on the other side of a pause. Warm is first of the B-side with “Bell, Guitar, and B-” (the notes are cut off), and if I may assume both tracks belong as one (alternatively, this may belong to a group called Woody Allen and the Oceanview March Parade), a whammy guitar grovel emerges from the static and howl of the intro in fine Stoner fashion, an ocean-spray of fuzz and bassy feedback lapping up and threatening to engulf the massive tangle of noise beneath. A bout of fair wind-on-mic garble follows from Oubliette and Accidental Favor then the carnivalesque vocal-collage “Burrough’s Circus” (I swear I did not see the title before coming up with that adjective) by Corsican’s Whore; not loaded-down with effects, this last piece is a nice exercise in creating and holding pitches, and working with multiple voices without the aid of a pedal’s buffer. The intensifying industrial murk of Projectile Cesarean and Tygr! Tygr! rounds out the last half of this side: a live collaboration purportedly for “an audience of one”, the piece is a solid 10-15 minutes of mic collisions and ugly, inharmonic instrumentation – a noticeably different violence from the slow torment of the band’s solo disc above.

Swapping sides, Earthen Sea begins the tape properly with “Oceans”, a powerful piece of nature-drone ala Quetzolcoatl, and a deceptively serene start to this collection. This initial tranquility is mercifully transitioned with the warning “the following is violent” - Wether’s “The Angelic Blowup” attacking directly and relentlessly with underwater pulsations. Sunshine California’s live contribution follows suit with harsh feedback welter qualifying them for the Hospital roster in more than just name. Ironing’s “This Destroys” – violent tape manipulations doubly disfigured by the long-playing cassette on which they’ve arrived - is met with the fluid, saran-wrap skronk of Don Garnelli’s “Entrusted Entrails” and the melody of escaping air on the warped casio-pop of Broken Face, a sort of karaoke tribute to Clikatat Ikatowi. Return Trip, ah, returns to the meditation of the opening track: an ecology of warm, glinting drones with flying saucer suggestion. The closer, courtesy of Anakrid, remains faithful to my limited encounters with their kind: captured with utmost clarity, the alien house band warms up - with eerie results! For only $5 (that includes postage), ‘Melted Mind’ does what tape comps were born to do. Transparent yellow cassettes arrive zip-locked with Xeroxed inserts, limited to 200 copies. Get this, and pick up the Anvil Salute tape while you’re there! (Nerd Party cassette, $5 HERE)

This is from Skulls of Heaven:

SEJAYNO - 'SEDAINTY' LP (SKULL03) $12
"Sejayno is Don Sallo (Peter Blasser), Jak Russel (Severiano Martinez) and Burt Duns (Carson Garhart).Beginning with twisted vocal expressions, caveman hymns and growing percussion rituals sealed with babbling hypno-blood sacrifice. Daredevil chant, noise invocation and aural abuse mounts as Sejayno begin to witness the delirium and psychic expansion of time travel as they learned ancient electronic time travel techniques: flipped delay, maraca skip, and ultrasound speech rotation. Sejayno is enacting a multi-year-long journey from electronic time travel techniques to those based on the ancient lute. Sejayno strongly believes that as long as we truly imagine ourselves to be ancient people we will always be ancient people. Featuring unique soulcrafting on some very psychedelic ritual tools and instruments created by Peter B, you may know him better as inventor and musician Peter Blasser, a.k.a. "ciat-lonbarde" and/or the next incarnation of Dr.Who imagining Bob Moog as interpreted by the paper circuit in the form of the seed of life. Sejayno is much more like a mushy ball of resin rubbed off from between the shared thumbs of Sun Ra and David Tudor. Each record contains it's own original piece of artwork! Severiano Martinez is the man behind it all." co-released by Shinkoyo, Heresee, Skulls of Heaven, BOC, and Ignivomous.

WEBSITE

It appears DNT’s 3” series will be taking the aesthetic course charted by the Deathbomb Arc Tape Club: splits between two artists sharing approximately 20 minutes between them, these tracks are not to be taken as “singles” as such, but extended sessions of heavy experiment peeled fresh from the practice space. For February, Acre of Portland channels one ballsy, 10-minute monochromatic drone: microtonal to the extreme, this beast doesn’t move, it errods. On the flip-side we enjoy some gapped-tooth electronics by Haunted Castle, the first non-Portland contributors to the series. Overtaking a pillaged soundtrack of adult-contemporary radio, this duo from Detroit address “Crumbling Kalamazoo” with a sharp feedback hiss which whips and snaps like a snake, punching holes all along the muffled bass of their gagged hostage.

Punching holes in my dumb theory of the DNT Split aesthetic, March’s battle of Monitors v. KK Rampage provides nine tracks of experimental, yes, but totally premeditated and practiced RnR. Of like mind, Missouri’s Monitors and Chicago’s KK Rampage give-up four and five tracks, perfect 7” EPs of jagged post-punk familiar to GSL, 31G, and related rosters of Southern California noise-makers. Monitors’ wordless approach is dominated by Polvo guitar and tom-tom racing on complete tracks like “Tycho Brahe” and the six-minute jam “Demophon”, a bit of keyboard added to the latter’s airy lead-in, and with more grind-and-lurk on the opposing tracks. The VSS grind of “Dark Desire” links both bands as the trebly, discordant replies of the band to the pained pleas of KK Rampage vocalist Johnny Rampage recall many the AmRep band, particularly Hammerhead, and late-90s California like early Rapture; “A Fading Moment” is so sincere it could be a cover for all I know, and “Teeth Like a Knife” is a fine, Factory-style closer with dance bass-line and entrenched vocals before a group sing-along among the downpour of crashing cymbals. Rad! Two full bands of 2xgtr/bass/drum formation, they may prove to be the only classic rockers in the series. Sprayed discs come in heavy-plastic folders with shabby, color-copied photo inserts. Next: April’s CDr features Tent City, so look out! (DNT 3” CDr Split Series, DISCOUNT! $35 $30(US/Canada)/$50 $40(World) HERE) * For info on the series,

"Hello everybody! Ever since I first started DNT, I've wanted to have some sort of series with installments, and now that's about to happen. For the past six months I've been searching for bands to be a part of this. Starting January 2007, The DNT 3" split series (help me think of an actual name for it) will be started. Each month a new 3" cdr will arrive in the mail, featuring 10 minutes of exclusive material from two bands, for 9 months. (That's 18 bands) No other distros or stores will have copies, and so the only way to get these is to subscribe to the series.

"(To cut down on shipping costs for international subscribers, you will receive a package every 3 months unless an order is made in between in which case I'll toss them in). Slots will fill up fast; PayPal to: dntrecords@dntrecords.com.

The full line-up is not quite determined, but the line-up as of now is:

Upsilon Acrux
My Little Red Toe
Leviathans
Twin Crystals
Tent City (members of soft shoulder)
Silver Daggers
Night Wounds
Shearing Pinx
Tunnels
Bird Costumes
Horse Head
Shepherds (members of woods, meneguar)
Color Wheel (members of abe vigoda and mika miko)
Haunted Castle
KK Rampage
Meadow Argus
Monitors
Acre

I recall once in passing hearing how fantastic the cover art for Pumice releases is, and until ‘Pebbles’ this has been the extent of my knowledge of the solo project of New Zealander Stefan Neville. Despite my negligence, ‘Pebbles’ follows a chain of Pumice albums so long even the label can’t account for which number this is. In spite of this proliferation, the songs on ‘Pebbles’ appear 11 discrete pieces of inspired songwriting, full orchestrated and fleshed-out - and sure, maybe a little stronger for my naiveté of the rest – with Neville playing the role of a full band, with the exception of pal Lucy Danko singing a bit on one track. Familiar to the folksy/psychedelic pop of the Deserted Village roster, the Pumice sound is greatly indebted to Neville’s roots playing early 90s Indie music in New Zealand, but perhaps more evidently to American listeners, likewise indebted to the formative sounds from Chapel Hill, Louisville, and elsewhere on the Merge/Matador/Touch & Go map of the Clinton era. Freely incorporating instrumental passages of various sizes, Neville does not pretend to do any one thing with ‘Pebbles’, opening on the playful, reckless near-surf rock jig “Eyebath” before jamming the brakes for “Bold/Old”, resembling in voice, delivery, and gleaming guitar the wry balladry of Kurt Wagner and Lambchop, with little more than piano to match on the lonesome track. Neville’s method for colliding chords is the truly unique marker of ‘Pebbles’, something nearing the transitions and combination of Polvo, riffage which accelerates the midst of the album through cracked pop songs with the ease of a Rob Crow and the early indie rock of Pavement or Butterglory. The mournful “Spike/Spear” roils a dirge akin to United Bible Studies with harmonium, accordion, Wurlitzer, or something approximating these; at 11-minutes, the tune spikes the seventh-inning stretch with some serious left-field (make that Out-field) psychedelia. Fuzz-attack “The Only Doosh Worth Giving”, credited to Teen-X-Ray as originator, is Pumice’s contribution to the Anglo tradition of tossing in one serious rocker to maintain punk cred – and a totally compelling entry it is, suggesting equal parts Echo & the Bunnymen, Wire, and a random handful of Rough Trade post-punk. Eight and ½ minute sequencer orgy “Onion Union” ain’t bad but a bit tedious, leading to the exit, a soft duet of piano and guitar called “Pipi” with an almost Japanese sense of timbre and melody. Mastered by the only engineer worth mentioning, Pete Swanson (or is that the only engineer still working?), the album sounds more finished than much of the song-writing, leaving just Neville’s pending dementia to stand in the way of pop-stardom. As promised, great looking covers designed by Soft Abuse’s Chris Berry. Recommended. (Soft Abuse CD, $11 HERE)

I often release the Animal Psi address with little to no screening of potential solicitors, and like many, this album arrived with little premise. A professional CD job, ‘Songs from a Window’ came shrink-wrapped with full color inserts and a rather elaborate print on the disc itself. A rarity around here, I wondered: who is this? The label, Underwater Tea Party, did not jog my memory, so I did some quick internet research to get things straight (a rarity around here). Oh, so I found nothing. Well, one thing stuck out: the UTP website is linked through the ODAWAS band website, and the UTP store offers albums by that band in addition to its own catalog, which leads me to believe the label is run by one (or some) of the band’s members without actually releasing the band’s work. That’s okay. From all indications, Resting Rooster is pretty tight with ODAWAS (who destroy), reflecting a similar creative sentiment ingesting pop sounds from the 60s and 70s – a mashup of Donovan and Bowie - plying something of a sober, retrospective psychedelia, and recording this with an impossibly unique lens – hazy with soot and black grease, emphasizing bright tones through so much murk.

According to the label description, ‘Songs from a Window’ is a concept album about the character Rooster on a killing spree through the southwest United States, eventually to meditate on his acts with a dosing of peyote by a shaman. From the cacophonous instrumental intro “Resting Rooster” to the musically-straight yet lyrically-crooked closer “Insect Mass”, it would seem this is merely an exchange of one delusion/clarity for another, and indeed, while not immediately recognizable in concept, the surprisingly brief album (29 minutes) retains a strong – if indefinable – tension between each of its 13 tracks; which direction the narrative has shifted, however, is left to poetic license. The three-man band behind Resting Rooster – Cyrus Resur with brothers David and Joseph Bower – employ a standard rec room of instruments, building songs like “John Merrick circa 1882” primarily from clean guitar with flourish from a few exotic pedals, maintaining loose arrangement held tight through the shepherding of the group’s off-kilter yet bold vocals; lyrics are understated and suitably smart, dealing in double-meanings (relationship track “The Silent Partner”) and fantasy (“My Manatee”). Percussion held to a minimum - drumming is brushed and held in the background (with the exception of Starship rocker “Smell of Ghosts”) - the songs’ rhythmic elements materializing and cohering through additional tracks of liquid noise, yelps and shrieks against the glass lens, vocal and otherwise. Writing from Indiana, it is more than justified to extend Jagjaguwar/SC references from ODAWAS to include Bevel and Drunk (singer resembles quite faithfully both bands’ Vin Nuon), Unwed Sailor, Skygreen Leopards, as well as the more angular “rock” of Wilderness. Additional musicianship from a small army of players are used Crazy Horse-fashion to amplify songs such as “Massachussets” [sic], a picturesque ballad of slide guitar, bolstered by the weeping of violin, or the Mercury Rev chamber pop of “Don’t Cry”. This is a solid collection of songs (though perhaps not the clearest of concepts), remarkably original and filler-free, and an even more impressive debut. Recommended. (Underwater Tea Party CD, $12 HERE)

Toiling on the island of Puerto Rico, a US territory with half the population of New York City, Jorge Castro and his Sonora label are the spot for professional noise in the 51st state. Castro’s most recent solo work, the composition ‘Pastoral’ features three tracks of 11-, 15-, and 11-minute duration - guitar-derived recordings clearly indebted to the history of drone works, yet composed in such a fashion to negate much of the neutrality and homophony of which makes drone. Strongly reminiscent the O’Malley/Rehberg project KTL (Mego), the three movements work together as a suite in some traditional sense, the overture of “Pastoral” holding steady a swelling jet-drone before jumping the gun in the last quarter, abruptly switching tone and juxtaposing harsh pitch with heavy-fuzz riffage. Despite "Pastoral"'s status as title-track, the disc’s centerpiece “Detrito” is most definitely the body of this treatise, the introductory vibrato created by pummeled strings stretching with frequency – spreading open in length and height – a second high-frequency guitar line enters, then a third, an avant-metal symphony triangulated with the sliding chords. The hypnotic effect of repeating riffs masks the deep light of drone beneath, a backdrop which casts the spikes of each distorted note in silhouette, the lone march of Sleep appearing from without the dissipating drones. The drifting segue leads to the final movement “Horizonte”, a slow, minimal drone-fantasia unfurling linearly from behind an initial veil of static – think Mirror and Andrew Chalk - a reverberation as response to/effect of the massive central track, and an apropos diminution to exit. Heavy recommendation, and quite limited.

Another of Castro’s recent outings (that is, apart from his crew Cornucopia) is the Castro/Marhaug collaboration with Lasse Marhaug of Jazkamer. Made of a single 20-minute performance, ‘Glory on the Summit’ explores with a raw, improvisational immediacy the extremes of minimalism and noise which ‘Pastoral’ refines: sparse, barely audible tones survive the track (though in the end, as mere echoes of negative space) of which the groan of electrocuted guitar enters and dominates Hair Police style, cutting a ragged gash through the droning harmonics of low-level feedback. The formation of a natural percussion and rhythm sparks in the ear a design with which to follow the akimbo feedback, a phenomenon the loudest voice tries in the end to erase with a trio of high-end tonal sheets to partition the listener from whatever strangulations the remainders have to share. Brief, passionate, though considerably uneven, the disc works nicely as a supplement to the solo Castro disc while standing strong as a monolith in its own right. Printed white-label CDr comes poly-bagged in a heavy sleeve. (Sonora CDr, $7(worldwide) HERE)

A quartet of hour-longs from Canada's Middle James Co.:

MJC117 SLITHER - 'body snake' C60 $6(No. America)/$8(World)
"Slither is the horn hunk gunk duo of Heath Moerland (Sick Llama, Fag Tapes) & Chris Pottinger (Cotton Museum, Tasty Soil)- This tape documents late june 07 tour with the Fossils crew- Two rad dudes bust-a-move cross border breezn & blowin Canadian minds-- ghetto primitive mjc style features entire sets uncut. side A-- june 23rd Ypsilanti, MI @ Raven Matt's//june 24th Hamilton, ON @ the casbah lounge // side B-- Hamilton encore ! june 25th Toronto, ON @ the White Orchid + bonus zombie slomo slither trailings. limited to 33."

MJC118 TERROR TAPES vol. 21 - GAS SHEPHERDS/LEAVENWORTH C60 $6(No. America)/$8(World)
"side A; UK primates Gas Shepherds send root juice in the form of two quick pieces featuring weirdo bells clang & psychic clatter junk sessions from the green pasture a total trip / stone on it's own "hand-made psychedelia". side B; hailin from Witchita, Kansas - head of Snakefork label - chirp crashin buzz beast Leavenworth givena fist of short guttural groans\low hum of the new horizon best described by dudes own myspace "free tone generation/manipulation/'composition' - fuck guitars - beer box circuit board duff-seed midwest rennaisance sound" limited to 33."

MJC119 FOSSILS - 'Dug' C60 $6(No. America)/$8(World)
"here's how we do it infront of a live audience outta the comfort zone short & sweet = 5 gigs on 1 cassette! Michigan and Ontario freshly dug no choice but to bring it to you uncut horns hiss cats feedback tapes naps. side A: from the U.S.A. / two house shows: june 22nd Kzoo @ the red room//june 23rd Ypsi @ Raven Matt's // side B: 1 club show + two sweet outdoor gigs! june 24th Toronto @ the White Orchid//june 29th Hamilton @ gage park//july 7th Hamilton @ Jackson Square rooftop. limited to 33."

MJC120 TERROR TAPES vol. 20 - REVERSE MOUTH/FOSSILS C60 $6(No. America)/$8(World)
"side A; Reverse Mouth from Athens, Greece - boy/girl duo featuring the superstar behind the highly recommended Phase!Records feedback sensation meets mighty murk the hum of something delicious unearthed loops burning off the lake haze. side B; F0$$il$..., spools of tape drool drag to raw horn blows to guitar haunts +moans between walls with a smear of typical creepy delayed junk from these steel forest freaks recorded summer 2007 @ hq. limited to 33"

WEBSITE and EMAIL

Montréal’s Natacha’s Recordings is a small boutique producing handfuls of well-crafted CDs - a tape or record here and there - and judging from their petite discography, they enjoy operating as such. Celebrating their fifth anniversary, the label offers just three new releases for 2007, making for a grand total of twelve. One of these, Le Peuplier De Simon, is the work of label co-founder Simon Bélair, and ‘Cheers To The Seasons’ is a complimentary co-release with overachievers Digitalis Industries. Reminiscent last year’s self-titled release by Shuta Hasunuma and various related works of crackling, glitchy laptop patchworks (Múm, Lucky Dragons, maybe even Matmos), ‘Cheers’ follows an equally fractured path (or rather, vague semblance of path) toward music as it once was, a taut screen laced with loose piano notes, unearthly voices, and a patina of artificial analogue scrabble like flecks on an unsleeved microphone. Longest piece “Love the Bomb” illustrates best the interplay of so many seemingly unrelated sounds, with laser-beam designs conducting (with delay) broader patterns of repetition and the phasing of drones. “Les Oiseaux et les Motos” without the title would be little more than a warm cacophony of sounds, but the duck calls of a chorus of colliding whistles and the stutter of mechanical traffic. Barring the exotica remix of the brief outro, the final two tracks present a chamber orchestra beneath much environmental interference (shading, optimistically): veering toward Dixieland, the horns of “L’air Chaud du Marantz” work well with the Richter/Johannsson neo-classicism of “Les Saisons ésoteriques”, a swelling piece of digital orchestration complete with libretto (plundered, for sure). Smart yet unimposing, in the disc stands a unique sound among so many ambient works. Disc comes poly-bagged with three-panel glossy insert, limited to 500 copies. Recommended. (Natacha’s Recordings/Digitalis CD $10 HERE)

Also new from this endeavoring multimedia label is ‘The Tale of the Deceptive Dog’ by artist/animator/creator Magnhild Winsnes of Norway. Creatively on par with many a Spike and Mike entry, the animated short film is very, ah, European – almost French for its abstract treatment of the everyday – the brief (10-15 minutes) story of an enterprising dog two-timing two men (and possibly more) for snacks and affection. The films greatest attribute is the “animated” soundtrack, which not only bolsters and broadens the visual activity of the characters’ movements, but deepen the spaces of the stage, the size of this fictitious world and the spirit of the tale. Also included is a B&W booklet of Kevin Secondsesque sketches by the author entitled ‘Hunting Worms’. Limited to 100. (Natacha’s Recordings DVD $10 HERE)

‘Pink Panther Blood’ is my second encounter with Amber Lions, and unless I’m missing something (it happens all the time), the rough duo of Valerio Cosi and Tony Ruiz (give or take a few friends) are hesitant to appear on any more than three inches, their debut a self-titled gem for First Person [HERE]. Unlike that album, this disc houses a single track, the 16 ½ minute title-track, a languid bossanova in three phases, with twinkling music box construction, strummed and hummed guitar/vocals like a male Pocahaunted (to be current) or a Gilberto, and a harp/drone/sax combo (and what a combo!) which extrapolates its way through layer after accumulating layer, with hot radio textures, weaving horns, feedback percussive, and an overwhelming ecstatic rising as a tide. Again making the most of the constricted format, Amber Lions tear the shit out of these three inches. Limited to 90 copies and very, very great. Get this! (House of Alchemy 3” CDr, $4(US)/$7(world) HERE)

New from Tanzprocesz:

[tzpCD24] Nonhorse - 'My First Moth/Gun Tears' CDr 5€
"tapes & tales from nyc. freaky animals, birds and monsters eating yr mind.
shadow fanfare playing sick tunes in yr head. pop-up book style. 100 copies."

[tzpCS02] Arklight - 'Hell's Black Intelligence' cassette 5€
"psychedelic noise devil incantations. pre-industrial voodoo music.
C-30 packaged in golden handmade cardboard box. Cassette limited to 50 copies."

WEBSITE and EMAIL to order

What are (VxPxC) up to now? Let’s see: with ‘Of Indeterminate Age’ it seems the band is echoing more and more the Tarentel trajectory, both in sudden stylistic leaps and all-around free-formones, the disc’s six nameless tracks converging and dissolving without coalescing in any traditional sense; a familiar arsenal of guitar drones and metallic percussion are joined with harmonica and what isn’t necessarily a xylophone in the band’s informal cover of the post-drums ‘Home Ruckus’ LP. The psychedelic-aerobics don’t stop but slow for 9 moments with the fourth movement, a hushed passage of shakers and fadered feedback beneath which the deep, clean guitar strums which have survived the entire album are brought to light. Continuing into the brief fifth, the guitar starts showing off, repeating phrases and nearly entering a riff before the 16-minute finale track closes-in like a warehouse of wayward instruments and lost sessionists: broken-record banjo provides some nice timbres, the drones wielded like solos, and hardly mantra. The trio keep propelling themselves forward into new territories, moving far enough past prior releases without overshooting a cohesive overlap. Super thin clamshell comes with a cool blue cover, CDr sprayed and limited to 90 copies. (Phantom Limb CDr, $7(US)/$9(World) HERE)

Following his incredible self-titled EP for Blackest Rainbow, Ben Nash submits ‘Angels at 5’ cassette: two side-long pieces of guitar and psych-vibrations, somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes each, reflecting two distant regions of Nash’s repertoire. The first resemble the Nash I know, like the live(r) improvisation of Jackie-O Motherfucker (think of many a U-Sound recording), with meandering guitar pluck-und-strum, light drone, and noise oscillation, an odd cross of back porch spiritual and western cinema; entitled “The Demise of J.C.”, like the tape’s title you can read into it what you will, as the piece remains largely formless, directionless, and thereby undemanding of a single read, be it death (“angels”, “demise”) or something more innocuous. B-side “Ruin what you cherish/Damned Child (Rough Rehearsal Version)” carries on ambiguously the theme, or rather in title, as the musical tone is much darker, shapeless. In fact a collaboration with players Chris Grey and Brett Womersly, this (apparently) live recording has the immediate size of a trio going full-gait, with clattering percussion, heavy drone vibration, and electronic confetti. A full band shout/cry session interrupts mid-piece (or perhaps a sharp transition into the next piece), appearing as a flute, howl, and with more the momentary emergence of a pronounced guitar (to remind you it’s there), rimmed-crystal feedback, and electronic shadows falling every which way over the stage of the sound. Reminiscent United Bible Studies, Tirath Singh Nirmala, and Current 93 on occasion, the dark mysticism of the track is something Nash’s standards allude to, but yet to be experienced wholesale. The side a touch short for the scope of the performance, and a heavy shock from the light flow of the reverse, this is a definitive B-side: hardly throw-away, merely hard to place. On Tic-Tac orange tapes with fancy paper inserts and label-maker labels. Edition of 40. (self-released cassette, available through these distros: Tomentosa, Boa Melody Bar, and Time-Lag)

NEW! from Blackest Rainbow:

VOICE OF THE SEVEN WOODS - 'The Far Golden Peak Part One' CDr/one-sided cassette £5 (each format)
"Our biggest ever release! And nearly sold out already - what!? Voice of the Seven Woods is Rick Tomlinson, an under the radar dude from Manchester. Superb fine guitar pickery and loopery with thumping undercurrents over a 20+ minute instrumental track. Possibly one of the finest UK acts around right now - if you don't know Rick you need to check him out now - a must for fans of Hush Arbors, James Blackshaw, Wooden Wand etc. CDR come in usual Blackest Rainbow laser printed sleeves with heart artwork by Nikki Grout and is limited to 333 copies. The one sided cassette comes with totally improvised art by me, weird triangles and stuff, and is limited to only 33 copies and only available from here. Both formats are hand numbered."

POCAHAUNTED - 'Rough Magic' cassette £5
"Brand new cassette from Bethany and Amanda. A side Singing Color is a stunning 12 minute piece of guitar and wordless vocal with guest violin from Laena. The B side is Warmer Knives, a considerably darker track with dooming drones and wordless duet vocal seances. Full colour sleeve with art by the band, white tapes with fully stickered a-sides. Hand numbered edition of 100. One of my favourites so far."

BEN NASH AND SOPHIE COOPER DUO - untitled CDr £5
"Amazing collaboration between Sheffield's psyche drone folker Ben Nash and Manchester's guitar wizardess Sophie Cooper who in her spare time of being unemployed also plays as one half of CooperJones and jammed with the Leopard Leg ladies towards the end of their short lived activity. This is essentially an insane psychedelic space jam between an electric and acoustic guitar venturing between blues, folk with the odd wild shred here and there. Laser printed pastel paper sleeves, all handnumbered in an edition of 90 copies."

FOSSILS - 'Steel Forest' cassette £4
"Limited edition of only 50 copies, a brand new slab of squelch and crush from Canada's Fossils. Duel sides of metal scrunching nightmares with fucked up words and speech. Comes with sleeves designed by Pascal of Stuckometer and a handnumbered crubby insert by myself. White cassettes with stubby little stickers."

See the WEBSITE or EMAIL to order..

A new requirement from Ruralfaune:

v/a - 'Frannce' 3CDr compilation 20€
"Ruralfaune & La Belle Dame Sans Merci proudly present you the 3cdr set compilation "Frannce", an ode to France by 45 artists: A compilation were you can hear Fursaxa playing a Ghedalia Tazartes, Black Forest Black Sea singing in french, Tanakh with Mick Turner (Dirty Three).. but also tracks by Uton, Ashtray Navigations, The North Sea, The Futurians... All the tracks are exclusive and "Frannce" is limited to 300 copies so act fast!"

See the WEBSITE and WEBSITE, or order by EMAIL - and SAMPLES!
* Distributors : Aquarius, Tomentosa, Time-lag, Eclipse, Second Layer, Volcanic Tongue, Boa Melody bar, Ikuisuus, DNT, Jussieu Music.


For a setlist,

CD1 "Bleu"

01 THE SHITTY LISTENER "More now girl"
02 THE NORTH SEA "Le Dieu cerf"
03 DE OLIVEIRA / JARVIS / DE OLIVEIRA "Joanna"
04 AMOLVACY "The nobleman's fever"
05 MIKE TAMBURO "Headphone music for Bridgett Bardot"
06 TANAKH "Stereognosis (french remix)"
07 TOM CARTER "Reynardine"
08 BLACK FOREST BLACK SEA "My night with the French Resistance"
09 6MAJIK9 "Mains tombantes"
10 S. DYJA "Un hommage à Maldoror"
11 QUETZOLCOATL "I dive for secrets in the Gorges du Verdon"
12 BEN REYNOLDS "Surréalisme avec Robert Desnos, Marcel Duchamp & Louis Aragon"
13 THE ROME CHELL AND THE REGGAEE "Mouchoir de ciel"
14 CPU GROUP WITH RAHMANE "Donnez-moi juste un fétide Odontophorus (trop d'oiseaux dans mon écho mix)"
15 "V" "Boisansfeuilles"
16 LAMPPUKELLO "161104 french fries"
17 MILOU ET LES CHIENS FOUS "La maison près de la fontaine"

CD2 "Blanc"

01 VOLCANO THE BEAR "Bongeau"
02 BROTHERS OF THE OCCULT SISTERHOOD "Etangs et petits aigles"
03 THE MIGHTY ACTS OF GOD "Revenez à la demoiselle qui est déléguée du Roi du Ciel"
04 FABIO ORSI & GIANLUCCA BECUZZI "Sans fin"
05 TANAKH "Their door"
06 CJA & LEE NOYES "Obsessed on Idefix"
07 ELEPHANT MICAH "Marie's hair"
08 ALLIGATOR CRYSTAL MOTH "Vampires cristallins"
09 AJILVSGA "French Revolution"
10 SILVESTER ANFANG "De Gouden Ridder"
11 THE STUMPS "The Maginot line"
12 GREGG KOWALSKY "Black Armagnac"
13 FURSAXA "Transports #6"
14 SEHT "Green Faerey"
15 VALERIO COSI "Emmanuelle Béart"

CD3 "Rouge"

01 ALTAR K "Ils dorment"
02 HEAVY WINGED "Un regard primitif"
03 BJERGA / IVERSEN "Sons pirates des fréquences volées"
04 BIRDS OF DELAY "Wader"
05 THE FUTURIANS "Futuna"
06 GASHEART "Sans titre"
07 UTON "Paris in stars"
08 FAMILY BATTLE SNAKE "L'eau qui dort"
09 ROBERT HORTON Vs EGGHATCHER "Funeral process for the potpourri terrorist"
10 FUCKEN PURITAN "Fish heads and frogs legs"
11 THE COSMIC MANDOLINERS "Unis vers l'univers vert"
12 ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS "Insideoutside the dream"
13 TAIGA REMAINS "Originary lack"

Primarily a one-man project by Rhode Island’s Brandon Glasson, Vio/Miré’s third album ‘March 2007’ is its first release for a label, MA’s Leisure Class Records. Traversing the borders of drone, chamber pop and modern folk – still, firm in its place – the music is airy yet well-defined, filled out by steady runs of finger-picked guitar and the dry heat of cello (by guest Emily Thomas). Present on nearly every track, Glasson’s hesitant vocals recall the northwestern Phil Elvrum or the sore tooth lament of Little Wings with a less-husky quality, forced out on stage by his guitar’s propulsion. Quite similarly, J Mascis peers through on “A Taped-up Note”, a first person confrontation in a relationship sort of way, wrapped with the gentle claustrophobia of banjo-like picking which babbles around the room. And though at times approaching that undesirable Omaha whine, the soft edge of the strings neutralizes well, saving song as well as lyric. In melody and melancholy, highlight “To Keep Warm” shares common strands with Elliott Smith, not so heavy-handed (if you can imagine), and in that way sharper in atmosphere, showing without telling. Glasson’s most regular accomplice is Leisure Class’ Liz Isenberg, coming through in a number of pinches with an agile voice high and bright and perfectly suited. Through the Kranky drone-euphoria of introduction “Não, Não, Esperarei Para Voce” (eluding to the man's currently ambiguous relationship with Latin America) and “Purple House, November”, and in related news, the Max Richter piano and cello duet “March 14th”, Glasson cements the notion that the richness of his music lies in the composition, arrangement, and minimalist interplay of the instruments, of which the voice is treated (fairly) as another – nothing less, nothing more. Handsomely-printed CDr comes in a remarkable handmade, hand-cut diorama sleeve, bundled with string. Limited to a troubling 125 copies. Very good, very recommended. (Leisure Class CDr, $11 HERE)

I think these folks are Danes; from Hwem/Namenlos:

We Were Dancing - 'Mixtape vol. 1: We Won't Get Old' C72 cassette $8(worldwide)
"The first collaborative Hwem/Namenlos release is a re-issue of the brilliant We Were Dancing EP originally put out in digital format on Hwem. As soon as I heard this, I knew it had to be released on cassette as well. "We Won't Get Old" is a lo-fi journey through the emotional soundscape of everyday life and a tribute to dictaphone jams and broken contact mics. Still, buried under layers of hiss one still finds a pop nerv akin to, say The Smiths, but remaining is only traces of a chord - chopped and screwed to a passing crackle. Apart from the original Hwem release, the cassette edition also features a new side long track showing another side of W.W.D's work. Dip in to find some (not so) sweet ambient drone meditations."

WEBSITE/WEBSITE

From Canada's Elite Tapes:

ELITE-TAPES is very excited and proud to present you with two brand new releases for June 2007. The first release is a split C-60 cassette entitled "ATLÄS VS. Mystified" (ELT-002). The second is a very limited run of the new release from ATLÄS, "Animal Bone" (ELT-003). Reserve your copy today, as these will go FAST! Plenty of copies of Catacombs are still available in both formats, so order all 3 right now and receive a package deal ($12ppd CAN/US & $15ppd INTL.)

[ELT-002] ATLÄS VS. MYSTIFIED - split C-60 cassette $5(CAN/US)/$7(WORLD)
”The second chapter of the Elite-Tapes catalogue. Glitching delay freak out sessions by ATLÄS recorded live direct to cassette tape and endless pulsating glitch-drone tracks by the one and only Mystified. All featured on a limited run of 22 sexy pink & blue paint splattered C-60s.”

[ELT-003] ATLÄS - 'Animal Bone' C-30 cassette $5(CAN/US)/$7(WORLD)
”The latest release from ATLÄS presented on a very short run of 13 limited edition grimey C-30 tapes. Brian Wirth & Claire Theriault provide an assault of violin drones, creepy synth atmospheres and melted-circuit glitches recorded direct to tape. Get them while they're still hot.”

Samples, etc. at the WEBSITE

Jherek Bischoff, bassist/multi-instrumentalist (The Dead Science, Parenthetical Girls…) and producer (Parenthetical Girls, Xiu Xiu…), presents his first collection of solo work, compiled of recordings made from the shambles of incomplete projects previously released anonymously on parked cars, public parks, cafes, and now properly packaged for accomplice Jason Webley’s otherwise self-dominated 11 Records. Each of the nine tracks titled for their duration (to the millisecond, the literal blink of an eye), reflecting not a work-in-progress nature to these songs but Bischoff’s vague, purposeful philosophy of open art, free of propriety and therefore authority. Despite this potential self-sabotage, these tracks are tight, fully-constructed and coherent: the bulbous, upright-bass dub of many a Dead Science song greets us at the onset of “3:53.353”, terse, sweeping acoustic guitar and a clattering gamelan percussion rounded off by Jherek’s own oft-absent voice; a falsetto not unlike that of The Dead Science’s Sam Mickens, yet less breathy and sloppier - drunker on the narcotic and pheromone which Mickens often approaches but rarely ingests. As explained in the liner notes, Bischoff took these recordings as an opportunity to experiment with a range of instruments, he the only player on the recording, learning as he goes, the results not immediately reflecting novice but rather the beneficial adhesion of many timbres by the same hand. A pair of airier, piano- and drum-based tracks appear, a coupling reminiscent Mogwai, Eluvium, and other such post-rock standards, wafts of the neo-classics of Nyman and Rachels'; calypso and Latin jazz make some odd appearances, recalling the latter works of Blackheart Procession or the occasional Calexico. Paired with his unique and lively bass currents, the rhythmic elements of this album are particularly rousing with the aid of Bischoff’s able, wild drumming style which trots, marches, and sprints from track to track – and often within each track – the addition of brass and strings expanding the aperture of the recording lens on the Morricone-symphonic “4:49.729”; a chorus of voices and toy instruments finalizing the punk-burlesque of “2:44.666”. Experiments of voice present the album’s final transgression, the majority of songs featuring some sort of verse, and then always in a new voice, the hardest to disguise and the strongest suggestion that this could hardly be the work of one man. Clearly I’m sold, and for all the ground it covers and the expressed desire to create several discrete collections from these songs, the disc remains cohesive and compelling, breezing through the swiftest 40 minutes. Legit, all black CD comes in a jewel-case with gothic cover art and two panels of scrawled notes just waiting to give you a migraine. Highly recommended. (11 Records CD, $11 HERE)