The Filthy Social Club is veterans Neil Campbell and Darren Wyngarde, and ‘Astral Turd’ is all their making. From the ugliness of the masthead and minstrel cover art, it should come as no surprise that this be no crystalline ballad of subtle grace but a psychotic bout of extensive free-form constructions and carnivalesque timbral switches. Our hosts scream empathetically as they molest a variety of plugged and unplugged noise-makers, passing in phases through percussion-heavy builds (cymbal and programmed) and aggressive lengths of tape-warble suggesting the spirituals of Sun City Girls or Sunburned Hand of the Man. The cycle is pretty bare in all its volume, making for a nice purge before the feast. Recorded live in Leeds this July, the recording has the anxiety and immediate engagement befitting a healthy documentary, without the throw-away insincerity of just another cheap recording day. Despite this, the boys and the label pull a classic swindle with this “C23”: in fact a 90 minute tape, the recording is just the first part of side A, leaving the unwitting listener [me] fingering the FF in search of more super-vomital wreckage. No dice. With glossy color covers and a hand-stamp, limited to 100. (777 was 666 cassette, ¥1000 [appx. $8.75 at the moment] HERE)

From DNT: Volume 1 of the 3" series is now complete. Subscriptions are no longer available, but now you can order them individually, until we run out (these are the left-overs, VERY limited stock)



Each disc is $4.5(US/Canada)/$9(International) - OR - you can buy all 8 for $30(US/Canada)/$50(International)

January: Tunnels/Bird Costumes
Animal Psi REVIEW (this is weird): The pairing of Bird Costumes and Tunnels has proven quite apt: sharing a common backyard in sunny Portland, Oregon, the two artists also share a similar ominous, human-absent approach to composition - though from opposite sides of the spectrum, with Bird Costumes taking a more mechanical approach to compliment Tunnels’ more textural drones. Stepping up for tracks one and two, Bird Costumes (Daniel Osborne) begins his half of the split with metered strafes of what sound like strings played beyond the fret-board or from within a piano; sparks of high-vibration which evoke the New antics Cowell or Partch. Natural-harmonic tones emerge from behind these pulses of sound, gaining in volume with each release until they fill both channels with a torrent of skillfully layered distortion. Track two is another exercise in guitar virtuosity, this time over a canvas of hand-muted guitar, with noodles and slides layered vertically in various states of distortion. At five and three minutes, these two tracks work well on their own as sketches, but could do equally well as seeds for larger movements. Tunnels (Nicholas Samuel Bindeman) takes to task the last track: at 10 1/2 minutes, the untitled piece (all three tracks are suitably untitled) oscillates quickly in a cresting mid-range helicopter drone, behind which tonal drones glint and shift with a rare narrative quality found only in the works of masters like Stars of the Lid. All three tracks are brilliant, well-executed, and far larger than this tiny disc would elude.

February: Acre/Haunted Castle
AP REVIEW: 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.

March: Monitors/KK Rampage
AP REVIEW: 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.

April: Tent City/Horse Head
"Tent City from Tempe, AZ are a group of five people and use everything around them such as pots and pans and toy instruments and looped guitars to make blissed out music along the lines of Raccoo-oo-oon. Horse Head from OC, CA make teenage drone. past releases on arbor, nnf, friendly biceps, etc."

May: Oh Home/Mythical Beast
"Oh Home are from Redondo Beach (ex member of Le Joshua) and make really beatiful epic guitar/pedals/drums music. Also:2012. They share the 3" with Mythical Beast, who use their basses to create some moderately heavy riffing, but gentle too. umm.."

June: Apple Snails/Treetops
"Some of you might remember Apple Snails from his split CS with The Mighty Acts of God (DNT012). Well since then he's been busy doing releases on some awesome labels, including Digitalis/Foxglove. He makes dark ambient stuff. Perfect for the fall. Treetops is Mike Pollard of the ridiculously awesome label Arbor. Bedroom guitar loop/fuzz awesome. He just did a tape on Ecstatic Peace, so watch out!"

July: German/Red Needled Sea
"Glad to do another release for the finger-piano kings German. On this one they expand out to many other instruments too. Red Needled Sea are Athens, Greece, and that's about all I know about them. They make murky drone you'd expect from a band from Greece."

August: James Fella/Nomen Dubium
"James Fella is a busy guy. He plays in Tent City & Soft Shoulder, plus he runs the label Gilgongo Records. Some of his past solo outputs have been beautiful soft intricate works, others have been loud blissful guitar pedal'd pieces. Total brain-fried intensity for this one. The 3" finishes with Nomen Dubium from Berkeley, CA (debut tape still in print, DNT038). Nomen Dubium create incredibly beautiful (some will say new-age, but c'mon!) guitar pieces, run through a zillion and one pedals. Think My Bloody Valentine or something. "

All available HERE

foxglove169: fabio orsi & gianluca becuzzi - 'please don't count the clouds' 3x 3"CDr $14
"on "please don't count the clouds," we find this italian duo creeping up the vines and into the droning heavens. this extremely limited collection features one solo disc from each, plus a brand new duo piece, all gorgeously packaged in hand-numbered bronze envelopes. as the sunlight is blocked out, the sounds of the spheres reverberate and send out enchanted signals to the center of the universe. these are the remnants of the tones of the earth. simple and beautiful and limited to 50 handnumbered copies."

foxglove170: the magick travelling backpack band s/t CDr $8
"all hail this new supergroup of finnish mystics. the magick travelling backpack band is no longer showering, but is bathing with rocks and grime all over western europe. they've been booted out of that magic forest that burned down years ago, anyway. so who are these moaning, droning superstars? the backpack band on this go around is keijo, uton, j. koho & tiitus (of vapaa, the free players, kulkija, etc), & christelle gualdi. and it's gualdi who keeps things in check. while the finns do their best to muck everything up, spilling buckets of psychedelic mud skronk and painting the windows and walls as black as coal, gualdi's crystalline voice calms everything down. sizzle." 100 copies.

foxglove171: the solo joint 2 CDr $8
"this is the second release from spaniard toni ruiz for the foxglove imprint and continues the theme on his self-titled debut. acoustic guitar mazes that lose their victims in a mass of organic greenery. hell, i'm not even sure what that means, but listening to ruiz's meandering compositions that flirt with the line between out-and-out improvisation and something more structured, more resolute. sure, there are vague hints of fahey, but even more apparent is pastoral americana, something from a time since past. ruiz's music is simple and beautiful. and hey, there's gold in them there hills. damnit." 100 copies.

foxglove172: DOPO - 'crossing birds' CDr $8
"don't listen to me, here's what patrick best of pelt has to say about the new DOPO album:
- home sick, downing some angel tea, barely making sense of the paper Prof. Grunenwald circulated awhile back postulating the probabilities for a fifth wave of Iberian psych or the LFD-Lysergic Fado Drone. Ludicrous a read as is much of "Toward a Fado Lysergic," it seems Grunenwald did foresee at least something of the sheer splurg of the new DOPO recordings:
"Noir, so soft, the intangible melancholy- buzzing 220, lightening the Alfama in the gangly clip clop of whoop and whop. Chimera, Mescalito, me Centaur, you Minotaur laying bound in sphere burning blue water inside orbs of gold, molten core, acerbic apostles of azure mountains, preachers of white magic."
levels of multi-scatter -- informed by the old school, enlivened by the rasp of outdated processors, yet still thoroughly anchored in its primate origina -- evidenced in this collection is sign of a higher order, a new constellation, some damn action along the Atlantic rim, eolian, that goes quite a bit past what I think an earlier generation of scene-scribblers expected.
But Grunenwald had a piece of it, I think, and fall back on the couch.
"DOPO oh DOPO come back to earth have we not had tea? Have we lost our look of tired ambiguity that befalls the chastised provocateurs' of the end state of the fading mind? DOPO, please drift us away again, again, again, again........"
How'd he know I was drinking tea? Freaking scene-scribblers. MGPWB:010.0008.002007" 100 copies

foxglove173: tender buttons s/t CDr $8
"what do you get when three danes (2 girls and 1 guy) take a trip to sweden with a tape recorder, a guitar, and a few other instruments? you get tender buttons. this trio features three members of the exquisite pink luminous invocation, and this one-off project is quite special. tender buttons is named after gertrude stein's impressive book of the same name, and if that wasn't enough, the lyrics are all adapted from her writing. it's a deadly combination and though this release is short, the brevity makes you want to play it over and over again. simple folk melodies complemented with mouth organ, percussion, and other random instruments, and highlighted by (mostly) female vocals. lovely indeed." 100 copies.

foxglove174: talugung - 'flooded fields' CDr $8
"someone should start a clan of the instrument builders. and if such a thing existed, talugung (aka ontario resident, ryan waldron) would be one of the leaders of the movement. even though no such organization exists (damnit), there's still this debut album of waldron's fractured exploits. "flooded fields" isn't played on all instruments he's built, though. he accents this with all sorts of random, ethnic instruments - circular xylophones from god knows where, for example - creating a wonderful cacaphony of sound. the proceedings here are choppy and melodic, but underpinned with an organic sense. at times, it sounds like something you might find on a sublime frequencies release, and is also reminiscent of the work of henry kuntz." 100 copies

foxglove175: stone baby - 'used illusions/lost objects' CDr $8
"stone baby hail from upstate new york and have seen their broken wares peddled by such fine junk salespeoples as carbon records, house of alchemy, and phantom limb. well this duo has brought their fractured droning blues to foxglove and the results couldn't be better. what's most impressive about stone baby is that even though there's only two people creating all these sounds, these songs are fucken dense. we're talking black holes and white dwarves and shit here. or is red dwarves? pulsars? you'd never know i got an A in astronomy. but stone baby keep throwing new things at you with every listen. it's a wild ride up to rochester, but i hear the food is amazing." 100 copies

foxglove176: the north sea - 'mud dragons' CDr $8
"and so it ends where it began (well, almost). "mud dragons" is a vast departure from those backporch folk tunes of yore. rivers of sludge and silver clouds of analog electronics are the modus here. it's deconstructionism at work, and still, i am the north sea. the end." 99 copies

comp012: 'wailing bones' vol. 11 CDr $8
"this is the eleventh installment of an ongoing series of cd-r releases, split between four artists, each contributing longform tracks. volume 11 features exclusive charts from aineettomaksi temperamentin, jeff gburek, kheta hotem, & fathmount." 150 copies

comp013: 'wailing bones' vol. 12 CDr $8
"this is the twelfth installment of an ongoing series of cd-r releases, split between four artists, each contributing longform tracks. volume 12 features exclusive bastard sons from tim coster, thousands, anthony guerra & matthew nidek, & seaworthy." 150 copies

comp014: 'wailing bones' vol. 13 CDr $8
"this is the thirteenth installment of an ongoing series of cd-r releases, split between four artists, each contributing longform tracks. volume 13 features exclusive manhole covers from ghost brames, stone baby, przewalski's horses, & elektronavn." 150 copies

comp015: 'wailing bones' vol. 14 CDr $8
"this is the fourteenth installment of an ongoing series of cd-r releases, split between four artists, each contributing longform tracks. volume 14 features exclusive blood from sky city (tom carter, robert horton, & the cameron sisters), phosphene, xochipilli, & natural snow buildings." 150 copies

WEBSITE

White Leather - 'W.L.' tape $5
"Boys on straight triptophan. First recording of tripped out / dripped out free electronics from the White Leather set, consisting Reinshagen (Body Collector, Villa Valley, Nurse Tapes CEO) and myself. Lost in the tar pits, the fumes are yr new oxygen." 50 tapes, about 45 minutes long. Full color 2-panel art, color labels. EXBX-007

Pure Skull tape $5
"Reinshagen's skull was anything but pure during the recording of this 90-minute deluge into the altered mind. I remember the night, people kept going downstairs to try and get him to go to some party, and he just kept ignoring them, kept jamming. The zone could not be broken. Mystery electronics, mystery tapes, mystery pills and many "Huhhhhhh?" moments." 42 tapes, art printed on PURE white vellum. EXBX-009

Polish Hex tape $5
"Screams exactly like the true feel of a polish hex. first few minutes are dwelling on some strong "phantom-of-the-opera-styled-menace-is-going-to -jump-out-of-my-closet-and-swiftly-grip-the-tecate-OZ-straight-in-front" preminitions. this is like, deep organ drone or something? dude doesn't have an organ?? if this dude was into xanax or clonapan or something cool i could only imagine the deep-fried HEX jams that would blemish the ears. tape works good for pill fiends & butchers in deep subterranean tunnels. tape works bad for the weak & cold. pure white form." - descrip by Pure Skull -" 40 minutes, 27 tapes, printed on red and white vellum. EXBX-010

WEBSITE

arbor17 Axolotl/Inca Ore split 7" $6
"Karl Bauer and Eva Saelens (Axolotl and Inca Ore respectively) are two like minded Bay area psychers operating on two opposing levels. Axolotl marks the A side with skyward streaking drones and ethereal loops tinged and focused, ringing with the joyous bliss of upward passage. An endless array of vocals, electronics, and violin looping and looping, building and growing: stasis. Inca Ore makes her craft from an Earth bound level. Oneness with her surroundings, roots firmly planted. Eerie incantations and meandering harp play foreground to layer upon layer of looped vocals and murky ambience, charting your way towards forever." In an edition of 450 white purity colored 7"s in black and white pro-printed collage fold-over sleeves by Eva with a numbered insert.

arbor46 Youth Of The Beast - "Lantern" 7" $6
"Youth of the Beast is pure primitive electronics, suffocating saxophone scrawl and epic percussion. Acting as the solo output for Raccoo-oo-oon's Andy Spore, this record is YOTB's first vinyl offering following up a few tapes on Night People and Fuck It Tapes. Blistering vocal screeches and mixer feedback blasts meld with stray tones as brass wails and drums are pounded. Spore is a master of channeling the spirits right into the basement where he crafts his jams, creating a captivating mass of noise and psychedelic signals crossing for a painfully beautiful 10 minutes. Breathless sax solos and massive tribal percussion interspersed throughout. The sum of all these parts is something intense, unknown; an ever evolving sonic creature as bleak as it is restless. In an edition of 315 records with EPIC xeroxed double sided/double foldover (you'll understand it when you see it) sleeves and printed labels by Spore."

arbor56 Lilypad - 'Twin Holes' 2x 3"CDr SOLD OUT
"Emerald's Big John is the synth guru behind the illustrious Lilypad. Immense decay and epic clarity. Just when you think that the tone has stagnated, another hole of hi-end oscillation materializes. Constantly progressing to the next level of blissed out forgetfulness. Soft and comforting, yet possessing the ability to completely entrance the listener into a state of loneliness; the first disc has the abductive quality to be over before it even starts. A multi tiered synthetic existence of pure desolation and beauty. The second disc is a masterpiece of stereo panning, with a focused separation between left and right, going beyond the normal dimensions of time and space. Meant to be played loud and alone to truly grasp the solo solidarity and self-contemplating tones. Growing louder and heavier to the pinnacle of reverse deprivation. In typical Lilypad infoless anonymous styled packaging, in this case a mind bending 'witchbox' by visual cat lover, Witchbeam with an 11"x17" color poster insert in an edition of 50 copies."

arbor62 Time Life - 'I Am Just To Myself' C43 $6
"By now this duo should be far from a mystery though their psychic audio mythos has been continually deepening, growing, and transcending. Comprised of Vanishing Voice members G. Lucas Crane(Non-Horse) and Heidi Diehl, these New Yorkers flee the trappings of the fashion capital of the world for the land of home grown psychedelia. Non-Horse plays a crate of cassette tapes and a chain of delay. Wrapping sounds from various sources into a concocted aural remedy from reality, a psychedelic blanket sheltering you from the outside world. Heidi lends her voice and dripping dream guitar work to the powers at hand, juxtaposing heavy bass with light whispers and shimmering strings with deep murmurs. On the B side fellow spirit forcer Steve Gunn of GHQ brings a new element to the group, percussion. A natural oneness is developed between all players, creating earth music with a deeply rooted sense of calmness and serenity." In an edition of 100 numbered tapes with printed labels.

arbor64 Druids Of Huge - 'Ergotism/Pure Hype' C20 $6
"Chicago trio Druids of Huge, rock, roll, and destroy the modern concept of a rock band. With a name that screams "hooded gods of shred", the resulting sounds can be quite refreshing. Percussionary styles can change at any moment from Sword Heaven-esque pummeling and crash destruction to light jazz splash/tom simmering. The guitar feeds back from a massive Sunn amp and rips its way through the basement, fists pumping and beers spilling. Suitcase electronics provide a warm and massive tonal base, erupting with its own
existence. Rip it real good, bro." In a numbered edition of 50 sprayed/stamped tapes in cassingle style sleeves.

Warmth T-shirt $7
"Bleached T-shirts on a multitude of colors with screened image from Warmth LP by Roy Tatum." Available in SMALL and MEDIUM, limited quantities of both.

WEBSITETISBEW

It’s fun to seek out the Ariel Pink school of producer-songwriting in the many generic points on the (admittedly narrow) spectrum of popular history. Today, Black Vatican (Andy Roche and Owen Gardner) is not scary like their name, but look they’re Jonathan Richman with dirty tape heads. Maybe not a stretch, and surely some terrain plotted by the many charts of Pink, but the songs of ‘Zed Omega’ - nine or thirteen, depending on how you read it - start with the bright optimism of the coast (yes, they’re from Iowa, Chicago, Baltimore, not my point) and not the shade of the hills, impulsively picking out the sharpest points of yellow from their strings and the puffiest pump of the drum to smear softly with their melty recording. Not a far cry from what the Dead Milkmen were doing you in middle school, this is just a little more mature to suit the times. That’s what’s doing for the first couple “Born to Live Life” and “Hey Do It”. Some creepy friends might even propose you've dug up an old homemade Ozzy comp: “Dream Jogger” is a little instrumental segue (there are several of these transitional experiments throughout) leading into the first hint of brilliance “Tetedemort Stations”, a truly fantastic evolutionary specimen from the lineage of ‘Low’, Peter Gabriel, and TV on the Radio, with soulful psychedelic drumming and rich falsetto praise. Somewhere in the following couplet, early early Sonic Youth/Durutti Column guitar appears like a lost treasure without the terrible repression of contextual logic, an unrealized prototype of bebop like so much else squandered in the urban core. Man and kick drum doo-wop now on the B-side re-up “I Don’t Wanna Fight (I Just Wanna Sit in the Grass and Be Cool)” attributed to Bob Bucko, the running water and plucky koto Zen transition as “Carlos Carlos and Carlos” suggest a deeper rumble of life beneath the contrast, or maybe in my rotten stereo. “Touch Teacher” fits idolatry to electronics ala Gary Numan, reciting lines with D’arbyesque eros punctuated by shouts and the jagged finesse of electric guitar over percussive palpitations. In a similar vein, less wicked Coil-ish industrial beats and sheet metal guitar slices introduce the very different “Magic Is…”: like Smog (in Lou Reed mode) sitting-in with Jackie-O Motherfucker, bringing the sassy to an otherwise gentle back porch. Electro-shock pop is called “Beautiful Reformer” and takes its cues from pre-Shoegaze Britpop and the feel-good quasi-world radio of the same US period. I’m sorry I can’t tell you more. They go so far on the tape, yet never break their original promise. Tapes is so alive right now! Packed in essential Night People case with screened J-card (art by Shawn Reed: hot, but not necessarily relevant), screened labels on transparent blue tapes. Very very recommended. (Night People cassette, $5 HERE)

MAGIC LANTERN - 'AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS' cassette $5
"Plenty of cacophony comes crawling outta the NNF mailbox/inbox on a daily basis, but it’s been a spell since an hourglass of holy din has caught us captive quite the way Magic Lantern’s tape has. This LBC guru posse formed last year but only began laying down live sets in the last four months, and the evolution is radical. The A side shockwave, “At the Mountains of Madness,” rides a roiling riff through forcefields of charged tones, percussion concussion, and collective overdrive before slowly ramping up and over drug-rock repetition into raw light cone rapture. A perfect cyclone of basement storm and interstellar Hawkwind, and a real contender for CS single of ’07 in our book. The live B piece shows a looser slice of psychic youth, all amplifier wash and blissed waves of Bardo comedown…like a teenage Taj Mahal Travellers bootleg. Illuminating. Keep yr eyes peeled for more ML signal flares on NNF in the future." Stenciled tape-labeled tapes with full-color fire-dancer J-cards in gold-flecked cases embellished with jewels. Edition of 100.

BARN OWL - 'BRIDGE TO THE CLOUDS' CDr $6
"A couple months ago this subtle San Fran three-piece rolled into the local CURIO for a low-key night and fucked everybody up. No one saw it coming. Their Digitalis debut was great – a warm wooden walkabout of six-string finger-dancing and acoustic themes – but it seemed a bit squarely/safely in post-Chasny territory, so no one freaked. Well apparently they’ve since relocated to a darker oaken throne, cause the LA show was a Sabbathy campfire of pentagram bass grooves, eloquent electric desolation, and stripped war drums. Music for dying in the desert to. Bridge to the Clouds was the tour CDR they were slinging on the trek, and though it’s not as purely psychedelic and forsaken as their live incarnation, it does serve as a powerful pathway to the present…hovering above Barn Owl’s earlier earth-bound Evan Miller mode with foreshadowing flashes of future shamanic doom alchemy. An NNF full-length is in the works, and we can’t wait." Stamped CDRs in silkscreened, spray-painted, gold leaf stamped arigato paks wrapped with rainbow ribbon. Edition of 147.

WEBSITE

Tom Carter and Shawn David McMillen - 'Legless Mother and the Spotted Lamb Vs The Great American Cocksucker Bird' cassette £5
"Collaboration between two awesome forces in psychedelic music and new weird America scenes, Tom Carter plays in Charalambides, and Texas based Shawn David McMillen played/plays in Ash Castles on the Ghost Coast and The Friday Group. This is out there, guitar pluckery, vocal insanity and field recordings... collaboration from way back in 1999. This is one of the strangest and surrealest Blackest Rainbow releases so far, solely for Side B's bursts of laughter with flowing water in the background... truly bizarre." Sleeve by McMillen, with handnumbered insert. Handnumbered edition of only 77 copies.

WEBSITE

NP027 Cooper Jones/Cars - split C61 $5
"This split cassette captures just a little slice of the Manchester/Nottingham/Sheffield area young improv scene. Got the pleasure of meeting and performing on the same bill with some of these folks back in March and recognized right away that something interesting was brewing there. Total duo action going on with this release, Sophie and Kelly kick out some epic intricate folky guitar action as Cooper Jones, and on the flip side Patrick and Pascal break on some sprawling percussion and drum storms as Cars. Lots of movement here, this is a long document, capturing the flow of what these two groups do. Silkscreened artwork by Ryan Garbage."

NP026 Nimby s/t C22 $5
"Nimby is Brenden O'Keefe, Iowa City long time resident, local train hopping ripper, and general super enthusiastic supporter of the local weirdo scene. Nimby as a project is focused around a home made Tupperware trash bin synth drum kit with some pedals to back it up. This is Nimby's fist release, and features big damaged beats, blasted vocals, and a whole slew of destroyed loops and distortion, totally killer. silkscreened artwork by SDReed."

NP024 Binges - 'Flame of the Millenium' CDr $5
"Finally a release on Night-People from Raccoo-oo-oon tour mates and Chicago's best basement improv unit Binges. Killer drums, percussion, electronics, saxophone, guitar, and bass from these two dudes Chris and Anthony. Binges are ultra focused and tight, Chris glides around on his kit with supreme precision with Anythony juggles a bunch of loops, noises, and instruments all at once. One of the most solid and exciting underground bands around right now. Artwork by the band printing by SDRreed."

WEBSITE

Portland’s White Heterosexuals break the seal of label Negation is Freedom with this C23. A slight oddity amidst so many misanthropic young men and women brooding loudly alone, this three-person unit brings the singular punctuation of a two-handed machine – Pedestrian Deposit or Pulse Emitter, say, though grindier and more methodical – the only possible giveaway being the abrasive yelp of vocals trying to keep pace with so much static hiss and basic electronic bubble. Set to provoke before the heads even engage, the collective title and cassette name (‘Maiming of the 72 Virgins’) get a little sillier at the inter-track level with “Crazysexycoldclammy” and “Omnipresent White Woman Syndrome”, then give way to more traditional, abstract titling with “Hail” and “That Strength”. Titles are by all means appropriate and appreciated – the earth knows we’re glutted with long-player tapes and no explanation – yet all five tracks keep such unitary form that were they to offer none, it would be a lesser crime; these could all be movements of a title piece and I would have bought it. Finding the well-worn niche is not necessarily a violation either, and the crew does well to disperse the sound in the final track “Rouse”, wherein a Bastard Noise landscape lays in wait to swallow the now-sober poet as he waxes inarticulately. On clear, labeled tapes with Xeroxed covers, limited to 100 copies. (Negation is Freedom cassette, $7 HERE)

Starving Weirdos - 'Sudden Fear' DVDr
"First dvd release by this bunch of freakzone jammers and its definately one that stands out from the pack of music dvds released nowadays. Sudden Fear comprises slowed down footage from the 1952 film noir by the same name, starring the mighty Joan Crawford and Jack Palance as they get stuck in a web of crazy paranoid romance. The Weirdos soundtrack the black and white scenes with one of their most elegant pieces to date. Entrancing, psychedelic swamp magick, you know how they do. All with amazing eye and ear for the visual aspect of this multimedia performance. Originally performed for the Experimental Film & Music Night in cooperation with the Humboldt International Film Fest." 150 handnumbered copies, in slimline dvd cases with drawn cover art by Jason Rohm, an insert and a medium sized poster.

Tusco Terror - 'Mapping a Burial' CDr
"Much needed new slab of blunt stabs in the ear by these Midwest dirt junkies. The Terror squad bring the post-New Blockaders junknoise with the swagger of a couple of kids at their first coked up punkshow. They mean no harm, yet they bolster fear. If you take the most frantic parts of Wolf Eyes circa Dog Jaw, the intensity of Metgumbernone and a load of heavy machinery falling apart at the same you're getting somewhere. Mapping a Burial brims with metallic clang, anxious screams, the throbbing of broken effects and a load of shit you cant even begin to dissect. Brutal." 75 handnumbered copies in slimline dvd cases with black and white coverart and awesome b&w insert drawn by the band's own Nathan Bowers.

Peoples Parties CDr
"Solo outing by Mark McGuire who, as one of the Emeralds boyz, is causing a righteous fuss in the minds of many stoned headz in the worldwide underground. People’s Parties offers 4 space huffin’ guitartrips through hostile ground, thorny fields and fuzz solo’s buried underneath thick layers of kosmische drone. The real scorcher though is the gorgeous 5th track, floating back down to earth with some of the most delicate guitarplaying Ive heard this year, alongside melancholy spoken word samples which makes these 90 kgs al woozy and sentimental. Like watching an aged slideshow from some deceased family and feeling it, totally." 75 handnumbered copies in slimline dvd cases with colour art and insert.

WEBSITE

I never considered Students of Decay in any literal way, yet it’s occurred to me a wonderful description for the many fine releases put out by Alex Cobb’s label: works by Glass Organ, Andy Jarvis, and Cobb’s own Taiga Remains project - yet it is no more perfectly distilled than in the static pulsations of ‘Resentment’ by Emaciator. Despite the over-the-top moniker and Hospital/Prurient visual and title aesthetic - Emaciator is Jon Borges of Pedestrian Deposit - this massive work of microtonal decay is a crippling show of force, presented in the blinding colors that SoD’s production is known for. In three pieces – the appx. 20 minute outers encasing 10 minute innards – Borges reveals a cool, calculating composite sensibility, pushing the longer pieces through several drastic movements and dense textures, willfully breaking the swarm in places to reveal the guitar in his hands. Stamped CDr in a heavy, pro-pressed envelope, limited to 100 copies and a paltry $8 HERE.

Ping Ting Click is a fledgling publishing closet in NYC with aspirations to turn arts & crafts label (for success, study Marriage). ‘Pictures/Words’ by Sebastian P. Black is their first production, a collection of brief (50 words max.) poems and opaque, profane imagery made with color markers. Poetry and I keep a respectful, separate-yet-equal distance from each other, so I cannot comment on the quality of the ‘words’, but the artwork is fun and easy to ingest – it would look good big and busy, I feel. Cover of fancy paper, innards color laser print, bound in string with a vellum addendum. 16 pages, hand-stamped/signed/numbered to 400 copies, and available for $3(US)/$4(world) HERE.

And were I to think you could possibly have not heard of Samara Lubelski I would serve you more than a capsule. Failing this, I feel confident you might at least search her name to immediately find the diverse wealth of other highly acclaimed projects she’s played on (The Sonora Pine, The Tower Recordings, [The] Hall of Fame) or produced (Double Leopards, Sightings, Mouthus). ‘Parallel Suns’ is her newest long-player, a seamless continuation of her hopelessly perfect ‘Spectacular of Passages’, and the fourth under the namesake title. A pristine amalgam of rich chamber-pop, California folk-rock, and blooming psychedelia, the vaguely increased tempo of the full-band recording and the prominence of electronics seats the vibe surprisingly close to things Broadcast, Aisler’s Set, Stereolab - the hush of Lubelski’s ageless voice jiving over sassy, sunny organs and strings, tin drum kits and of course, the bright resonance of steel guitar strings. Typical, flawless production elevates the collection to a pop space just out of arm’s reach, just beyond the groping of dirty hands. Hugely recommended, available on LP ($12) and CD ($don’t waste yr $$) from The Social Registry.

TLR-041 Sarin Smoke - 'Smokescreen' LP $18(US)
"Sarin Smoke's "Smokescreen" LP (TLR-041) is a meditative dual guitar exploration from Pete Swanson (Yellow Swans) and Tom Carter (Charalambides). Totally gorgeous stuff that is not to be missed. A sample track from this release can be heard at the Three Lobed MySpace. Like our other vinyl releases, this one will be pressed on 180g RTI black vinyl and will come from an edition of 652 copies. It will be housed within heavy letterpress sleeves (letterpress work performed by Dexterity Press) featuring original artwork by Liz Harris. Please consult the catalog section of the site for options to non-US addresses. For what it is worth, this one is moving fast - we have around 45ish unclaimed copies of this record."

TLR-039 Basalt Fingers LP + CD $20(US)
"We are pumped about the super-skronk of our upcoming self-titled Basalt Fingers album (TLR-039). This one is two side-long triple guitar jams by Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance, Comets on Fire), Elisa Ambrogio (Magik Markers) and Brian Sullivan (Mouthus, Eskimo King, White Rock). Extremely dense and crunchy - hold this one back to set the mood at your next summer of love party. Like our other vinyl releases, this one will be pressed on 180g RTI black vinyl and will come from an edition of 845 copies. Look out for the beautiful and heavy wrap-around silkscreened covers (by Alan Sherry of SIWA) on this one.
As a bit of a first for Three Lobed (and a trend that we hope will continue with most of our vinyl releases from this record onward), packed in with the LP is a pressed CD (not CD-R) of the same material present on the album. The CD is not available separately and is included as an element of convenience and portability for all you vinyl folks (and also as an effort to help convert a few of you CD folks into vinyl folks!). This record is now available for order and costs postpaid to US addresses (please consult the catalog section of the site for options to non-US addresses). This one is moving pretty quickly - it this, the first week we have fulfilled all orders, we are left with about 70 copies on hand."

WEBSITE

R/S (Peter Rehberg/Marcus Schmickler) - 'One (Snow Mud Rain)'
"Peter Rehberg (Pita) and Marcus Schmickler have been two of the leaders in the electronic revolution of the last fifteen years, both on their own and in collaboration with others. One (Snow Mud Rain) is the first duo CD from these two long-time friends and associates. Rehberg co-founded the massively influential Mego label in 1994, and soon after began recording under the name Pita. His first solo release, Seven Tons For Free, came out in 1996 and was a kick in the teeth to all those who heard it, melding noise with techno in a blend the Wire called ˜wilfully difficult, a crucial formative statement for the then nascent EAI world. Since then, hes continued in his ever-difficult path, both as a solo artist (Get Out, Get Down), and in groups such as KTL, Rehberg & Bauer, MIMEO, and FennBerg. Recently, he's been primarily focused on working with dance and performance pieces, with DACM, KTL and on his own, and now runs the Editions Mego label by himself. Schmickler has been involved with numerous projects over the past decade, including the seminal collective Kontakta. While rooted in electronic music, Schmickler also has a background in contemporary composition, having studied under prominent Stockhausen collaborator Johannes Fritsch. As a solo artist, Schmickler has created important works such as Wabi Sabi, Sator Rotas and Param, as well as five CDs under the name Pluramon, including the just-released The Monstrous Surplus. He also has some long-standing electroacoustic collaborative projects, most notably with synth whiz Thomas Lehn, both in duo and in trio with Keith Rowe, and a gorgeous duo with pianist John Tilbury, as documented on 2005 Variety. Schmickler's new solo release Altars of Science will be released later this month on the Rehberg-run Editions Mego label. Rehberg and Schmickler met up in March 2007, in Schmickler's Piethopraxis studio in Cologne, for two days of recordings. Despite having barely worked together as a duo previously, the results were so successful that after two days, the record was basically completed. This is obvious when listening to the finished product, as a rawness and energy that hearkens back to the explosive power of early Mego bursts from the speakers, further enhanced by the remarkable density and clarity of the recording."

Label SITE, REHBERG, and SCHMICKLER

Do we all know the feeling of putting on a disc for the first time to see a double-digit list of songs and a bunch of zeros in the minute position? Good. It’s a fantastic feeling, because you know it’s going to hurt, and it’s gonna be fast. This CDr by Florida’s Boy + Girl is 11 songs in fifteen minutes, putting the average duration well below 2 minutes. It is to the credit of AG Davis and his all-male revue including Alex Hunt, Bryan Davis, Cole Lee. From the disc’s first facial rearranging burst of feedback, the grind is made of shrieking vocals, laptop gabber beats, and chaotic cut-and-paste, frantically welded to schizophrenic moments of quiet, methodic guitar, drums, what-have-you. A Wiesey grind is the absolutely Davis’ forte [you could catch yr hand in the toothy oscillation of track 9] , but by a narrow margin, with equal time shared with techno-pop passages (tracks 5 and 7 – there are no titles), lingering drones teased-out into plausible segues (8), and the finale and three minute monster-by-comparison, an old world bleep-bloop rave with crunchy beats and disco whistles. Somewhat bizarre, and quite rad. In a clamshell with evil/hectic xerox art, limited to 75 copies.

NYC’s Slasher Risk present a self-titled piece of work, nearly a monograph with one 21 minute centerpiece and a three minute coda of a second track. In line with the previous output I’ve heard (by way of their fine split cassette with Reverse Mouth on Phase!) this appendix chugs along with tight, muffled percussion and reedy distortion in repeated formation, the murky atmosphere as much in debt to the lo-fi recording as the dry squeal of guitar. This return to form (as you shall see) suggests a modus operandi, and therefore the left-field fulcrum of the disc is in fact the anomaly (rather than the other an afterthought), though one which should be cultivated. Emerging from a light tunnel of tweaked, blinding notes, the duo of drums and guitar reveal a conscientious adventure into the world of psychedelia, with earthen percussion including shakers and tambourine, and a meticulous picking of a clean electric guitar. Forging the gap between noise and folk-psychedelics once bridged in parallel by MV and WWVV – indeed not a new terrain, but a new approach to getting there - the pair journey to and back, re-finding the face of their amps and adding streaks of feedback with ease. A fine meditation found in a most unusual place. The CDr comes flecked blood-red in a heavy sleeve with insert, hand-numbered to 75 pieces.

All three of today’s releases come by way of Obsolete Units from the Brooklyn zoo; a young label, they may tout ‘Two Hearts’ by Totally Dad as their first factory-pressed item. With a penchant for one-word titles and few perceptible words, the band play a jagged punk in several shattered pieces, starting with the exhilarating guitar/shout skronk of “Creeks” extended into three movements with “Nights” and “Silkmen”, the triptych edging on some pre-math constructions suggesting Shellac, US Maple, or better yet, Breadwinner has all the answers. The only song of verse, “Woods” may be an early Liars demo with guitars, lots of cymbals, yelping, and no electronics - the first single, no doubt. More modern, the likes of no wavers Silver Daggers and Shearing Pinx comes to mind, as well as what HEALTH did for DNT, though these kids make space for slower moments on tracks like “Raft” and that indelible mark of Chicago post-rock as previously mentioned, taken to its progressive conclusion on the ten minute “Birchman”, an intricate, all-guitar salute to Gibbs, Pajo, and O’Rourke. Expending all their distortion in two fuzzy minutes, the title-track pits guitar in a dash against drums, their draw relapsing once again into Thrill Jockey on final entry “Want”: in the napping hour, a wealth of jangly guitar trickles past, the dry hum of fiddled sawing and bassy warmth renews that Saturday morning taste for Dirty Three and Town & Country, with just the right undertones of discord to unite it with the preceding tracks into a sustainable collection. Like the releases above, ‘Two Hearts’ is an unusual, idiosyncratic mix of styles, positing new ways of looking at the world and trajectory of music. Real CD comes in a digipak with chicken’n’ kitty art, limited to 300 copies, and highly recommended. (Obsolete Units CDr, $6-7 ; CD, $11 HERE)

More HERE

CLOVIS HEALD - 'Wading For Motorcycles" cassette $5.5
"The compositions are full of morphing loops that are in many ways reminiscent of Cluster & Eno being updated to score the lo-fi lives of those who sleep on a mattress, on the floor, surrounded by instruments and pedals. Sparse drums and vocals enter like a welcome breeze and exit like dreams receding from your conscious to form lasting impressions on your subconscious. Features appearances by Odd Nosdam (of cLOUDDEAD), Bomarr (of Restiform Bodies), and Josiah Wolf (of Why?)" 100 Hand Numbered white cassettes.

WEBSITE

Cult ClaSSick Vol One: 'SS HELL CAMP'(1977) one-sided cassette $7
"Much in the spirit of the great Dutch Oven label, Cult Classick Vol One
presents the bootleg soundtrack from this disgusting Nazi sexploitation thriller. This is utterly the most depraved shit to come out of Italy in the late 1970s. If you like the sounds of girls screaming, gratuitous explosions, eating pussy, machine gun fire, children crying and the pounding of SS troops on the march... AND if you can dig it all mixed together with the sounds of creepy synth themes, dissonant sequencer mania, harsh animal and machine noises, and morose piano solos.. then this is the tape for you." limited to 50.

Harsh Burial/Mumber Toes split C90 $7
"Harsh Burial is the collaboration of Burial Hex and Harsh Judgment, both
blazing brutal Power Electronics from the heartland of Wisconsin. Their jam is wet with nostalgia for the days of Male Rape Group. A wholehearted 45 minute freak-out using oscillators, modular synth, tape noise and Harsh Judgment's sick vocal stylings. This horrific jam is coupled with the mighty Mumber Toes offering easily the absolute harshest shit thee old man has ever created. Stumbling vibrator noise, destructive metal working and senseless machine rhythms all coagulate into a merciless mindfuck for the ages. The king is dead, long live the king." limited to 50.

$12(world) for both. EMAIL or see the SITES

[MF34] THE NORTH SEA - 'IN THE TIME OF THE SUGAR PINES' CD $12(US)/$15(World)
"Brad Rose has been making his own music since the mid 90s and has been a member of such bands as the Juniper Meadows, the Golden Oaks, and the Cone Bearers. The North Sea is his solo experimental / ambient / improvisational folk music project and, like much of the folk music in the movement, looks to bring together the style of folk music with the feeling, sound, and aura of nature. In this project, Rose mixes nature field recordings - birds, air and leaves - with a wide variety of stringed instruments."

[MF32] THE GOLDEN OAKS - 'PARADISE' CD $12(US)/$15(World)
"Paradise is free form Applachain abstraction from the folk/minimalist duo of Keith Wood and Brad Rose. Originally released in a here today, gone tomorrow CDR edition on UK label Barl Fire, this batch finds these autumn alchemists adding 2 more songs to the previous offering of seven soul-soothing hymnals to the wind and the trees and the sky and the leaves. Tranced-out falsetto drifts atop supple strumming to create traditional backwoods folk, stressed and compressed by the walls around them (or lack thereof), making it softer and airier. Their fractured take on folk is complimented by multi-layered bowed string and harmonium drones, created from that same soft and airy palette. As the smokey reverb of the drones reaches resonance, the spectrum fills and amplitudes peak in spaced-out bliss."

Samples and all that HERE

Like the CJA cassette on Abandon Ship before them, Fantastic Magic break the shackles of the free jam improv to assert an unequivocal collection of heirloom rock music wed beautifully to the adoring bride of a long-playing cassette. Ironically, that which is most coherent is that most inspired by (to be?) psychotropics, the ten songs of ‘Witch Choir’ suggesting the place to be is not necessarily concocted but intuited, read into a book-simple text. To be confused with the Gengras/Gengras & Capes project Fantastic Ego/Sleep/Etc. from LA, this trio come from the motherland (San Diego), and have released none other, so here’s yr chance to grow large; if your into the alliterative brilliance of Big Blood and Barry Burst in Maine, you’ll be psyched on the bottom left equivalent. The “Fox Wedding” is flutes and rubbed Classical Gas guitar with woman-child vocals, brief (they're all too short) roughly edited out into the melted chamber-ballad “Flowerbeds”, [after the Animal Collective label returns the Peppermints they’ll be picking these kids up (“this is who we meant…”)]. Streaky, calliopedic transitions follow like rich golden threads, tying the brass and Wurlitzer scare “Balloons” to the festival of “I’ve covered the halls, with glitter and awe”, a grand scale jam-in with Tijuana brass and veiled organ, our male host’s pasty, Frog Eyes croon soaring like a working-vegan’s Anthony leading a chorus of ecstatic attendees. “Gazi Tiger” reads like the logical half-step beyond the ballad as defined by ‘Sung Tongs’ reconciled with the four-beat effrontery of Guided by Voices. Unless I’m confusing the intermissions, “Moat Island” is a southerly Gnomonsong with ukulele strings and high/low vocal duet the way the Banhart-Hunter split should have went, surprisingly close to where Big Blood did. The gamelan handclaps which proceed become the final ditty to spoil all songs you subsequently hear: more guts-warming ukulele jangle with Big Bloody girl/boy sing along, meted in choral crests in a white magic twilight. This is going on my ‘pleasure listening’ shelf. On transparent lavender cassette hand-numbered to 100 with music-maligning, washed-out cover art. Great big recommendation to you. (Abandon Ship cassette, $5 HERE)

Long Legged Woman - ‘Newtown Nights’ CDr $7
"If there's one thing that connects all the seemingly disparate pieces of Long Legged Woman, it is REVERB. On its last album as a duo, LLW scales back the overwhelming psychedelic noise-rock and tape collage for a more intimate recording. Newtown Nights is like a lost acid-folk/-rock album washed in deathly earth tones -- a hazy Neil Young singing ghostly Ed Askew sketches. Bummer chord progressions, heavy organ drones and voices penetrating the fog." B&W stickers on arigato pak with a black CDR and insert. Edition of 100.

Saint Francis and the Christmas Donkey - ‘How Saint Francis Tamed the Very Fierce Wolf of Gubbio’ CDr $8
"Ben Collins is a free-improv guitarist who takes his cues from Loren Connors and Derek Bailey. His free internet releases are many and sometimes meandering, but there are glimpses of a musician coming into his own vision. Upon first hearing Keiji Haino's noise-rock band Fushitsusha and discovering, though not hearing, the drone- and doom-metal movement of the last few years, Collins set to work on creating a live, one-man interpretation of the two. In one 40-minute single track, ‘Gubbio’ attempts to balance the rigid, composed nature of metal and the fun, free expression of improv. Its three somewhat distinct sections move through raging guitar feedback, meditative and metallic drone and an extended battle-drum climax that's as powerful as it is restrained." Black ink on red vellum cover with a black CDR on black heavy cardstock. Edition of 98.

First 10 orders of the new Long Legged Woman get a NEWTOWN NIGHTS sticker FREE. First 10 orders of the new Saint Francis get a copy of Emil Beaulieau's ‘Dedicated to Richard Rupenus,’ courtesy of RRRecords, FREE.

WEBSITE

I make the rules:

Digitalis recordings pre-order information - FALL 2007
digi048: maurizio bianchi/hue/fhievel - 'erimos' CD $12
digi050: theo angell - 'auraplinth' CD $12
ace003: ilyas ahmed - 'between two skies" & "towards the night" 2CD $20
ace005: mudboy - 'hungry ghosts! these songs are doors' enhanced-CD $13
ace006: cursillistas - 'wasp stings the last bitter flavor' CD $13
ace007: steven r. smith - 'owl' CD $13
ace008: chriss sutherland - 'me in a 'field'' CD $13
ace009: twinsistermoon - 'levels & crossings' CD $13

order all 8 releases for $100(worldwide); titles also available individually for listed price.

to order any or all of these, please paypal the proper amount to brad@digitalisindustries.com. if you have any questions, just send me an email!

why pre-order you ask? a few reasons:

1. you will get your CDs before anyone else. we will ship them prior to the official release announcement

2. you will also be eligible for special promotions & various free items in the future.

3. you'd be helping us out. a lot.

complete write-ups and audio samples HERE

NOTE: none of these are out yet. they will be released in the winter & fall of 2007 (with the possible exception of ACE009 as it may be released in january).

I don’t know about you, but this year I’ve been having a lot of trouble with warped CDs. Perhaps it’s the summer heat, or the fact that they don’t come in rigid enough packages, but it’s added to my mounted disdain for the medium. That said, let me tell you about some fantastic new CDs you should buy!

Despite the decidedly self-deprecating title (reified through the arboreal sub-title and booklet art), the work of The Stumps is rather cerebral, quite elevated psychedelia with no overt hints of humor. This nine-track LP ‘The Black Wood’ represents the semi-casual jam project of New Zealand’s Anthony Milton (Pseudoarcana, more), James Kirk (Black Boned Angel, more), and Stephen Clover (Seht, more), all untitled pieces populating a spectrum from pure guitar-derived drone pieces to scuzzy, austere garage-psych in classic NZ style. Tracks are a technicality, for the most part, as the dark shimmer of the opening drone transitions into a krautrock free-fall in the final third of the second, picking up to Faustian thrust in the third. Connotations of the Dutch East Indian variety are certainly the best markers beyond the more Anglo drone work, and here I’m also thinking Les Rallizes Denudes, scattered Acid Mothers, Amon Düül. The ambient conversation and wayward percussion of track four contradict nicely the deep lapses of dark ambience found, for example, on the 12 minute track which follows, a subterrestrial bisection where guitars writhe and glisten in the rich soil of electronic ether. A wrenched, white-jazz bombast cuts the effect briefly, then again in earnest as the band returns gear to the guitars and kit travails of before; squealing electronics are used throughout, stabbing an additional plane of sharp static to the mix. As if to leave the listener without a label to ply, the final track is a semi-return to both forms, picking silver notes from sooty black puffs of bass drone over a delicate, recorded still - the garage-studio now sans walls, standing in the early-morning dark of a wood. Glossy, full-color artwork in a jewel-case. Recommended.

With a cover design resembling Sighting’s ‘Arrived in Gold’, there is more comparisons within ‘Axes’ to be drawn to the work of the New York trio: the harshness and extremities of this and the band’s earlier LPs is no where to be found, nor is the materializing band of their latest (the fantastic ‘Through the Panama’); however, the dense space of recording which Sightings so willingly inhabits is rivaled in this, the solo work New Zealand’s Andrew Moon, from here on known as rst. Hardly analogous, this is example merely a common entrance. Made of guitar, the disc’s ten science-fictions seem to originate from the same anthro-astrology as drone-neighbor Seht in theme, and in tact baring great similarities to the work of Alex Cobb’s Taiga Remains and others on his Students of Decay label. Near-microtonal transmutations fulfill tracks of titles like “Crystalline”, “L.A.S.E.R.”, and “Mountain Pass”; the processing of guitar mimicking a wide nation of instruments, most popularly an icy-hot hiss like a bass-less synthesizer, the Vangelical entropy of an early electronic drone-scape. But more than this, the pollution of this tubular recording suggests the fractal generation of each track, each unbroken wave-form folding into itself exponentially while an alternate channel of ornamental guitar dips in and out of the pattern with a polyphonic design. CD comes in a jewel-case with wicked Airwolf text and a picture of a jet plane. Also recommended.

Finally, Eyes Like Saucers be the work of Jeff Knoch (urDog), who spent the most of the year 2006 in a van in the Arizona desert, a harmonium and a 4-track his only weapon against the elements. As you can thus imagine, the album’s eight tracks are extended organ workouts, complimented with the occasional vocalization. Oh, and there is also glockenspiel, a solo, semi-improvised presentation of which opens the album with “Ideas of Reference”, this title a safe indication of the heady manifest found in the liner notes, a sort of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance memoir spliced with quotations from Heidegger, WV Humbolt, and Knoch’s muse, Nico. The title of the disc, ‘Still living in the Desert (and mostly inside my own head)’, is actually a direct extract from one of the singer’s journal entries, and Knoch even appears to be wearing a Nico t-shirt on the back cover, his body now a shrine to her spirit. Finally, naturally, there is a tribute to Nico by way of the title-track, a booming, droning fugue played with Wurlitzer, one of the album’s two covers; “Sea Song” is the other, an early apex written by Robert Wyatt and the one of two songs with verse, Knoch’s monochrome voice cascaded behind the multiple bellows of organ, recalling the saturated shanty of (VxPxC)’s “Reticent to Manifest”. The disc is more definitive moment than odd, with something like the seven minute “I Want to Believe” and eleven minute “Numinosity” likened in tone and timbre to a Current 93/Nurse with Wound projection, or Hush Arbors’ more obtuse instrumental entries. Finale “Desert Song (where land and water meet)” crams it all in, with David Tibetan incantation and multiple parts for harmonium, toy piano, and big fuzz electric guitar by guest E. Carlson. Like you, it’s slowly occurred to me that this album is not so isolated - the accumulating instruments, the guest, the empathy gaining in his voice – and while it seems to contradict the idea of the disc, it loses none of its glory as a far-reaching work of (relatively) limited means. Presented in traditional Last Visible Dog (non)style, with glossy inserts in a jewel-case. Another recommendation – a great batch! (Last Visible Dog CD, $10 HERE)

SOD-59 Impregnable - 'Deflower' 3" CDr $8(worldwide)
"Two tracks of humming ambient devotion from Jeff Witscher. Eschewing entirely the brutality of past Impregnable releases, here Jeff conjures lush yet suffocating drones which loom large in the room until long after they've faded into absence. 'For headphone listening and distance.' ltd. 100"

SOD-66 Taiga Remains - 'Xiaguan' 3" CDr $8(worldwide)
"5:45 a.m. tone float. conducted by sunlight and aged puerh and performed with acoustic guitar, electronics, loops, bows, and chopsticks. recorded live at acacia sound, september 2007. music for early mornings. ltd.100"

$14 for the pair. WEBSITE

[pre-order] Gregg Kowalsky - 'Tendrils In Vigne' one-sided LP$10(US)/$18(International)
"'Tendrils In Vigne' is Gregg Kowalsky's Mills College graduate thesis project, a down right gorgeous slow burner of all acoustic instruments. Originally composed for laptop, Gregg transcribed and scored his music for an ensemble of 25 people that includes everything from a string section to a Shakuhachi player. Microcosmic loops expand into complex forms of geometry featuring voices and exploding drum kits. Edition of 300. Mesmerizing." Try a sample (and pay yr respects) HERE

These will ship the first week of November. No need to send an email if you would like to order. PayPal to tarentela@hotmail.com