This is on Young God. Gira goes:

FIRE ON FIRE 5 song CDEP $7
"I'm damned pleased to be able to offer here a special YGR website-only 5 song EP by the fantastic group of singers/players called Fire On Fire. They used to be the art-punk-prog-chaos collective Cerberus Shoal, but they ditched their electric instruments, went into hiding for a while, and now play all acoustic-stand up bass, mandolin, banjo, harmonium, accordion, acoustic guitar, dobro etc etc, and they all sing and harmonize on the songs. Live, they do it "old school" and just use two mics placed in front of them on the stage, like a bluegrass band. They all live in the same house up in Maine, across from rusting green oil tanks, apparently. To me they sound like a ! backwoods, fierce, psychedelic Mamas And The Papas or a crazed and joyously vengeful gospel string band. Have a listen to the free MP3 above and the sound streams too. They're great people and I love their music. It's all acoustic, but it's not in the least folky. More old-timey incantations - American music with excellent words and performed with the honed violence of intent that truly great music requires. They're a total blast live. They just recently played my back porch actually (!!!!) for my wife's birthday and it was one of the best live music experiences I've had in years. This is just the first installment from these folks. We'll be releasing their debut album early next year (none of the songs from this EP included), and they'll be doing a lot of touring thereafter. In the meantime, my highest recommendations for this EP!!!!! The packaging uses an original drawing / screen print by Colleen Kinsella of FOF and printed heavy stock paper and assembled by Fire On Fire at their home. The words/credits are printed on velum. The ridiculously low price of $7 reflects my adamant belief in the music and my sincere desire that you buy it, take it home, open it, fondle it, smell it, and listen to it. Go ahead now, do it - you'll be pleased you did!"

Get it HERE or at shows.

Fire on Fire BIO by Fire On Fire:

Fire on Fire began without a name in a warm kitchen in Maine. Some of us used to be in Cerberus Shoal. We were three friends whose musical interests grew outward from the punk roots of our youth to a more personal intimate exchange and we began playing songs for

each other. Songs on guitars banjos and harmonium with lots of words and voices. The music was living, open and it invited everyone to take part in it. The circle widened to include two more friends who brought rhythm melody and more voices and songs. Fire on Fire is now five friends who play fierce and emotionally sharp words to stab at our

selves, our situations, our lives. Our music comes from the heart of each singer and songwriter. Take that statement how you like. Each one of us brings themselves to the common table without self consciousness. Playing for the enjoyment of playing and in turn creating a live performance that is electric and ecstatic foot stomping and howling all the night long. All five friends live together in a big blue house across from green oil tank # 28 in South Portland, Maine.

Fuck it. Fuck It:

SIC ALPS - 'Strawberry Guillotine' 7" $6
"Sic Alps toss back 3 new tracks for this seven inch. Title track "Strawberry Guillotine" takes the listener on a guided tour of an imagined war between the sprawling Golden Gate Park homeless population and the more established model yacht community. Musket blasts sound off as shopping carts laden with gasoline and styrofoam emerge from the silent bushes and charge the blood dimmed shores of the cement bottomed Spreckles Lake. Cover art co-opted from 90's LA anti-legends The Summer Hits who themselves stole it from the Walker Brothers in the first place. Apparently Rex from Summer Hits is now homeless in London where his long beard is black on one side and fully grey on the other. This record is humbly dedicated to him." BANDSITEHASSAMPLES

MENEGUAR - 'Tone Banks 1: Some Downs' C40 $8
four tracks

WEBSITE

To our New World AniPals: Happy Vegan Thanksgiving!

Let's be thankful that we live in the future where nothing needs to die to feed your gold-brickin' ass.
We've killed enough Indians, leave the animals in peace.

Love,

Animal Psi

v/a - 'Sing With Me: Music for the human voice' CDr 6€(EU)/$8/7€(World)
"New compilation from Harha-askel, this time focusing on music made for (and with) the human voice, ranging from song-forms to abstract voicings. Demented pirate blues from Alligator Crystal Moth, Robert Horton goes pop (sort of), Jani Hellén explores the mellotron's vox humana, Ville Moskiitto interprets an old Finnish hymn, Komutian throat singing from Kheta Hotem and lots more... Artists from Finland, France, Italy, USA, Australia, Faroe Islands and Great Britain." Limited edition of 80 copies on black cd-r. Printed covers and insert in plastic sleeve.

1. Lamppukello - Maalari Mäki
2. Robert Horton - Fry Your Brains Out In Your Hat
3. Alligator Crystal Moth - The Mad Courier
4. Jani Hellén - Silpoydin (Static)
5. Kheta Hotem - Around a Single Bird
6. Metsämorfeus - Pilvin poikin kottaraista
7. Vellamo - Olemisen riemu
8. The Mighty Acts of God - The Slow Hardwood of a Once Thorough Woman
9. Rokkiryhmä - Laulu miehestä
10. Sorella di Kometan Pärsson - Best Explanation
11. Wanton Loverboy - Sucking Tits
12. Hue (with Gaia) - Pillow Talk
13. Autumn Galaxy - Red Glow
14. The Reggaee - Lude
15. Xenis Emputae Travelling Band & Jani Hellén - The Secret Gregorian Plug-In
16. Ville Moskiitto - Oi Herra jos mä matkamies maan

WEBSITE

ORIGAMI SUBTROPIKA/SYNERGIKA/BONDEPRAKTIKA split fan CDr $10(world)
"Comes in a wooden cover held together by screws, limited to 100 copies. Origami Synergika (Lasse Marhaug of Jazkamer), Origami Bondepraktika (Karl Midholm of Ovum) and Origami Subtropika (Jorge Castro of Clon and Cornucopia) recycle each others sounds into new tracks. Released by Cipher Productions in Tasmania. Very few available."

CORNUCOPIA - '.C.Works' 2xCD $10(world)
"Released back in 2004 by Sonora, Locus of Assemblage and Zeromoon, ".C.Works" contains Cornucopia's 37 minute "C" track on the first disk and 14 reworkings of it on disk two. Artists featured include: Lasse Marhaug, Kim Cascone, Black Sand Desert, Francisco López and others. Comes in a beautiful black double-sleeve and its now out of print. Last copies!

WEBSITE

Treetops - 'When I Was Younger' 2xC10 $8
"A purely inspired release rising out of a dismal autumn, where even the trees delayed their color change. Focusing outward to various points of reference, sk1's hold their tones in frozen chains, slowed down tapes shake the earth, strings twinkle and shine, while vocals murmur inaudible wishes and flowing ruminations. A droning black mass, entirely different from the recent blown out walkman recorder territories previously traversed by this project. Recorded over two November nights, in deep reflection and heavy listening." In an edition of 50 labeled tapes with black/white/grey art in Norelco cases.

WEBSITE

Dälek/Destructo Swarmbots/Oddateee - 'Deadverse Massive' 12" picture disc $12
"An amazing meeting of three very intense forces in music. The result is four tracks that blend delicate, fender rhodes work reminiscent of Return to Forever-era Chick Corea, atonal ambience akin to Fripp & Eno, radical, black power-laden, spoken word, and some damn fine beats and lyricism for a hallucinatory album that is destined to be a simultaneous head-turner and head-scratcher. Easily, the strangest record any of these artists have ever touched. Artwork from the amazing Paul Romano (Mastodon, Godflesh, Earth) rounds out the release."

Aluk Todolo - 'Descension' CD $10
"With the goal to create a timeless, organic mixing of krautrock's strangeness and black metal's coldness, Aluk Todolo's debut full-length conjures rabid obsessive rhythms and abyssal disharmonic guitars, subliminal spiritualist vibrations and bizarre, magick summonings."

Planet Y - 'Space Station' CD $10
"The mind-boggling duo of beep/boop guru, Charles Cohen and Stinking Lizaveta guitarist, Yanni Papadopoulos. Limited to 500 copies and packaged in the awesome Dual Plover gatefold wallet!"

Ala Muerte & Max Bondi - 'Saturday' 3"CDr $4
"A dynamic melding of ethereal vocals, pulsating drones, delicate melodies, and harsh dissonance all put together without having met each other. Limited to 100 copies."

Decimation Blvd. - 'Put Your Hand in Fire' 3"CDr $4
"The debut release of acrid electronics, throbbing drones, gunshot rhythms, and eerie soundscape from Cream Abdul Babar noise choker, Tradd Sanderson. Limited to 100 copies."

Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat - 'Turn Hegel on his Head' 7" $5
"The young wizard of dark, apocalyptic folk (Belgium's Stef Irritant) unfurls his first vinyl release, a 7" using Hegel's dialectic's as the conceptual foundation. White vinyl!"

WEBSITE

Acre - 'A shield of air/Born of light' 7" $6
"On the heels of his subterranean hit CANDYFLIPPING, Acre releases this 2 song 7" to much anticipation. It is a product of over 6 weeks of recording sessions and is the preliminary single release ahead of the full length CD due in February on Portland's Eolian label. "A shield of air / Born of light" is a direct challenge to the limitations and concept of a "single", as the music Acre creates normally takes time and space to unfold. With these two songs in their form and frequency, Acre extends his pallet of sounds to push the listener head on in the midst of his signature daze out Niblock / Spacemen3 seances. "A shield of air" is seemingly from the lost tapes of the Extra-Capsular sessions, though there were no strings or synths used in this recording. Its a hypnotic, thick, fuzzed out riff mixed tense and dense, letting loose a slow headbanging jam. "Born of light" is the metamorphosis caterpillars nesting at the base of your ear drum, calling out in rising high pitched sequences. Blankets of vibrating solar winds tearing holes in the upper mesosphere of the listenable frequency range." These two songs are beautifully pressed in thick white vinyl and packaged with hand silk screened covers featuring Acre's signature minimal artwork. Limited to 300 copies.

WEBSITE

God Willing - 'Intentionally Decrease Efficiency' C30 5€
"Push the play button of yr tape deck. Punch in yr face. Slow motion noise. Sand oscillations. Knock out end. Black plush packaging. 50 copies."

Placenta Popeye - 'Le T. De La Haine' 3x cassette Box 10€
"Different devices for each of those 3 recording sessions. Tape 1 is guitars, vocals, synth & effects. obsessive riffs. distorted synth sounds. plundered demo presets. repeat. repeat. dense. Tape 2 is mostly synth, vocals & effects. more & more presets. less freerock. more peacefull. Tape 3 is vocals & effects only. live concrete music. loops. screams. cut. false starts. larsens. bad vibrations. fight." C30+C20+C15. 50 copies.

Unicorn Hard-On - 'Sweet Teth' C50 5€
"Dance music for noise people. Repetitive moving beats. 6 lovely tracks. Digital drift." Art by Jonas. 50 copies.

WEBSITE

The not-quite Japanese floral art of ‘The White Lodge’ (the place where the good ones go) by Gallows nicely illustrates the not-quite Zen shimmer of table strings and wayward Eastern timbre of “Great Northern”, the first of the tapes three entries. Reverberating into electrified tones, the strings hover over the bog of a liquid, treble-free drone and the occasional chime of a percussed fret-board. Gentle, inward-looking and tastefully weird, the piece transforms slowly as if underwater. The sci-drone “Dweller on the Threshold” is a soundtrack of subtler detail, like the first decompressed through low-end arrhythmia under the gilded border of synthesized ornament. Though arguably a drone work foremost, the tape refutes any comparative tendency toward the cosmological Stars of the Lid despite the twin peaks of hi guitar drone and hovercraft processing on “The Owls Are Not What They Seem”, percolating factory sound reaffirming the tape’s ghost-in-the-machine undercurrent. Recorded to one side of a white cassette with fancy paper label, fancier printed-cloth insert and printed vellum band. Hand-numbered to 50.

The third strike for label Peasant Magik (after the above and the Rose/Young project Ajilvsga), the brief ‘Electric Tranquilizer’ indicates the label’s primary focus is weak-program drone works: not a value judgment, there are simply no microtonal dogmatists here; these pieces take up a populist ambience with free collaboration between fast and fair elements, making like a brighter, more electronic Changeling or more programmatic Quilts. Despite their frequent, well-metered output, this is my first full-format encounter with the duo Bjerga/Iversen. Reforming the title-track like a modulated “Reed Streams”, the pair use organ, guitar drone, and contact mics to shuck Riley’s minimalist patterns into a barren wash of strict mood. On the flipside, “Surrounded by Fakers” pulls back the drone for tighter focus on organ permutation and later, way-muff casual guitar ugliness, a rich wall of ambient effects ebbing behind and in the spaces between like a less-scary Burial Hex. Piece-meal and scrappy, it all hangs together and brings enough foreign elements to remain objective and in the foreground. On a white C30 cassette with handsome, printed-vinyl (?) J-card, and limited to 50 copies.

The last splash today is slightly out of the label’s newly-assigned character, nor is it what one may have assume it to be by its title. Weather Exposed Skeleton Music is a solo project of low-key, lo-fi, lyric-less guitar recordings with vivid back drops of field recordings and assorted atmospheric additions. Recorded over three years, the C30’s eight tracks sound as thought they could have been divined in a single evening of inspired performance. In some unspecific way reminiscent Loren Connors, the swift study of the first few songs spans a similar depression of minor-note guitar and keyboard sketches, roughly edited into a hasty survey of repeating gestures locked into tight rhythmic grooves. The tightly-wound strum of what is likely “Someone is Standing Behind You” or “The Dying Leaves” rolls nicely off the snoring vertebrae loops, the side-finale “Runways I Gave You” saturating a soggy guitar with the static of sheeted rain, a counterintuitive wind-chime and wooden percussion quietly hinting at a tropical destination. Side two features the minority of tracks, and thus allows more time for a fuller exposition of each theme: “Outside My Window Towards the White Tower” begins with a slow, booming beat under chirping, finger-plucked notes, repeating hazily into the glitchy tones and brushed-metallic samples of “Bike Path” with its pale Tortoise guitars and general sense of absence. After an unfortunately rough tear, “12/25/05” closes the cassette, ready to dishearten as only a title like this could: choppy edits pass incrementally like a beat-up record as a clanging melody sways listlessly above a busy monotony of synthesized notes and mute patches of distortion. When it all slides away, the guitar beneath becomes visible for a final moment, as if to lift its head in goodbye. White cassette comes with acrylic painted labels and J-card, and a transparency over-lay hand-numbered to 50 copies. Quite recommended, and recorded in Jamaica Plain in case this sweetens the deal for you. (Peasant Magik cassette, $6 HERE)

UNITED BIBLE STUDIES - 'Black Colcannon' CDr 6€(Anjou & around)/7€(world)
"All-live recording by the fantastic irish troubadours of the Deserted Village collective. Four tracks plus a long and amazing final medley of 30mn length, Come listen to the beautiful sounds of the acoustic & electric guitar, cuatro, accordion, tin whistle, melodica, keyboards, electronics, percussion, vocals, glockenspiel, vox Celeste, theremin, finger-picked guitar, bass, bugle, tenor sax, slide whistle, soprano sax, trumpet, drums..." Oversized Sleeve 20X14cm (7,87”x5,5”), closed by a mini pewter square ; 3 exclusive black & white photos included.ltd100 WEBSITE

'THE RUR L.A. FAUNE' 4CDr BOX :
CHANGELING - 'Animals in Exile', INSANIACS - 'Age of Rust', POCAHAUNTED - 'Pocahaunted', and VxPxC - 'I see a Fire in the Distance'
"made of stick wicker the Rur Los Angeles Faune boxset presents four works by artists from the city of angels. Changeling is Roy Tatum from Buried Valley label. He plays abandoned drones with magick melodies Insaniacs is Changeling + half of Robedoor. They abandon you in a deep, dark and black noise Pocahaunted hypnotize you with 2 psychedelic incantations The mighty VxPxC trio embarks us in an astral journey , full of meditation and wisdom." Including a small poster , exclusive to the box, all individually limited to 45.

THE CLEAR SPOTS - 'Princetown Air' CDr 6€(Anjou & around)/7€(world)
"First ever recording by the Pennsylvanian quartet outside the Deep Water Acres camp. A live session of rural noise that builds a massive freestyle edifice. An intense & experimental work made of guitarz and heavy drums. The Clear Spots are so amazing that they were on the top of my favorite releases of 2006 ; sorry but I love ‘em !" ltd72 WBST

THE COSMIC MANDOLINERS - 'Colorn Lincorn' CDr 6€(Anjou & around)/7€(world)
"Do I need to tell something about the french duo ? Reunion of the long time musical veteran Vincent Fribault (Prester, Monks of the Balhill) and the exponentially young-talented Florian Tositti (Ghosts Brames, the Reggaee, Xochipilli, Heads of Pagan…); here’s the first release of their cosmologic drones. Sharped sounds, abstract noises and other sonic astral voyages into black holes; The CM universe is made of beautiful particles hidden behind a wall of icey asteroids. Transcendental." Oversized Sleeve 20X14cm (7,87”x5,5”). ltd80 WBSTE

GIFT HORSE - 'Two-Lane Fiddles in a Four-Lane World' CDr 6€(Anjou & around)/7€(world)
instruments series 001: "The fiddle is a bowed stringed instrument that is the highest member of the violin family, it has four strings and a hollow body and an unfretted fingerboard. Played with a bow the term fiddle refers to a violin when used in folk music. After cdrs on Foxglove, Hal Hugues, long-time collaborator of Robert Horton (sound recorder on this release), played here with his wife Jill Kjömpedahl songs from our History. Covering tradional tunes from Ireland, Scotland, America but also from the Balkans, Albania (…) the duo deliver a rough interpretation and gives us some keys to understand today’s music. Requiring but essential." Intruments series will present works dedicated to traditional music and solo–instrument releases ltd56

SAMPLES. EMAIL. WEBSITE

The newest discs from France’s Natural Snow Buildings come by way of entropy, with the duo split into solo units for Solange’s first outing and Mehdi’s second. This is not to say they are alone, however, as each assists the other in the peripherals, including the design of their hardbound book-style covers, a new pinnacle reached in the art and craft of home recordings (or any recordings really). Having set the bar themselves with the previous solo and collective works, they now move on to hard-bound gatefold- and accordion-style sleeves with built in pockets, ornate, full-color prints, gorgeous hand-scripted text, multi-color printed discs, and so on; in general an overwhelming effort.

To begin, Solange’s debut as Isengrind is entitled ‘Golestan’, both of which names I would like mean something grand, yet at the same time, I wish to remain forever opaque. Gently held knotted with dark red ribbon, the disc holds twelve songs all of hardy weight, the entire effort just surpassing 70 minutes. Opening piece “Morgenstern” is a hollow, hallowed spiritual in the fashion of Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood, though altogether more melodic and wider in scope. Tambourine, flute, piano give the feathered mass lift while the wordless choral blows it all gently on vapor in the fashion of Pocahaunted; “Virgin Rainfrog” follows even more so with bright, clean guitar strumming moseying toward the unexpected, masterfully-sacral vocal collage “Cum mortuis in langua mortua”, an acapella production of additive voices flashing on and off like pedal-point, like an ebbing shoreline. While instrumental pieces like the following “All Tiny Animals” play through as like-minded though wholly unique fantasies, it is those tracks which feature Solange’s delicate voice which carry the most weight. The processing on “Convicta et Combusta” is a fine example of this, understated as it is, the spirit of her voice carries even in those unsung moments of droning, pulled-off notes; beneath this, a brassy fog-horn of cello bobs in the still thick of the backdrop she’s constructed like a mural. Interrupted by a skilled flute piece, “With its Mouth to the South & Its Tail to the North” and “How deep is the mud?” are two dance-daring ragas of opposed color livened by the steady clap of tampura, guitar, and multi-pointed percussion, an exotic dare in the company of Anvil Salute and Popul Vuh alike. An anthem made of sliding, shifting tones, the Eno/Glass organ song “Ogles Tan” simply swoons with the doubled-effort of cello midway, proving again the talent of Solange in a wide selection of instruments as well as compositional modes. Final piece “Perchtmilk” refuses to repeat a moment, picking electric-psychedelia poinitlism out over a programmed beat of pronged-percussion, sea-sick sawing in a playful counterpose for the track’s nine minutes, leaving you a little delirious and starved to revive the many distinct gems which encrust this fantastic collection. More than just an incredible piece of art, this recording more than carries the collection past whatever hype the package will rightfully generate. Hand-numbered to a precious 32, eagerly and hopelessly recommended.

The fourteen track return of solo Mehdi as Twinsistermoon at first strikes the ear as the immediate return of Solange as Isengrind, the communal raga of flutes, bells, and tamp(o)ura in the extended “Winter Pamgri Epidemic” vibrating at the same welling frequency of many ‘Golestan’ moments, and the ambiguous, wordless voice of these tracks implying Mehdi’s female counterpart in Solange (and indeed it may be - unlike the former, this disc only credits instruments, not players). The song moves through a triplet of phases of the sort suggested above, all of a wide lens which then tightly constricts as the more familiar acoustic guitar of previous Twinsistermoon pulls into focus on “Soul Fate”, Mehdi’s voice now filling the frame as the breaths between his falsetto compete with the clicks of his metallic strings. Though several of these tracks entail lyrics (four of which come transcribed in the inlay), always in English, Medhi’s whisper on the literal tracks works more in the fashion of the wordless melody of the other tracks – big and small – where we find a symphony of organic noises in pagan séance “Lady of the Animals” or the accompaniment of voice to guitar on the brief folk song “The Black Under”. Switching modes between the group psychedelic of No Neck and the loner folk of Vashti Bunyan – about one of the former for every two of the latter – the transitions can be rough, though the styles sympathetic. Further, while the tones of the big pieces remain conclusively dark and storied, the smaller guitar tracks laced between seem to take an upward lilt, progressively growing brighter, in turn exaggerating the sinister convictions of the orchestrations. To hint toward the fantastic Anvil Salute yet again, “Javelin of Pestilence” distills wonderfully the magic rituals of the old and new worlds illustrated in the book’s pages (art and design by Solange), with flutes and melodica intimating an end-times allegory over the rote dance of hand percussion and droning strings of foreign origin. This theme is revitalized moments later in the title track, a wildly-timbral drone akin to the broader strokes of the pair’s work as Natural Snow Buildings, the intensity heightening to a mad fervor of metallic scratches and a cracking skin of percussion. Guitar/voice duet “With Blackened Eyes” blossoms into a middle-way song with flutes, drone, and some percussion, combining the best elements and striking a style which could easily carry an album of likewise tracks. And while to this point Mehdi’s guitar-playing has remained simple and understated, it isn’t until second to last “Death Head Moth” that he allows the guitar to speak for itself, pressing the bright melody on several gently-nested tracks, the warm analog of these (four-tracked?) smaller pieces truly rupturing the dynamics of the situation to supplant these basic elements to a higher plain of harmony. Final piece “Veins” attempts to restate the thesis of disc with a solid raga akin to the opening track, then a bold gap of nearly equal size dissolving into the delicate coda resembling a Franco-shoegaze with accordion-like melodica and heavily streaked acoustic guitar engulfing the reverb of his voice and his lyrics “your veins are green river/ I can make myself so small/ and live in your heart forever.” Like its predecessor and accomplice, the disc’s 77 minutes exists in a rotation of its own, refusing to happen but rather exist in its totality. I haven’t made a decision if its the best form of presentation, but this is a moot point in the face of so much well-crafted music. Hand-stamped, hardbound, incredible, hand-numbered to 36. (self-released CDr, both editions are, of course, sold out. However, Digitalis is working on the re-release of both HERE)

mddm37: Silvester Anfang - 'Spontane Opnames I: Anti-Metal ...' cassette
"Spontane Opnames I: Anti-Metal Politie-Interventie" One Sided C90 Cs New and last release for this year from the Silvester Anfang Cult. Dark, post-krautrock, heavy jam mode: guitars, bass, keys, flute and percussion combine with vocals to create a doomy funeral psych rich in the textures of ritual and worship. Starts off in a drugged Satanic ritual and ends in a cosmic slaughterhouse." SAMPLE/BAND

mddm38: Sunburned Hand Of The Man - 'Locked/Loaded' One-sided C60
"New Limited cassette from Sunburned Hand Of The Man. Sounds funky like a psych jam at a hot summer day in the winter. But where is the ice cream... lim to 200 copies." SAMPLE/BAND

tek12: JAMES FELLA/SHIVERS split CDr
"James Fella is the Gilgongo label head and member of Soft Shoulder and Tent City. Rhythmic electronic weirdness and wilderness, oursider sounds and dazed clarinets lead you through the zone and back. Shivers offers one long track of total clinical cut up bustle. Feedback exploitation /head in the dryer style." BAND/BAND

tek21: ANTI/UTON - 'Sininen Nauha' tape
"Finish wizards Anti and Uton teaming up with Pietu. Loads of instruments like guitar, percussion, analogue synth, piano, organ and voice were used to create these two extensive tracks of tingling mysteries. Layered psychedelia, free jazz and ecstatic noises will make you do the snake dance. Artwork by Uton " UTON

All 4 releases are available for 5€! SHOP

Two new pieces from imprint Radium, the apparent ‘pop’ subset of avant-popular behemoth Table of the Elements. Ateleia is the solo project of a James Elliott, and ‘Nightly’ is a tastefully brief EP suite of four tracks of three to eight minutes duration. A collection of delicately-manufactured laptop creations, each track manages a spirit of nocturnal stillness and stirring, from the drone-only “In Inner Air” a faultless delineation from Eno, Coil, and Stars of the Lid, to the drone-heavy Labradfordisms “Threaded” and “Sphere and Locked”, likewise recalling the beat-oriented works of those former two, as well as the damp spectrals of SotL side-project Dead Texan and their icon Angelo Badalamenti. A symphony for altitude-deadened timpani, final piece and title track “Nightly” moves with the heavy shuffle of Seht’s pseudo-macroformalized works, veiling an aerobic meter like seething insects beneath the swelling orange hum of a waking dawn. Understated and fantastically rich, this will receive many (more) listens. CD comes printed with black on black ink, in a jewel-case. Recommended.

Elliott’s day job is as bassist for School of Seven Bells with Benjamin Curtis (of pop band Secret Machines), drummer Joe Stickney (loadstone of Rhys Chatham projects), and the twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza of defunct darlings On! Air! Library!. ‘Face to Face on High Places’ is the band’s debut release, a 12” EP of ambitious manifest and a shameless (what’s to be ashamed of?) homage to the hazy shoegaze of My Bloody Valentine and the mod pop of Stereolab. Indebted to a solid yet sensible soundscape established by the band, the centerpiece of each track is undeniably the sisters’ harmonies as best affirmed in the climbing scales of “s.Ada.Licht”, a build and release duet set to bare bass accompaniment and nuanced ambience. The theatric mambo of the aptly-titled “Limb by Limb” recall Suzanne Vega and the bossanova of “world"ly 90s pop music, alternating with the subtly-darker hues of dance-industrial ala Diamanda Galas. Center piece and title-track “Face to Face on High Places” rolls cleanly off Stickney’s variegated, studio-perfect percussion, a processor-warped spectrum of MBV treble coalescing so familiarly with the double-lilt of the Dehezas implying a Scottish brogue: such a fine imposter that only the chiming coda disabuses one’s deja vu. On clear vinyl, supposedly very fancy [they sent me a CD. Har har, real funny!] (Radium CD, $9.5 and 12” EP, $11 HERE)

Mordraaneth - 'The Taverns in the Land of Ashes 2xCDr ($16ppd to US and Canada / $20 ppd to world)
"In his first solo musical adventure since the death of his band Trollmann Av Ildtopperg, Mordraaneth (the ancient purveyor of Cosmic keys to Gates Unknown) has truly risen to a new level beyond his previous mastery of transcendental Doom meditations. In many ways this album is the most focused, captivating and fantastic album in his repertoire. Taking equal cues from Terry Riley, Burzum, Mortiis and Klaus Schulze, this 2xCDR set collects nearly two hours of lush compositions using organ, synth, harpsichord, piano and many more incredible sounds. Mordraaneth has crafted strange and timeless invocations with a level of vision and inspiration that far exceeds modern standards in Cosmic, Fantasy and Dark Ambient musics. Truly he is high on the throne of madness, composing these cinematic journeys and taking us with him through the forests of darkness and into the depths of thee Celestial Coma."

Kenji Siratori - 'Dead Sea' CDr ($10 ppd to US and Canada / $12 ppd to world)
"For the past few years Kenji Siratori has been flooding the underground with his prolific craft of bleak industrial noise works. When Skulls of Heaven received a cdr master in the mail earlier this year, we were totally blown away by the submerged network of fractured melodies and colliding drone worlds that shimmer just under the layers of buzzing post-industrial atmosphere. Before this current of musical works, Kenji Siratori spent many years creating waves in Sci-Fi and Surrealist literature circles. One can't help but hear these albums as the audio manifestation of the kind of bizarre future environments depicted in his writing."

Wedding - 'Fried Fragments' C60 ($7 ppd to US and Canada / $8 ppd to world)
"Pushing Power Electronics into new abstractions of audio violence and dark hallucinatory environments, Wedding have finally released their debut cassette. A new trio formed by the men behind Burial Hex, Mumber Toes and Mansfield who utilize vintage analog equipment with a venomous and theatrical bravado reminiscent of the classic days of Broken Flag, Come Organization and Aquilifer Sodality. Though Wedding takes serious inspiration from the first wave of Power Electronics and Industrial, they continue to carry this torch far into the future by heightening the intensity of these musics to overwhelming and even psychedelic extremes. Progressive Power Electronics? Wedding has only begun to mix the dense atmosphere of heavy Prog with the angular futurism of early Synth-Punk and filter them both through the raw aggression of the original Power Electronics/Industrial pioneers to create something otherworldly."

Mumber Toes/Burial Hex split C60 ($7 ppd to US & Canada / $8 ppd to world)
"Mumber Toes offers dark astral meditations in the form of a cold isolated drone colored by scraps of broken atmosphere. Burial Hex provides a continuation to this dark voyage, manipulating oscillators and large metal structures to create a lengthy composition of dense Ritual Ambient."

Mumber Toes/Burial Hex - 'Revenge, Exilarch, Revenge' CDr ($10 ppd to US & Cananda / $12 ppd to world)
"Mumber Toes creates a piece using all Burial Hex sounds and Burial Hex does the same with Mumber Toes sounds. Much like their split cassette, this cdr remains in deeply blackened atmospheric territories. Mumber Toes decomposes his source material into a decrepit dungeon hymn. Burial Hex retorts with some delirious and grueling black mutant grime. MidWest Horror Electronics."

WEBSITE

WANTED: Review Submissions

ROCK-A-ROLLA, a bi-monthly UK magazine covering avant-rock, metal, noise and experimental sounds is looking for review material for a cassette, CD-R and lathe page.

The first episode (issue 11) featured artists such as
HANDICAPPER HORNS, MRYTU, CULVER, WIGMAN/TALIBAN, HEATSICK, THE VANISHING VOICE, KILLDEVILHILLS, HUSH ARBORS, PRURIENT, THE POLLY SHANG KUAN BAND, ZAC DAVIS / BEN HALL, TIGHT MEAT

Interested artists/labels should contact Scott via EMAIL

'N.O.T. #4' DVD 8€
"4th release is an audio-DVD compilation featuring live shows from Maxime Coton, Half Asleep, Gart & Seekatze, Silencio & Przewalski's Horses. More than 180mn of good sound ! Artwork is made up of photo collages, 25 unique copies !"

WEBSITE

Wether/Gallows/Pillars of Heaven/Deerstalker split 2xCS $10
"One fifteen minute side long track from each, with collabrative effort on 4th side. Released to coincide with a Pillars of Heaven and Heat Conference (Wether + Gallows) weekend outing. Wether pumped the gas, Pillars of Heaven navigated, and Gallows brought the pillows and sleeping bags." Edition of 50 on hi-bias chrome tapes with pro-printed covers. Co-released with No Horse Shit.

WEBSITE

Gregg Kowalsky - 'Tendrils In Vigne' One-Sided LP
"'Tendrils In Vigne' is Gregg Kowalsky's Mills Collage 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. Mesmerizing." Edition of 300

Sample and order HERE

VILLE MOSKIITTO - 'THOUSANDS FALL EVERY DAY' CDr 6€/$6ppd
"cloud from turku, finland, ville run the curious harha-askel label. he releases numberous things on the pretty good barl fire, foxglove and 267 lattajjaa, many compilation contributions and doing a collaboration with brad rose in the excellent 'autumn galaxy' project. he offer us ten new songs of mixing minimalist and repetitive electronics treatments, guitar, jew's harp, toy melodica and flutes playing. his more electronics effort at the frontier of granular/lunar subtleties "almost" electronic-a in the precious glitch on certain pieces and of the organic drone/folk of the deep finnish forest. the winter continues us. this chamanic ghostly voices transport us in beyond. the mysterious bells, flutes and percussions resound and transcend us in the too ignored wind of desolation. a voodoo experience. the reality is : "my death isn't extraordinary, and no one should feel sorry for me, for thousands fall every day..." - robert wichitz

PALAMAITOA - 'PUUTERIAIKA' CDr 6€/$6(PPD) or get both for 10€/$10ppd
"method-olo-gical un-controlled collages of lo-fi-folk and melancholic handmade party for this admirators of marguerite duras - clap your hand and don't say yeah. burning chants, toys, piano & violin troubles - acoustics percussions that gives a floating sound and help the rest to result to a graphic/caustic music with elect - ro/nic & acoustic(s) manipulations and aero-hip - notic/tonic destination - words by ville moskiitto : "palamaitoa kuvaa musiikkiaan oikeastaan paremmin kuin itse osaisinkaan. "puuteriaika", "pienet muusikot", "jännittävä matka", "kaihoissa tyvenyys". nämä nimet kertovat paljon ja samalla eivät tietenkään yhtään mitään, ainakaan niille jotka eivät ole sitä musiikkia kuulleet. se on tuttua ja tuntematonta. akustisia ja elektronisia instrumentteja, improvisaatiota, sekamelskaa, tyyntä, sen sellaista. onhan näitä kuultu, voisi sanoa, mutta ihan omanlaiseltaan tämä kuulostaa. vaski-introsta akkarin rämpyttelyyn, "jännittävä matka" on pop-entropiaa. levyn jonkinlainen pääteos, 20-minuuttinen "vaippa", on koko matkansa ajan kiinnostava äänimaisema ja jo sellaisenaan, ihan yksinään olisi julkaisun arvoinen. kaikki hajoaa ja sitten pitää taas koota palaset yhteen."

WEBSITE

HEATHER LEIGH MURRAY - 'DEVIL IF YOU CAN HEAR ME' LP $10
"Heather Leigh’s set at last year’s Colour Out Of Space festival in Brighton was everything music should be: personal, deranged, profound, loud. Her song mode meshes astral-traveling electric pedal-steel guitar with a wasted sense of Western expanse and a lyrical, drugged vocal mood, and the results are weird and wonderful. Devil If You Can Hear Me, her debut vinyl full-length, spills across three varying arenas of psychedelic privacy, loaded with loaded statements, wild Charalambides-ish tunnel-digging, and an almost Jandek-ian jam-driven wanderlust. An intense, brave step forward/outside 2006’s phenomenal Jailhouse Rock CS on Fag Tapes and her string of solo CDRs on Volcanic Tongue. Black-vinyl LPs in matte jackets with a “Heather-in-sunlight” cover photo plus some of her abstract/confessional drawings on the back." Edition of 500.

CHRISTINA CARTER/POCAHAUNTED LP $12
"Been beautifully blissed on this pairing for months now and we’re amped it’s finally public unveiling time. Christina Carter has trekked around this country (and planet) countless times in the past decade plus, both by herself and with Tom Carter in Charalambides, and the constant gypsy-drifting has weathered her song-stories down into spare, spiral reflections on life, death, and afterlife. Here she lays down four perfect vignettes of acoustic guitar pattern, softly sung desperation, and dangerous intimacy. A beatific bring-down. Sisters-with-voices Pocahaunted handle the B side wax, and their two tracks span the psych-ward spectrum from doomy warpath exile (“Sweat Lodge”) to octave-climbing estrogen ecstasy cloud-tripping (“Silk Fog Traveler”). Both were recorded by Bobb Bruno at Eagle Rock HQ across summer ’07 and cling like cotton to the memory banks. Marbled-peach vinyl LPs in matte jackets with hooded/devoted artwork by Carrie Dietz." Edition of 500.

WEBSITE

Dogo & Crackerjacks - 'Bast Demo' musicassette C40 $5
"Wretched french pressed heavy. Cautious, destructive, repetitious....Dogo is a mutted strain of music hating women and a man pounding drums. Festering sounds from a building that is falling down - total trance and mantras. lo-tech recording for fans of: shaggs, teenage jesus and swans. Full color j-card w/ pictures of the band and friends. What are the girls up to now? Liz (gtr/vox) is full time environmental activist, Ann (bass/vox) is now a naturalist and a proud mother and you may know Kevin Winter from 2673, ASPS, Thee Black One and Penis in Vagina."

WEBSITE

Following a seemingly extended absence, Georgia’s omnipotent Blossoming Noise syndicate returned this summer with a thick brick of releases, several of which reissues once so rare that they arrive as excavated , better than any modern debut. Including the second pass of G*Parks ‘Seismogram’ of the Swiss Schimpfluch-Gruppe collective of the late 1980s, the quickly evaporated box set of The New Blockaders/The Haters, plus a birth of new documents from OGs like Genesis P-Orridge, Hiroshi Hasegawa (C.C.C.C., as Astro), and Val Denham, the label just keeps flexing like a mythical Akira precluding some critical mass de resistance. For the moment, we indulge in the most esoteric ’Il Portale Delle Indipendenti’ rerelease by Mama Bär + Runzelstirn and Gurgelstøck of Schimpfluch and Asylum-Lunaticum, incipient European communal experimentalism from the most of avant-gardes. The title piece is here recreated from the original lathe of 27 scant copies, a diptych “concert for spanking” which my friends is so very apropos. Following the door chime of the first track “O”, the looped tape cuts of female voice the first movement materialize into groans of ecstatic suffer, the edges of voice smeared into a hidden tongue of sinister repression as if exorcising, a Sado-Masonic ritual running the gauntlet of an LP side and back again. The return is a sort of United Dairies remix incorporating the masculine compliment of barking dogs, sharp stabs of scratchings, and German speech: a busier bricolage - though still relatively sparse – there develops a deep-seated polyrhythm beneath the multitude of sampled themes and pockets of regular interval. The free-form “U portal” stresses an overly concrète program, with a mundane, real-time percussive clatter pacing the replay of speech samples, dark cartoon sourcetrack, and the situation-turned-worse of truly disturbed voices (female) opened full-gait, an elusive percussion of edits and sampled beats mocking the rhythm of the caterwaul. With the return of the bell a compressed recapitulation tracks like early industrial gabber on “T prozession”, after the hour-long audio play a wickedly benign pop-revision of the nights horrible events. A brutal early document in a sharp trajectory, ‘Il Portale Delle Indipendenti’ should have many of us rethinking our concepts of experiment and provocation. As always, an incredible package assembled by Graham Moore with vibrant cover art and dissolving text, setting another gem in your collection. (Blossoming Noise CD, $13 HERE)

The 2008 edition of the Deathbomb Arc Tape Club (our 4th year!!) has started taking subscribers!!! Unique to the 2008 edition, each subscriber will receive a large vinyl folder with explosive full color art to hold all 12 tapes. The acts confirmed for the tape club so far are:

1. John Thill
2. Slicing Grandpa
3. Lucky Dragons
4. Whitman
5. Big Nurse
6. Zenrootin
7. A++ (member of Foot Village)
8. Monsturo
9. Married in Berdichev
10. IE
11. Novosak
12. Tleilaxu Music Machine
13. Placenta Popeye
14. The White Tiger Prepade
15. Tent City
16. Crank Sturgeon
17. The Ten Thousand Dollar Tattoo (ex-Minnetonka, ex-Transitional)
18. Blastocyst
19. Teeth Collection
20. 16 Bitch Pile-Up
21. Jason Forest (aka DJ Donna Summer)
22. Reverse Roboverse
+ 2 more!!!!

$40(US)/$60(World) - For info on How The Club Works and to order, go HERE; There will only be 100 subscriptions available this year, so don't hesitate!

Mymwly0073 ice bird spiral CDr $10
"Taken from their myspace bio - “Ice Bird Spiral inhabit a West Country Interzone somewhere between psychedelic-noise and old school Surrealism, where found-sound and automatic writing co-exist with rural car-boot mysticism. The band are currently a 9-piece, but the other 7 are either dead or don't exist.” So it is chaostatic glacial monuments, dwelling inside and outside at the same time, electronic dance moves and a tile of bathroom swimmers blending the air with discord and rain faces, munching the seconds with insane chatter…then a flash of the otherness, the supreme being. This is tense, cold music that at times wraps itself tightly about the head and forces a new way of thinking…that done, a deep warmth comes, womblike…deathlike…universal." Comes in a thought stained envelope with hand written toe tags and full color insert.

Mymwly0076 ThrouRoof – 'infinity less moontales' CDr $10
"Solo project from Italy…blissed out spacious drones of wash and pan…fields are made and slight melodies lift up beyond the microtones…guitars, electronics and keyboards bathed in thick reverb and delay swim about themselves in a world creating way…beautiful drift tones for fear free travel."

Mymwly0087 bOTOs – 'chimes against reality' CDr $10
"Second breath of the occultists. alchemical dispersal and hex dilution. Features one member each from brothers of the occult sisterhood, terracid and 6majik9…formation like a triangle but with fewer angles, a single point. Drifting outsider strum and trance while watching the suns light fade and the colors shift…then inside amongst the cables and fields, under a flowers thought…free jizz?"

Mymwly0088 inhibitionists – 'concession strings' CDr $10
"From Christian Kann, head honcho at BSBTA , comes this gorgeous collection of abstract sonic assemblages. Spiraling plumes and sheeting alien blasts lay out like the rooms in some grand mansion, filled with fuzzy visions and cloudy memories…broken music built into dark places…making for a deeply immerse and rewarding journey. Comes with artwork by the inhibitionists and felt innards."

Mymwly0089 terracid – 'out dual head vibration' CDr $10
"One of the major risks faced by a spacecraft stems from the high level of vibration submitted during essential spacecraft components the shakers are coupled to a dual head expander for tests in the vertical axis and to a large slip under similar conditions to ensure that it will be able to withstand the launch and arrive, in orbit, in perfect condition. Vibrations in the three orthogonal axes of the spacecraft is the case for the dual-head expander. Weirdo hand made art sleeves with insert"

Mymwly0090 6majik9 – 'ritualisimo putrido' CDr $10
"Gathering around a glowing moment…intent on discovery but distracted by the glorious light that seeps from the merging…so a record is kept to remind of the things thought seen, seen heard. Employing something closer to the sound as it grew, avoiding the clamor of the magnetics and spools…now a binary specter from a mirrored laugh…wasted but pretty." Comes in a hard card gatefold with hand painted (by the band) canvas stick on.

WEBSITE