From Chris Miller (Number None, Rebis) and Steve Fors (unseen|unknown) comes the disc ‘First’, precisely that for their new project Flux Bouquet. Two tracks in 22 minutes, “Afterglow” consumes two-thirds of the total with an ecstatic power drone ala Charlemagne Palestine, a building crest of heavy vibration and starched white noise behind which a variety of keys, electronics, and possibly a lapsteel guitar craft miniature figures in a milky way like a marred black scratch pad behind which a bright spectrum shows through with no hopeful sense to be made. With the cutting clarity which Miller/Rebis’ releases have come to be known for, the bliss-out continues with the sugary rejoinder “Splenda”, an accumulating mass of yawning vocal samples over midi-style bass scales, a welcomed squall of high-frequency/low-impact noise washing over as new electronic embellishments emerge at various points of the sound field, noise gaining in discrete intervals to saturation, the effect approximating a Sigur Ros without a headmaster. No frills, etchable-yet-unetched CDr comes in a slim jewel-case with a gorgeous inkjet print on cardstock with illusory tuft [someone got a new computer!]. A Drone Cowboy release limited to 50 copies, available for $7 by EMAIL.

And with ‘Blastula’, Towering Heroic Dudes hit a new low in renegade CDr publishing, blighting the disc and its respective sleeve with sharpie scrawl, and stuffing it with a quartered liner sheet of Xerox in a mini manila envelope onto which more Xeroxed labels have been artlessly arranged (and which the cat has been chewing on, adding to the crusty appeal). Kudos! This rough presentation fits well the destroyed electronics within, moving through the contact clatter of intro “Frontis” into crackled mess of “Everything Happens at Once”, 9 and ½ minutes of oscillating distortion, moaning bass vibrations, tossed wrenches, and treble - lots of treble. It’s a lot like Skaters or Axolotl, but much uglier. The last strands of the latter create the punchy rhythm of live piece “Sikel” (or possibly “Sike!”), a raw jam ala recent Horse Head of garbage can percussion, strangled guitar, and non-committal vocals. Ten minutes of manipulated recordings separate the wayward Eagle Rock brut-folkism “Jersey Don, A Plea”, a non-sequitor, should’ve-been-hidden track of Kool Thing story-telling over tourist click-clack percussion and flute, with a sing-along refrain. Truly a motley affair, available in an edition of 75 from Obsolete Units for $7 HERE.

BFD from FIT:

POCAHAUNTED - 'PEYOTE ROAD' LP $15
"Evolving comes easier to some than others. A lot of the 21st century's chief underground ringbearers are happy mining the same psych-ditch for the same warped ore, tape after tape and day after day. But Eagle Rock, CA's Pocahaunted are too restless (and easily annoyed?) to sit still like that, and so spent all of '07 throwing ever weirder new figures and moods into their amplifier family, and "Peyote Road" shows the motion of their transformation agenda. The A side ritual, "Divine Flesh," stirs hand drums and chimes into a bellydancing blur of voice smoke and rhythm before breaking down into its base elements and slowly reforming. The flip side ("Heroic Doses") documents Pocahaunted's set opening for Thurston Moore on Halloween night in the wasted and highly un-mystical California desert town of Visalia. Bobb Bruno and Britt Brown backed up the ladies' blown-out but melancholy wailing wall with electronic drums and drones, and the recording treads a dim, no-fi path into a bleak and holy void. With tribal-psychedelia collage jacket artwork by Owl Eyes." Edition of 500.

WEBSITE

CAM DEAS - 'Five Bells' CDr £5
"The initial 2 seconds of the opener on this 6 track blazer from Cam are screeching electronics which vanish instantly into a seance of a doomed village, with the leader strumming out some bleak herbal drug folk ritual/haze. Track two, 'Where We've Been' blurs into an intense dronescape, smearing into a lighter, more psychedelic, drone piece 'Where We're Going'. 'The Days Are Over' has a floating drone back, layered on top with guitar ala Jack Rose, Blackshaw etc. Title track 'Five Bells' follows burning the guitar into a flaming rage, with a few remaining strum yelps struggling through the flames. The disc closes with a sweet guitar piece entitled 'Two More Days', again similar to Blackshaw and Rose. Cam just moved up for the smoke to the steel city and a bunch of us just discovered his musical vibes. He has a bunch of things dropping soon, and had a split release with Sindre Bjerga not so long ago. The dude has the skills." Edition of 55 copies. SAMPLE

NACKT INSECTEN - 'Live At Inner Rainbow' one-sided cassette
"Brand new fuzz drone from my Scottish bro Sanachan, both recorded live. Some real psychedelic shit, the man's sound is developing with every release... wobbling drones, sheets of shattering aluminium, and hyperactive yelps." Colour covers, limited to 40 copies.

NACKT INSECTEN - 'Mysterious Ceremonial Disc' CDr
"Another new blast from NA. Space psyche drone whirring back and forth with slashes of metal feedback guitar from Gavin Will. 3 outer limit tracks." Colour Cloud covers, limited to 70 copies.

IAN W - 'Oslo Solo' CDr
"Ian W is Ian Wadley. He was in an Austrailian band that came over here and played shows a few years ago, total gutter garage rock. Here Ian perfroms in Oslo solo, hence the title, improvisational guitar, bluesy and bleaky soundtrack music, this reminds me of a ton of stuff, even Haino, at his most pluckery." Limited to 60 copies.

WEBSITE

MJC166 ANDREW COLTRANE - 'nightvision' C30 $7(No. America)/$10(World)
"Here's another contributing to the growing catalogue of diverse awesumness pouring outta this Michigan magician. >From limited shiners on his own Hermitage label, to bangers on American Tapes, RRR & Sound Holes, "nightvision" continues the reign of Andrew's nightmare. This is a nice companion to his "Rotton Blues" tape if y'all can find it. ~ hits direct in the high octane strings/tapes/tronics vein = heavy dosage ! - imagine A.C. plucking some homemade contraption-- string-up&out, screwed,wires smokin metal blues burnin in the devil's backyard. Each side is comprised of 1 long full-on & 1 quicksand twisted smoke-outro- Definately, higher." limited to 43

MJC167 'TERROR TAPES vol 29': SOUP HORRIFIC/PHOSPHENE FORM C60 $7(No. America)/$10(World)
"side a = Soup Horrific "Melting Streets vol 1" ~from Spain: Stephane Kerandel, the man behind the TerrorTank project and Spread The Disease label, we have this strange piece. Field recordings of streets actually melting?!? Voices, traffic, footsteps and the hum of urban hauntings- howling as they burn to the ground. A feeling of nausea builds. side b = Phosphene Form "Ghetto Mechanism" Hamilton's own Kenny G (Rocket Pony) with bedroom synth jams. This side is split into two loop-based tracks- first builts around an almost dub-step noddin in alien waves lanes & conversation~ the second is a 3-D FX journey of a spacecraft, a crashlanding, equipment malfunction, recharging. hear him http://www.myspace.com/phospheneform." limited to 27

MJC168 ZOMBIE BROWN C90 $7(No. America)/$10(World)
"what happens after the end of music? brown bird wings risin from the mud brown phoenix this tape is death this tape is birth." limited to 27

HERE and THERE

[tzpCD25] Phroq - 'The Hazards Of Sound' CDr 5€
"Intense and dense. Harsh VS concrete music. Lucky you... this live set was captured for yr audio pleasure." 50 copies. Black CDr

[tzpCS05] Anonymous Tapes Series Vol. 4 - 'Second Couteau' C20 5€
"Fourth volume in the Anonymous Tapes Series. Solo act from France : Effects+Voice+Child Synth. Bad energy. Screams. Noise." 2 different cover art.
20 copies.

[tzpPRO06] Evil Moisture - 'Rotten Burger' C30 5€
"Two live sets by Andy Bolus. Total Lo-Fi restitution. 1st side live in Japan ? Total cut-up. Fucking weird. 2nd side live at Galerie en Marge, Paris. False starts then it's growing like a monster." 50 copies

WEBSITE

The first from Earjerk:

Grass Magic LP $12(printed covers)/$18(hand-screened covers)
"Hand screened on recycled album covers, this LP features members of The Skaters, Jewelled Antler Collective and Davenport, all kicking up dust in a rickety old barn. A spontaneous happening. The few hazy nights leading up to PastureFest 2004 may not be easily recalled, but the christening sounds, emanating from a ramshackle farm in the vales of southeast Wisconsin, are imprinted here on this unassuming LP. Featuring an alternate B-side jam (of music pulled from the same session) not found on the cassette version. Otherworldly and just down right cosmic!" Here's the line up: Glenn Donaldson (Jewelled Antler Collective, Skygreen Leopards, Blithe Sons), Clay Ruby (Burial Hex, Zodiacs, Totem), Mansfield (Bruce Carkiss, Mansfield Deathtrap Re-recordings, Garage Indians), Nic Stage (Davenport,), Endless (Craig Microcassette System, Drunjus), Tyler Olson (Davenport), Clay Kolbinger (Math Balance Volumes, Davenport), db Pedersen (Ng Keindhiet, Three Bags Full, Rope), Spencer Clark and James Ferraro (New Age Panther Mistique, Vodka Soap, The Skaters). 200 copies.

HERE

What does it mean that Growing has a new album? First, “album” is a bit strong language for a four-song EP the length (20 minutes) of one track from the band’s ‘Color Wheel’ or the untouchable ‘Sky’s Run Into the Sea’. Further, the duo’s inexplicable retrogression into the near-past of recent Black Dice (so perfected in recently adopted abstract-geometric cover art) and their own ‘Vision Swim’ LP continues with further exploration of thumbnail doodling, rejecting the drone-minimalism of their past works for a more restless generation of sound: the uncharacteristically dry static of “Swell” clears the sonic space for the semi-familiar hydraulics of alternating flange in each ear, the absolute-familiar flutter of bass guitar percolating calmly in the rear as a guitar drone washes over in rote climax from the busy mixture. “First Contact” threatens an almost-perfectly melodic guitar line in its chewed-up mandolin wheedle like Jim O’Rourke or Richard Bishop, the skronky bloops of amp contacts found on many a late-period track creating a percussive rhythm. Degraded further, the choppy production of title-track “Lateral” will have you checking your disc lest you reach the entrée of sea-foam drone beneath this beaty synthesis; with a cavernous clattering, a machination subtle depth elongates the cone of this sound-form, spun significantly on its side in the final minute to imply a heavy, entirely new sense of IDM beat in the band’s composition. Final entry “After Glow” appears appropriately so, as a looping effect of gentle murmurs distorted by distance, a refracted melody drone ala William Basinski, the entire thing an eerie luminescence of a track washed-out in muted production with a tidal rhythm. Thus, what a new album means is a greater sense of loss for those who needed a Growing in the oeuvre, a spheric weight to retreat and respond to, to align one’s equilibrium. But of course it also means an undeniably unique - albeit intermediary – sound, and the hopefulness of progression through the pair’s gratefully, tastefully prolific sense of creation. Seeing in just what direction is the intrigue of each new transmission. Buy vinyl. (The Social Registry CD/LP, $10 HERE)

From Italy's Palustre:



MATTEO ALLODOLI - 'di Goljadkin'/'Lania' 3” CDr + tape 15€(WORLD)
"Like from a Dostojevsky's character, four songs on cdr and three on tape written before "22:22" (pal2,2006), Matteo’s previous album. A miniaturist work: reflections, meditations and trauma in his closer human relationships, written for guitar, voices, flute and electronics taken in an apartment in the city suburbs after his return from journeys to India, deserts, Andalusian valleys, a lamp marked skin, a translated-into-notes surrealist sculpture." 20/20 copies.

ALDO BECCA - '...alla pantera rosa ?' business card CDr 6€(WORLD)
"A very little but engraved love epitaph-expiation song, then ghosts & reverbs from the empty inside of Ravenna’s Cathedral. This work consists of a guitar and voice song followed by an instrumetal track." 30 copies

AAN - 'kultainen kupoli' + 'parantavassa kehdossa' 3” CDr + 5” CDr 14€(WORLD)
"Jani Hirvonen and Jari Koho are two of the most hidden, thrilling sound manipulators from the icy Finland, and they also spread the holy seed under different monickers (uton, kulkija, vapaa); their collaboration started few years back, and the result is a subliminal trip into dense atmospheres and tribal-like fuzz dreamy orchestrations. Cold, dark mellow vibes filled with acid bells and shamanian memories."

'MUSICA PER UNA BALLERINA A TRE GAMBE' ('music for a three legs dancer') 25 BOX x 3 tapes 19€(WORLD)
3 MARCO LAMPIS/DONA FERENTES - 'defrag/decrypt'
tape 30 min. "...A split tape betweeen two italian demented-noise isolationists: Marco Lampis now lives in Berlin, a cool place when he'll surely spread his blackened sonic usurpations: DEFRAG.DECRYPT on the other hand is a collection of relic-screams and impro-noise guitar abuse by Dona Ferentes (aka Michele-Palustre): tortured mourns from beyond the line of mental sanity..."

2 MARCEL TURKOWSKY - 'rippling star dice'
tape 15 min. "...We met with Marcel Turkowski last years while we was touring here, and were totally embalmed by his musical explorations: this cass has two sides of his star-buzzing miscellaneous sounds! Artwork on translucid paper."

1 RINUS VAN ALEBEEK - 'erinnerungen eines lumpen sammlers'
tape, 15 min "...fields recordings and polite words from around Europe, hand-.assembled tape loops created by the craaazy Rinus Van ALebeek. A photo-shoot made of sounds."

WEBSITE

SOD-39 Cloaks - 'Serene' CDr
"Cloaks is the nom-de-plume of Spencer Doran, a Portland based musician who also moonlights as a member of RV Paintings. Doran employs acoustic piano, guitars and various electronics to sublime effect. Obvious comparisons can be made to the flurries of overtone piano that Charlemagne Palestine has pioneered, but Doran truly has crafted an unique and inspired voice of his own, weaving clouds of piano with spiralling plumes of FX and warm gushes of plaintive guitar. Positively magical." ltd.100

SOD-40 Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - 'Shining Skull Breath' CDr
"Shining Skull Breath" documents the latest solo recordings by Root Strata label head and founding Tarentel member Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Those familiar with Jefre's recent solo outings, such as "The Garden of Forking Paths" and"Floating Weeds," will recognize the stunning, wistful, barely-there melodies which abound on those albums. However, this time around these slow orbits of somber, evocative tone aresubmerged in boiling vats of molten fuzz and static making for an increasingly dynamic and bewitching listen. This truly is brilliant, potent, deep listening of the highest order." Second edition of 100 copies.

SOD-42 Terracid -'2023' CDr
""2023" marks the latest interplanetary excursions by Michael Donnelly (mymwly/Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood) and it's a diverse platter of headtripping psych-drone-clatter-rock if ever I've heard one. In fact, each of the album's twelve tracks finds Donnelly mining different territory, channeling the psychedelic ghosts of Japan and Germany through the lens of the sonic traditions of planets light years further away from the Sun than our own." ltd. 100

SOD-56 Fabio Orsi - 'Before Long, Before Anyone, The Stars Will Be Walls In My Mind' CDr
"The final installment in the Orsi SOD trilogy, "BeforeLong..." is as a slow-moving star in orbit, all evanescent low-register drones and scintillating harmonics. Orsi's deft hands and painterly approach have once again concocted a beautiful, expansive space for your mind to roam about. Music for telescope nights." ltd.100.

SOD-62 Procer Veneficus - 'Deathwanderings' CDr
" On "Deathwanderings," Procer Veneficus appropriates drifting fugues from Chopin, Satie and Schubert and distorts them into beautiful smears of wistful ambience. These are pieces that, Derek notes, have "been examined, assembled, and deconstructed into cavernous resonance. Originally intended for use as a soporific, this is music for worlds of ice constructed in the deepest recesses of the mind, and for wanderings at the threshold of death." Not a million miles off from recent Andrew Chalk recordings, and gorgeous as all hell." ltd. 100.

SOD-65 Concern s/t CDr
"This self-titled release is the debut by Concern, a solo endeavor by Gordon Ashworth, who is perhaps best known for issuing complex harsh noise missives as Oscillating Innards. That said, Concern is an entirely different affair. Here, Ashworth's principal focus is on the drone - shimmering, multi-layered and dynamic, he stretches loooong tones into gorgeous sonic tendrils which dissolve or implode into impossibly nostalgic field recordings and static. Recorded throughout the years 2004 - 2007 and, surely, not to be missed." ltd. 100.

SOD-68 Natural Snow Buildings - 'Laurie Bird' CDr
"Hyperbole aside, here there is magic. "Laurie Bird" marks the first of three planned Natural Snow Buildings releases on Students of Decay, with a deluxe 2CD reissue of their epic self-released "Dance of the Moon and Sun" and a double disc set of new recordings entitled "Snowbringer Cult" both due out in early 2008. This may well be many listeners' first exposure to the NSB cosmos, as all previous releases, each painstakingly handmade and impossibly beautiful, have been limited to under 50 copies and have long since sold out. The scope of Mehdi and Solange's artistic vision is staggering, moving from the cinematic to the plaintive, and from the rhythmic to the abstruse with preternatural fluidity and inimitable poise. Utterly spellbinding and entirely essential." ltd. 100.

WEBSITE

Working under the name Crow Feathers, Brandon Miller releases the double 3” collection ‘Imaginary Scores’ on Abandon Ship. Miller offers bright, digital-aged compositions like soundtracks for the sci-fi of Cronenberg, the exposed code in the banality of Haynes, or of deep sea documentary recorded by robot: past Yo La Tengo’s ‘Sounds of the Sounds of Science’ and to the blackest abstraction of inner space; the sharp colors of electronic embellishments like luminances reflect against the bold body of droning murk, creating a contour of the terrain with nearly echo-location realism. Flexing his cinephilic savvy, Miller dedicates “Blind Chance” to that hypothetical anti-fatalist Krzysztof Kieslowski: a permutation appropriately of three peaks, the soft powder of synthetic swell acts as a tissue through which the blinking string of aural LEDs is sequenced. Mid-track, the watery chirping of “Our Red Flower” emerges just briefly to a dry atmosphere and the harsh lines of terranean sculpture, the qualities of which so dearly dampened by the diffusion of the liquid are now made violent, and unbearable. This noise resumes through the blowing anxiety of “Perfume” on the second disc, an experiment of dipping the camera in a sort of reverse water-boarding, exposing the blister of surface noise with varying amounts of subdued calm, the hideous shriek becoming delicate harmonies in the saturated ether. At last, the vibrato of steel guitar strings echoes through the busy calm of “Tobik”, a southerly noir of sustained tones, overlapping in the hot stains of a watercolor over etching lines of ink. An odd inclusion stylistically, the song is also the shortest, concluding just shy of seven minutes, situated against tracks of more or less ten minutes each; regardless this incongruity, the song is fantastic – possibly the best of the lot – and the whole collection succeeds with the alternation through the division of the two discs. Labeled CDrs come in a sturdy clamshell with vivid, full-color artwork. Limited to 100 copies, and highly recommended. (Abandon Ship 2x 3”CDr, $7 HERE)

SKULL DEFEKTS - 'DFX' CDr CH018 7€/9€
"Crushing two piece thick new album by some of the fiercest electronic damagers to come out of Norway. DFX channels two twenty minute bolts of post-industrial sonics. First piece puts up a fog of hazy electronics reminiscent of early Broken Flag tapes by the likes of Maurizio Bianchi and Giancarlo Tonutti whilst gradually morphing into harsher ground. The second piece starts like a lost Wolf Eyes side with a multitude of sinister effects and Industrial beats. Crazy energy building, a whirl of voices lost in a bottomless well, Skull Defekts seem to do it for no less than the most impressive of dystopian soundworlds." 100 copies inside cardstock covers by Gio/Canedicoda.

6MAJIK9 - 'THE SPACE BETWEEN' CDr CH031 7€/9€
"Sucking up fluids from middle earth and releasing them through weirded out psych jams, 6majik9 represent a blossoming Australian underground centred around the ever incredible Musicyourmindwillloveyou label, Brothers Of The Occult Sisterhood, Terracid, etc. Enough loner vibes on this one to loose yourself in for a couple of days on end. Rural murmur, entrancing drones, minimalist percussion trails, baby’s crying, uknown magickal devices emitting electronic incense, the smell of wet leafs, the moon bigger and brighter than usual." 66 copies in square dvd cases with b/w artwerk and inlay.

ROB FUNKHOUSER - 'COSMOS' CDr CH032 7€/9€
"66 minute long tonal excercise that works the fringes of the current free-drone underground up to the cosmic paradise shaped by astral travellers Ash Ra Tempel and the minimalist magic of Steve Reich’s Drumming. Funkhouser has that focus of a determined soul, never rushing, calmly pushing Cosmos to desolate plains where the dark purple mood of the album cover lingers across the horizon. Music for the breaking of a gloomy autumn dawn, coming down from whatever trip you’ve been on, weedsmoke still curling up from the bong…not a jacker in sight. Break in and zone out." Edition of 50 in polyvinyl sleeves with moody artwerk.

HERE

l-t-(f)-r 016: Kelly Nesbitt - 'Beaks That Could Smile' CDr
"in which the dust settled on the antique photo album is blown, revealing all manner and layers of americana therein. kelly nesbitt has been known around town for years as a performance artist and folksinger with one ear in the frontier gothic folk/country ballad tradition and the other in a delightfully skewed avant-garde psychedelic realm, and on this album--her official debut--the two sides harmonize on a dusty spacetrip to places both hauntingly familiar and invitingly alien. it's a stunningly humble, graceful lo-fi world where a kazoo solo is a fine replacement for a guitar solo, and where perfectly-left answering machine messages deserve just as much appreciation as perfectly-delivered gospel-voiced folk songs."

016 - 'Beaks That Could Smile' 5" CDr $10
white-top cdr with handstamped bird. packaging: full-color copy of collage and hand-drawn art, pasted onto chipboard arigato pak and sanded till soft.
insert: fold-out 8x10" xeroxed sheet with typed and handwritten text, and bird stamp edition: limited, 50 copies.


l-t-(f)-r 017: Robert Stillman's Horses - 'Three Early Maine Films'
"in which nostalgia is gleaned from the parlour and the ocean; the fairground and the midnight air, in the form of moving postcards and one-man piano rags. using just two hands and two feet to play electric piano, a complete drumkit, nylon-stringed guitar, and tape fragments as though he were a full whiskey-soaked turn-of-the-20th-century band, robert stillman's music is transportive and transformative in any setting, but perhaps most effective as presented here: as the thoughtful soundtrack to archival silent documentary film footage of early 1900's maine loggers, fishermen, and lobstermen. the films and musical accompaniment are suspenseful, reverent, and playful - stillman's score perfectly matching the documentation of maine worklives with a veritable documentary of the american parlour sound."

017 - '3 Early Maine Films' DVDr/CDr $12
5"cdr: white-top cdr with handcut stamp in red ink. dvdr: white-top dvdr with handcut stamp in red ink. packaging: cream-colored heavy cotton paper gatefold sleeve, with black ink linoleum-cut print on the cover and typed liner notes on the inside and back cover. edition: limited, 50 copies.


and mailing #2 of the Tryst Haunt Series, Winter 2008:
LTH 704: bird microphone - 'memory songs ep'
"bird microphone follows up last year's paper mines split with cursillistas with this collection of original songs and appalachian child ballads. fitting six songs onto this 45rpm 7" record, bird mic. mixes her trademark dulcimer plucks and cut-up bell percussion clacks with a new focus on voice. love songs that aren't afraid to expose the dissonance; traditionals on the a-side, originals on the b. preview here." black 7" vinyl record with center labels hand-stamped on the A and hand-drawn/colored on the B-side, held in a heavy off-white cotton paper sleeve, with double-vision two-color screenprinted covers and an offset-printed back. hand-numbered to 300, and embossed.

LTH 705: white light - "saraswati" b/w barry burst - "rabies"
"ian paige's white light project turns in a graceful, drony and jangly piece of classic lo-fi psych-pop, with a subtle galloping rhythm track keeping the good vibes in line. swirls of phasing synth quietly sneak up on the sweet vocals and lead guitars until all ride off on the figurative elephant in the sky. meanwhile, perennial favorite barry burst crashes that elephant back to the earth dirt and kicks up a party that could only be described as bollywood on acid. tablas and a host of handclaps provide the rhythmic thrust, while eastern strings and a chorus of singers (a multi-tracked barry) parade the blissfully gone love-fest through town." black 7" vinyl record with hand-stamped center labels held in a tri-fold die-cut chipboard sleeve, letterpressed and screenprinted in a multicolor design, with screenprinted chipboard insert. hand-numbered to 300.

LTH 706: the red f - "fingers" b/w sarah ramey - "magic" & "jane"
"here we have a couple names new to the l'animaux tryst family, but no doubt familiar to those in the southern-maine know, here presented in split-single form as the official solo debut for both artists. the red f is the solo project of phantom buffalo guitarist tim burns, and there are shadows of his group's gentle and sweetly skewed indie-pop on "fingers". but pared down to just a voice, a creaky acoustic guitar, and the reverbed ghosts in the room, burns turns out one of the most affecting folk ballads we've heard in some time. on the b-side, sarah ramey (lead vocals and guitar for seekonk) presents two similarly pared-down tracks of acoustic strings and double-tracked vocals. the incredible intimacy with which she delivers each half-whispered word and melody alludes to warmth like the crackle of a woodfire on the coldest night." black 7" vinyl record with hand-stamped center labels, held in a heavy white cotton paper sleeve, with offset-printed art with watercolor washes applied by tim burns' hand. hand-numbered to 300 and embossed.

These three records are available as a set for $24 in the US or $28 overseas, or as part of the Tryst Haunt Series year-long subscription (twelve 7" records total, three with the change of every season) for $75 US or $90 worldwide. And there are definitely still full-year subscriptions available, so get in touch. Remember, all prices include shipping to the US, so worldwide customers will add a couple bucks and we'll knock a couple bucks off for multiple orders.

WEBSITE

n.o.t.#5 - 'first video' 3x 3" DVDr 8€(World)
"with video documentaries about Birchville Cat Motel, Charalambides, & Tarentel: 3x20mn videos of live footage and exclusive interviews with the bands, on high-quality video-dvd. Artwork out of real/dreamed maps..." HERE

"And - to celebrate this first year of existence of nothingness, the first release, sold out for months, is now available for download on the website on a special online version, with full tracks in .wav format and cover art. These are all exclusive tracks ! This web release will only be available for about a month. Including Black Forest/Black Sea, Drona Parva, L'Enfant Méduse, The Lost Domain and Przewalski's Horses HERE (under 'Info')

Funding a brief label tour is the latest from Australia's MUSICYOURMINDWILLLOVEYOU:

Mymwly0100 blank realm/6majik9 - 'live in toowoomba 2007' CDr $10
"Two east coast psych tribes deliver mind numbing sets recorded in the sleepy sunday warmth of toowoomba’s norville beer garden. Blank realm kick things of with a massive slab of krautrock hued space warp , huge shifting sheets of purelectronic noise rend the air while maintaining an earthly warmth thanks to some organic drum shuffle and trance inducing mouth organics. 6majik9 end it all with a free flowing prayer to the gods of Japanese noise , cartoonish heaviness gives way to ramshackle rhythmic dissolution which ultimately builds to a rock out in search of an angry velvet fix."

Mymwly0101 rmeaajlimk – 'orphans all around us' CDr $10
"Post gig jam with stay up late members of blank realm and 6majik9 , melding blowout afterglow laziness with trance divination to smack a gleam of freedom. Stumbling clatter and teased out noise , hitchhiking trumpets , electronic fuckery and so forth."

Mymwly0102 terracid – 'skies' CDr $10
"An eightball of swallowed volumes and hippy rockwork for the wingless . spiraling drift thread thin like minute spider webs until the floor becomes the sky."

Mymwly0104 6majik9 – 'thank you for being my codeine' CDr $10
"Drawn from multiple sessions recorded in various locations by various formations of the band , resulting in a diverse collection of improvisations that nevertheless pursue the same tranformative path toward the undoing of time and space."

WEBSITE

The Magic I.D. - 'till my breath gives out' (ErstPop 001)
"The Magic I.D. is a Berlin-based quartet exploring the juncture of song forms with abstract music. The band, consisting of Margareth Kammerer, Christof Kurzmann, Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke, formed in summer 2005 after previously being connected via smaller groupings and projects. till my breath gives out is their debut release, and consists of six intricately constructed gems, each with its own individual shape, painstakingly sequenced to form a record that becomes more than the sum of its parts. Kammerer was born in Italy and moved to Berlin in 1994. She is deeply involved in the worlds of both theatre and music, and has a lengthy resume in both areas. Her mostly solo album To Be An Animal Of Real Flesh was released on Charhizma in 2004, featuring collaborative tracks with Axel Dörner, Chris Abrahams and Tatusya Yoshida, as well as remixes from Fred Frith, Philip Jeck, Bernhard Fleischmann and Kurzmann. Her unique, distinctive voice has been underdocumented previously, but is showcased on till my breath gives out to riveting effect. Kurzmann has been a prominent part of both the Vienna and (more recently) the Berlin scenes over the past decade. As an organizer, he cofounded the phonoTAKTIK festival, helped found the famous Rhiz club in Vienna, and runs the prestigious Charhizma label. Kurzmann has been an essential part of many Erstwhile-related live events, in Tokyo, Berlin and NYC, and was the first to work at Amann Studios for an Erstwhile release, beginning a crucial relationship for the label. His duo with Burkhard Stangl, schnee, is one of the core projects of Erstwhile, with a third release for the label currently in preparation for release, and his duo with Ami Yoshida, a s o, is an underappreciated gem. Fagaschinski has leapt to prominence in the improv world over the last few years, with well-received duo projects such as Los Glissandinos (w/Klaus Filip), The International Nothing (w/Thieke) and Kommando Raumschiff Zitrone (w/Kurzmann). His music is rooted in abstraction, but with an increasingly insidious melodious element. This is his first Erstwhile release, and his second is already in the works, a duo disc with Stangl. Thieke was born in Düsseldorf and moved to Berlin in 1993. He works in a wide range of styles in the jazz and improv worlds, from a Mingus tribute to a collective trio on Ayler Records (w/Christian Weber and Michael Griener) to his own Unununium project on Charhizma to the aforementioned The International Nothing w/Fagaschinski, ranging from free blowing to sparse, pointillistic abstraction, from fully improvised to fully composed. The six pieces contained here are precise collective compositions, three by the full quartet, and one from each of the three potential “duos� (the two clarinets form one twinned instrument). till my breath gives out expands song forms through the prism of experimental sensibilities and meshes the two remarkably fluidly. The design has been sourced from a photograph taken by Gianmarco Bresadola in Alexanderplatz, Berlin, and stunningly reconceived by Berlin designer Marion Gerth." till my breath gives out is being released simultaneously in two formats: foldout digipak CD and gatefold 180g vinyl. The content and the running order are identical; the LP version was mastered slightly differently to better fit the format. The LP is an edition of 500 copies; the CD is unlimited and inexpensive.

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Is this Saint Valentine's day? Perfect! Go: A welcomed sequel to a welcomed sequel, the self-titled full-length by The Watery Graves of Portland and/et Geneviève (Castrée, née WOELV) offers an extension to the elongated compositions, earthen tenors, and diversified techniques of the hip supper-jazz ‘Portland’, November’s follow-up to the Graves’ first long-player ‘Caracas’ from a way back. Released on the same day, the band’s collaboration with Francophone singer Castrée takes these incremental improvements to an album-ready echelon, leaving the leads and flourishes to the singer’s scalar contortions. The trio – Curtis Knapp, Adrian Orange, Davis Hooker – with help from the Knapp Family (Fox and Laurel) and some seventh-wheel named Phil Elverum, maintain their somber, understated cool ala Dirty Three, generally padding the sparse drum and bass rhythms, and denying the piano strings the brassy punch of Castrée’s throat strings. An open-mouthed coo holds the meter between the lines of “Un peu comme Dersou”, a soft, pulsing prelude to the hard come-on of “Agace-Pissette”, a fervent, angry riffing administered over a stubborn piano plod and jittery, skittery percussion; tugging at her Latin roots like the fiery monologues of Lila Downs, this traditional scat reflects the tenor of Castrée’s (presumably anti-) “war songs” as described in her foreword inscription, and the subsequent writing for this album of “dramatic love songs[…] sometimes comical, mostly bitter.” With the exception of two, four minute ballads, the bulk of the album skates by in one and two minute bursts of playful energy, convivial with the band’s pick-up style. For “Intmepéries” Castrée sings a cappella, but for the duration the band follows as would an adoring puppy, piano often mimicking her melodic embellishments in the syrupy spaces of “Page de Blanc” and “Notre mythologie”. Following the sultry, Brelian “Post-Partum”, “Les Nerfs!” is a fine piece of European pop-balladry, resting a lacy whimsy over a walking cycle of bittersweet scales, and elevating the climax with just the subtlest echo effects. Were the desire to end on a sour note, the too-brief “Sans pardon” would have made a fine occlusion, rekindling the spirited “Agace-Pissette” in a spitfire of climbing pitch with a small choral endorsement and a lively coda by m. Orange on percussion. Instead of this finale, a suitable alternative is decided upon in the jaunty “Pour Romain”: following a segue of comical dialogue starring the band, a roiling cadence is established for a sing-song Castrée at her sweetest, carrying, rather than thrusting her notes, a mischievous lilt added to each line; she disappears early, and the band swells with typical, guarded enthusiasm to obscure whatever has captured their comtessa’s attention. A welcome wedding of voice to the band’s sometimes overly-cool being. CD comes in a paper gatefold with equally subtle/fantastic, unattributed artwork (also available on LP). (Marriage CD, $10 HERE)

The first magnetic releases by Digitalis:

ltd#4: xela - 'the illuminated' C42 $7(domestic)/$9(world)
"a new side of xela's schizoid personality is revelead on "the illuminated" as type records figurehead john twells unleashes two sonic barnstormers that cover a lot of ground. overloaded with copious amounts of analog synths, "the illuminated" is baked in the grimmest plot of scorched earth you've ever seen. twells wrecks his voice lamenting the black clouds above on "gilted rose," hoping for an exorcism that never comes. the doom is thick as thieves with this one, and the last candle has been smashed to pieces. underneath all the hell and fury, though, xela does attempt to bury the vaguest of melodies. it seeps into the soil, hoping one day to be dug out. bells and chimes sound like rusted chains slogging through the mood as the slaves march their way to the edge of the cliff looking for salvation dying down below." limited to 111 handnumbered copies, packaged in white-on-black silkscreened covers. Excerpt, order HERE

ltd#6: ajilvsga - 'gathering of owls' C42 $7(domestic)/$9(world)
"after a handful of releases on labels like not not fun, arbor, jk tapes, & abandon ship, ajilvsga finally returns to its native lands. "gathering of owls" features recordings from the hottest point of summer and from the birth pangs of 2008. showered in a thick layer of scorched fuzz, these songs are baked like clay bowls in the fire-orange sun. the sea is turned into a bed of sand, impregnated with salt so that everything dies in the womb. burning slow inside the decaying bones of blackened electronics and voices buried beneath the storm lies a single nugget of truth. what that truth is, though, can only be found by sucking out the marrow. "gathering of owls" is a battle for the plains with looped percussion providing the backbone to this death march. the chanting emerges from smoke signals on the horizon, coming at you full on with nobody to put on the brakes. bass rumbles and death guitars gnaw at the scraps of muscle left behind by circling vultures. this is ajilvsga's new dawn, born and bleeding." limited to 72 handnumbered copies, packaged in full-color prints w/ handpainted tapes. Excerpt, order HERE

DIGITALIS

New from the Root Strata:

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma & Paul Clipson - 'Corridors' DVDr $10(US)/$13(World)
"Latest installment from the ongoing collaboration between filmmaker Paul Clipson & musician Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Paul's Super8 films, shot entirely in New York City, channel the blissed out states of color drenched psychadellia explored by Brakage as well as lovely black and white still life's that reminisce on Ozu's 'pillow shots' & Chantel Akermans monumental portrait of Pre-Giuliani New York 'Letters Home'. Jefre's music is culled from the same sessions that launched his 2007 release on Students Of Decay 'Shinning Skull Breath', (the two share a track in common). Billowy clouds of distorted guitar expand out into long passages of muffled static and fuzzed out melody." Edition of 100

Steven R. Smith - 'The Anchorite' CD $12(US)/$18(world)
"Originally released in 2006 on Important Records as a limited run LP in their ongoing Arts & Crafts Series, Root Strata is proud to present the reissue of The Anchorite, a dazzling jewel in Smiths substantial discography. Performed live to two track with the aide of tape loops and prerecorded takes, the music maintains a drifting, painterly quality that easily evokes the American west as much as the European east which Smith so lovingly mines for his Hala Strana recordings. Sepia toned and tinged with a luminous distortion, The Anchorite, as the name suggests, is reserved, pulled back and solemn, some kind of hermetic prayer for the end of the world." Beautifully repackaged with new artwork in a heavy black & white gatefold CD case with offset printing. Edition of 500

CATALOG

Though I must admit an almost perfect unfamiliarity with the deceased, the send-up ‘Taco Bell Fella: A Tribute to Quem Quaeritis’ is a nice introduction, idealized and removed, like hearing all the great stories about someone without the displeasure of enduring their filthy habits. They lived a short life (maybe 3 years), but from what I can tell, Quem Quaeritis (latin for “Whom do you seek?”) enjoyed a Reagan-era adolescence in the Los Angeles area, probably suburban in high school; in-language and general irreverence is nurtured in their lyrics, fella, with notable nods to Jim Caviezal, Desert Eagle pistols, and a marked fetish for the TV show Family Ties. A number of familiar and not-so-familiar Southern California artists are on hand here to pay homage, and more than a few provide noteworthy covers (again, not to be weighed by their relation to the original, for which I have no reference). An innovative - if not always pretty – mix of beaty electronics and hokey rock informs the bulk of tracks, often with a raw separation which splits the bulk of songs in two, making the disc that much more diverse: Child Pornography push the queer electrogrind of the odd Xiu Xiu track to a bumping new concern, Gowns pull off the diminutive laptoppop of their recently witnessed EP (all beats, gleaks, and strategically degraded vocal pile-up), Flaspar’s “Jah on the Haj”, if not a remix, is a remarkably subtle piece of Tussle-style dub, and Golden Boots launches the disc with the “Slangin’ Family Ties Dub”, a jaunty stretch of light Richman song-slinging with the voice of a young old man, awash in a crunchy trip-hop remix. A sloppier aesthetic coagulates around the center, as a stretch of home-tracked techno parts momentarily for the plucky folk-along “Hobo Chic” by Chinatown Bakeries and the most successful “Werewolves in the City” by Viking Moses - something between the minimal, drum-machining lectures of Arab Strap and, what, David Sylvian? Nice. Monster Dudes offer a refreshing glass of Truman’s Water dada, and Barra Barracuda garner the coveted closing position (deservedly) for their no wave take on “Billy Joel”, thick bass, anxious and disjoint percussion, shouted sass-mouth vocals – you know – real fresh. Unlike the vast majority of tributes where the band in question is more often roasted by crazed contributees, this disc stands up on its own, walks around a bit, shaking hands and inspiring no impulse to seek out the original article (the enigma of a good tribute – ultimately a bad idea?); and whether you hate Taco Bell or merely despise it, you’ll likely find more than a few things to like on this album. Mastered by American Gil with art by James Bradley. Stamped CDr comes in two-color screened sleeves with insert and Quem Quearitis memorial sticker, designed as if they wrecked their ATV in Glamis. (Folktale CDr, $5 HERE)

kenji siratori - 'morgue' CDr
"A divergence from the spoken-word noise that Kenji has come to be known for. Three tracks of dark, ambience that move into harsher territories. The title matches the tone of the disc." Edition of 66 stamped cdrs.

mystified - 'cold telemetry' CDr
"10 tracks unfold over 50 minutes. dark, ambient electronics. cold and empty yet beautiful and haunting." Edition of 78 stamped cds.

th. - 'afflux' CDr
"a 19+ minute glitched out composition that varies from minimal and dark to piercing and cacophonic. th. is taylor holdgraf who also works under the iamseamonster moniker." edition of 77. housed in a trifold, two-sided vellum cover.

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Named for the only vegan option at Johnny Rockets’ fauxld-timey diner, ‘Streamliner’ by Rough Ride of Crafts (aka Jessy Kendall) collects a diverse array of bedroom experiments in pop, folk, and, er, other, resulting in a compelling collection as schizophrenic as a label compilation. Though one may feel Rob Crow a suitable point of reference for the eclectic popster - partly following the four-track indie love-in of entry one, “Entry 1” – such a comparison falls apart after the compositional coups of thumb piano tune “Elbows Askew”, the whitey-rendition “Zuni Text”, and the drone maelstrom “Computer Printout 2”. And those are the first four songs. More indie pop certainly follows, but not with any idiosyncratic marker (save maybe Kendall’s flat lyrical structure): track “Fog Swirls, Twirling Echo” expands an otherwise simple lullaby with added vocal segments, chopped up strings fragments and in-reverse swipes to a not-quite return image, and second drone entry “The Bae” reveals a very capable noise portraitist in Kendall as he (with guest Chris Keys) merges thick static washes with MBV synthetics and a bold foundation of harsh ether. The most sincere delivery at the album’s apex, “Fighting” delivers an intense, 1/2 bar shanty of looped piano, phase-shifted vocals, and hand percussion to the theme of fighting people, which, figurative or otherwise, is very hip. “Sense Maker” plays with an early, proto-industrial (Coil, Current 93) structure, coupling heavily-tooled vocals to a plodding piano (by Kelly Nesbitt), a mechanistic backdrop and doomsayer (if not inarticulate) lyrics filling out the five moody minutes. Final track “You Need It Then It Comes” is the busiest production on the album with a backing crew of Arborea (Currans Shanti and Buck) and the spirit of Colleen Kinsella (Big Blood) as lyrical mother. Kendall’s delivery of the verses is fresher than any prior moment, and the backing female harmonies cut the overwarmth of acoustic guitar and banjo, as the higher strings send wayward sparks of blissful contention. Admittedly a chore at first, this album’s a grower of an understated design which defies its immediate mottle through careful listening. Stamped CDr comes in stamped, printed Arigato pak with full-color insert, hand-numbered to 50 copies.

A true one-man outing, Matthew O’Rourke’s self-titled disc as Tassel, though small in stature (7 tracks in 16 minutes), defies these parameters in the vast scope of its sound. Playing as a full band, and heavy on the jangle and the reverb, tracks like “Untitled”, “Good Morning Autumn”, and “Silver Car Crash” cannot help but conjure the ghosts of 4AD and Sire of the 80/90 flip, bands like Ride, Lush, and of course, My Bloody Valentine. Though O’Rourke has a clearly studied sense of shoegaze, the true birthright is found in the production, as the crunchy texture of the atmospheric drone “Coney Sand” sounds channeled directly through a Buddha Machine, and the uncanny percussion and clean guitar sound (not to mention title) of “Star 80” could have been pulled off any number of the above band’s “best of” as the token, rave-down ballad. Whether as a nostalgic rechanneling or as one’s first encounter with the genre, the disc offers a smart, raw take without over-reaching in any direction. For me, the best of here is, without contest, “Way Far Out”, a dead-on ‘Mezcal Head’-era Swervedriver up-tempo jam of harmonizing guitars, bass, and stacking percussion; vocal interplay threaded through both channels and fully saturated. Stellar; a full-length of equal track quantity would be the flannel shit! Comes on Tic-Tac orange CDr with water-colored, machine-sewn sleeve. Limited to 40 copies. (L’Animaux Tryst CDr, $10 & $7 HERE)

Gang Wizard - 'Live In Paris' 3" CDr
"We claimed to be touring Europe with just the bare necessities. We claimed that any amp and drum situation would work for us. Paris put this claim to the test. The drum kit was a snare, a kick, and a street sign. The amplification was a single blown out PA. So we ran two guitars, three full electronics set ups and the vocals through the PA, and just went for it. The massive amounts of signal cancellation transformed five musicians into one single Frankenstein. The street sign didn't work as a cymbal, so dump a dump had to do. But somehow this became the most powerful set of the entire tour. Insistent throbbing distortion that somehow is a rock band, except when the PA would overheat and only vocals/drums remained. Rowdy French speaking audience imitating whatever they thought our gibberish lyrics were. Most told us the set was too short, but twenty minutes spent hanging off the edge of chaos felt like ages to us. We're very proud of this performance. This is what music sounds like when you work for it. Too many universal rock bands are just doing it to bring themselves pleasure. Doing it for the pleasure of the audience sometimes means that the performer doesn't have fun at all. Which is 100% ok, since the only thing that matters is how the audience feels." - Brian Miller

The Pope - 'Do You Wanna Boogie?' 3" CDr
"The duo of Paul Kneejie and Brian Watson are American popular musicians known collectively as The Pope. They met in elementary school in 1953, when they both appeared in the school play Alice in Wonderland (Kneejie as the Dodo, Watson as Dweedle Dum). They formed the group Tom and Jerry in 1957, and had their first taste of success with the minor hit "Hey Schoolgirl... Boogie". As The Pope, the duo rose to fame in 1965 backed by the hit single "The Sound of Silence Boogie Woogie". Their music was almost featured on the landmark film Star Wars, propelling them further into the public consciousness. They are well known for their close harmonies and sometimes unstable relationship. Their last album, Boogie Over Troubled Water, was marked with several delays caused by artistic differences. Kneejie and Watson were among the most popular recording artists of the 1960s, and are perhaps best known for their songs "The Sound of Silence Boogie", "Mrs. Robinson Boogie", "Boogie over Troubled Water" and "The Boxer Boogie". They have almost received several Grammys and are hoping to be inductees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2007). In 2004, Rolling Stoned ranked The Pope #420 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Boogie."

Human Adult Band - 'Impotent & Filthy: Live @ Th' Big Pink Philadelphia, PA' C30
"The day Syd Barrett died Trevor Pennsylvania of the Human Adult Band was committed to the loony bin. Coincidence or not, Human Adult Band's wiped out primitive jams and subliminal logic lyrics successfully channel the energies and otherworldliness of the psychotic trance state. Put your head phones on and your walkman in a fanny pack. Wander the streets of the isolated part of town. Kick up some snow. Buy a deli sandwich and eat it alone." - Trevor Pennsylvania

Ajilvsga - 'Winter Hunt' C50
"Black paint was applied to convey mourning or that the fires of revenge had burned out in his heart and that he was now repentant. Red spots were printed over a coat of black on his face. The red spots representing bullets. He would also add red to his mouth to indicate bleeding from a wound received in battle. The other wore a wolf skin over his head and shoulders, the tip of the wolves nose painted red. The lower half of his face was painted white from ear to ear, his body painted in imitation of the blue wolves. Red paint on his hands and wrists symbolized blood. The death society had songs that were sung at its gatherings but they had been lost, together with all the customs once observed. The two of them sat down and began to sing these songs in a great pulsating voice. Armed only with pulsing electronics and wailing walls of bass, the hunt is on." - Ajilvsga

Slasher Risk - 'Vole' C61
"Voles are small rodents similar to mice but with stouter bodies and shorter hairy tails. Vole introduces some new ideas and textures into the Slasher Risk catalog. The A side sees us on one hand going deeper into the realm of electronic noise, offering our first use of looping and tape manipulation, harsher junk-electronic material with an extended almost Native American style war-drumming throughout, while on the other hand also displaying something otherwise unprecedented in our other recordings, a surprising venture into more traditional 'rock' territory, albeit improvised, featuring a steady drum groove and fuzzed out yet discernible guitar with reverberated, echoing vocals. The B side is more akin to an audio map of the opening scene in Macbeth. Heavy dark and stormy nighttime textures in the soundscape, distant lightning flashes, lots of toil-and-trouble fair-is-foul style black arts going on in the negative space between sage and incense wafts. We were using all kinds of crazy cooking and kitchen tools, pots and pans, some cat-grooming brushes, broken radios, c.b. transmitters, and various containers of water and microphones. Uncooked rice ended up everywhere. Don't take that dose operating heavy machinery." - Andy Borsz

Fantastic Magic - 'Witch Choir' (Repress) CDr
"For anyone who missed out the first time around, or those looking for a higher fidelity version of this release... "Take a magical trip on a pegasus through a field of LSD. Flowers harmonize and dance among young wizards at the festival of the equinox.", stated a mystical nypmh as he sat perched apon a toadstool, shanai in hand. These thoughts come to mind as a neo-psychedelic journey begins through a field of emerald green grass and a multicolored sky that is Fantastic Magic. Pull up a woven floor mat and enjoy the fruits of the earth as you delve into three young wizards journey through the island forest." - Orion Ferguson

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PLACENTA POPEYE - 'Yellow' CDr 5€(everywhere)
"Reissue of "The Yellow Tape", an astonishing release by the always challenging French duo Placenta Popeye which came out last year in a ridiculously limited edition of 30 copies. Some of their most intense recordings pushing the feedback poetry real forward along with the sickened throat use and random string abuse. One of our favorite bands in the house. CDR comes w/ a killer bonus long track from the same session!" Edition of 70 copies in an amazingly printed fold out A4 poster.

DAVID PAYNE/PANAGIOTIS SPOULOS split C30 4€(everywhere)
David Payne (Fossils, Middle James Co) + Panagiotis Spoulos (Reverse Mouth, Phase!) offer two 12-minute solo efforts filled w/ obsession + insistence. Payne's side is a minimal garbage electronic percussive delirium which manages to force your brain to work on loops. Spoulos' side is a trembled-up oriental high pitch raga which manages to force your body go down." Full-color cover, limited to 40.

HERE

Polemical declarations as those made in the title ‘Persian Electronic Music: Yesterday and Today 1966-2006’ must not be taken lightly, no matter how easily they may be applied. Asserting a heretofore invisible realm of electronic art music in Iran, this two disc, dual biography posits the conductors Alireza Mashayekhi & Ata Ebtekar, aka Sote, as exactly that: two bodies circulating a tenuous legacy of composition meant to explain four decades of the less-than-irrelevant category of Persian Electronic Music. Any history resting its weight on a scant two agents is required to fall into question, yet the prime assertion of this very secret history implies that such a possibility may be argued; it also implies that few on the receiving end of this document might argue otherwise. I certainly will not, and cannot.

Mashayekhi - considered the “father of avant-garde electronic music in Iran”- features eight pieces spanning a window of 1966 to 1980, and beginning with “Shur, Op. 15”, the composer’s first foray into what he would later title “Meta-X”, a style reconciling or surpassing the modal restraint of Eastern music with the dissonance of Western serial style: subsuming the wheedled notes of a sawing violin into a swelling drone, a collage of manipulated string sounds comes to fill the newly-wiped sonic space, regularly punctuated a pause with the clap of concrète noises. Moving arbitrarily between years of composition, the following track “Mithra, Op. 90” is Mashaykhi’s youngest, and appears as a submerged cathedral of stringed noise, indeterminate in origin (of instrument as well as place) - the entire piece muted and blended as if through a frosted glass. Hardly breaching a song-like composition, the composer approximates a tune in the playful synthesizer of 1979’s “Chahargah I, Op. 75”: like a novice on the sales-floor, the machine is attacked with irregular interest, alternatively sustaining notes in one channel with complimentary modulations in the other, combating harmonics with vibrato effects and layering notes upon each other in disagreeing keys. More often an experiment in textures allowed by the technology, Mashayekhi regularly derives new palettes of sound even when the motivation of the composition has seemingly run aground. The longest track at 19 minutes (half the tracks breach 10 minutes, and the entire disc falls five seconds short of 80 minutes), “East-West, Op.45” is the projected outcome of the composer’s research into “multicultural music”, and approaches the Meta-X mandate with swatches of Iranian strings churned through a number of simultaneous processes – often doubling the strings to a small orchestra – and shooting this through with electronic bolts, over rough static curtains. A series of frequencies follows, solidifying the disparate cacophony into a single, spiking band, refusing any desire to paint the author as an Easterner dabbling in Western timbres, or vice versa. Though the extreme degree of experimentation and dissonance/noise would urge the latter, this certainly reflects a closed concept of “progress”, wherein only from one conceivable point may the composer “look back” to gather material; rather, the very polyvalence of the work indicates an undefined/indefinable progression (as much as it can be thought as such), situated in the simultaneity of multi-cultural composition. An early work which can only be counted as power electronics, “Panoptikum 70, Op. 27” is the composer’s response to the last days of the Vietnam War, and utilizes both concrète field-recordings and imaginary soundscapes to conjure the tragic space of the Mekong Delta, where the life of amphibious life whirs and chirps beyond the arresting devastation of the metallic shrieks, crash, and vibration of a bombastic aggression.

By contrast, the works of Sote, 32 years Mashayekhi’s junior, arise from a similar desire for immutability, through from a future vantage which must attempt to sequester the extrapolation of musical ideas through technological innovation. With an Authecre ear for timbrel dynamics, Sote beads the cloth of his compositions with thousands of brilliant points, stretching the material without tearing, and pouring the focus of the monitor on a pivot; at the same time, these experimental compositions are inseparably fitted to the more conventional elements of stringed instruments and metal percussion, accruing a sound born to neither. Following the beautiful rattle of a lolling points on the two initial tracks (the pair evolving into a maximal meditation ala Riley’s “Reed Streams”), perhaps the disc’s finest example of the above mentioned effect is “Micro Tuning”, a rough-hewn manipulation of stretched, eroded strings, phased wildly through the channels and with a steady center of synthesizer gleaming quietly in the background; almost imperceptibly as the elements accumulate, the overture rises like a wave, lifting the ear’s equilibrium with an oscillating mass of glacial grace. The stuttered copter of “Robot Radif” is a similarly fine experiment in texture with a glitch sensibility, the voices of an inexplicable space living in the fat curves of the bassy revolving flutter. Having produced records for popular labels Warp and Spundae, Sote’s sound is expectedly more accessible, yet offers a rivalrous number of foci which don’t necessitate “difficulty” to stand next to the tracks of Mashayekhi. The waning sine-waves of “Picture of a Whisper” collapse and inflate with a whimsical rhythm, teasing out a singing voice made stale with metallic production then decorated with blips of bright, primary color. The most aggressive of his tracks, Sote calls “Lovaz” a “sonic culture clash”; though it may be the sound of such, just what culture is engaged is transparent in the swimming globs of noise, expanding erratically and with merging components of sharp tones and full, low-end murmur; rather, the tracks which precede and follow, “Cry” and “Niaaz”, seem to better capture this notion as a widely-understandable cooptation of Eastern modes and Western, noise-producing systems: each melts familiar Persian melodies into recognizable states of modification through processing, exaggerating the colors of the musical extremes and adding a patina of revolving scratches like strip of film unevenly worn. Of course, as a German-born, California-educated Iranian, the experiences of Sote cannot be expected to jive with such one-sided projections as Trent Reznor’s “Pilgrimage” or even some of the sluttier, “sympathetic” creations of Muslimgauze. With the experiment of Porest’s similarly irreverent (to culture and generation) plunderphonics, closing piece “Plainsong” is a “dedication to Western classical music by an Iranian mental patient who is actually very sane”: a clattering, over-exposed modulation of a harpsichord (or similar), the fugue is pounded with manic intensity, yet offers the most immediately recognizable pattern of a classical canon; whether this is crazy or not is left to the subject, as one who tastes and one who judges. Both delicate discs come nestled in a stunning, asymmetrically/imperfectly decorated, three panel digipak (design by La Montagne) with affixed booklet with multiple essays and liner notes. Very recommended. (Sub Rosa 2CD, $16 HERE)

NASA - 'Bummer Daze' CS $6
"Florida jam gang NASA have been launching around the International Noise Conference scene/periphery (plus other places) for a little while now, and every so often a rare snapshot cassette of their warped riff firepower finds its way into our Cali-fried hands and we always cherish the moment. Prime drum/strings shred of the best and most unclassifiable sort. Groovy, deranged, burned-out moonrock shrapnel that glows as it hits the ozone layer. High on the highway." Bad trip color haze J-cards with dumb smiley stickers and full-color tape labels. Edition of 100.

Inca Ore - 'Birthday of Bless You' LP $12
"This one has been a dream since the start. Literally, as Eva Saelens wrote us one day out of the clearest blue saying she had a dream one night that she sent us her brand new album and that we fell in love with it and released it. Well the dream’s become reality, as her latest spirit quest in pursuit of the inmost voice dazzled us instantly and lingered like déjà vu. An 11-song slideshow of psychedelic secrecy, rippling whispers, and private ghost ballads, Birthday of Bless You finds Inca Ore at her most lithe and longing, shifting focus from microscopic mood meditations to wide-lens surrealist romance fantasies in a heartbeat, then back again. A black-lit bedroom soon forgotten, a midnight garden of lucid sound, an LP to have and to hold." Mastered for wax by Pete Swanson. Black vinyl in jackets with collage-art by IO, plus a full-color 11x11 collage insert. Edition of 500.

The Goslings - 'Occasion' CD $11
"Hollywood, Florida family/band Max and Leslie Soren have been unleashing their private bouts of punishing ceremonial sludge-gaze for the past half a decade now, and there’s been some total titanic highlights (Between the Dead, Grandeur of Hair, etc). But the grunge swamp graveyard they seem to unearth their moss metal from must be profoundly fertile ground, because each new song-cycle they lay to tape is somehow even more miraculously brutal and shimmering and visionary than the one before it. This phenom holds true for Occasion, The Goslings’ newest and maybe deepest doom/beauty inquest. Eight thundering masterpieces of molten slime riff majesty, nightstalker drums, and soaring-into-the-sun female vox that crush the earth, bleed, and breathe in humid darkness. Ranging from the Slowdive-meets-Skullflower transcendent descent of “Motorcade” through to the quaking basement funeral of “Little Horn,” Occasion is a glorious passage into The Goslings’ hidden holy land. Mastered for optimal audio gravity by James Plotkin, and housed in a s4wank six-panel wallet-style metallic-ink digipak with artwork by the band."

Sun Araw - 'The Phynx' CDr $6
"Long Beach psychonauts Magic Lantern get ranted about a lot by us for their mystic ability to overwhelm and transport, and don’t expect that to stop soon. But in the meantime we’ve had the good fortune to learn about ML guitarist Cameron Stallones’ solo universe as Sun Araw and, no surprise, the silver apple don’t fall too far from the tree (so to speak). Spanning Spacemen 3 garage cosmos, Starving Weirdos coastal séance, and a healthy stratosphere of pan-dimensional astral feedbackers, The Phynx is a fantastic four-track suite that floats freely from form to formlessness in the blink of a third eye. A great journey into white light dirge and dead distortion blues, and as killer a debut full-length as a label/listener/fan/head could hope for. Fingers are crossed that more Sun Araw sunbeams shine down our ears again before ’08 is out." Stenciled CDRs in full-color mysterio-portrait foldover artwork by Stallones, and sanctified with a triad of kaleidoscope stickers. Edition of 155.

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