A curious-enough little record, the first from Italian label Hundebiss is two short pieces of moderate noise and programming “written” by Berlin-based Riccardo Benassi and Claudio Rocchetti, heretofore known as OLYVETTY. The disc’s sleeve-as-selling point threw me a bit at first, tempering my expectations for the content given the extensive, hand-cut pop-ups and multiple panels (with printed paper sleeve attached) which would render a lesser recording superfluous. Luckily, the two sides present a tastefully sober session – not too purple, though hardly weak – a pleasant first release for the label (just the second for the duo), and worthy companion to the paper art. Side A entitled “In den fluessen noerdlich der zukunft” features the blown-out colors of metallic bowled resonance overwhelming a modem's bleat and thick chords of feedback; a gleaming groan locks in at several registers then finds the molested fragments of a salvaged violin concerto. Wayward guitar strings stress and pang over the heavy warp of so many layers coiling and releasing, the rhythmic play of compression cheating the track's actual brief duration. On the reverse, “Aneinander” starts on a stultified burst gesturing toward a harsher noise, when instead a dubby dialed-tone emerges to lay down a checkered pattern for fluid washes of repetition, both mechanical and overgrown with a stubbly foliage. Edition of 333 on black vinyl. Nice start. (Hundebliss 7”, 7€ HERE)

mjc177/SHORTY TAPES 5: COLD TURKEY C20 $7(N. America)/$10(World)
"Andrew Coltrane surfaces from some Neitherworld in a big green puff of smoke and brings from his back catalogue of home recordings more damaged sax and FX abuse- zombie jazz for sick junkies- get hooked if you ain't already! 3 diff cover images ~ collect em all!" limited to 50. HERE

Pink Luminous Invocation - 'Sings the Blues' CS $6
"PLI have been preaching the “Peace, Love, Invisibility” gospel for at least a few years at this point, radiating sub-radar FX resplendence across a grand handful of subtle CDRs and shows, but Sings The Blues stands strikingly apart from their crouch-core past and is all the better for it. Raw hybrid soul dirges of commune lament and hypnotic mourning resurrected from dirt drums, wicker guitar, and ancient electric melancholy. Intense ballads of transformation, chains giving way to God, hope turning to flight. Two women, two men, constant sorrow. This young Danish underground pedal family have never sounded so up on their feet, momentous, musical. Break on through. An impending LP should further plumb the dark Invocation behind the Pink Luminosity." Pro-dubbed grey tapes with metallic shell imprinting in freedom-fighter silkscreened cardstock sleeves tied with prayer bells. Edition of 100.

Heatsick - 'Perpendicular Rain' CS $6
Berlin-based Bird of Delay Steven Warwick has been winging away from the BoD nest under his Heatsick moniker with increasing frequency the past couple years, and each new flight seems to soar into ever more varied airstreams of cyclonic electronics and emotional wind-riding. Perpendicular Rain is his most recent convection cell, and it pits two pendulum-tilting pieces against one another for a beatific blowout of barometric disorientation. “Suspended Horse, Carousel” rides an orchestral morning glory hallucination forklift into total mind white out, layers of radial confusion overlapping in a circus wheel of entrancing electricity. One of Warwick’s audio-life highlights to date. The B, “Perpendicular Rain,” opts to flatline into more of a classic Heatsick stasis vortex (a lot like his semi-recent Reverse Gardens CS), wiring every circuit into itself till the mainframe collapses under its own wall/cloud weight. Let it come down." Hand-cut tape-labeled pro-dubbed red tapes in full-color double-sided fold-out J-cards with art by Warwick, plus a slight metallic stencil. Edition of 100.

Shepherds - 'Loco Hills' LP $12
"A lot of beloved-by-us artists and artisans icepick out shapely creations from the marble slab of life on a steady schedule, but even within this rarefied realm it’s a real cause for jubilee when an individual/band fucks precedent and totally redefines themselves through a real masterwork. And, in our book (check it out, it’s a good read), Loco Hills is one such touchstone. Distilling down every fried fuzz-groove, tape-loop ghost cloud, and mass-mind motorik psychosis Shepherds have ever let loose into four perfectly sculpted jam-journeys, the language of Loco is a rolling, roiling ride through twisted wordless tongues and hieroglyphic electricity, at once more focused and far-out than anything else in their canon. Mentioning that members moonlight in projects like Meneguar, Non-Horse, and Vanishing Voice is meaningless, this is the Rear House posse’s shining achievement to date and it stands alone." Black vinyl LPs in matte jackets with the same ‘gnashing viper’ artwork of the Release the Bats CD edition. First 115-ish direct mailorder copies come with a bonus CDR of unreleased live recordings. Edition of 500.

Ex-Cocaine/Yellow Swans LP $13
"Two storied USA duo institutions share war stories across twelve miles of raw wax, and the rest of us are lucky enough to eavesdrop. Missoula, Montana’s Ex-Cocaine continue roping that weird rambling wind that seems to stir the soul and keep America mellow, and the pair of anthems they jam out here encapsulates the whole breadth of their sea-to-shining-sea cosmosis. Plainsong guitar lassoes around loose-limbed percussion flame-fanning, building and burning till a boss bonfire glows on the horizon, then they close out the side with a ragged and earnest Meat Puppets cover that’s become a live staple of late. Real and roamin’. On the B, Yellow Swans channel a supreme slice of psychedelic eulogy that cuts twice as deep with the knowledge that after many a summer (they birthed in 2002-ish) dies the Swan. Pete and Gabe’s DYS saga has spanned the decade and their impending non-existence will be lamented all over the world, so the more 11th hour record books they want to stencil with their electric synergies, the better for all of us. R.I.P.eace out." In a stunning “sexy legs” kaleidoscopic masterpiece art jacket by Religious Knife Maya Miller. Half on bleached olive vinyl, half on black. Edition of 600.

PRESENTS

[Get ready for hyphens] Contrasted to its series-successor, the mostly-ethnographic ‘Musical Brotherhoods from the Trans-Saharan Highway’ by Hisham Mayet, Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls) and Mark Gergis’ (Porest) ‘Sumatran Folk Cinema’ eschews the static camera-eye of the former for a galloping pastiche of Indonesian musical (and not-so-musical) culture, abstracted from night clubs, salesmen, temples, conservatories, and local television. The subjectivity of this lens frames a slack schizophrenia of traditional styles - as witnessed in gamelan, Islamic church song, Western orchestration classes, and the full-body performance of the all-male anti-drum circle – and less appealingly in the hybrid moments of war-born Dangbut bands (a motley composition of stale rock musicians headed by the plastic expression of an indifferent young woman), club-festered hip-hop (barked mostly in non-sequitor English), and of course, television (by way of commercial, horror films, and skit comedy). The mundane encounters with street-life which transition these fluid scenes help offer a fractured – and all the more believable – encounter with the culture, as vendors glare then grin at the man with the movie camera, gripe about the “Chinese man telling me we must leave”, and generally stir in the loathing of their commerce: shilling buttons, smuggling chickens, or dawdling over the day’s big catch. Filmed just prior the tsunami devastation of December 2004, there is a sense of waiting and arrested development permeating the film, emanating from the Euro-trash wares and cell-phone advertising, and rippled with excitation in moments of political protest, rebel gunfire, and family-side folk music. Kids make faces at the camera in night-vision, abandoned pants await their parents in a murky quarry, and long-shots of traffic alone provide such a rich stream of obscene colors to greet the magic of the unfounded radio-songs which float about the film yet never actualize in any one, accessible place. With an average of 30 seconds a clip, at 60 minutes the pair pack a lot of footage into this disc (with an added 12 minutes of bonus material), challenging Mayet’s very different disc as the proper mode for representing the “authentic”. Clearly the directors argue there is none. Pro-pressed DVD in a full-color, oversize digipak. Recommended. (Sublime Frequencies DVD, $19.5 HERE)

From the Deathbomb arc diocese:

Mincemeat Or Tenspeed - 'All Critters' 12"
"One day, young Davey Harms wanted to make some techno music. But unlike every other red-blooded American boy, he had no drummachine, no sampler, no sequencer, and not even a computer. Despite being such a deprived little punk, Davey was resourceful and so he looked around his room for something else that he could make some beats out of. Gathering up all his guitar pedals and a mixer, he asked himself, "Can I make accessible beat driven music with a rock n' roll edge using just these fx pedals?" Any gear nerd would have told him that this is impossible, because guitar pedals need some sort of source sound in order to work. But Davey was also deprived of friendship at this point in his life, so no one like that was there, and instead he defied such unknown expectations and assembled all his guitar toys into what is essentially a synth circuit the wrangles mixer-feedback into fierce rhythms. In other words, this is the cyberpunk dream come true. You know, those movies in the 90s that depicted snot-nosed teens "hacking" into common everyday electronics and making them do incredible things like steal all the money out of the US treasury. Technology transcended and turned into pure magic. That is exactly what Davey did. And thus MINCEMEAT OR TENSPEED was born. Now it is many years later, and MINCEMEAT OR TENSPEED has explored and mastered the vast possibilities of this guitar-pedal synth set up. He also has many friends now. Adult mother-fucking friends that know what's what and think that MINCEMEAT OR TENSPEED is the most fascinating music being made. Friends like Dan Deacon who recently named MINCEMEAT OR TENSPEED one of the best acts of 2007 in a recent Pitchfork pole. Friends that understand that "Party Like a Rock Star" and Justice's techno-rock are just beat songs about rock n' roll, while MINCEMEAT OR TENSPEED is beats born from a perfect marriage of rock n' roll and techno. Friends that have seen how far this pedal-synth setup has come. That now it is capable of much more than insane aggressive beats, but can also manifest beautiful melodies and emulate so many tones and timbres that you ask yourself, "Is that a banjo inside of his Big Muff or is he just happy to play Someone's in the Kitchen With Dinah for me?" So, with this awesomely honed powers, and with powerfully awesome friends like that, it is only natural that the first MINCEMEAT OR TENSPEED album has been born. Lifted on high by a trinity of record labels, this 12" will instantly show you the new world of sounds that shall move your feat, expand your mind, and get you really fucking high. This is magic on a plate. So rub it with a needle and remember the boy who grew like a seed into a Manthing that now everyone is good friends with. The feel good hit of 2008!" HERE

No Restraint - 'Myspace Skanks' CDr
"Bringing together the rich traditions of both laptop music (also known as IDM or glitchcore or digital noise) and ska music (primarily 4th wave), No Restraint are true music lovers. Those that love music's great history, but are also excited about the future. A future that expects more out of music. It is in the "more" category that No Restraint loves to give. From their love of wrestling's great D-Generation X to wearing amazing youth fashions like they see kids wearing, as they drive by in their convertibles while listening to Paramore. So fantastic! Finally a band who understands that restraint and subtlety have little place in our world. Who understand that everything important must be displayed, publicly, unambiguously, and mercilessly. Features members of tik///tik, Whitman, Kyle Mabson, & Foot Village." HERE

Budweiser Sprite - 'Big Issues' C20
"As a member of Shitty Vibe Smasher, Daniel Rizer sacrificed self for the benefit of the whole and to lift identity to it's hoped pinnacle. As Budweiser Sprite though, Daniel defies the types of expectations that band names set forth, and delivers some of the most rockin' NOT RIDICULOUS noise that a dood named Budweiser Sprite could ever not be anticipated to make! Cassette manipulation, 4-track mixer feedback, and a passion for finding the true energy of sound are the tools used. Still extremely positive sounding, the use of aggressive loops and growling half-magnetizations invokes foot stomping at its most wild and foreshadows even more rock when being pensive. Daniel Rizer's silly stage name only elevates his expert use of the wide world of possible sounds (from murky to shrill to you name it) to put together a uniquely rock sound by virtue of the smile you wear upon seeing the whole picture. Not a surprise coming from a member of Shitty Vibe Smasher. Not just amazing music, but masterful entertainment all around." HERE

WEBSITE

Classier and classier:

Weirding Module - 'Peaking Man' C38 $7
"Bubbling galactic frequencies from the vegetable mind of Michael Troutman bass dude in Awesome Color also runs the Senseless Empire label."

Kuupuu - 'Tinakenkalurtta' C20 $7
"New Lady Garden secretions from Jonna! Two live sets...one recorded at home and the other on John Cavanagh's Soundwave."

At Jennie Richie/Plethora split C33 $7
"Heavy zone out from two Seattle weed eaters."

Mandarin Clit - 'Future Primitive' C20 $7
"Spring muff milk...acid from the hardware palace... pre public domain..."

Geriatrics Club - 'Crobar Wizards' one-sided C60 $7
Hair stands and the general canary tuesday mayhem of bed ridden wandering minds."

Burmese Yangoon one-sided C45 $7
"Recorded live in the sticks, in the future."

Obscene Caller 2xC20 $12



WEBSITE

As joint-proprietor of Jeshimoth Entertainment, Adam Kalmbach takes this opportunity to display his own wares as Jute Gyte. ‘Apidya’ is an hour-long, three track foray into dark ambience with a noteworthy infusion of harsh noise characters. Pushing 16 minutes, “Black Sheep” stirs in the distant sizzle of an off-season ocean, voices and unintelligible squeals appearing between the sets; the menace of a metronomic chime keeps a painfully stultified pace until a block of blinding feedback pain leaps up (actually a polyphony of diverse qualities, yet by contrast, swallowed up into a bigger shit storm). It takes several minutes for the anxiety to dissipate, cut-off as easily as it began, and a new sense of still takes over with a surgical flat-line searing whatever organic edges might remain in the soundscape. “Empty Rooms” finds an even deader seen, bouncing drones and tones off various geometries of walls, finding here and there sheets of high-frequency buzz and glassy concussions. A mechanical generation heats/dries the space as the lingering tones which seem to regenerate in the places now move with haste. Whips of rough-edged static accompany possible footfalls in the final moment, extracting the suspended scene from a larger picture of unfulfilled activity. At last, the 30 minute title track extends this thesis to a palatable conclusion, measuring aquatic rumbles against the dark polyrhythms of slow-fallen raindrops and the churning motor of a buried axle. The longest track, it is also the emptiest track, narcotic, sapping your adrenaline as it tests your active participation.

The sequel, ‘Arakan’, disrupts whatever continuity has been formed with 12 diverse tracks of hefty duration, maxing-out all 78 minutes of the disc. It’s all-over the place in terms of IDM and other, lesser-technocratic movements: from the pole of MIDI dance track “Seiklus” and DBA-style candy waltz “Crib”, to harsh-noise Muslimgauze “Clawhead”, one may find Ui in the mellow-glitches of “Burning in Snow”, a routinized Coil in “Notrium”, or the dark ambient of recent Burial Hex in “Aceldama”. Several tracks including this last one verge upon double digits – in one track digesting the sonic weight of many others’ entire mini-disc – and though the experience can be a harrowing in the sheer density of experiment, the format welcomes picking and choosing, making this a disc for subjective (and repeat) listening. The sharp colors and contrast really keep the tracks off the ground despite such expansive running times, and the though Kalmbach here avoids with neutrality a commitment to one style, his abilities with noise, ambience, and melody succeed with more than a few highlights. Both albums come on pro-pressed discs with color inserts in DVD cases. (Jeshimoth CDr, $10 HERE)

Talugung - 'Under Humid Light' (HA-5) CDr 5€/$8
"The word "talugung" comes from the Ivatan language spoken by the people of the Batanes islands in the Philippines. Accordingly, the music of Talugung, the solo project of Ryan Waldron from Canada (also known from the group The Riderless), is a kind of imaginary world music evoking and blendind together images of far-away lands. "Under Humid Light", recorded in 2007 and mostly played on self-made instruments, puts together elements of Asian, African and western musics and the picture they form is a very beautiful one, indeed. Following on from Talugung's fabulous debut album "Flooded Fields", released on Foxglove last year, "Under Humid Light" is a fine example of Waldron's singular musical expression." HERE

DIVINE COILS - 'Coadjutor' CDr £5
"Brand new CDR from UK duo of Joe and Harry. Far out scratchy textural sounds that lie somewhere between Usurper and Jazzfinger perhaps... real nice, real minimal, with classy and sassy traditional BR style double fold sleeve." Limited to 50 copies.

QUETZOLCOATL - 'Up And Down Dream Valley Thruway' cassette
"Cassette reissue of a cdr that come out a while back on American Grizzly, slightly re-edited for this tape version... Quetzolcoatl is the solo project of Timothy Hurley who runs the awesome Leaf Trail label, and also plays in another two great bands Bonecloud and Ixchel... Previous Quetzolcoatl releases have been on Ikuisuus and (VxPxC)'s Phanto Limb Recordings. Awesome almost tribal drone blurring almost in a kinda folk vibe... very psychedelic... and damn good!" Limited to 50 copies, Lilac tapes, and beautiful full colour sleeves designed by Tim.

WEBSITE

Like an ape at the monolith, what can I say about this LP? The ‘Crossing Divides’ long-player by Tecumseh (Oregon’s Jeremy Long, Ian Hawk, John Krausbauer) is one side-long and two side-splitting tracks of immense, motionless drone/metal beyond the Earthern mantle and appropriating the drone work of Bonus, and co. The iconoclasm of single-note double bass strumming seems to resonate beyond ear and body, into the earth, physically reshaping the structure which receives their affirming groan. Slick, seamless, and vibrating too heavy to hold, the players are there no doubt, but don’t seem to mind the intense vacuum freezing the movement of their every thrust forward. “Ten Thousand Leagues Down Under” parts I and II straddle both sides of the disc, with closer “Thames” fording the final watery stretch. Third-handed electronics fill the screen such that you must know to look for them (and even then you will still lose sight), both undergirding and undermining the “song” structure, simultaneously macrophonic and entirely anemic, static. Thick black vinyl comes in fancy, three panel sleeves with glittery screen-job, limited to 384 copies. Both labels make a powerful contribution here with their respective 19th release. Impenetrable. (Anarchy Moon/Black Horizons LP $13 HERE or HERE)

Shipping ain't so bad, so Tipped Bowler is passing the savings on to you:

TBT003 Medroxy Progesterone Acetate - 'Blearyeared' C65 $6(US)/$8.5(World)
"A sixty-five minute soundtrack to MPA's Satanic babysitter cult film. I pray to God no one has to see that thing. This tape alone will produce night sweats. MPA is up to his usual business, making absolutely uncomprising and unclassifiable sound, composed of horribly mutated mystery samples, tape mutilations, and malevolent synthesizer. DB summons a depth unmatched by most of the drone and community. You don't want to live here, and you probably shouldn't visit for long." Full-color glossy foldover prints with insert and hand-painted tapes. Edition of 93.

TBT004 Datashock - 'Rambo Wikinger' C48 $6(US)/$8.5(World)
"Two years of end-of-winter recordings from Germany's greatest electronic commune, Datashock. A dreary 2006 produced the A-side, a cabin-feverish piece of ascending space shimmers, suffocating fog, and anxious percussion, punctuated by a brisk, paranoid coda. Psychedelic candied death. B-side was born the following year and finds our friends lost in a funhouse of echo and delay. A macabre carnival made groaning radio ghost. No faces in the mirror. Now it's 2008 and spring has sprung for Datashock, bringing forth this c48 along with LPs on Qbico and Textile. A gruesome bouquet; NOT FOR LOVERS." Full-color glossy foldover prints with insert and hand-painted tapes. Edition of around 95, because I fucked up a few copies.

WEBSITE

Ilyas Ahmed - 'Between Two Skies/Towards the Night' 2CD $20
"I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Ilyas Ahmed is incredible. Born in Pakistan and raised in New Jersey, he now plies his trade in Portland, Oregon. "Between Two Skies" and "Towards the Night" is where it all began. Released in criminally limited editions of 50 copies each, both albums are now fully remastered by Pete Swanson and repackaged in beautiful gatefold jackets from Stumptown Printers. Also included are extended liner notes from David Keenan. I think he sums up both these albums best: "Call it abandon, a facility for letting go, for moving on; either way Ahmed's music is *gone*. And all we have are the recordings, scattered notes to prove that he once existed and felt it all as deeply and miraculously as any of us. And right now, from wher eI'm calling from, I wouldn't ask for anything more." Ahmed's original voice is a welcome addition to an oversaturated aural world. He has gone on to put out numerous self-released CDRs as well as a new CD/LP on Time-Lag. But in the beginning there were these. What "Between Two Skies" and "Towards the Night" make crystal clear is that his vision and his voice were there from the very beginning." HERE

Like their first foray into vinyl for the Shearing Pinx 7” of DNT no. 3, the label saves their most definitive statements for wax debut, the latest from Gay Beast truly a statement of what may very well become the “DNT sound”. At the moment, they have left to conquer Lovepump United for this particular genre tract, an electro-heavy, integrated nor wave of the sort French Kiss would have liked to emit had they less promo bills to pay and proto-yuppies to feed. Sympathetic to labelmates HEALTH with a healthier attention-span, within the lineage ‘Disrobics’ leans decidedly toward a DNA sensibility with more macrobiotic flavor of Ex Models and Love Life (en particular their second, ‘Here is Night, Brothers’), though toward a more indulgent sing-song than the former and more reliable shine than the latter. The band denies the rigid kraftworks of electric keys with the many quivering bleats of a weak current (how much of this is due to my dying turntable motor, I cannot say), aggravating this by the all-to-human spontaneity of overanxious percussion. The sound is of regular irregularity such that, on the indiscriminate plane of the vinyl side (the gaps inter-song are no match for the intra-song), the songs flow into a homogeneous party like a house band, or better yet, a house record of skittled beats (particularly true of my second side, unfortunately warped to a thousand single grooves); the tracks only significantly differentiated when, at uneven intervals, new verses emerge to express an altered melodic pattern. In this sense, the instrumentation doesn’t always agree with the verses, and in fact more often crowds out the singer’s voice – my biggest gripe – though he manages to hold his own within the sirocco, the charming croon of damaged vocals emerging at odd signature. We meet in earnest on third track and ‘NOW That’s What I Call Music!’-worthy “Mama, Wrap My Coffin in the AIDS Quilt Cuz It’s Cold in Hell”, the devastating hook coming on like the waft of a pie on a sill following a non-committal build-up of channel surfing bleepbloop and Devo scat-lines, the chorus accompanied by interchange of rattled percussion and electrified guitar rubbings. The bratty exchange of “Good Government” recalls the Monorchid, and through the intense, full-band pummeling appears as the closest coalescence of players thusfar. “Cry” continues this evolution as the band continually tightens, brightening notes and inserting a more regular vocal presence to narrate the dance party, bleeding into the most overtly-hostile track, the title-track and closer “Disrobics”, a final call to bare arms.

I know nothing of the band*, but given the explicit-enough subtext of the band, I desire the lead at least to embody the gay beast – and here I picture a queer Zen Guerilla or a seven foot no wave Mukilteo Fairies. I want head-dresses and a sexually-aggressive stage presence. Make it so. Sleeve has two, three-color screen-jobs on fancy paper, with a sharp looking insert printed on gold stock. Black vinyl, limited to 500 moveable units. Get one! (DNT LP, $10 HERE)

* Despite what the inset says, the band is not affiliated with www.gaybeast.net, or any derivation thereof.

POCAHAUNTED/ORPHAN FAIRYTALE 7"
"One track each from Pocahaunted (California) and Orphan Fairytale (Belgium). Pocahaunted has been real busy the last year: opening for Sonic Youth, several collaborations with Robedoor, tape/cd-r releases on Not Not Fun, Arbor, Fuck It Tapes etc, split LPs with Christina Carter and Mythical Beast... and yeah, we could go on forever (and mention the 2 new vinyl albums on Arbor and Woodsist that are being released at the same time as this 7"...)! Here Amanda and Bethany gives us Warpaint, another dubbed-out and almost heavy lo-fi anthem with that always so special and unique Pocahaunted vibe. The discography of Orphan Fairytale, the solo moniker of Eva Van Deuren, mainly consists of very limited tape and cd-r releases so far, with the only previous vinyl output being an amazing collaboration LP with Mudboy. Live actions includes a performance at No Fun Fest 2007 and a set that took place inside of a container. Here she continues with her haunting and always captivating and melodic keyboard hymns. Made By Mermaids = trip in the ocean gone bad. Limited to 500 copies. Full colour labels, yellow big-hole sleeves with design and screenprint (in glowing red) by RTB-sidekick HLG." HERE

From the Secret Eye:

SPIRES THAT IN THE SUNSET RISE - 'Curse The Traced Bird' CD/LP
"Imagine if the Sun City Girls were played by real girls." — Jack Rose. Fourth full-length of bewitching juju from the preeminent ladies of psychedelic mysticism. Recorded in Philadelphia with members of Espers. Both the CD and LP feature original art by UK artist Trevor Simmons (Anselmus), and both formats are hand-silk-screened by Neil Burke (Vermiform, Mens Recovery Project)... SUPER LIMITED and hand-numbered. CD edition of 500; only 300 LPs. Fuck freak folk - this is true primordial power!"

BLACK FOREST/BLACK SEA - Portmanteau 10"
"Guitar, cello, electronics, and various small rackety sounds collect themselves into a haze of infinite possibilities." - Byron Coley For this new 10", the duo of Secret Eye label-owners are joined by guests Margot Goldberg and Joe Grimm (a.k.a. The Wind Up Bird). This quartet version of BF/BS is the very same lineup that performed at Terrastock 6. 10" vinyl-only release limited to 500 copies worldwide. Silkscreened metallic silver covers by Mike Taylor (Lungfish, Avarus, Dan Higgs). 21 minutes of music—all exclusive material. Fucking sweet."

NALLE - 'Live' CDr
"Nalle from Glasgow, Scotland are Hanna Tuulikki (vocals, kantele, flute), Aby Vulliamy (viola) & Chris Hladowski (bouzouki, clarinet) - they are also members of The One Ensemble [released on Secret Eye in 2007]. Beautiful improvisation, folky instrumentation, lovely floating vocals. We prepared this live CD-R to coincide with Nalle's first USA tour (March 2008), which was booked by Secret Eye. Numbered edition of 100. On tour now - dates below"

MU CHILD - 'Giant Kingdom' CDr
"Lovely free sounds from Taiwan. Wind blew the sea & brought many circles with drops. Moon married the sea & reflected in the surface. He asked the reflection: where is my best friend? Wind played his flute & the sound brought him to the brightening woods of the giants to see the God of Mountain. The God of Mountain told him loudly through all animals' voices in the woods: It's wind! Edition of 90."

WEBSITE

Family Battle Snake - 'Arabian Knights' C20 $7
"Slitherin. Its botha heavy push deep down into the dirt with each turn and a graceful floating just above it all at the same time. Same as these here burnings; both bellowin deep and resonatin in your underside and a delicate sparkle like harmonious poprocks or gemstones inside your skull. All curlin and coilin and rollin along sonorous melody furrows." Edition of 100 on red shells with hand-cut inserts, labels, and inside folds.

Ajilvsga/Capricorn Wings - 'Rights of the Solemn Ceremonies' C58 $7
"There’s nothin more potent than the movements of our earth. It aint just rumble and rip, it’s a soundin of shift. Some sorter fundamental restructuring of the plates on which we reside. Gives a source of connection. All this time spent treatin the earth like the pit for those of fallen-flesh, we done forget this significance of even havin a motherland. No two bands unearth (haha) this tectonic thunderin more adroitly than Ajilvsga and Capricorn Wings, capturing the hum and thud, the true resonance of Earth. No way to explain how, cept maybe they got huge ears as to hear lowness something terrible." Edition of 100 on blue shells with hand-cut inserts, labels, and inside folds.

WEBSITE

Extending the warm embrace of his drone-rock partnership Nadja to the solo endeavor, Canada’s Aidan Baker presents the bicameral long-player ‘Exoskeleton Heart’. Both tracks averaging 30 minutes apiece, the whole disc comes to a perfect 60 minutes of unbelievably rich amplifier worship ask channeled through electric guitar – captured live, presumably in one take. Exploring outward, “Interior” begins in the warm murmur of total pressure, as the muscle’s force pushes through so much fluid noise; metallic elements like mercury enter over this drone, cutting the surface then getting folded back in, growing in intensity as it begins to saturate the blood to a silvery shimmer. One cannot (or should not) fail to reference Sunn O))), Glass Organ, or Peter Wright at this point, as the pressure dis-intensifies, revealing a cavernous Om which sustains below this activity. As the drone’s quality begins to cool and harden, a whirring mechanism we pass through, we find ourselves on the “Anterior”, a broader cavity of sounds revealing contour and additional processes. With a pneumatic oscillation, this high frequency atones just slightly as the singe of a hot surface or the feedback of a live wire; so many additional elements grow in detail as the camera studies the edges and expanses of this organ, the most expansive section of which we reach in the final third, a calm before the storm, when bits of electricity surge and an almost digital pattern emerges dialed over the surface. Consuming moderate sounds as it swells, the deep, full drone becomes the piece as it intimates a rhythm of holistic activity; simultaneously whole and everywhere at once, crowned by a welter of anxious static distortion, the emphatic burst holds for five minutes until collapsing, quitting in a pathetic death tone. On typical, stunning full-color inkjet folder with tab for hanging printed CDr. Limited to 300 copies. (Crucial Blast/Crucial Bliss CDr, $9 HERE)

New from Industrial Culture:

THE SPACE VAMPIRES - 'Tired' 3" CDr $4
"In this album, The Space Vampires combine two different kinds of art. Music is harsh, noisy and gloomy, with no rhythmic sections: this is one of the many innovations that The Space Vampires brought in their new works, along with the introduction of speaking distorted voices. This musical backgound collides with 19Q//45k’s interests in art, especially dadaism. So, lyrics are written according to Tzara’s poetics: "Take a newspaper. Take a pair of scissors. Choose an article as long as you are planning to make your poem. Cut out the article. Then cut out each of the words that make up this article & put them in a bag… Then take up the scraps one after the other in the order in which they left the bag". Limited to 100 copies. with colour coverart and black/white backside of coverart and discprint in clear mini jewel case.

KENJI SIRATORI - 'Murder Gimmick' 3" CDr $4
"Genre: noise. Catalogue number: ICR018 This mini album "Murder Gimmick" is composed by the post-humanistic violence. The internal amalgamation of soul-machine!" with colour coverart and black/white backside of coverart and discprint in clear mini jewel case.

AI YAMAMOTO - 'Possa’s Revange' 3" CDr $4
"Genre: industrial. Catalogue number: ICR017 Ai Yamamoto is a composer based in Melbourne Australia. She has established herself as an ambient electronica artist but she has created noise and dark industrial music for the EP "Possa’s Revenge". The tracks consist of high pitch noise, human voices, music concrete, car planting factory sounds, the sound of explosions and abstract textures. Her approach is not only grounded in experimental or industrial music but it is also rhythmic and song based." with colour coverart and black/white backside of coverart and discprint in clear mini jewel case.

D/A A/D - 'My Evil Runs Strong' 3" CDr $4
"Genre: noise. Catalogue number: ICR016 "My Evil Runs Strong" is 20 odd minuets of analog synth destruction and sampler abuse that D/A A/D has become know for. Never setting in, just slowly plowing through, crushing all in its path. The perfect soundtrack for a Sunday drive in a Sherman tank." with colour coverart and black/white backside of coverart and discprint in clear mini jewel case.

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Gigantic reggae from Music Fellowship:

[mf36] ROBEDOOR - 'Shrine to the Possessor' LP $14(US)/$24(World)
"New batch of brutal minimalism from Robedoor on their first vinyl full length, Shrine to the Possessor. This one is pure darkness - no light, no air, just tortured souls and echoed cries. Three epic droning processionals built from the heaviest, thickest low-end tones. The sound of indentured servants from a scorched dustbowl wasteland. Caveman aesthetic pushed to its limits by recording to eight analog channels. Recorded by Bobb Bruno at Bored Fortress HQ in Eagle Rock, CA." Artwork by Andy Spore. Includes silkscreened 11x17 poster. Limited and numbered to 500. GET HUGE

What the hell did L’Animaux Tryst go and do? They started a club, a record club alright! Doing the noble thing and aiding a breath to the lost art of the singles club, Maine’s upstarts offer their first quarter of three 7” records from four label breadwinners, each in a tasty vessel:

Free-jam shoegazers Tempera strike the recent spirit of Pocahaunted on their contributed track, a rough, akimbo edit of mid-tempo guitar and drum rhythm, watery organs (or thereabouts), and the jubilant screams of some unidentifiable source, released in response to the nonverbal lull of the female lead; in phased segments, the track is manipulated alternating in part and parcel, creating a meta-tempo over the already lively session. On the flip, free-jam no-gazers Bad Bus foretell a Black Lodge grind akin to WWVV circa ‘Angel Hair’ & ‘Sunset Sleeves’ with the fat fingers of a grimy bass, dank organ, clumpy drums, and a motoric drone stirring like a ball of gnats overhead. Rad! Record comes with stamped stickers, embossed sleeved numbered to 300, all in a hand-sewn patchwork sleeve.

In case you’re really into the above jam by Tempera (and it don’t matter either way since you can only buy these as a set), Lightning Strike Lightning will keep itching that scratch as the band cuts “The Moon” from the same cloth as the aforementioned session: leaping in at the peak, the track marches steady on a lightweight percussion, a sing-song chant on reverb leading the procession of strings, winds, and horns (or a similar carnival of approximate, aggregate quality); the track never wanes but builds in its cyclic rhythm. Turn it around for the muted blues “No You Won’t”: with the sizzle of heavy bass rhythm we get the crazy-cool threats of an angry female, replied by a heckling loud-speaker antagonist; banjo plucks form a strutting melody and clap-kit drums keep things real civil. Another destroyer. With stamped stickers, embossed/hand-numbered sleeve, and a block-printed photo sleeve, hand-made from heavy-stock in several parts.

And finally, as Cursillistas, L’Animaux mastermind Matt Lajoie refuses the spirited communalism of the ‘Haunt’ Series thus far for a pair of tracks haunted by communal spirits. Neither untitled song asserting much in the way of melody, the returning patterns of each instrumental part stir like an undertow beneath the murky recording, on punctuation swirling into an opaque chop of a climax: side A, the lope of guitar picks out a lazy get-along accented by the clack of shells and pushed along by Lajoies faint voice, illegible lyrics like erasures. The ether is clearer on the other side, though this clarity reveals an even spookier collection of voices, moans, murmurs, and wails accompanied by a heavy thunder of percussion and clap of some wooden wands. A reckoning of already ethereal dimensions, the track is reason enough to be, channeling itself through the nod of momentary reversal and the final strums of an acoustic guitar. With stamped sleeves, embossed and hand-numbered sleeves, and with a conventional cover pressed onto fancy paper.

Future installments of ‘The Tryst Haunt Series’ expected from Big Blood, Barry Burst, Visitations, The North Sea, Drono Parva, GHQ, and such and such. (L’Animaux Tryst 7”, $24 for three/$75 for all twelve HERE)

Two from Textile:

DATASHOCK & SHIVERS - 'Volume IV' LP 10€(EU)/13€(Others)
"This German psych collective have no fixed line-up, a policy which suits their without-portfolio sound down to the ground. This LP finds their cavernous, exploratory sounds taking curious, malformed shapes, sprawled across two sides of un-pigeonhole-able weirdness. It's all too easy to start going on about krautrock when you're dealing with an experimental German band, but there are undoubtedly shades of the less beat-oriented bands of that era embedded within this LP's grooves. Mix those influences with the kind of anything-goes backwoods psych that keeps labels like Digitalis in business and you've got one humdinger of a far-out improv trip. The mastering talents of that increasingly prolific engineer-for-hire Pete Swanson are recruited to glaze the whole album with a kind of soft-focus vagueness that prohibits you from latching on to anything especially tangible. Instead you spend the whole time chasing ghosts through swamp mists, trying to work out what the Dickens is going on. Even at the closing moments when you happen upon some field recording of a gently babbling brook, you won't really be any the wiser as to how, or indeed why you ended up there. Cover layout by the amazaning Zeloot." BAND

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB - 'Model Town In Field Of Mud' LP 15€(EU)/18€(Others)
"Two of the UK underground's central figures return under the guise of Astral Social Club for this new LP on Textile: Neil Campbell, a veteran of Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof! and other such projects hooks up with ex-Hood member John Clyde Evans (aka Tirath Singh Nirmala) for a glorious meeting of spiritual psychedelia and incisive electronic precision. There are times when you'll think you're listening to a turn of the century Mego recording - perhaps a General Magic album - especially when trawling through the uncompromising digital skipping of 'All That Glitters Is Not Chocolate'. On the other hand, you'll encounter passages of manipulated live recordings featuring a sound palette of Keystone Cops-style speed-up recordings of acoustic guitars, flocks of tweeting oscillators and other such organic, earthy noise sources. It's the meeting of a hard, computerised edge with more naturalistic elements that lends this release its potency, ultimately sounding a little like a Growing LP, but free from the perpetual motion looping that tends to come with that band's turf. Good stuff."

COME ON

COUSINS OF REGGAE/LUBRIPHIKATTTTOR split LP 10€(Europe)/12€(worldwide)
"Brand new lp with dirty sounds from Cousins Of Reggae, Montreal based 2 man mind fuck. utilizing guitar, drums, turntables and voice. ( featuring Blake Hargreaves of dreamcatcher, Fluorescent Friends...& liam Thurston of Orphanage...) Go for a trip via 2 different pieces, heavy, loud, hit electric noise & fatal attack. First vinyl release for parisian noise anti brutal pro violence Lubriphikatttor (with members of Zaraz wam Zagram, TG, Napalm Jazz, Ero BABAa...) long tune ‘babypute’ / death of flowers & elaborated destruction." edition of 319/silkscreen cover/different colours & papers. HERE

SOD-48 The Nether Dawn - 'Long Shadow of a Dream' CD $12(world)
"The Nether Dawn is arguably the most narcotic, most ethereal of the many guises of the ever-prolific and talented Antony Milton. For the unfamiliar few, Milton runs the sainted Pseudoarcana label out of his native New Zealand and records as Myrtu!, A.M., Paintings of Windows, Clay Man in the Well, Swagger Jack and as a member of Claypipe, With Throats as Fine as Needles, The Stumps, Glory Fckn Sun and more. Running through all of his projects is something of a dreamlike, nostalgic delirium that is concretized and distilled on "Long Shadow of a Dream." The recordings on "Long Shadow of a Dream" date from 2004-2006. Despite this temporal span they seem like they've emerged organically from the same eternal, humming tapestry of sound. The album's final track is, unquestionably, its apex and it contains what are perhaps the most soul-baring, cathartic moments which Milton has committed to tape. Here, Antony's vision becomes nearly visible in its mammoth totality - howling whisps of feedback, billows of keyboard and loops conjoin with voice and throat in ecstatic communion. The aural landscape of Milton's Nether Dawn will utterly entrance and beguile you and, in the end, it will surely devour you whole." packaged in handsome, sturdy 2panel sleeves printed by the renowned Stumptown Printers. ltd. 500

SOD-49 Skeletons Out - 'In Remembrance of Me' CD $12(world)
"In Remembrance of Me" is the debut release by the Boston based duo Skeletons Out, comprised of Howard Stelzer and Jay Sullivan. Stelzer and Sullivan make use of tapes and vinyl respectively, using these spare, deceptively crude means to conjure strikingly developed, transportive aural landscapes which are equal parts lush and expansive and claustorphobic and atrophied. The record begins with breakdown, as swarming, hissing tapes flutter, and amidst stuttering, resonant clatter a rusted automaton buckles, faltering, afraid, before pistons fire anew and it rises, heralding the slow imploding collapses which will inevitably follow, as though rising from this detritus. Stelzer and Sullivan traverse the same barren netherworld valleys as Mirror at their most blasted, while foraging deep within coppices akin to the natural decay states which inform the aesthetics of corrosion at work in much of Loren Chasse and Jim Haynes' output. Think of "In Remembrance of Me" as a fugue caked in mud, one which beckons you deeper and deeper down into its manifold ravaged and entropic depths." Mastered by Ernst Karel with artwork by Justin Meyers. packaged in handsome, sturdy 2panel sleeves printed by the renowned Stumptown Printers. ltd. 500

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A suitable agreement between sound and imagery like the Luasa Raelon disc before it – and I am quickly realizing the unusual relevance of Crucial Bliss’ oversized prints to the music within – the wide, smooth drones of guitar positioned against crashing jolts of distortion and the clamoring of frantic drum-programming on ‘From The Idle Cylinders’ compliments nicely the serene sky-on-ocean portrait folded anxiously over the mound of fish corpses inside and on the disc. Such is the tension of the newest disc by Light of Shipwreck, the solo work of Ben Fleury-Steiner (of Gears of Sand). Repeating the formula in three handsomely-diverse compositions of 12, 19, and 20 minutes, Fleury-Steiner explores the expository possibilities of a drone composition with the compulsion of a heavily-programmed piece of IDM, resulting in the twin crescendos of “I Rode And Am Riding On An Ocean Of Violent Lights” delineated by the race of percussion and amassed through broad tones and blusters of feedback, a muted dub stretched between. “I Watched And Am Watching A Cold Dead Sun Rise Then Explode” weaves in thick chords a cymbal-rich, UNKLE narcotic beat between a steady tide of tightly-wound guitar swells, alternating stances of volume with each shift of focus; a seven minute middle-passage features a steady blast of subdued sound and light weeping embellishments, returning to an even more intense beat and drone, all volumes raised. A pattered tabla percussion with bombastic metal cheers appears in even briefer segments though more frequently in final piece “I Swallowed And Am Swallowing The River Ganges”, an extended stretch of diving feedback now meted against a small depression of bass and acoustic guitar (provided by guest Ric Tutlo), peaking in the center with glistening silence and the aching of the omnipresent electric guitar; as a palindrome, the composition returns the way it came, moving through the same increments as which this central crest was reached, the descent still retaining some degree of progress toward a necessary end. A compelling, truly unique listen, ‘From The Idle Cylinders’ undertakes an intuitive program of ambient drum and bass, made fresh with the coalescence of theme. In a bright, full-color folder with glued on hub for holding the printed CDr. Limited to 200 copies. (Crucial Blast/Crucial Bliss CDr, $9 HERE)

Not really. I Had An Accident:

IhAA009 Tugboat – 'The Astorians' CD $8
"Tugboat offers two very unique and different tracks each over 20 minutes long. The first track was written in Chicago, IL and recorded in Portland, OR and Leominster Massachusetts. This haunting account of the journey westward and the circle of enlightenment provide us with the thoughts and emotions that J.Scott harvest for his two-year travel. Collecting field recordings in Oregon and returning home to the basement of Tugboat to record the vocals and other instruments the album bares resemblances to looking out of a moving car at the landscape around it. The second track is an improvised account of J.Scott teaming up with legendary composer Phil with an instrumental track that is full of despair." The cases were made out of worn blue jeans and limited to 50 copies.

IhAA010 Tugboat – 'The Tugboat in Me' cassette $4
"Tugboat offers us their first 12 songs on this limited to 18 recycled cassettes. Tugboat recorded this album in 2001 as a preamble to the label that the two boys created some five years later (I had An Accident). Obviously ahead of its time the album was written and recorded in a few short days over a Shania Twain cassette that manages to mingle with the album from time to time. The album is centered on a plastic tugboat whistle producing a chilling sound of dissatisfaction." Each cassette is encased in a Martin + Osa receipt holder with the Tugboat print.

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