Nice guys finish last, and Daryl Groetsch is a real nice guy. That means he gets no fucking respect. But it also means he’ll be there when everyone else is washed-out and tossed-up. Prolific - but not ridiculously so - Groestch releases a steady stream of unrelentingly-progressive works under his synth moniker Pulse Emitter, wielding a commitment to instrument and aesthetic like a martial artist in the face of so many Ultimate Noise Fighter goons. There is no championship, only survival and self-betterment.

‘Oppressive Nature’ is a watershed for the Pulse Emitter, marking his most explicit confrontation with the darkness on the ground having returned to earth. Implicit in the triptych of the cover silhouettes, this entails movement from wood to town to country – various levels of construction, but construction nonetheless – where metaphysical mechanics offer an instructive abstraction. This pessimism entails generous helpings of static wash and high-frequency garble striping the first track (the disc has five untitled tracks, though this seems more a convenience than a necessity) and on into the second, but permeates the entire disc as a certain small-scale/local hush, like the cosmic lights which looked so chaotic from above-afar now appear slow and solitude cosmicomic pulses (tracks four and five). Segments two and three come off more stylized and thus inclined toward past constructions, but the weight of the low-ends and thinness of the highs suggest a futile grounding, soon an abandoned post. Doing well to announce his modular synth rather than the affect of titles, Groetsch gets to the crux of the matter: organic and heat-treated, these tones offer (deliberate) pits, pocks, perils, persuasions which other narrative pieces would patently elide but which here forms the very aesthetic of the sound. Pro CD comes in a Stumptown arigato pak. (Digitalis CD, $13 HERE)

Magic Castles – ‘Songs of the Forest’ C51 $6(USA)/$7(Canada)/$8(World)
"Songs of the Forest", the Castles' first release on the Moon Glyph imprint, is a study in delicate psychedelia. Throughout the album, the group harnesses sounds that harken to the mid-Sixties experimentalism. From beginning to end, it is a collection that houses surprises, such as the killer organ riff buried deep in "The Mole People" and the unexpected trombone in "Songs of the Forest" to name only a few. Recorded between the witching hour and three a.m. over the course of several months, this autumnal record is a revivalist showcase that straddles audacity and restraint with aplomb. Play it and float along.” ed. of 100 HERE

CD/CDr/7" Distro (and some used) sale: "The decade is coming to an end and to prepare to the big plans for DNT in 2010, we need to clear a lot of space (and raise a lot of funds). Please EMAIL a list of what you want to order. List 1 or 2 alternatives in case some items are sold out. Larger price breaks if you buy 10+ items. These prices have been greatly reduced, so take advantage of this deal while you can... Christmas is just around the corner..." HERE

CAREFREE ETURNUM – ‘Deep Cleaning with Roger Linn’ C52
”Carefree Eturnum is the solo project of Ian Murphy, known for being one half of Gryn Brvs and numerous other noise based projects like Hobo Sonn. Ian slides back into pure drone basics with this release, delivering two sides of drifting tape echoes, organic percussion and gentle shimmering feedback. One to keep an eye out for at this years Colour out of Space. Limited to 20 copies.”

SECOND FAMILY BAND – ‘Dream Release’ C33
”Another incredible offering from the SFB camp, documenting their huge collective burnouts .side A begins with a Murky laidback basement jam which quickly morphs into a psychedelic banjo romp, and ends with the incredible tropical sounding shamanic title track. The flip sides drugged up guitar solo and loose percussion keeps the pace for another of the band’s sonic meditations, which all accumulates into the last track’s laid back Dub Vibes, perfectly suited for heaviest smokers soundtrack. limited to 40 copies.”

WEBSITE

LOD 006 T. Hannum - ‘Mount of All Lands’ 3” CD $5(US)/$6(World)
”Two vocal pieces recorded in 2008 finally released on 3" CD in a limited artists edition w/ artwork by SCOTT TRELEAVEN. T. Hannum is one half of LOCRIAN, normally behind a pile of keyboards and tapes, here only his voice is used. These tracks were edited into a soundtrack for the video installation "Back + Forth" in S. Treleaven's exhibition at Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago, IL that opens 10/31 (where LOCRIAN will perform their soundtrack to the video "7 Last Words”). "Ascend" is the harsher of the two tracks, and introduces the theme of white noise and humming vocalizations while "Descend" grafts a cloudscape to the experience layering hazes of vocal tones. No instruments but voice were used on this recording. Full immersion. Edition of 60, color double sided inserts.” HERE

crystal visions $6
"deep tapes no.1. aural visions of crystal shards, soft as a pillow, to float skyward, through, the universe. limited to 50 handmade copies with full color artwork."

balance $4
"deep tapes no.2. debut deep magic tape. 20 minutes of magic. limited to 20 handmade copies with full color artwork."

WEBSITE

Beru - 'What Would I Do Without You' C48 $6
”On her cassette debut as Beru, Jessica Collins unravels a new American folk. What Would I Do Without You is both touched and untouched by tradition, mending the pieces of the world around her in collage. I first saw her destroying drums in the skronk-prov band Cat People, took a photo, and she unknowingly became the logo for TRHP. But as Beru, the LA-via-Georgia songwriter disembodies dub-noise, haunted gospel and improvised folk in loving, sinister ways. Her pastoral drones journey heavenward and pull the silver lining to Earth, collecting songs in the chaos. Limited edition of 100 pro-dubbed and imprinted c48 tapes with artwork by Kevin Phillips printed on vellum paper.”

Mothguts - 'III' CDr $6
”There is a sanctum filled with crimson bile. With bleeding ears and bleeding eyes, a devil jazz quartet lures you up the stairs. It’s a chaotic Anal Cunt-fueled path of destruction that, at times, actually swings. Taking cues from extreme free-jazz outfits like Painkiller and Last Exit, New Jersey’s Mothguts is what happens when jazz shanks a metal vokillist and replaces him with a squalling saxophonist. In this case, it’s Anthony Ware (sax), Mike Noordzy (bass), Ben Ross (drums) and Chris Welcome (guitar). III includes such future hits as “Knife Rape,” “The Nacht Time Is The Racht Time” and “Jizz Factory.” Limited edition of 150 pro-printed CDRs with heavy cardstock cover housed in vinyl jacket. First 50 copies come with a Mothguts sticker.”

Robe. - 'Remains Of A Burning World' C76 $6
”When Dante stood in the dark wood, perhaps contemplating his final evening, Virgil came to his side and shown him Inferno. Standing at its gates, Dante must have immediately seen the souls stirred by the storms beyond Limbo. Remains of a Burning World is that storm, an unrelenting, swarming gust of unforgiving doom. The duo of Robe. have repeatedly proven themselves masters of evil drone with releases on Small Doses, Blackest Rainbow, House of Alchemy and their own Tragic Creature. More than any other Robe. release, Remains is the duo’s most considered, methodically stretching worn carcasses with ease rather than a full assault. Limited edition of 100 pro-dubbed and imprinted c76 tapes with full color jcard and vellum insert.”

WEBSITE

Walter Gross – ‘LA Pink Filth’ CDr $10
”With an uncompromisingly truthful introduction about America’s modern crime rates, the album accurately presents just what type of musician Walter Gross is: an individual, a visionary, an artist willing to attempt to take a certain style or a specific pattern and completely invert it in order to create something excellent that has rarely been heard before. In short, “LA Pink Filth” explores the boundaries of IDM composition methods and displays a gritty, sometimes downright filthy audio underbelly unlike any other. With strong doses of epileptic energy and bit-crushed homemade feeling, all leading to the powerful, distinctive ambiance of "Pray," this is an album that neither you nor your secret desires of comfortable urbanization will ever forget. We promise. Album is limited to 150.” HERE

Second Family Band - 'Vernal Mystery Hour' C60 $7
"It only takes one minute to pull a tooth, but it took the Second Family hours to celebrate the return of the sun. This tape offers one hour of highlights from our Vernal Equinox proceedings. The finest in American technicolor fantasia."

Second Family Band - 'Wisconsin Gospel Vol 5' CDr $8
"A healthy serving of our Solstice 2008 gathering. A continuous decadent spiral of trance and burn. Large group mind confusion manifesting in stuttering prog movements and heathen space ritual, all covered in the wild pulpit-burning incantations and instrument molesting of Fr. Karen Eliot."

Second Family Band - 'Incidental Music from "Run Up the Voodoo"' 3" CDr $6
"Sickening segments of audio used during bleary-eyed late night fright fest. 20+ minutes of dense, vertigo-inducing, candlelit psychedelia derived from desperate prayers to keep the house ghosts happy."

WEBSITE

ROR014 - Rover Encyclopedia #3 - 'Sideways Hole' CDr $4/6
"The third installment of the ongoing series of live Rover recordings.
All acoustic pieces played in the depths of a large concrete tunnel. Very spacious and relaxing. Three extended tracks featuring Stewart Adams on acoustic/slide guitar, Alex Gray (Dreamcolour/Deep Magic) on banjo, Sean McCann on viola and bowed banjo, and Dave McPeters on bowed upright bass and slide guitar. Limited to 48 copies."

ROR016 - Waterside Gala - 'Composure & Recreation' C13 $4/6
"New sax/keyboard-driven project from Sean McCann and Kellen Shipley. Sustained, dry, jazz-influenced recordings. Full color artwork and painted tapes. Limited to 60 copies."

ROR017 - Sean McCann - 'Phylum Sigh' CD $7/9
"Remastered CD issue of sold out tape. Includes extended mixes and an additional song. Full-color art, shrink-wrapped. 9 songs, 63 minutes. Limited to 200 copies."

ROR018 - Bats In The Belfry - 'Because You're Blue' CDr $4/6
"Bats' new EP. Six lo-fi folk songs recorded on tape at home in Oakland, CA. Adding cellist Elana Santana and trumpeter Kate Linhardt to the recipe, these raw recordings extend the band's soaring pop melodies. Limited to 100 copies."

Orders of multiple items will receive a copy of Sean McCann - "Background Sound Four" C62

WEBSITE

Radu Malfatti/Klaus Filip-imaoto (Erstwhile 055)
"Since the early nineties, Vienna-based Radu Malfatti has been investigating the edges of ultraminimalism in both his composed and improvised work. On imaoto, he is joined by empathetic explorer Klaus Filip to create an instant classic. Radu Malfatti has been a major presence in the European free improv scene since the early seventies. He's been a member of such stellar bands as the Brotherhood of Breath, the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra, and the King Ubu Orchestra, as well as countless small groups. Malfatti's recent focus on developing a unique style of superspare, tranquil music led him to join the Wandelweiser collective, a group of like-minded composers, in 1994. Since 2006, Malfatti has been releasing recordings spanning the past 12 years of his compositions on his own b-boim label, which cumulatively are one of the important bodies of work of recent times. imaoto is his second release for Erstwhile, following 2001's superb and influential dach. Klaus Filip has been involved in the experimental music world since the early nineties in a wide range of capacities. He invented the open-source software lloopp, which is used by many prominent laptop improvisers, including Christian Fennesz and Christof Kurzmann. Filip only has a handful of releases, most notably Aluk (w/Toshi Nakamura), Los Glissandinos-Stand Clear (w/Kai Fagaschinski), and Building Excess (w/Malfatti, Mattin, and Dean Roberts). Filip's music has become increasingly minimal in recent years, searching for the limits of perception, in loudness and movement. imaoto is his first release for Erstwhile. Malfatti and Filip have performed a handful of duo concerts over the years, with the first in 2003. In 2006, they played a remarkable set in Maria Chavez's Houndstooth store in NYC, a very memorable show for the couple of dozen listeners in attendance as well as for the musicians themselves. In October 2008, they spent a day at Amann Studios and recorded the two pieces that make up imaoto. The results are undeniably gorgeous, musical, and impeccably recorded. The ultraminimalist aesthetic of the music is echoed in Yuko Zama's sparse design."

Burkhard Stangl/Kai Fagaschinski - 'Musik-Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht' (Erstwhile 057)
"Burkhard Stangl and Kai Fagaschinski both are masters at fluidly combining melodicism and abstraction. Musik-Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht showcases their work as a duo, carefully composed pieces intertwined with judiciously placed field recordings and meticulously sequenced to create a record that is more than the sum of its parts. Stangl explores the full range of the guitar, from quiet, melodic plucking to walls of noisy drones. This range and adaptability has allowed him to work in a wide range of contexts, from the collective projects Polwechsel (until 2004), Efzeg, and SSSD, in duos and trio with Christof Kurzmann and Taku Sugimoto, as well as many others. Musik-Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht is also his sixth release for Erstwhile, following Wrapped Islands (with Polwechsel and Fennesz), eh (with dieb13), and three releases from schnee, his remarkable duo with Kurzmann. Their most recent release, neuschnee, was released earlier in 2009, and along with Musik-Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht, mark his first new recorded work in some years. 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/Michael Thieke) and Kommando Raumschiff Zitrone (w/Kurzmann). His self-taught command of the clarinet is both subtly lyrical and thoroughly modern. This is his second Erstwhile release, with the first being 2008's stunning The Magic I.D.-till my breath gives out, on ErstPop. Stangl and Fagaschinski first met in the summer of 2002, when Christof Kurzmann suggested Kai should join the ensemble performing Stangl's opera Venusmond in Berlin. They clicked both musically and personally and decided to work as a duo in the future, with their initial concert being part of the mammoth AMPLIFY 2004: addition festival. Over the next three years, they sporadically worked together, playing two concerts in Vienna and one in NYC (in the ErstQuake 3 festival), and in 2007, recorded Musik-Ein Porträt in Sehnsucht in two separate sessions at Amann Studios in Vienna. The record occupies a unique area between composition and folk music, classical and jazz/improv, tension and serenity. The design is again from Berlin designer Marion Gerth, previously responsible for the two ErstPop releases."

WEBSITE

Banana Head - 'In the Tubs' $7
"In the Tubs presents a continual attempt to articulate the sadness and loveless infatuation of Banana Head, but every syrupy track falls prey to the codeine-induced remoteness and feeble basement wipeout emotion of a total loser/way-too-old mama’s boy. Shying away from the pop record, Banana Head falls back on the simple instrumentation and rainy window fidelity he finds essentially inescapable. These songs too are stuck in the tubs, lulled into the void of pill-popped stagnancy. Nonetheless, In the Tubs seems to be a sincere demonstration of a rock lover’s desire to deconstruct the canonized song structure and take it to a heartbreaking extreme. “no talent no rules, muchacho"

Bird - 'Hoy en día' $7
"Investing in some free synth software, a snare, and a tiny guitar, Katie Leming explodes any previous notion of loner-muzak with her unparalleled neo-outsider no-pop chug. Unlike her drumming and singing in Cro Magnon, here Katie moves into a new primitivist realm, where any and all world musics and pop strategies can be appropriated and channeled into the temporal angst of a college girl whose apartment sucks."

Vincent Over the Sink - 'Bible Bashers' $7
"Kept on the low for several years now, VOTS have released a couple short gems exclusively in their native Australia. Bible Bashers is their American debut, channeling post-post punk cynicism and modernist anxiety ala Lambkin and the Ring, not to mention their ancestral Xpressway slog. Deeply religious, these two extended pieces, composed of several sections each, meander between structured bedroom monotony and bunkbed-nightmare dirge. Features members of Naked on the Vague."

Paradise Sisters - 'Jeff Atkins no. 7' $7
"Supposedly there are nineteen sisters and they all play together and never ever look at each other. Continual transgression and vacation woery. All this in preparation for an LP on De Stijl Recs."

WEBSITE

BLOODYMINDED - 'Boston 2008' CDr
"BloodLust! is particularly pleased to announce the release of the BLOODYMINDED "Boston 2008" CD, specially manufactured in a limited edition of 100 copies to coincide with the band's appearance at the Northeast Noise & Power Electronics Festival II, November 7, 2009, in Boston, Massachusetts. This release features a recording of their ultra-high-energy set from the first running of the festival, on March 14, 2008, at Jacque's Cabaret, the notorious drag bar in Boston. The 16 songs performed that night, including a synth-less, gut-wrenching, naked vocal performance of "Ten Suicides," are presented as one continuous track, and the recording captures what is certainly one of the most joyous and exhilarated audiences to ever interact with the band. These are professionally duplicated CDs, with single panel, double-sided inserts, featuring striking color artwork; in jewel boxes with shrinkwrap." HERE

Though attempting to distinguish himself from his better known alias Eluvium, the false debut ‘Miniatures’ by Matthew Robert Cooper combines the most distinguishing features from the two foundational albums of his other-named career. That is: presented as ten miniature compositions ala the piano rice-paintings of ‘Accidental Memory In Case Of Death’, these pieces make equal time to indulge in the Eno ambience of Cooper’s long-form debut ‘Lambent Material’. The truth of the debut is Cooper’s recording as Cooper, and then, his first appearance on vinyl (though I am late as usual, this first Gaarden LP came out nearly a year before I got my hands on it, and thus, well before Temporary Residence released the Eluvium box set ‘Life Through Bombardment’). Witnessing a wider range of moods and timbrel techniques than before, these nine tracks nevertheless retain the optimistic austerity, stillness, and evocative production of his past releases which serves so well to transport the listener. Titles have proven to be a strong-suit for Cooper, though this disc’s lake thereof proves the skill to be superfluous, as number four’s piano footfalls echoes the stuttering concern and paced quietude of “The Well-Meaning Professor”, or the nocturnal blossoms of number seven like a “Clair de Lune” for PT Anderson’s anti-heist ‘Hard Eight’. Not one for grand gestures, number nine is Cooper’s most sweeping example, an extended exit of synthetic strings in swaying harmony which loft the room to the ground like a leaf. Comes on black vinyl in thick glossy sleeves, in a hopeful run of 2000 copies. (Gaarden LP, $13 HERE)

Von Bingen s/t LP
“We would like you to consider owning Von Bingen’s self titled first lp either for your own personal betterment, or for the betterment of your patrons. To aid you in this endeavor, we submit the following summary of biographies, impressions, and predictions. Von Bingen began life when husband and wife duo Jenni Pace and Daniel Presnell (Astral Blessing) temporarily suspended Hildegard (their east coast group of clangorous misfits), and relocated to Vancouver, BC where they soon met Josh Stevenson (aka Magneticring, and one-time JOMF member), and Richard Smith. Influenced by histories of conceptual art practices and electronic and outsider music native to the west coast, Von Bingen’s sound is at once reminiscent of distant sonics, such as those found in the labs of 60’s SF pioneers, or overheard in Berlin’s Zodiac Club in the early 70’s, while also anticipating the drone of future decades. Folk forms gleefully mutate, reborn as new hybrids, dignified by analog modular and semi-modular synthesizer systems from Serge, Buchla, and EMS. Instruments such as the flute, clarinet, guitar, and the drum are defamiliarized through quixotic treatments, originating from experimentations in the band’s studio. By rescuing tones, processes and technology from dusty desuetude, Von Bingen happens upon a unique retrofit for advanced audiences that is sure to confound, if not altogether please. Within the grooves of this lp, you will not find full-fledged allegiance to current fashions, nor will you find some light loop of cheap sensations, hollow-core historical reenactments, or facsimile sentiments. In fact, we are not sure what you will find at all, and that is the beauty of nature, a potentially infinite system of chances, where the opportunity to un-learn is as important as the opportunity to learn; where memories possess the power to eclipse experience; where all history becomes synesthesia. Join Von Bingen in this new Eden, and by all means, have an apple.” HERE (and elsewhere)

Endless Endless Endless – ‘Black Talisman’ CDr/cassette
”Black Talisman is the debut recording from the New York/Jersey duo of Brett Renfer (Brooklyn: guitar, vocals, and pedals) and James Tichenor (Jersey: Korg Gameboy DS). Splitting their time between triumphant post-noise and stretched out bummer-wave, Endless Endless Endless creates music from the sounds of shimmering guitars, squiggly synth lines, filter sweep synth washes, slow-mo 8-bit drums, and infinite layered vocal harmonies all mushed together into a psychedelic, blissed-out smoothie. With no overdubs and minimal editing, Black Talisman captures Endless Endless Endless riffing as songs and ideas build, blur, loop and die. This is music for (and from) pretzel rods and Miller highlife. Hand-made, numbered edition of 100 (53 tapes) (47 cdrs) comes with large laser etched Talisman and (secret) mp3 download link. Wear the Talisman and it will bring you infinite power." HERE

Archers by the Sea/Pine Smoke Lodge - 'Lighting the Qulliq vol. 3' C40 $4(US)

Ajilvsga/Pine Smoke Lodge - 'Lighting the Qulliq vol. 2' CDr $5(US)

Derek Rogers & Hashem Assadullahi - 'Tape Loop Sax Hiss' C60 $4(US)

Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat - 'Koskemattomuus' CDr
"BloodLust! is happy to announce "Koskemattomuus," the label's second release by the emerging industrial noise group, Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat, which follows on the footsteps of the bands recent "Anarkkia, Kaaos, Maailmanloppu!" EP [B!129]. The members of this shadow group of old-school industrial acolytes originally hail from Finland and from Karelia -- a region and an autonomous republic of northwest Russia, between the Gulf of Finland and the White Sea. To paraphrase some of the band's own dogmatic yet oblique statements and manifestos, Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat quite accurately claim to have built their sound on the bones of such groups as S.P.K. and Throbbing Gristle, through a prism of Japanese harsh-noise and Finnish hardcore-punk, spewing out a nihilistic nightmare of diffused synth hiss, commanding metal percussion, waves of harsh-noise, anarcho-punk attitude, and dissident power-electronics. This "new" album, which the band actually recorded in 2001, furthers the group's association with the anarcho-punk scene [CRASS, et al] by presenting a fiercely grim anti-war statement. By conjuring the disasters of war, both historic and contemporary, the group lays the blame for the death of so many innocent civilians squarely on the shoulders of greedy politicians and big business. Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat weave their aggressive, dark industrial-noise style with segments of traditional, romantic Finnish war songs from World War II, as well of impassioned battlefield vocal segments, creating a complex and compelling tableaux that should appeal to a broad group of listeners, including fans from the martial music, minimal synth, crusty punk, and noise scenes. These are professionally duplicated CDs, with single panel, double-sided inserts, featuring striking color artwork; in jewel boxes with shrinkwrap." HERE

Yoshihide Sodeoka morphs and melts talking heads using crushed ink-jet-blot symmetries of obscene pixilation and granularity, a false fractal translation of bad fucking vibes (derived mainly from chop-n-bend toy guitar meddling). In just under 10 minutes, the three tracks of ‘Video Metal’ provide the expected rush of a Table of Contents video portfolio, offering a minor diversity based in the same innovative method. While the characters of stand-out “Evil Erector” emerge only in an affect of chance – Rorschach by way of Paper Rad – “Psychedelic Death Vomit” and “Electric Hair Doom” both begin from a center and work outward, didactically to the sound. Yet in the end, the audio is an afterthought as the distortions offer so much – so much so that the scarce imperfection seems so vividly out of place (e.g. the schoolboy silhouette behind the masks of “Evil Erector”). I suppose it’s inevitable that a video/sound production like this will invite a disparity, and while the sounds serve well to support their sensory compliment, they remain just this – a mere support to the strength and novelty of the video images – though alternatively this “soundtrack” could and should be treated in the most mundane sense, as a second layer of distorted effluvia from the processing of this video, and thus, the exact object of our pursuit. In an edition of 100 stamped copies, wrapped in a hyper-colored poster designed by the same infernal method. (Table of Contents DVDr, $10 HERE)

xNoBBQx - 'HI-ATE-US + Newtown Theatre'
"For those who don't know about Australian xNoBBQx band, it's a good start letting know that they're music has been described as "militant vegan hardcore played by constipated monkeys", and linked to bands and artists like Harry Pussy, Henry Flynt, Mouthus and Xenakis, what it sounds like primitive free minimalist noise improv, played with just a guitar and drums, with a charming lo-fi sound. They have released a bunch of CDRs, cassettes and LPs, the most notable released by the legendary label Siltbreeze, getting wider knowledge. This CDR comprises two tracks lasting each one 17 minutes recorded live in Sydney during 2006. First track is a raw take on free noise improv, in which fits hardcore and punk aesthetics. Second track starts where the first finish, with a deep use of silent, a continuous buzz, a repetitive chord, and sporadic drum hits, everything taken to the extreme. Intense, breathtaking, marvelous. Limited edition of 75 hand numbered copies, printed in color, packaged in board and plastic sleeves."

Sheik Anorak - 'Week'
"Hailing from Lyon, France, Sheik Anorak is a one man band, in which guitar, bass and drums are played by Frank (who also plays in SoCRaTeS, Hallux Valgus, Kandinsky and Lweis Karloff). "Week" is Sheik Anorak's fourth release. In less than 12 minutes, Sheik Anorak condenses Noise Rock, No Wave and primitive Avant Rock, previously done like bands as The Flying Luttenbachers and Lake of Dracula, in a new and freshing way. Along Telephones Rouges "Libertè, La Nuit", the most rock oriented release on fNs to date. Limited edition of 50 hand numbered copies, printed in color and packaged in plastic sleeves."

bazvotni - 'vrums'
"bazvotni is the new project of nicolash (pier, bura...) in which he uses as only tools drums and voice. "vrums" is his first cdr, lasting 11 minutes in 10 tracks no longer than two minutes, where short shots of noise follow one another. Without electronics, hardly with effects, just drums, some mics and a voice that fights for express itself amidst a lo-fi sound. The voice avoids tonality but intones primitive chants, like a soundtrack for the Altamira's Caves painters. Primitivism in concept and execution, chants for rain? chants for death? The limit between african traditional music and lo-fi, a mixture of noise and free-jazz played by tahitians in trance, because primarily bazvotni is free. Polyrhythmic filigrees camouflaged in semianalogical processes. And everything without inflicting any pain, having the impression that you're listening to something beauty, honest, with the heart and the stomach... it's short duration has a reason: this cdr is not made for please, but to be in communion with it, to become part of it. 3" CD-R, limited edition of 50 hand numbered copies, printed in color, in jewel cases."

pier - 'improvable'
"In this new assault on imrov, pier offers one 20 minutes track of free funk basses, abstract rhythms, crunky loosen guitars, sparse trumpets, crazy voices, insane saxs, which evolve from abstract to concrete, from free jazz to free no-wave and vice versa, all wrapped in a beautiful noise and saturation that will make you push the replay button until your ears talk you about the greatness of freedom... or something. Limited edition of 50 hand numbered copies, printed in color and packaged in paper bags into plastic ziplock bag."

WEBSITE

[tzpLP03] Smegma - 'Morass Live' LP 11€
"in 1987 the morass tape was released. one studio side. one live side. totally killer. the studio side was recently re-released as bonus material on the nattering naybobs cd we decided to re-release the live side on vinyl. and to add 15 minutes of extra material. astounding unreleased live recordings from 1986. full colour artwork and labels. black vinyl bag. co-released with bimbo tower records." HERE

Molia - 'Exprmnt'
"Molia had his first contact with music in childhood. He started to compose/produce his own music a few years ago. "Exprmnt" is the first release of molia and it contain 4 atmospheric tracks.this is an experimental album with ambiental influences." HERE

Anxur - 'In Natura Similare'
"Anxur is a solo, mostly studio project born in 1998. Basically created after discovering a particular arrangement in the disposition of some analogic instruments that could reproduce a sound so defined “unconscious”. After many experiments in this direction, some concrete tracks began to appear, also related to the films produced by Black Foil, an independent art-movie production. A small parenthesis is represented by the album “Flexus” that sounds more like some electro or drum’n’bass stuff, after cooperating with a techno-industrial-electro collective called Neuropa. Back to the roots, Anxur composed the album “In Natura Similare”, followed by “Aes”, an ep radically dark ambient. In the same period the soundtrack for “Pellicole Musicali” by Black Foil is ready. Other soundtracks are “M-System”, “Cauter Ascension”, “Fagus”. Actually busy to create the soundtrack for “B-System”, a film from the year 2000 that’s been edited in 2009. Actually located in Bergen, Norway. "In Natura Similare" is an album made of tracks based on unintentional errors or modes of some machines, that makes them ideally similar to living and natural entities. To surf on the errors, on the chaos, to control the chaos in a certain meaning it’s been the ritual of the record. The knowledge of the wrong and irrational side of what is programmed to obey it seemed to be well-disposed to meet some deep soundscapes and amients." HERE

Puna - 'Puna'
"Jose Alfredo Rodriguez dedicated to music, poetry,a web design student, jorge rivas o connor, dedicated to music and poetry, both of them fascinated by visual arts, participated in proyects like Madame verlaine, Difusa, ionaxs and Gerardo flores, music and a sound enginnering student and friend from others projects as Crossota, Norvasc, get together to play music in Jorge´s house, when they noticed that their guitars mixed sound beautiful decided to make some recordings. Arnold Medina colaborated in some songs from the single. All of this from 2008 in Lima - Peru. The single was produced in 2008 and 2009." HERE

Insane Asylum - 'In Crude'
"Forgoetten and unreleased previously material of Insane Asylum project. Recorded in 2005 using old Rebirth software." HERE

Sun Araw (feat. Matthew Lessner) — 'In Orbit' C30 (Stunned no. 51) $7
"Sun Araw’s Cameron Stallones & filmmaker Matthew Lessner are longtime Stunned brothers that go back with us before the music, the tours, the films, the label, you name it. As tireless globetrotters, both have spent the last year beaming their respective good messages far and wide to the delight of audio aficionados & visual art subversives alike. Marking a Second phase in all our geosynchronous friendships, ‘In Orbit’ finds these dudes collaborating on ascendant planes of high mind where outer Los Angeles and Inner Space bisect. Deep dubby howlin, Farfisa organ hang-gliding, gooey tempos, and trademark shimmering ‘Araw-guitar licks are the hybridized fruits harvested here. Along with your candy, flip this tape as needed. Happy to say, there’s no limit to the number of orbits it can (and will) make through your stereo and ours." Special edition of 222 pro-dubbed & imprinted c30s with jcard design by Cameron.

Donato Epiro — 'Sounding the Sun' CDr (Stunned no. 52) $7
"Over the course of ‘Sounding the Sun’, Italian psych magician Donato Epiro aims his wand in all directions of the acoustical field, doing his best chameleon’s dance with drums, flute, chanting, and strings. An impressive dynamism is in play when Donato takes his bonfire percussion & fluttering raga loops, then swiftly braids them down to stilled passages of minimalist vibration. It’s a blissful abduction of the ear’s attention/perception, harnessed to a pervasive feeling of time running backwards as the album spins forward. A beautiful and unpredictable escape to some far off sunny fields of a magical land long, long ago." Limited edition of 100 hand stamped cdrs with double-sided insert card & color cover in vinyl jacket.

Padna — 'Siberia / Hinterland' C56 (Stunned no. 53) $7
"Geiger counters, crystal radio sets, sonar consoles, and broken walkie talkies chatter their way through a binary snowdrift on the opening side of ‘Siberia/Hinterland’. Chilly, spooked, and Siberian for sure, but it could just as well be an eerie code transmitted from the dark side of Pluto. Who knows? Brooklyn’s Nat Hawks might begin to answer, as he is the purported brains behind this sprawling enigma. He’s also responsible for running the totally fresh label LittleFuryThings and performing in avant NY outfits like Christian Science Minotaur. Clearly, his solo Padna role is no stranger to wrangling strange cargo such as found at the front of this c56. Side B’s ‘Hinterland’ reciprocates these anti-drone motions with a brightened palate of its own. Seven protean orchestrations run a whole rainbow range of opaque tones. Both sides of Padna’s coin are landed on throughout the trip, flipping from dark atmospheres to warped merrymaking at a whim. Being introduced to these creations has definitely been one of the highlights of Stunned HQ’s listening year, and echoes of the Padna endeavor are bound to be near." Limited edition of 100 pro-dubbed & imprinted c56 tapes with insert card and double-sided color jcard.

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Though still very young, Semata Productions have already established their dedication to experimental greatness with their inaugural disc by Epicureans and Greg Kelley’s very fine ‘Self-Hate Index’. Marking today with SEM003 and 004 - two seven-inch records of high-watermark – the label scratches this dedication in vinyl with no sure return.

A member of the band Ehnahre and half the duo Perispirit, Ricardo Donoso appears for the first time as sole author of a work, a pair of tragically-vacant tracks called ‘Zerovinteum’. Side A is the title-track, a cold mix of shifting drones and low static noise of such acousmatic subtlety that a claim to field recording would leave nothing left to explain, except where this terrible, fantastic location may be found. Too thin to slither, the sounds spin like blades on an axis, gleaming like the light ephemera which serves as the only indication of contour (and less assuredly, life) in the cityscape postcard which comes packed in the sleeve. On the reverse, “Plate Fourteen” takes a more concrete form in the cleanliness of minimal drone, deep and moderately-defined. However, this makes it no more welcoming, as in the abstract expression of the record’s cover it offers a uniform texture but no point of entry, just healed-over scarring (doubled in the sharp crackle of the locked-groove, likely to vary by disc with dust content over such a portrait of silence). Limited to 300 copies on black vinyl.

Separate from the above venture, Semata starts a series of split 7” on a promising note with the pairing of Stillbirth (Luke Moldof) and Prurient (Dominick Fernow). As Fernow’s sleeve art continues the geomancy of his more recent works and Princean sign-compression, the unification of circle and square echoes nicely the die-cut lines of these noise constructions, as well as the maturing sound of Noise writ large as these two artists (and outfits like Semata) erotically convene. Moldof’s side comes on like the snakes of atonal harmony, discordant tones which split their power when a higher channel of silver noise enters along the roof beam; subsequent walls of reverberating guitar notes cut a third dimension, and then a forth with the radio squall of static which divides this room in steps. Resonant with this sonic architecture, and aesthetically by his recent work with Wes Eisold’s Cold Cave, Prurient’s side is an edit of rich corduroy, woven from scalloped synth in angular design with a depth of manipulated vocals murmuring into the muff. This swatch of sound is objectified with the clatter of a fidgety pace, and no longer the hungry paraphernalia of the past, envisioning “Where Secrets Are Guarded” as the confine (and not confidence) of the Baron’s Chamber. The disconcertion of the seven inches’ 45 RPMs turns to desperation that so small a disc should spin so quickly through, particularly Prurient’s one-minute fifty. Surely brief to make a point – though a point not well-taken – these are two brilliant contributions played strategically to the format, inducing the fetish for the (truly wonderful) thing. In an edition of 500 randomly-colored copies. (Semata 7”, $7 & $8 HERE)

Humor Vítreo #3 1€
"Tercera cinta de Humor Vítreo. Punkderfonía improvisada más abstracta y vocal que nunca. Portada a todo color en cartulina, encartes colónicos en papel marfil y cassette esprayeada. 80 copias.///Third tape from Humor Vítreo. Improvised punkderfonics more abstract and vocal than ever. Full color cardboard cover, ivory paper colonic inserts and sprayed cassette. 80 copies." HERE