★Digitalis Recordings
From The Ground
Very special vinyl edition cut at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin, includes a bonus track and a hidden locked groove, together with new artwork. limited copies!* The sister of office favourite Peter Broderick, Heather Woods Broderick steps into the limelight with this hugely impressive solo debut. On 'From The Ground', Heather is ably assisted by her multi-talented sibling, who records, produces and contributes various instrumental elements to the songs. These two are regular collaborato…
Boolean Blues
ASESOME NEW RELEASE! Josh Hanson is another of Portland, Oregon’s underappreciated sons. Having come up through the ranks of long-time, long-forgotten faves Hochenkeit, he also spent time as a member of The Davis Redford Trio. But Hanson’s path diverges into a totally different sphere nowadays, spinning solo modular synth exploits to the stars. Influenced not just by the likes of Subotnick and Cluster but also various types of Eastern sounds, Hanson is looking forward, trying to find new pa…
Roll the dice
Massively anticipated release of this mysterious Fever Ray related project for fans of John Carpenter, Emeralds, Cluster, Afx - on a strictly limited vinyl pressing* Roll The Dice is a very special collaboration between two Swedish studio boffins, Peder Mannerfelt and Malcolm Pardon. The keener eyed among you will recognise Mannerfelt from his involvement with the stunning Fever Ray project, while Pardon is known for his work as a behind-the-scenes producer of music for film and TV. They'…
Amber Sea
Duo of Agnes Szelag & Marielle Jakobsons (aka DARWINSBITCH). They create electroacoustic songs on many instruments such as violin, cello, voice, bass, gezhong, piano, & accordian. Their scores are often conceptually or process-driven, resulting in their unique style of electroacoustic music, reminiscent of Scandinavian free folk, lullabies, dramatic film scores, & electronic improvised music
Hunted Gathering
"There's a savage battle raging in the hallowed streets of Los Angeles, being fought by prehistoric megaliths spewing lava from their mouths. These acid-tongued shamans are interested in one thing and one thing only, and that's to raze this city to the ground. Okay, perhaps it's not so apocalyptic, but hot off the heels of opening for Sonic Youth, dirt worshippers Robedoor and their native sisters Pocahaunted have unleashed an army for the ages with Hunted Gathering. Drones painted with black ho…
Communication
one of the most surprising, varied and knockout albums of the year, ranging from widescreen soundscapes to intimate drone transmissions, hip hop variations and miniature bleepy interludes - an absolute mustBetween 1992 and the early 2000's, former folksinger turned lo-fi avant-garde minstrel Bugskull (aka Sean Byrne) released a string of highly acclaimed compositions for a selection of Portland, Oregon's finest independent imprints. Since then his name has circulated in hushed tones among those …
Psychic Mud Shrine
You'll probably know Evan Caminiti as one half of the brilliant avant-metal band Barn Owl, but here he's forging a path as a solo artist for Digitalis, devising four towering guitar pieces that move beyond the pursuit of drone and sludge and take on a more slippery, mystical quality. Protracted sustains are still snaking all over this album, but there's a carefully chiselled-out textural quality here that transcends any preconceptions you might have about this being an exercise in Earth-aping st…
Nemcatacoa
Achingly beautiful album fusing elements of everything from Earth to Windy & Carl, Stephen O'Malley, My Bloody Valentine, Fennesz, Keith Fullerton Whitman and Emeralds - miss out at your peril!!! Elm is the solo project of Jon Porras, one half of the deeply revered San Francisco drone lords, Barn Owl. Only his third release in solo mode, 'Nemcatacoa' has strong ties to his other project, but revolves around a lonelier and more personal agenda, with eight incredible tracks of widescreen Americana…
Stone Academy
The latest addition to the fast-growing Digitalis catalogue comes from Zelienople, a band from Chicago who have a certain knack of making that other-worldly folk ambience we've all grown so addicted to sound totally singular and incredibly beautiful. Maybe it's because they aren't afraid of occasionally breaching into the odd pop structure or two that 'Stone Academy' is so inviting, in fact if you hear it at a distance you might even mistake it for a decomposed cassette recording of an old Pavem…
Oppressive Nature
Daryl Groetsch's work is almost unparalleled when it comes to modular synthesizer excursions. Through the static & electronic washes something warm & almost triumphant emerges. Heavy saw waves weave a chaotic mass of urban debris, smoothed over by the sine waves of time. Barriers fade away as they are consumed by sonic vines that find their way into all these aural cracks. Oddly beautiful in an almost post-apocalyptic way.
Charlemagne & Pippin
Single 35+ minute excursion in typical BtC drones w/ added violin. Really organic sounding, loads of textures.
Whiskey Leaves
The duo of Aiko Kogo & Anthony Guerra 1st made their presence known on a micro-edition CD-R from New Zealand's Pseudoarcana. Guerra sets the pace w/ layers of makeshift percussion & guitar. Kogo also plays ukelele, but it's her voice that is the real focal point on the album. This is fractured pop perfection.
Wax Canopy
RECENT. Over the past few years Alex Cobb has developed a signature sound that blurs the line between blissed-out guitar work & atonal, blown-out dirges. His soothing, six-string sorcery still dots the horizon on this album, but there's also a more angular, blown-out monster at work here. It's like he's channeling the angry spirits of the world into fuzzed elegiac strains. Limited to 500 copies.
Taradiddle
RECENT. A new journey down similar terrain, searching out something new in a landscape that's been visited before. Take TUMA's capable hands & add the fantastic percussive talents of WEIS (ZELIENOPLE) & it's like the wheel reinvented. These two play off one another beautifully, w/ Weis creating layers of havoc beneath Tuma's pastoral missives. Weis is the perfect foil for Tuma's brittle sound world. Archaic drones spit bombastic blasts of fire while the resulting sparks flicker into a million di…
Ore
Fluid forms of drones, doomy laments, & folk melodies fleshed out from a backbone of sine oscillators & violin. Behind these droning squalls is the lone figure of Marielle Jakobsons. Armed w/ her tiny army of sonic weapons, she concocts a lavaflow of melodies only to then bury them underneath a flowing river of muck. Limited to 500.
Multitudes
Last copies available: there are a lot of good times happening in SoCal these days and the Stunned Records/Magic Lantern crew is responsible for a whole hell of a lot of it. Well, Super Minerals are an important cog in that machine and this duo's intentions are blaring loud and clear on their first proper CD, Multitudes. This duo of Phil French and William Giachhi may rip it up when they're moonlighting in Magic Lantern, but here they are burning it all down slow. This is an album full of zoned-…
Rocks Will Open
Loren Chasse is responsible for a whole host of vital albums. He was a founding member of the Jewelled Antler label and has sparked so many great moments from the likes of Thuja, The Blithe Sons, Softwar, and of course his main solo guise, Of. For years, this project has evolved into something of absolute magical grandeur. Rocks Will Open is the latest opus in Chasse's catalog. The music on this album is as organic as it gets. Each tone, each sound feels like it has been culled directly from the…
Low Cloud Means Death
For years, I've counted Tetuzi Akiyama as one of my absolute favorite guitarists. He's been cranking out great records for ages, honing his style and skill in every possible way. Add in Christian Kiefer, who has also put out a string of magnificent releases, and a talented drummer/percussionist in Kevin Corcoran (who has appeared on releases on Weird Forest and played in Antennas Erupt!) and you've got a recipe for something magical. Low Cloud Means Death is a series of sea-inspired improvisatio…
Red Lion
You can remove a Kiwi from New Zealand but you sure as hell can't remove New Zealand from a Kiwi. Such is the case with Christchurch transplant, Peter Wright. Over the course of a decade, Wright has etched his name in glass in the annals of drone-world superstardom. And while I'm not sure what that really means, the point is that when it comes to soaring dronescapes, few do it better than Peter Wright. He has helped pave the way with contemporaries such as Birchville Cat Motel and Double Leopard…
Heavy Electronic Pacific Rock
Valerio Cosi may be young at only 22, but his talent is undeniable. He may be mostly known for his exquisite saxophone playing, but this Italian wunderkind doesn't stop there. Cosi composes strings of magic using all sorts of instrumentation and production tricks. Heavy Electronic Pacific Rock marks the first CD release in Cosi's ever-expanding discography, and he saved the best for this, his most widely-available release to date. Heavy Electronic Pacific Rock is a monster. Clocking in at nearly…