★Type
The Whole
LP version. Includes an exclusive bonus CD of 30-minute album, The Whole -- mixed by Olivia Block. The Whole might be avant-percussionist Jon Mueller's first album for the Type imprint, but it's far from his scene debut. Working in a plethora of bands for many years (including Collections Of Colonies Of Bees and Volcano Choir with Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver), Mueller has honed his sound to a distinct peak, and over the course of umpteen solo albums and collaborations has cemented his status …
Love Is A Stream
Limited vinyl edition. Includes a 50-minute bonus CD featuring some of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's original material reworked by Type label head John Twells (Xela). As a member of San Francisco legends Tarentel and Type's premier astral travelers The Alps, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is hardly a new addition to the label, so it's hard to believe that Love Is A Stream is his first Type solo album. With previous releases on Arbor, Spekk and his own Root Strata imprint, this latest album marks his journey int…
Mechanical Gardens
This excellent debut-proper from hotly tipped duo Altar Eagle finds itself nestled somewhere between the icy drum machine pop of Cold Cave, the Kosmische refractions of Emeralds and the classic layered shoegaze of Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. Eden Hemming and Brad Rose have previously made music together as Corsican Paintbrush before changing their name and style on a pair of sought-after cassettes absorbing darkwave pop genius and the 1st wave techno moods of Juan Atkins. With a hea…
Bongo Closet
*Strictly limited vinyl-only album* Geoff Mullen is a hugely respected member of the New England experimental/improv scene, often found in the same circles as Keith Fullerton Whitman aka Hrvatski. He makes his Type debut with an utterly bewitching, secretive set of sounds which were originally heard on a cassette released by the 'Razors And Medicine' label earlier this year, containing six tracks of personal, heavy and undeniably magical drone music. He uses a modest setup of treated guita…
Landings
** LUCKY FIND, LONG OUT OF PRINT ** Yep, just scored few original copies of this long time unavailable masterpiece...Having recorded a significant body of work under various guises including A Broken Consort and Clouwbeck, Richard Skelton returns with a brand new and long anticipated album under his own name. Following on from 'Marking Time' (originally released via Preservation in 2008 only to be reissued on limited vinyl by Type over the summer), 'Landings' is an album steeped in the wil…
And In The Endless Pause There Came The Sound Of Bees
A flop-eared rodent frolics in a lush field. In from the horizon sweeps a black cloud, kicked up by an army of similar-looking rodents. That's the basic set-up of Varmints, a 24-minute film by Studio AKA animator Marc Craste, based on a book written by Helen Ward and illustrated by Craste. Jóhann Jóhannsson draws the title of his latest album from the book, and this is the music he composed for the film's soundtrack. There's quite a bit of extra material-- the album is a full 1…
Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not
Regrouping for a third album under their 'On' moniker, Steven Hess and Sylvain Chaveau have created another body of chilling improvised recordings at their Chicago studio. As with previous records the results were passed to a guest musician for rearrangement of perspective and mixing techniques. Following Deathprod's work on 'Your Naked Ghost...', the material for this album was handed to experimental virtuoso Christian Fennesz, who transforms the source sounds into a display of stripped,…
Porcelain Opera
LP + bonus full-length CD album of extra material called 'Rogue Camera'* The newest addition to the Type roster is one Rene Hell, a cult underground noisenik better known as Jeff Witscher. His numerous releases and pseudonyms for labels including Arbor, Not Not Fun and Chronditic Sound (among a tonne of others) have given space for his untamed imagination to roam various disparate styles and ideas. For Rene Hell Witscher sort of places himself alongside Emeralds or Oneohtrix Point Never wi…
Permafrost
Vinyl release. Permafrost was originally issued in 1993 and marked the conclusion of Thomas Köner's epic and influential trilogy which included Nunatak (TYPE 069LP) and Teimo (TYPE 070LP). Darker and even more subdued and minimal than its predecessors, Permafrost was the album which saw Köner truly strip the sound back to the bare essentials; gone were the hints of harmony found in Teimo and the discernable gong sounds of Nunatak. All that remained were the deep, shadowy resonances, room…
Teimo
The gorgeous second album from dark ambient pioneer Thomas Köner. Originally released in 1992 and never previously available on vinyl, Teimo is probably the most "tuneful" of Köner's legendary triptych (Nunatak, Teimo and Permafrost). The submerged drones that became his signature are tempered slightly on this album, to give a hallowed, mournful edge which has been echoed on so much of today's darker ambient music. Indeed, at times throughout this cavernous album, there are hints at someth…
Nunatak
The Type label reissues German music producer Thomas Köner's debut album, the first in a set of three, on vinyl for the very first time. Originally introduced to the world in 1990, Nunatak (then named Nunatak Gongamur) was shockingly ahead of its time, and it is hard to believe that it has been out of print and difficult to obtain for so long. Köner created the album with mood in mind; he has since been described as a "media" artist, and it's easy to see why. While the music can be descri…
And In The Endless Pause There Came The Sound Of Bees
It probably wouldn't surprise most, but the Type label was originally formed with soundtracks in mind. The moody music that usually accompanied their favorite independent films was a starting point for the label, so it seems perfect that nearly seven years on, they are going back to their roots, if you like, with this album from acclaimed Icelandic musician/composer/producer Jóhann Jóhannsson. Jóhannsson emerged on the influential Touch label with the genre-defining Englabörn (TO 052LP) album in…
Le Voyage
On 2008, Dusted’s Matthew Wuethrich wrote of last Alps LP, III: “The overall effect is anachronistic, but never nostalgic,” and that “filmic atmosphere is key to the album.” Much of the same can be said for Le Voyage, which finds the San Francisco psych-folk trio working in the same framework, exploring (what is now) familiar stylistic territory. And while this can be seen as lack of progression, the band has made an even better record here, dialing-back some of the meandering tendencies …
Plays Wagner - Part Two
Limited Second part to this amazing set exploring the ghostly echoes emanating from old Wagner recordings, slowly disintegrating into a haunted landscape of frayed tape loops and gradually exposed vapour trails of forgotten sounds and memories… Following on from where its equally enigmatic predecessor left off, Plays Wagner Part 2 finds Pat Maherr returning with another volume of dark, phantasmagorical soundscapes. These somnolent, dreamlike passages bear all the hallmarks of that most ove…
Singular Forms
Another week, another Vibracathedral Orchestra related slice of free-psych-drone weirdness, but I'm not complaining. Ever since seeing those Vibracathedral fellers live a couple of years ago I've been rabid for more of their freeform droning craziness, and this disc, a project of VCO man Neil Campbell and his folky friends takes his sound into further cosmic territories. Campbell originally issued these tracks as super limited cdrs which sold out practically before they had even been rele…
Going Places
In April 2008, American noise duo Yellow Swans (comprised of Peter Swanson and Gabriel Mindel) announced their decision to split. The news was a shock to the noise community, not least because the band had become a regular fixture in the live arena -- touring incessantly and garnering a huge, dedicated following in the process. What the duo neglected to announce, however, was that a final album was already in the works, and while they would not tour together again, steps were being taken to fini…
Plays Wagner - Part One
*Flickering neon tape loops and haunting layered drones for followers of David Lynch - Strictly Limited Copies only, just 150 available in the UK!* Slowly demented and nightmarish wasteland sequences from Portland, Oregon's Pat Maherr, crafting his debut album under the Indignant Senility moniker. Maherr has previously split his time between a plethora of monikers, from the chopped and screwed hiphop of DJ Yo Yo Dieting to Sisprum Vish's lo-fi noise, developing the gritty collage sensibility whi…
Give It Up
Initial copies come with a bonus full-length CD album, an incredible soundtrack to Donald Prokop's film 'Gone' specially composed by Zelienople - and trust us when we say it's worthy of the cost of admission in itself* This unbelievable album from Chicago's Zelienople evokes the spirit of some of the most treasured music we've come to know over the years, fusing in elements of Talk Talk at their most washed-out, early Bark Psychosis and the narcotic sweeps of Slowdive fused in with the smoky men…
Kappe
Limited Edition of 400 copies, already out of print: Erik Skodvin, the crown prince of nefarious Nordic doomscapes, returns with another incredible dark ambient grimoire for the Type label. Kappe finds the Deaf Center member peering yet deeper into the sonic abyss, concentrating his efforts on four lengthy compositions, each one following its own distinct subterranean tributary. 'Tunnel Of Love' opens the set with a blurry swell of dense tones and funereal howling before eventually throwing in a…
Alphabet 1968
Black to Comm's Marc Richter is an artist that perpetually seems to be on the verge of releasing an absolute masterwork, always creeping closer and closer but never quite nailing it. Alphabet 1968 does not quite buck that trend completely, but it is an oft-brilliant and unforgettable album nonetheless. Richter's impressive artistic evolution is showing no sign of slowing.