New Arrivals
Curse of the Bodysnatchers - Tape-Recordings 1980-86
Gerald O'Connell and Mark Harvey began recording as Mystery Plane in 1980, although they had worked together since 1978 in two other more conventional five-piece bands ( The End and 3D5). The very early stuff ( for instance Death Sentence contained on the bonus 7" for members) was recorded in Gerald's living room on a two-track Akai reel-to-reel with a primitive internal overdub facility. For the most part Mark wrote and sang the songs, while Gerald created the backing tracks. In 1981 they were …
Active recovering music
Active Recovering Music (ARM) is a slide whistle ensemble led by sax player Masahiko Okura. All of the members play the slide whistle. Okura debuted ARM in concert with a five-member formation in 2008. He's since continued the group's activity (though their live performances are infrequent) with changing numbers of players. This is the recording of a performance by ARM--this time with eight members--which took place at Ftarri, Tokyo, in February 2013. Each of the three pieces was composed by Oku…
The Mortimer Trap
The Mortimer Trap is an epic, 77-minute "variation" of Morton Feldman's For Bunita Marcus, constructed by German experimentalist and techno icon Thomas Brinkmann and Australian sound artist Oren Ambarchi. Pulsating waves of claustrophobic ambience generated from who-knows-what patiently builds into a throbbing, rhythmic pulse of gorgeous sonic density. Since the '80s, Thomas Brinkmann has experimented with sound, its textures and its construction methods. His custom-built two-arm turntable …
Appalachian excitation
The meeting of composer Arnold Dreyblatt and psych-folk trio Megafaun shouldn’t be seen as unlikely just because it’s cross-generational, or even (arguably) cross-genre. Such categorizations have to be set aside before taking in their Appalachian Excitation. Born in New York in 1953, Dreyblatt came up under such lauded experimental groundbreakers as Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros and La Monte Young, obtaining a Master’s degree in composition from Wesleyan University. Now based in Berlin, where h…
A finger in the fishes mouth - Poetry book
A facsimile edition of Derek Jarman’s only poetry collection, A Finger in the Fishes Mouth, originally published by Bettiscombe Press, Bridport, Dorset in 1972, is due to be published by Test Centre, with a new Foreword by Sophie Mayer and Afterwords by Keith Collins, Jarman’s partner, and Tony Peake, his biographer.Postcards from Jarman’s own collection, here gorgeously reproduced in an evocative green, preface each of the 32 numbered poems, written when he was in his early twenties. The impact…
Rare Tracks 1979 - 1982
Conrad Schnitzler is considered to be the keyfigure of electronic Avantgarde Music in Europe. Schnitzler was member of Tangerine Dream and Kluster and Con Many years ahead of his time, CON was revolutionary in many aspects, He predated Industrial Music, sounded like Kraftwerk and DAF before they did and makes music today at the age of 71. Some rare early works in re-edited versions by Mooner aka Zombie nation. The track ''Electroklang'' is featured as a loop only!! Amazing electronic music…
Voyeur
Husband-and-wife duo, Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long, who self-released handmade items and created sound for installations and exhibits along with producing conventional releases. "A few years ago I was commissioned by a film company in California to create a musical score for a film inspired by the Hitchcock 1954 film Rear Window, but with a more surrealist, two-sided viewer plot. As filming hadn't begun, I was given the screenplay and timeline, and asked to make specific music that might f…
Calmont breakdown
New solo album by the highly prolific yet always captivating Richard Youngs, whose music can waver healthily between new forms of singer-songwriter material, lo-fi drones and all manner of avant-garde forms. Here, his music sways towards the difficult and embraces organ drones and swells, frazzled electronics, a voice that is at once unnerving and unnerved, and more besides. Anybody expecting a comfortable listen should be prepared.
Cardiocleptomanie
For our 31st release, Minimal Wave is proud to present Belgian pop trio Pas De Deux, best known for their participation in the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest. The group was formed in 1982 by Walter Verdin joined by Hilde van Roy and Dett Peyskens. They released two LPs and several singles along with some incredible video work produced by Verdin himself. Stylistically, their music is a bit post-punk and completely new wave with vocals reminiscent of the indie girl bands of the late 70s and early 80…
The eyes, the mouth Night of the ocean
Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and XO4 and VAMPIRE BELT's Bill Nace team up for the third time (they also released a cassette and did a FEVER cover) showing no band needs a drummer to trash or mildly shake brains!basement jams after listening to basement jams, deep down in the deepest basement of the valley, 2 guitars fighting for a place on a chubby cassette recorder while the ultra no wave vocals of Kim Gordon ghostride thru a pretty packed parking lot.a throw back as well to early raw Sonic Youth d…
Sleep (An attempt at trying)
Sleep (an attempt at trying)“ is a radio suite for vocalist, narrator, improvising ensemble and electronics. In this project Bumšteinas explored the subject of insomnia which makes it a very autobiographic project. The main sound material for “Sleep” came from the sleeping-aid and relaxation tapes, that Bumšteinas bought for himself in various fleamarkets around Europe. The course of personal therapy wasn't too successful and due to nocturnal boredom Bumšteinas started dabbling with the function…
Fleshpile sister
Fleshpile Thematic, released on The Tapeworm earlier this year, reconsidered as an album of dub versions. Smooth edges roughed out. Re-engineered space. All human vocals erased.
The Bacteria Magnet
Picture Disc in a plastic cover. Limited to 500. 'Cruisin' For A Bruisin' (Bacteria Bitch Mix)', 'Bei Mir Nist Du Schon', 'Thrill Of Romance...? (Burgo Partridge Mix)', 'The Bottom Feeder'.
Shut In
'Shut In' is a "Beautiful piece of Easy Listening for Cabin Fever courtesy of Kevin Drumm" says Editions Mego, and who are we to argue? It yields some of the inimitable artist's most beautiful, oneiric sounds since his immense 'Imperial Distortion' album for Hospital Productions; in fact, we wouldn't be surprised if we were told it came from those same sessions. One singular piece unfolds for just over 30 minutes across two sides, slowly radiating a sort of soothing harmonic balm with an …
Pink pearl
Frans de Waard (1965) has been producing music since 1984. First as Kapotte Muziek, but throughout the years, he also worked as Beequeen (with Freek Kinkelaar), Goem (with Roel Meelkop & Peter Duimelinks, both of whom are also a member of Kapotte Muziek these days), Zebra (with Roel Meelkop) and such solo projects as Freiband, Shifts as well as his own name. He played various solo concerts as Goem-FDW in Japan, as part of a package tour with Pan Sonic. Frans de Waard also likes to play sets of i…
Patagonian Field Recordings
Carlos Casas is a filmmaker and visual artist from Barcelona. His work is a cross between documentary film, cinema, and contemporary visual and sound arts. In 2001 he started a trilogy of works dedicated to the most extreme environments on the planet, Patagonia, Aral sea, and Siberia, with a particular interest on how humans relate with the territory they occupy. These tracks comes fro…
Compositions For Geomungo and Gayageum
Sub Rosa reissues Belgian composer/violinist Baudouin de Jaer's Gayageum Sanjo (SR 347CD), with a complete new design and an additional CD of new compositions for another ancient Korean instrument: the geomungo ("black zither"). "Baudouin de Jaer chose a highly delicate musical instrument, the geomungo, and has drawn from it a marvelous creation; I can only congratulate him with all my heart for such an accomplishment, and for the release of this beautiful CD. I hope he will continue to make gre…
Psychomagia
"Psychomagia" is the new album by the fabulous quartet of Abraxas, the acclaimed tribal rock arrangements for the Book of Angels series. Here they perform a complex new suite of music written expressly for them by Downtown alchemist John Zorn. Drawing inspiration from the magical writings of Giordano Bruno and Alejandro Jodorowski and others, Zorn has written a bold collection of compositions that challenge the musicians to the breaking point. With a program ranging from some of the most …
The Magic Of Ju-Ju
Gatefold 180 gram reissue of tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp's 1967 "tour de force." "...combining free jazz tenor with steady frenetic African drumming. Shepp's emotional and fiery tenor takes off immediately, gradually morphing with the five percussionists -- Beaver Harris, Norman Connor, Ed Blackwell, Frank Charles, and Dennis Charles -- who perform on instruments including rhythm logs and talking drums. Shepp never loses the initial energy, moving forward like a man possessed as the dr…
Ganymede
Inspired in equal measure by the throbbing urbanity of coastal cities, continental European art-rock experimentation, left-ï¬Ã‚Âeld techno, and the freewheeling punk aesthetic of contemporary home studio recording, Jonas Reinhardt’s music transcends its inï¬Ã‚‚uences to bring into being a work that’s wholly new while referencing a celebrated aesthetic of the past. Jonas Reinhardt's 'Ganymede' is an experimental science ï¬Ã‚Âction ï¬Ã‚Âlm set on the solar system's largest moon. On Ganymede, i…