New Arrivals
A hidden place
Sohrab was born in Tehran in 1984. He was seven when the Iran-Iraq war ended. His name, from an old poem called “Shahname”, means “rouge water”, which can also mean 'blood'. He started a punk band with his brother and a friend, which lasted about two years before splitting. Sohrab is totally isolated in Iran, with little or no connection to what is happening there. Sohrab is, like so many, displaced within his own country and occupies a similar internal cultural isolation. This is suggeste…
The Swifter
Introducing The Swifter - a new trio featuring Andrea Belfi (drums and percussion), BJNilsen (electronics) and Simon James Phillips (piano). Their debut album documents the first encounter of the three musicians. Recorded live in the Grunewald Church, Berlin, careful attention was given to capturing the unique resonant acoustic offered by the airy, stone building, exhibiting the broad palate of aesthetic qualities the group are able to create. Subtly evolving sound worlds that evoke, at times, t…
Midden
Suum Cuique (pronouned Soom Kwi-Kwe, Latin for "To Each His Own") follows the remit of Young Americans to explore uncharted, experimental, and personal synthscapes, guided by the hand of intuition with an entirely analogue array of machines. In 'Lithic Reduction' concrète textures grind like a millstone to release powdery clouds of analog dust, settling only to be dispersed by gusts of blackened distortion, whereas 'Red Binary' is distinctly electronic, revolving around muted radar bleeps…
Everyone Is Not Alive
Reissued limited edition 2 color vinyl of Touch People's debut album from 2 years ago (originally on The Faint's blank.wav imprint). Darren Keen, aka Touch People, records guitars, drums, bass, and keyboards, and then assembles via experimental/modern production that is both visceral and cerebral. The resulting sound bears resemblance to Steve Reich, Battles, Dan Deacon, and Tortoise.
Spectrum 008
A new collection of killer, tempered synthesizer workouts from Darren Ho on Spectrum Spools. The seven tracks featured have are have the kind of fragile beauty - and playfulness - that we associate with the early electronic music of Wendy Carlos, Daphne Oram, Raymond Scott and their ilk. There's a strong narrative arc to the album, but each track explores distinct territory: 'Slow Sum' parts one and two' are playful agglomerations of phased analogue patterns, 'In Peru' a Budd/Roedelius-style amb…
Enthronement By God As The First-Born Of The Dead
Project from Dominick Fernow of Prurient/Vatican Shadow and Kris Lapke of Alberich. "Released first as a limited 4 x cassette box set now condemned to vinyl. Among the trinity of electronic projects of Dominick Fernow's studies in anxiety and fear from the mythic natures of rainforest spiritual enslavement, the info wars of Vatican Shadow and the creator's observation of Christian Cosmos. Lightning drums pound the rhythms for lost souls as the fall from paradise abounds and the trumpets o…
Absent Coast
Another sublime drone album from the unshakably good Root Strata camp, En's The Absent Coast is a real upper tier ambient release. Distinguished by its depth and effortless musicality, this album is one for genre fans to really savour. After the sandblasting noise/tonal onslaught of 'A Dying Sun/Return To Holyoke', the album calibrates itself to a stately simmer that comes to life during the quite sublime 'Honeysuckle Heart', which combines glassy sustains with crackl…
Total Anal
Metz, France is teeming with great bands: Chevau, Feeling Of Love, Normals, & A.H. Kraken are just the tip of the iceberg. The ANALS sound is similar to the aforementioned bands in their abrasive, weird punk base, but this duo is more obliviously influenced by German industrial electropunk group D.A.F. (via Brainbombs) than their peers. Past singles have sold out immediately, and this is your first chance to hear this unique duo's entire recorded output. Incl. both songs from the Sweet Rot singl…
Big shadow Montana
"After producing their frozen trilogy of intoxicated dronemuzik for the Agency, these Scandinavian gentlemen have ventured into more absurdist territories through fictionalized soundtracks for imagined Mondo films and science fiction serials. It is in this context that BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa present the apparitional Big Shadow Montana, an album of slow-motion delirium manifested in occluded smears, nocturnal gasps, and arcane tones from a variety of analogue synthesizers. Amidst the n…
Endless Falls
Endless Falls is the fifth full length release by Scott Morgan under the loscil moniker. The album begins and ends with the sound of rain recorded by Scott in his back yard, precipitation being a constant presence in his home city of Vancouver. Many of the other sounds on the album are derived from these same recordings, processed and combined with other harmonic sounds to create the textures and drones. Something completely new to this release would be vocals, of a sort, a first for any loscil …
Throat
In view of the band's assertion that this is a program designed to be listened to in one sitting, it seems a little impertinent to discuss highlights. The seven tracks that make up "Throat" seem a little arbitrary in view of the overall discontinuity of the release, but in as much as this is music which has no time for a lot of preconceptions, that might be an inherent part of the band's intentions. The opening is where the Brotzmann reference comes into its own, but before the piece is o…
Retrieval
Formed by Richard Chartier at music research centre, York University (York, UK). These works utilize original loops and recordings from 1990-1993 as source material.
Megafauna
Understand this: Yoga dispenses a sinister frailty of howling swellsin hissing static that combusts into crawling shock heaps, to the effectof Mayhem performing Twin Peaks incidentals in a prairie recordedby The KLF. A brief description casts them as black metal's answer to Throbbing Gristle. The texture-based rendering of their compositionssails them on a strange sea between song and sound effect as itbobs along the waves like a dead man s bottled message. Aspects ofGoblin rehearsals in dead hi…
Moondog
Debut album, originally released in 1956. The blind Kansas native showcases his talent for the minimal & avant-garde here, w/ compositions driven by percussion & Japanese-inspired melodies, complimented by street sounds, recitations, & animal noises. Bizarre even for today's standards, it's a wonder this was released over a half-century ago.
Marking Time
Originally released on CD in 2008 on the Preservation label, & now available on vinyl for the 1st time. Using a selection of bowed string instruments & lavishing these sustained howls w/ the most delicate of fingerpicked guitar & gentle piano, he takes us through a most harrowing journey. These short songs are deft & deeply touching musings on loss & on the importance of time. Comparisons could be made to plenty of Richard's modern-classical or avant-folk contemporaries, but few imbue their musi…
Neue Rungholter Tänze
'Published September 2010 by Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien, Hamburg in an edition of 500 numbered copies with an insert. New treatments and adaptations of the musical heritage of Mechthild von Leuszch as final part of the Rungholt dance trilogy, executed & presented by Werkbund.' label info
Patience
LP version with free downloadable MP3s. Patience is both appropriate and inappropriate as a title for the latest release by The Dead C. Inappropriate because its been only two years since the last album, which in Dead C Time is but the flicker of a candle; appropriate since the key to enjoying the Dead C is willingness to sit down, listen and let the music take over your mind. With an unforgiving and intense four tracks, Patience will not be confused with the work of any other band.' label info
Espoo
Vladislav Delay's EP Espoo features two conceptual, rhythm-intense tracks. Whereas the groove of the opener "Olari" derives from a sound loop which is manipulated by filters and echoes, the reverse is done with "Kolari." Starting from an impulsive, staccato beat, a sound carpet is woven by means of modifiers which gradually shape a permanent melody, close to Terry Riley's minimalistic concepts. Both tracks share a linear increase in density, and because of their break with the common four…
Plague Of Fantasies
Brand new solo material from Aidan Baker, one of the most prolific musicians recording at the moment, Aidan creates such a wide array of musical sound its hard to keep track, not only does he perform as part of the fantastic Nadja, as well as in projects such as ARC, and collaborating with other luminaries such as Tim Hecker, he releases a whole host of solo material. This new solo record is really something, pulling together all the genres he works in, fusing heavy drones, with broken drums bea…
Sacred & Profane Love
We haven’t made any secret of our love for Estonian Producer Maria Minerva, and this latest offering for 100% Silk might just be her finest yet. She’s had to bat off plenty of comparisons with Nite Jewel, Glass Candy and others from the nu-disco set, and this collection of six tracks should be where those comparisons end. Here Minerva explores a wider range of dancefloor styles, beginning with woozy late night Chicago gloom on ‘A Love So Strong’ with its detuned vocal hook and punchy bas…