New Arrivals
Overloaded Ark
A sequel to last year's eponymous debut as a duo, this new Drag City LP from Espers cellist Helena Espvall and Ghost's Masaki Batoh delves even deeper into traditional and ancient musics, making use of an armoury of instruments that extends beyond 'mildly obscure' (renaissance harp, sho, hurdy gurdy, etc) and enters into the realm of 'are you sure you haven't just made that up?' (auschpfeife, crumhorn, cornamuse, rig and darbuka). On hand to assist in this piece of instrumental archeology is anc…
Dance of the vampires
"Roman Polanski’s 1967 film ‘Dance Of The Vampires’ (as it was originally called, but more widely known by its re-named title ‘The Fearless Vampire Killers’, or ‘Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are In My Neck’) is a camp horror cult classic. At the time the film was marketed as a ‘farce’, which overlooked the fact that this film is fantastically eerie. The major part played by the soundtrack in giving the film this effect cannot be understated, and the cold-as-snow production did much to enhance the b…
No Input Mixing Board #8
Toshimaru Nakamura returns with another outstanding full-length of no-input mixer improvisations. Hello, Dear…ah, anyone who takes this up in front of your eyes and ears. Here’s my new (in 2013) solo album. I hope you find it worthy enough to take your time and have a listen. It was recorded in one day. Compared to my previous releases, “Maruto” on Erstwhile Records (2 years to produce), “Egrets” on Samadhisound (5 years), it came to life quite quickly. Almost like it popped out. But it took thr…
Raudive Bunker Experiment
Double LP version: Reissue of the rare LP from 1982 and additional material from various tapes of that period. Includes two long Industrial tracks in the way of Throbbing Gristle and 22 tracks of experimental minimal, comparable to early Cabaret Voltaire or Conrad Schnitzler.All composed and recorded in the early eighties by Andy Wilson, who also played with Bourbonese Qualk, released a book about german band "Faust" and nowadays plays under the name "Sunseastar" and "The Grand Erector". Limite…
Sous Juju
A collection of darkly shining northern diamonds, Sous juju is a two-CD compilation of the musical work of Kuupuu from her first releases in 2003 up to previously unreleased material from 2012. Kuupuu, known by her parents as Jonna Karanka, is a self-taught musician and visual artist from Finland who inhabits a semi-magical world where the mundane and the mysterious meet and make wonderful music together. Using tapes and loops, instruments both traditional and modern, Kuupuu's blend of low-tech …
Ill Fares The Land
**Digitalis debut from Koenraad Ecker, one half of Opal Tapes' Lumisokea, highly recommended if you're into Vainio, Joachim Nordwall, The Haxan Cloak. Initial copies on transparent red wax** Belgium's Koenraad Ecker swiftly follows his 'Apophenia' LP as part of the Lumisokea duo for Opal Tapes with a personalised invitation to his shadowy solo zones for Digitalis. Inhabiting space between slow techno and electro-acoustic dimensions, 'Ill Fares The Land' surveys similar soundscapes to Mika…
An extended meaning for something meaningless
Francisco Meirino's An extended meaning for something meaningless uncovers deep hidden contexts from the decaying fringe of the auditory spectrum. Here we find ornate beauty in the subtle demise of electronic systems and explore the arcane apprehension of existential degeneration. The recording looks at how to create something out of almost nothing-basic field recordings, static electronics and failed tape experiments. A 16-channel multi-track piece where reel-to-reel tapes juxtaposition with mo…
Expressions East
Exact repro edition of this LP, originally issued in 1964. This is the limited edition colored vinyl version. "John Berberian is considered to be one of the finest oud virtuosos in the world. He has been featured in numerous concerts and dances throughout the United States, Canada, and South America. John is known for a series of successful Armenian and Middle Eastern recordings and has recorded with such major companies as: MGM, RCA, Roulette, Verve and Mainstream Records. Expressions Eas…
Eye of the microphone
A somewhat surreal audio rendition of the sounds of The City of London. BJ Nilsen (b,1975 Sweden) is a sound and recording artist. His work is based on the sound of nature and its effect on humans. Heprimarily uses fieldrecordings and electronic composition as a working method. He has worked for film, television, theatre, dance and as sound designer. Track notes: In 2012 I received a scholarship from the Leverhulme Trust for a one-year Artist in Residency at the UCL Urban Laboratory in London, …
Graft
Graft is an album by Japanese noise master Masami Akita aka Merzbow. This LP album is pressed on lime-green vinyl in a "bootleg"-style sleeve and sealed with a sticker. Limited to 300 regular copies. According to the Merzbow blog, the design was inspired by a '70s Jethro Tull bootleg called My God, and the recording was inspired by the plant illustrations in the Voynich manuscript. Recorded in November 2009 at Munemi House, Tokyo.
Burning Off Impurities
Following soon after the critically praised Black Tar Prophecies collection on Important Records, Portland, Oregon's Grails return with their first proper studio album since 2004 release of Redlight. Burning Off Impurities - their debut for Temporary Residence Ltd. - makes good on the promise of those past releases in delivering an album that not only thrusts the group to new heights, but also significantly pushes the instrumental rock genre forward for the first time in nearly a decade. An incr…
White Metal
“White Metal” is a new piece by Michael Pisaro, realised by the composer and Miguel Prado. “When I first heard that Michael was thinking of working on a project with the name “White Metal”, I contacted him, excited to know more about it. At first we talked about general aspects of the piece, without knowing the route it would take, beyond a couple of conceptual premises. At some point, Michael suggested that this project be included in his “Grey Series” a series of noise-oriented scores he was …
Elegy For Rusted Souls
After their last release from 1982, the seminal "California Babylon", San Francisco industrial pioneers Factrix are back with a new studio album, recorded together with Italian duo Control Unit (whose critically acclaimed debut "The Fugitives" was released on Backwards last year). The quartet formed by Bond Bergland, Cole Palme, Silvia Kastel and Ninni Morgia moulds a new language of industrial music with guitars, bass and electronics, resulting in a fusion of acoustic and electric elements, pri…
Yird Muin Starn
A sonic map of the artwork and cosmos, Yird Muin Starn is at once funny, moving and informative, surging from singing to hymnal pockets of throbbing space where scale is both tiny and boundless'. The third element in their new public artwork 'Yird Muin Starn' (old Scots for Earth Moon Star) this album of cosmological songs and sonified constellations is Matthews McIntosh second space related release. Composed and engineered by Matthews from field recordings gathered all over the Galloway f…
Penpals Forever And Ever
Expanding Erik Skodvin's extremely limited 2008 cassette edition Penpals Forever, this vinyl release remasters the original content and adds a whole extra side's worth of new material, all of which is exclusive to the LP. You wouldn't necessarily discern this straight away from the Deaf Center member's elusive and teasingly enigmatic music, but apparently 'Penpals Forever And Ever' is an "imaginary tale of a long dead baroque painter and his telekinetic correspondence with a flightless b…
Christmas Soli
Remastered edition: John Fahey has made a habit of recording a new album of Christmas music every five or six years, but The New Possibility, which was originally released in 1968, is still his best. One of the best and most influential acoustic guitarists of his generation, John Fahey's music fused past and present, borrowing from the traditions of blues and folk music and filtering them through a modern musical viewpoint. Some of Fahey's most striking (and most popular) work appeared on a seri…
Wild temple
New studio album recorded by Rafal Iwanski and Rafal Kolacki with special guest Slawomir Ciesielski - great percussionist and drummer of legendary Polish rock band Republika (in 80. Republika was one of the most original European bands - thanks to their specific antimainstream rock & roll songs, with new wave-inspired music and lyrics). HATI forms a link between a personal interest in modern improvised and acoustic music with ritual and meditation. They worked together in 2010 on several tracks …
Vignettes
This is an album based on the beauty of the electric guitar sound. The pure sound of the electric guitar (mainly “clean” or sometimes get a little bit “dirty” with the fuzz pedal) evokes memories, images, emotions. The harmonics, simple chords, arpeggios, single sustained notes of Sergio Sorrentino’s guitar formed the starting point of the creation of each track. Sergio recorded ideas, sketches and improvisations, which were then further processed by Machinefabriek. Mainly using the sounds of Se…
Comme A La Radio
Sensational reissue!!! In 1969, a French chanteuse, an Algerian multi-instrumentalist, and a Chicago jazz quartet undertook an experimental, exploratory, revolutionary musical voyage; a redrawing of musical parameters that, to this day, stands as a glittering beacon, glowing in the dark abyss of 'out' music. Featuring Areski Belkacem and Aart Ensemble of Chicago, Comme a la Radio is the sophomore album in Brigitte Fontaine's prolific career. Four decades on, and Comme à la Radio still sounds…
Effigy
Shipping by the next week: MIE Records are unbelievably honoured to be releasing Effigy by Pelt this October 29, the first album recorded since 2007 by the acoustic-only droners. Recorded live in June 2011 in an old yoga studio in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin and a decommissioned synagogue called the Gates of Heaven in nearby Madison, the band have laid down their most accomplished and fully realised work to date. Epic in every sense of the word, Effigy is a sprawling journey through their singular pl…