Bird People – ‘Lahn Sunset Drone’ CS
Formed in 2010 by multi-instrumentalist Uli Rois, Austrria’s Bird People have explored the power of the drone through a variety of music styles. Since 2015, Bird People have operated as a collective, with a varying cast of players and collaborators; centred around acoustic drone sounds and psych folk, taking an aural trip along similar paths as Woven Skull. Their latest release was recorded on the “Constellations” tour during the summer of 2015 and is the full performance from Marburg, Germany. Although stripped to just a core trio, the instrumentation used is staggering: banjo, singing saw, recorder, bells, bowls, harmonicas, shruti box, cello, fiddle, gong; hypnotic interweaving sounds through the windmills of your mind. Limited to 40 copies world-wide, with artwork by Nik Hb and design by James Watts.
CN067: Posset/Yokonono CS
Experimental soundclash!! On one side, we have Newcastle’s Posset. A veteran of the genre, Mr Joe Murray pulls no punches with 5 tracks of lo-fi abstract improvisation via the medium of dictaphone, guitar, soft mouth parts and gonk poetry. And on the flip side, we have Sheffield’s Yokonono, pummeling the senses with a single track of evolving compelling engaging drone; working the field that the likes of Culver harvest. Distorted imagery by James Watts. Limited to 35 copies.
CN065: Mirrored Lips – ‘MOM’ CS
In their own words, Mirrored Lips is an aquarium where the three of them — Lusya, Ksusha and Sasha — are swimming. If you were to dive in, you would hear an overloaded mic transmitting poetry accompanied by the relentless roar of Russian backline. The band sees and expresses itself best through improvisation and was intended to be a free-jazz studio project. In my words, Mirrored Lips could lazily be tagged as “riot grrrl”; and whilst the tracks do carry an air of garage punky menace, to me they echo the experimentation of post-punk bands such as late-period Slits, The Raincoats and maybe a touch of the Au Pairs. Their first physical format release out of their native Russia, this is super limited to 30 copies only. Look out for them on their first UK tour, planned for early 2017.