Category Archives: UPDATE

II028 – softest – ‘music for rain: volume one’ c42
Sound reflections for a rainy day, or a day when you want some rain.

II027 – Ki Oni – ‘Autumn, In Reel Time’ c52
Colors abounding. delightful warming against the brisk breeze and maple leaves.

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German Army – ‘Social Catalyst’ C30 6€(EU)/7€(World)
In the desert the sun has no pity. Everything melts. The asphalt. The sounds. Your head. Edition of 50 copies.

Kot Kot – ‘кунь’ C40 6€(EU)/7€(World)
Somewhere in Karelia fairies found a tape of music. A little magic won’t hurt anyone, but things may get a weird. Edition of 50 copies.

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(kimdawn061) Sparkling Wide Pressure – ‘Manifestation of Magi’ CDr
Meditations on dream imagery, personal icons, and sonic texture. This feels very personal and raw to me, not unlike the very first SWP album Some Triggers. It’s something in the underlying intention behind these songs. There are reference points in my mind that I’m hitting each time I get lost in these pieces -something that gets clearer with each listen. The packaging is adapted from a recent painting of mine titled Magical Girl. Edition of 50.

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DAIS057 Maurizio Bianchi – ‘Amentest’ 7″
Limited 300. The late 70′s rejection of punk and rock-oriented music within select underground subcultures was signified by the works of of bands like Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire and Whitehouse. Using their network of record labels and propaganda, these like-minded noise makers created a sound and aesthetic that is known far and wide as something quite English. But in Italy, a storm was slowly brewing in the works of a lone composer by the name of Maurizio Bianchi. Starting in 1979, Bianchi formed his earliest sketches of abstract loop composition under the pseudonym Sacher-Pelz. After only a few months, he felt it was time to start producing more conceptual works under his given name, sometimes shortening his authorship to only MB. The following years saw some of industrial and ambient music’s most genre defining works. Rumors surrounded a series of mischievous unauthorized releases only to be contradicted by his humble and earnest willingness to collaborate with other like minded composers coincidentally followed up by his ominous “disappearance” from music during the late 80′s / early 90′s. His various comebacks always showed MB to be the master of his own device who undoubtedly influenced and inspired thousands of musicians, artists and composers with his creative output. Most recently, MB has been reflective on his 35 year history in music and the impact he has had on it. His recent works show MB as undoubtedly reflective yet remaining persistently original. Amentest is Bianchi’s most recent work employing the 7” single format, a medium that MB has only dabbled in briefly. Keeping his abrasive rhythmic sounds, beautiful use of delay patterns and selective subject matters at hand, MB’s genius still shows that he is as relevant today as he was back when he was quietly manufacturing his echoed sound sculptures in the foothills of Italy in 1979. Limited to 300 copies. Edited by Kris Lapke (Alberich) with artwork by Ryan Martin (York Factory Complaint / Dais).

DAIS056 Sissy Spacek – ‘Lead Their Exit’ 7″
Limited 300. On Xmas day in 1999, the channels of the noise canon received a new entry into its ranks by the name of Sissy Spacek. 15 years later, the outfit, held together by core members John Wiese & Charlie Mumma, has left a littered trail of damaged recordings and countless performances in its wake. Known for it’s cult output and conceptual performances—each idea folding over the last to create havoc in the way that most would care to avoid, Sissy Spacek takes this all head on. Their newest 7” shows the band exploring song-based material (see also their live shows), employing it’s newest member Sara Taylor to provide vocal accompaniment to their special brand of furious destruction. To those familiar with their previous works on PPM, Chondritic Sound, Gilgongo or Wiese’s own Helicopter imprint, one will instantly welcome their signature hybrid of grindcore blasts and avant-garde sensibility and remain captured by the band’s semblance of leftfield song writing. Limited to 300 copies.

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PURR 0044: Greg Manata – ‘Washing’
Limitless and endless space, I wait patiently at the stream. Equipped to move on to the next world gushing life from the source.

PURR 0045: Rose – ‘Deliverance’
Strips of land with a tilted pitch of highland wonder. It took all our strength to travel the circle; a pit of sooty-stars left hanging in the darkness.

PURR 0046: Ashan – ‘Breathknow’
Bursting forward, take in your surroundings – with its ancient patterns and motion-carrying spins of every possible shape and color. Experience knowledge through time.

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Jackie McDowell – ‘Baptisia’ LP $15
Jackie McDowell’s music exists outside of the normal spectrum of time and space. She is at once an enchantress a thousand years old, a quiet, psychic child of four singing in the shadows, and a lucid dreamer. Releasing music since 2009 as Inez Lightfoot and in the projects Sun Cycles and WaterFinder, her work has continued to transverse the sphere of the mysterious unknown, but now emerges with a new voice that is immediately spellbinding. Luscious organ and vocals emerge from the darkness. Birds, beautifully weird drones, and abstract sounds gently unfold and carry us to the light. She eases us in so that our eyes aren’t too stunned by her bright, transfixing voice. It’s no surprise that Jackie is a practicing Herbalist; her music concocts a similar alchemy. Quietly humble and imaginative, she is nestled in Pittsburgh, but originally she hails from rural Illinois. As a child-loner with wild ideas and visions, she found in folk music and nature an alluring companion, and so she planted her roots. She is well versed in American folk music, and like the hues in a vintage color photo, her favorites such as Sandy Denny, Linda Perhacs, and Bridget St. John color her songs. Jackie’s powers are medicinal, ancient, and ever new. She travels where very few are allowed; We just happen to be carried on her wings, and so we arrive safely to this astonishing, esoteric plane.

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Jackie-O Motherfucker/Tom Carter + Helena Espvall – ‘Hopland’ split LP
Pome Pome Tones – LP release number two – now available ! its a lovely split with new exclusive tracks: Tom Carter (of Charalambides) and Helena Espvall (of Espers) duo on one side… and the 2014 version of Jackie-O Motherfucker on the other side. SPLIT (aka Hopland) is released in Europe on Ruralfaune and in the USA on Pome Pome Tones. 200 copies total, only 30 of those are in the USA.

Jackie-O Motherfucker – ‘Europe ’14’ CDr
originally a CD-R with hand-drawn crayon covers sold only at European JOMF shows in April and May 2014 — now a high quality download, suckers. over 60 minutes of new shite.

Avarus – ‘Salon des Amateurs’ LP $5
Masters of Finnish fumble. Pome Pome Tones LP release number one.

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Make-Overs EP
Pretoria, South Africa’s psych-punk two-piece were kind enough to donate an EP’s worth of material to Heligator. And what an EP it is. These four tracks seethe with a sense of dread and dissatisfaction, writhing in vitriol and righteous indignation. They are also big, bombastic rock songs that sound as if they were coming up through the cement from a sweaty basement show. Make-Overs recreate this kind of adjacent intensity, moth-to-flame draw by keeping the mix somewhere in between fidelities. This is the kind of punk I knew was happening somewhere in South Africa when I traveled through there. Make-Overs lay it on thick with a minimalist approach to rhythm and melody, piling on tons of reverb and a spooked vocals creating an irresistible mix of punk, blues and kraut-inspired psych for international consumption. As this is Heligator’s first international release, it is fitting that it comes from Pretoria, South Africa. Pretoria’s close proximity to the refugee camp in Swaziland brings it all back home a bit. All proceeds from your purchase directly to the continued maintence and existence of the Malindza Refugee Camp library in Mpaka, Swaziland.

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Mantile #027 – Culver – ‘Prophecy Of The Black Spider’ CS £5

Mantile #026 – Stephen Cornford – ‘SWF’ CS £5
Unprocessed stereo recordings of shortwave interference. #foundhnw

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Benjamin Finger – ‘The Bet’ LP
Sometimes you find a secret door in your house. It is usually behind the bookcase or under the Persian rug. That is where these types of doors like to live. You have to find the hidden lever or sometimes you have to pull just the right book out of that bookcase… Sometimes when you are traveling in the web of underground secret passages in your house, there are windows. Each window reveals a glimpse of some strange story in a loop—to be repeated again and again. You stare blankly for a minute, and then continue down the hallway of windows, realizing each window—no matter how absurd the image—makes for an epiphany of meaning. Only blurred, amorphous, dusty. Norway’s Frank Benjamin Finger’s music is a bit like when you finally find that secret door in your house. His extremely elegant and classical approach to collage and modern composition takes you on a journey through a secret passageway of windows. Unintelligible voices stroke your face. Like lucid dreaming—or perhaps even what it is like in waking life—it can be whatever you want it to be. Watery Starve Press’s first vinyl release, The Bet, is yet another profound and enigmatic work by Finger. As ever, Finger composes careful meditations, deeply influenced by classical themes, musique concrète, the oceans, the clouds, whispers and wintry forest creatures. These compositions, in particular, seem to be breathing exercises. Although blissful at times, there is an eeriness that never escapes, suggesting the darker landscapes of a beautiful dream. Another must-have gorgeous release by Finger, seemingly for the persons who want to remember how to breathe. Or perhaps for the dead love ones in distant, past lives. Sometimes we vaguely remember them and can make out their ghostly shapes. Music by Frank Benjamin Finger. Cello by Elling Finnanger Snofugl. Vocals on 1, 3, 8 by Inga-Lill Farstad and 6 by Lynn Fister. Black vinyl. Art on record cover by Christer Karlstad (front) and Lynn Fister (back, inner watercolor painted sleeve.) Mastered by James Plotkin. Edition of 333.

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