Category Archives: UPDATE

Teflon Beast

Geoff – ‘Beginning Becomes the End (EP)’
geoffTBR22: The Teflon Beast collective’s latest release is a digital only companion to Geoff’s Dirty Pillows Records 7 inch lathe-cut single “Liberated Atheist” titled Beginning Becomes the End. The EP is a 3-part improvisation that is dreamier in sound than the more guitar-aggressive “Liberated Atheist,” but was recorded during the same three days in November 2013 that produced the lathe-cut single. The piece is based around Chris Daily’s electric piano playing and Geoff’s electric primitive philosophy. The instrumentation inspired both musicians to venture into the farthest reaches psychedelic space.

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Ephem-Aural

Gods on Safari – ‘Abjuration of the Realm/▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯’ split C60
GodsonthA split of two albums created by Bronx, New York electronic musician Keenan Houser. Influenced by a variety of traditional genres worldwide, song structures are formed around specific selections of orchestral arrangements improvising with unpredictable rhythms and a frenzied storm of electronic and virtual instruments.

||:temor:|| – ‘Bilabial Jabiru’ C60
TemorthWithin the album’s hour long run time, which emphasizes psychedelic indifference to the ever-sensitive passing of time, the listener can expect to graze through ambient sample-lathed relaxation, extract new-found definition in the likes of broken beat hip-hop, and then be left to contemplate the fabric of sound before being jarred out of that meditative cycle. Inspired by the history of recording (from the dusty reaches of Smithsonian archives, to laser-guided machine style consistency of “four-on-the-floor”) ll:temor:ll embraces the challenges and limitations that come with working with both tape and digital recorders, professional and plastic toy microphones, and found or produced samples.

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High School Romance

(HSR-021) Afternoon Nap s/t CS
Afternoon Nap_digital_100pxTake a nap. A 10 minute sound art piece made up of looping lo-fi samples and a summer afternoon field recording. Available as digital download and cassette.

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Not Not Fun

MARIA MINERVA – ‘HISTRIONIC’ CD/LP
tallinn royalty lays down her latest galaxy of mirrored electron pop, and it’s also her best ever.

SKEPPET – ‘PHASE 3’ LP
secret swedish psych legends finally issue a debut after a trail of overlooked EPs. lush cosmic music from the heart of the sky.

I IM EYE MY – ‘7 TRANSMISSIONS’ CS
cool new philly duo explore various psychedelic dimensions in unpredictable ways.

LX SWEAT – ‘SWEAT SWEAT SWEAT’ CS
german steamroom champion’s debut comes around for a partial-repress, with new artwork.

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I Had An Accident

VAllEY – ‘VAllEY’ C26 $6
valleysmallVAllEY was recorded in the English countryside by James P Honey and FRKSE. The album is an honest and simple portrayal of minimal instrumentation and vocalization. James P Honey’s signature voice and emoting poetry is unworldly. Something ethereal about the fragments and loops that are whispered across the valley as the instrumentation is constructed with gentle strokes by FRKSE. The delicate and dark layers to this album are very refined. VAllEY is beautiful. Featured on woven fabric j-cards hand cut and lavender hand-stamped cassettes limited to 150.

John E Cab – ‘Do What They Say’ C51
johnecabsmallSomewhere between the beats and the raps is this thread of jazzy rhythms. “Do What They Say” is the latest release from I Had An Accident Records and Us Natives featuring John E Cab – a 51 minute epic journey 7 years in the making. John E Cab, a prominent producer in the Philadelphia underground with recent tracks most notably with Planetary of AOTP and Burke the Jurke, is currently residing in Austin, Texas. Classically trained in violin at a young age, growing up surrounded by jazz and progressing into classic hip hop, “Do What They Say” outlines the talents, thoughts, and cohesiveness of Cab’s work. The process of writing the album circled around the death of Cab’s brother. Overcoming a troubled past and dealing with the loss, “Do What They Say” became an artistic reflection of life through a series of tragedies and setbacks. The jazz influence touches on lounge style for moments, the drums kiss the hiss of the cymbals on a laid back escape from the troubles of our mind. Limited to 80 smokey tinted cassettes.

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Dais

DAIS055 Harassor – ‘Into Unknown Depths’ LP $16
IUD_FRONT_coverV3Unrelenting raw black metal fused with punishing death-laced thrash punk, L.A.’s hate fueled trio Harassor drop their newest statement of destruction and apocalypse on Dais Records with Into Unknown Depths. For the past 10 years, the band’s output has seen releases on Husk, Nostilevo and their own Rising Beast and Universal Consciousness imprints, which lead to the bands arrival on the Southern Lord’s lauded 2011 compilation The Power of the Riff. Singer Pete Majors blood splattered live performances use black metal tradition but appropriate the bleak landscapes of their own creation to recognize their hellish, bleak dismissal of the human race. Drummer Sandor GF (a.k.a Lord Time) alongside guitarist James “Roach” Brown III (a.k.a. the infamous Lord Foul / Moonknight) pull together a demonic metal assault of unholy blasphemy and sinister hostility. Subversive as it is demonic, Into Unknown Depths reeks of true underground blackened hate. Limited to 300 copies. (50 on Dirty Snow Vinyl, 250 on Black vinyl).

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The Lows and the Highs

Ian Watson/Stuart Chalmers – ‘Good Is A Lobster’
1-2014-05-11 13.05.12Entitled ‘Good is a Lobster’ following an e-mail correspondence typo we begin with Ian Watson’s half of the split. 4 tracks of electronics that hover between the organic and the machinic. For example, there are moments that conjure both insect swarms and TV static. Not some electronics that sound like an insect swarm or some white noise shaped to resemble static from a TV after falling asleep watching VHS horror movies. Rather it’s as if there is some subterranean heart that beats in both insect swarms and TV static and Ian gets right into evoking this. That’s possibly a fancy way of explaining something. Rather Ian has been building his own electronics and whittling down his selection of equipment to achieve intense focus in the sonic qualities he’s improvising with. Here we have a great example of an intensely focused yet generously warm practice committed to tape. Next up we have Stuart Chalmers who shares a similar commitment and focus to Watson but this time in improvising with cassettes and electronic manipulations. My first encounter with Stuart’s work was with ‘Myths and Beasts’ (which we released 2 years ago and there’s still a couple of copies left if anyone wants). His subsequent releases have been increasing in focus with more room for quiet and contemplation. 9 of his tracks presented here are named ‘haiku’ and it fits. Maybe it’s a case of a title imposing something upon one’s response but I imagine Japanese Art-House background noises and Shinto rituals. The final track is an epic, blissfully ecstatic, crescendo of drones and voices – worth the admission price by itself. It’s available either digitally for £3 or as a cassette with download for £5 or get in touch for trades etc.

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Fragment Factory

RUDOLF EB.ER/JOKE LANZ/GX JUPITTER-LARSEN/MIKE DANDO – ‘Wellenfeld’ CD
wf psi300 copies. The grande finale of ‘Extreme Rituals – A Schimpfluch Carnival’ held at Arnolfini, Bristol UK on December 2nd 2012. In memory of Urs Schwaller. Four leading figures of the international Noise circus team up for a unique performance, solely based on their brainwave activity. Each performer is wearing a wireless electroencephalograph (EEG) headset. The EEG signals sent from the stage are received by sound­engineers, transformed from data into sound and processed to emerge through eight speakers surrounding the audience. The performance took place without prior tests or rehearsals. The performer develops and gains control over his own brainwave patterns during the performance, by listening to the sonic results of his mental activity. By changing electric impulses of the brain during meditative and ecstatic trance, the performer begins to sculpt the sound through the mind alone. 4-panel digipak, edition of 300

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Cruel Nature

Valerio Orlandini – ‘Luci Accese alle Soglie del Mattino’ C35 £5
CN21An immense two part dark ambient work from the Italian composer. Hypnotic and brooding, it takes you on an evolving journey from minimalist psychedelia via plunging bass heavy chasms. Recorded on a high quality bright yellow cassette with multi-panelled full colour gatefold inner sleeve. Limited to 20 copies.

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Beartown

CLAUS POULSEN – ‘FLAT WORLD’ C30
cptapesmallOne half of STAR TURBINE and the whole entirety of himself, Claus Poulsen presents 3 live pieces recorded in the UK and Denmark. Side A features 15 minutes culled from a derranged late night, ‘straight from the airport set’, while side B is a hack ‘n’ slash job featuring racket generated at both Electric Knife Records, London and Skrat Studio, Copenhagen. Field recordings, processed dribbling, violin bow abuse and whistling filters. Intense textural investigations from the man who controls vermin with HNWs for fun – but not today. Edition of 43 tapes with full-colour ‘trans-human’ cover by CWB with Cheshire Plains on-tape stickers.

STUART CHALMERS – ‘IMAGINARY MUSICKS VOL.1’ C35
sctapesmallCHALMERS CHALMERS CHALMERS. This noodling sonic tourist has coalesced and conjured 35 minutes of expansive/expanding atmo-collage, for the soothing of the tired mind. Flattened drumming, distant wailing and shining synthesis intertwindle together in ecstatic glory – meditation creation. Wandering flutes and meandering loops swirl and swell during 35 minutes of enchanting audio cartography – we be map-making with sound, ain’t no doubt. One for fans of sunken huts in the northern Wirrel or just a bloody good hypno-rave by the abandoned Kwik Save – 3lbs on the door. Edition of 45 tapes in clear(ish) grey with brain melting on-tape stickers and austere brown papier (paper) inserts.

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