Category Archives: UPDATE

USURPER – ‘What Time Is It? 1000 Bux.’ LP £15
Usurper hit their 10 year anniversary this year, and to celebrate they went into a studio and dropped a ton of money on this brand new recording for Blackest Rainbow. Personally these two lads are probably my favourite live act in the UK right now. NME recently amended their decision to name the Stones as best live band to Usurper also, so there you go, the music industry has spoken. ‘1000 Bux’ is one hell of a record, Duff and Robertson continue to venture to new levels of the scrape and scratch genre that no one will see coming. There instruments are your everyday objects (maybe even junk). Expect to be confused, amused and probably even bemused. Edition of only 100 hand numbered copies. White sleeves with pasted on artwork on the front and back.

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BEARD CLOSET/PRIMATE PYRAMID – ‘Arachnidiscs Split Tapes Series Vol. 9’ C40 $7
C-40, pro-duped, gold shell, fur-covered cassette box, stamped edition of 40 // Toronto-based lovers, BEARD CLOSET and PRIMATE PYRAMID take sides to administer 40 minutes of essential Skullflower-esque doom-gaze guitar improvisations. White noise bliss. Harmonic reverberations. Avant post-rock drone. Ambient guitar experimentation. Hypnagogic feedback dreams. Just like love and life, at times harsh and dire, at times serene and wondrous.

PARTLI CLOUDI – ‘Two Moron Ever Nose’ CDr $8
pro-duped CD-R, hand assembled folder, number-stamped edition of 50 // From Canada’s far-left coast, a deep folkloric journey into the library of the transcendental mind. Twelve cuts of spoken word collages, tribal percussions and primal psychedelias. Hermetic librarian, Stephen Wolf (also of five-piece noise combo SUMMER AMP and avant improv trio NEW YAKI), returns in his solo form from a far too-long hiatus. This isn’t the bedroom cut-up of yester-year, this is cabin fever-induced hallucinations for the now. What will the future bring? Tomorrow never knows, but PARTLI CLOUDI is a window into the present state of world (un)conciousness.

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Wild Wild Ambient Boys – ‘We Don’t Rock’
Between 2009 and 2013 Wild Wild Ambient Boys secretly recorded their debut album “We Do not Rock”. The music on this album can best be described as Xerox Euphoria. Important influences are porcelain flamingos, Microsoft Office, David Hamilton and memories of horses in the late 60s. “We Don’t Rock” is released through Esc.rec. on November 20, and will be available both on CD and as a download. Wild Wild Ambient Boys are: Hidde van Schie and Jeroen S. Rozendaal. Both artists have released work on Esc.rec. before. Hidde van Schie (strings, vocals) is visual artist and musician. He founded The Marble Heart Club, a cooperation between 7 Rotterdam music groups for Oerol Festival 2012. Recently he released his debut-album as a singer-songwriter: The Mirror & The Razorblade / Dusty Diamond Eyes. Jeroen S. Rozendaal (electronics) is musician, writer and filmmaker. Since the early 90s he played in various bands: Room 101, De Vogels, The New Earth Group, The Minor Details en Hond & Wolf. A few months ago Esc.rec. released his first solo LP ‘At My Feet In The Ground’.

Mentz – ‘Lines’
Mentz is Stephan Raab, a jazz fanatic and music collector from the Netherlands making (small) musical collages for many years now. With roots in the early days of internet music (member of “tracker scene” groups like Tokyodawn Records and others), he developed a love for the limited possibilities of sample based music production. This concept is still the foundation for Mentz music. Building layers of found sound, recording other musicians and using these recordings as individual sample resources, he creates strange compositions with a unique warm sound. The Lines EP features four dreamy collages mostly produced and recorded in the summer before Mentz moved to Switzerland where he lives now. Main instrument on this EP is the trumpet played by Krisztián Ákos Muhari from Hungary, who studied at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague where he and Mentz became friends. Other musicians from earlier recording sessions featured on this EP are Wouter Suren (clarinet) and Bart Knol (rhodes).

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various artists – ‘Nurse with Wound fuer Arme‘ 20€
The four bands/projects featured on this multi volume compilation – Die Bundeslade (= Ark of the covenant), GRN, Muffbude, and Neros Tanzende Elektropäpste (= Nero’s dancing electro popes) – are part of the vibrant German industrial underground. Diverse in style and uncompromising, the music on the five CDRs contained in this sturdy folded box come at the mere price of just one “Nurse With Wound” CD. Hence the joke in German title. Each one is wrapped in a special cover with handmade art-work.

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SOFT TEMPLE II — ‘These Times Are The Ancient Times’ CS €7
The first artifact from a contemporary thrift store shaman Soft Temple II. An entity of flesh and blood and an entity of wires and circuits interweave to channel sounds from the beyond! Series of electronic incantations for T.E. Lawrence, Larry Young, Baba O’Riley and Tony Iommi’s detached fingertips! A journey through psychedelic lore — auditory relics of bygone eras smashed to pieces and crudely reassembled as deviant sound sculptures! Ancient music of today! Esoteric electronics, occult oscillations, synaesthetic synthesizers! These times are the ancient times! Edition of 50, white cassette tape, 44 mins, cover art on silver paper.

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Silk Dune – ‘Systemic Crevice’ C33
All sound and image by Eric Frye. Recorded 12.2012 – 08.2013 in real-time stereo, no overdubs. Compositions created using computer, Eventide Eclipse digital processor and hybrid analogue / digital modular synthesizer. Images created using digital image processing and synthesis. Recorded at Ascension, 4029 and Studio de Particelle Sonore. An Alternate Version of Apnée Statique was commissioned for Ben Vida’s “Metal Fatigue Music” and was presented at Audio Visual Arts in NYC on May 5, 2013. Professionally duplicated and imprinted CrO2 cassettes. Edition of 100 (silver ink on black shells). Professionally printed, full-color 4-panel covers. Download code included with each cassette.

Jaap Blonk – ‘Songs of Little Sleep’ C52
Compositions for voice, synthesizer and computer. Jaap Blonk (born 1953 in Woerden, Holland) is a self-taught composer, performer and poet. He went to university for mathematics and musicology but did not finish those studies. In the late 1970s he took up saxophone and started to compose music. A few years later he discovered his potential as a vocal performer, at first in reciting poetry and later on in improvisations and his own compositions. For almost two decades the voice was his main means for the discovery and development of new sounds. From around the year 2000 on Blonk started work with electronics, at first using samples of his own voice, then extending the field to include pure sound synthesis as well. He took a year off of performing in 2006. As a result, his renewed interest in mathematics made him start a research of the possibilities of algorithmic composition for the creation of music, visual animation and poetry. As a vocalist, Jaap Blonk is unique for his powerful stage presence and almost childlike freedom in improvisation, combined with a keen grasp of structure. He has performed around the world, on all continents. With the use of live electronics the scope and range of his concerts has acquired a considerable extension. Besides working as a soloist, he collaborated with many musicians and ensembles in the field of contemporary and improvised music, like Maja Ratkje, Mats Gustafsson, Joan La Barbara, The Ex, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and the Ebony Band. He premiered several compositions by the German composer Carola Bauckholt, including a piece for voice and orchestra. A solo voice piece was commissioned by the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2002. On several occasions he collaborated with visual computer artist Golan Levin. Blonk’s work for radio and television includes several commissioned radio plays. He also makes larger-scale drawings of his scores, which are being exhibited. Cover artwork realised by Jaap Blonk. Layout and design by Eric Frye. Professionally duplicated and imprinted CrO2 cassettes. Edition of 200 (silver ink on black shells). Professionally printed, full-color 4-panel covers.

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SAPPHIRE SLOWS – ‘ALLEGORIA’ LP
Tokyo siren’s debut delivers all the shadowy tone-bank nocturnes we’d hoped for, and then some. hopefully certain North Americans caught a live show during her recent whirlwind bi-coastal tour.

BEAT DETECTIVES – ‘MUSIC 2’ CS
Minneapolis acid trio rip it up and start again with their sophomore tape after a funked out debut on Moon Glyph earlier in the year.

PARADISE 100 – ‘THE LOIN KING’ 12″
Killer rubberized house designs from this continental drifter, equal parts slinky, swank, and swept back.

FAST TIMES – ‘BODYTALK’ CS
Raw debut by this fast riser, full of fried fidelities and shredded moods. Boombox gold.

CHERUSHII – ‘QUEEN OF CUPS’ 12″
Bay Area hardware lifer turns in her vinyl debut after years on the warehouse circuit, and fresh off a tour with Maria Minerva. Decadent, humanist house with a heartbeat.

PROFLIGATE – ‘CAN’T STOP SHAKING’ 12″
Noah Anthony’s industrial-techno guise continues to slay on his latest 12 inch single, this one on the Enfant Terrible label. Already sold out at source.

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CEDRIC DAMBRAIN – ‘Subjective Slave’ CD €13
Subjective Slave is the debut album by Cedric Dambrain. Moving away from his early work as a composer of music for instruments with live electronics, he delivers ten tracks of computer- generated material spanning a wide sonic palette, from anarchic electronics to surgical otoacoustic synthscapes (sounds emitted in the inner ear by a vibration of the cochlea). As the record’s title refers to human beings’ inclination to create themselves the conditions of their own alienation, the music oscillates between sound as (outer) phenomena and sound as (inner) experience, transforming the listener’s body into the space of the perception. Happening simultaneously inside and outside, the context of the listening becomes a place for self-knowledge and ecstasy. Mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering. Edition of 500 handnumbered copies. Packaged in a deep black foil bag, with a 15×15 cm printed visual featuring all the dark secrets your pareidolic visions may shape.

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Quttinirpaaq – ‘Let’s Hang Out’ LP $15
Syrup-thick bass runs amok. Messy, scratching and screeching effects cut across fuzzed-out space noise. The bash-your-brains-in pounding of the drums rounds things off. Ugly, painful, whacked-out sludge, sure, but this is Quttinirpaaq’s second full length album this year, so it’s gotta go further (and it does). Pounding, minimal hypno-riffs extend past the horizon, shards of guitar feedback fall in and out of the landscape, spiky electronics fizz and pop like a mellotron buried under a mound of Popul Vuh records. Clear vinyl with red splatters. Color insert. Edition of 300.

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various artists – ‘For Tom Carter’
Deserted Village are delighted to announce the release of this epic, 99 track, download compilation “For Tom Carter” curated by David Colohan and Gavin Prior. 100% of the proceeds from this release will go towards Tom Carter’s medical bills. In June 2012 Tom fell ill with pneumonia while on tour in Germany with Charalambides. He had to cancel the rest of the tour as well as spend several weeks in hospital and several months convalescing upon his return to the USA. Christina Carter, his partner in Charalambides, set up the Robert Thomas Carter Irrevocable Trust to provide for his medical costs. Tom has recovered well and has returned to touring and recording. However he still faces huge medical bills even after the outpouring of support from around the world and the success of last year’s compilation organized by the trust. For Tom Carter” is first and foremost the result of the generosity of our favourite musicians around the world. It’s also the product of 10 years of releasing music, tape-trading, touring, record collecting, promoting shows and having many of our musical heroes sleeping on our couches including Tom himself. Deserted Village has been online for 10 years now and we have made our entire catalogue available as (mostly free) downloads to mark the occasion. As well as names from the underground little-known outside of Ireland, we’ve called on friends made on our travels from Korea to California, Australia to Norway and many places in between. Closer to home, Richard Youngs and Valerio Cosi were happy to send us exclusive tracks. Of course Tom’s native land is well represented by fellow travellers in exploratory music including Sunburned Hand Of The Man, MV & EE, Bobb Trimble, Stone Breath, Heather Leigh and Marissa Nadler. You will hear fierce free jazz, drone, traditional folk, noise, sacred harp singing as well as music not fitting any of these catagories. The diversity of styles on this compilation, shows the futility of trying to pigenhole the fertile global underground into genres and how people working in such disparate areas have been inspired by Tom Carter’s music. Tom Carter is best known for his work with Charalambides, which he co-founded with Christina Carter in 1991 but has recently been focusing on his duo with No Neck Blues Band co-founder Pat Murano; Sarin Smoke, his duo with Pete Swanson; and his solo performances and recordings. For more information visit helptomcarter.org.

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