Category Archives: UPDATE

APE EXPLORER – ‘Family Hole’ C38 $8
Edition of 50. APE EXPLORER, of the association WORM FAM – AMBASSADOR and APOSTLE. We here present THE ARTEFACT; first physical vessel of the Ape, soundscape narrative embedded within cassette capsule of 38 minute length – some evoked vision – smoked fire hole, gathered hill-tribe with hallucination of past life, primal exploration. A journey of warped and twisted R&B experimentalism.

WEBSITE

GOD 17 Klaus Lang – ‘Organ Works Vol. 1’ LP
I put my music into the space. I don’t want to send any messages, I think of nothing and I don’t want to purport any meanings. The listeners hear what they hear and behave to the music as they feel. Austrian composer, Klaus Lang, describes himself as observer of tones. As stated himself, his roots belong to Gregorian tradition and his music definitely represents abstract way of perceiving it. Though abstraction (of form and content), he is interested in clarity and truth. His work includes pieces for various setups, but common term that can be used as description of Lang’s work is construction of time. Whether he composes stage works, big or small ensembles or solo instruments, the listener experience a huge space, filled with either wall of sound or sound blocks that varies in intensity and massiveness. Lang’s image is largely marked through his output for stage and his favourite instrument – organ, exploring entire spectrum of possible sounds, from hum to sine waves, therefore starts GODrec a series of releases with his organ music with two different aesthetic examples mentioned above. Massiveness is the best description for 17 symmetrien. A wall of sound, the piece explores the whole range of the instrument at the maximum power. To some extent, this is pure organ symphony – but someone would also define it as drone music too. The second piece, mars attacks. deals with punctuality and pointed tones with occasional sub layers, creating quite astonishing and scary mood of unpredictability.

WEBSITE

PigLust And The Jezter – ‘Tales From The Gazelle’ C30 £5
Pink C30 cassette. Three stories and one instrumental from the dark side. PigLust writes and narrates these astounding tales of excitement and horror whilst The Jezter weaves and spins an atmospheric collage of sounds. The result is a journey into a world of moon thieves, corrupt fair grounds, and vengeful animals. Available on Bandcamp as a “name your price” digital download or limited edition of 15 cassettes, hand dubbed and numbered.

WEBSITE

BRUTES – ‘SEX TAPE’ C12
Two lovely lads blast out ropes of velvet noise-rock-bastardcore ejaculate. Adrenaline bollock. Hurts your nerves. We flogged most of these at their last gig, at The Bunker, Deptford, although we didn’t catch them live. We had to go home. There’s about 8 copies left. Comes with pro-printed, felt tip, collage pleb artwork, dubbed on cardio-red, jam cassettes. 3 bar. Thunk it were eddish of 25.

TWILIT GROTTO – ‘HOLIDAY SNAP’ CS
The face in the wall is from the Museum of Dr Ghislain, an active psychiatric hospital and archive for the history of treatment of mental illness, located on the outskirts of Gent, Belgium. It is a cast of a former patient of the institute and there are several more casts dotted about the courtyard, displaying a variety of emotions. The museum also houses a collection of “outsider” art – including a huge, exquisite scale model of the entire grounds of another psychiatric hospital, carved by an inmate of said institution with nothing but a blunt potato knife for a tool. Heavy electronic excavations from Mr M.Shit, member of Trencher and, more recently, Palehorse. Edition of 30.

ROBERT RIDLEY-SHACKLETON – ‘THE BUTTERFLY FARM’ CS
Beartown is pleased to usher into existence a physical realisation of ROBERT RIDLEY-SHACKLETON’s BUTTERFLY FARM. Recordings of chattering blabbermouths, blabbering chatterboxes, chapped bladdermoles and slathering cockerhoops are spliced, layered, beamed in, and blown out. Robert is widely considered. Both sides of this tape have sounds recorded on them. Ritualistic radio squeel, bitch slap electro-bass (pronounced like the fish), and improvised piff-paff infiltrate all five “songs”, while side A is notable for its continual references to knackered cyberpets. Robert croons a bit aswell – firm. Complete with neon orange tapes, colour stickers and “blood on the sea urchin”-style artwork. Limited to 31 copies.

JON COLLIN – ‘CITIZEN KANE JUNIOR BLUES’ CS
Tramping down to the old mill, encumbered by borrowed office equipment and without shoes. JON COLLIN’s trance-hypno guitar explorations sweep away the mundane and reveal the uncanny. A fine tuning of reality through song and the soundtrack to the chip shop myths of western Essex. A certain stuttering symbolism is seen here in full bloom – defying definition and judgement, these masterful noodling are raw and unprocessed – a real tasty mirage. Bumped numb by potholes, and blown dry by a chilled north wind, the listener is lowered gently into a harmonious, warming embrace. One for fans of Fahey, Basho(s) or S.Bull, with big cases, and blurred artwork. Limited to 36 copies.

WEBSITE

Xiphiidae – ‘Pass Hidingly Seek’ LP and ‘Quaking Myth’ LP
Long-running solo project by Jeffry Astin. Label head honcho of everyone’s favorite underground cassette label Housecraft. His highly organic style, represented on over 40 releases, predominantly cassettes, defies all attempts at elementary categorisation, but indicates broad influences from modern and ethnic drone, tape music, musique concrète, kosmische and lo-fi, amongst others. Two selected recordings Pass Hidingly Seek (2009) and Quaking Myth (2010) finally get the proper issue on wax!

Tuluum Shimmering – ‘Ulau Tau/Spirit Of Sun’ LP
One of the most magical recordings you’ll hear this year is the first LP by Uk-based one-man trancedental-drone band Tuluum Shimmering. The sound of Tuluum Shimmering is like a sort of loop driven, timeless ethnic music without a region or a tradition. the recordings on the LP were made on a 4-track cassette recorder. On the A side there’s: homemade bamboo xylophone, homemade flute, acoustic guitar customised with buzz bridge, Roland digital piano, vietnamese gong, cymbal, rattle. On the B side: homemade tamboura, various flutes, Roland digital piano, hand drums, vocals, tibetan singing bowl, snake charmer, rattle, saxophone.

WEBSITE

LAKES – ‘Blood of the Grove’ LP
Fifth album by Lakes, aka Sean Bailey from Melbourne, Australia. Since 2002, Lakes has released a constant stream of 7-inch’s, cassettes, CD-r’s and LP’s cloaked in a thick mist of noise and lowfidelity. 2011’s Winter’s Blade pointed to a new direction and strength of production with a challenging take on bleak folk, medieval wanderings, and the darker side of post-punk. The newest Blood Of The Grove marks the squaring of the circle with ten brand new songs: simple yet evocative, direct but solemn. Think of Rose Clouds Of Holocaust-era Death In June covering Discharge’s Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing and you’ll get what we might call combat-folk aka how to match peace-punk impetuosity with post-industrial acoustic ballads. One long-awaited and well-deserved comeback, for fans of the classic sounds of Current 93 and Sol Invictus, as well as for those you dig the curt and martial ones by Joy Of Life and Above The Ruins, obviously without forgetting to mention the influence of the local heroes Strength Through Joy. Comes in total black look: black wax in black paper inner sleeves and pic sleeves printed in black on the inner side too.

KINIT HER – ‘The Poet & The Blue Flower’ LP
Through kaleidoscopic composition, constitution of voice, and timbral experimentation, Nathaniel Ritter and Troy Schafer continue to braid their string of works as Kinit Her. Their discography has grown strong over recent years with releases on such esteemed labels as Alt.Vinyl, Small Doses, Pesanta Urfolk, Reue um Reue, and now AVANT!; this repertoire has become a powerful force that is harmoniously reliable and unpredictable in theme, atmosphere, and trajectory. On The Poet & The Blue Flower, Schafer and Ritter endure in architecting a unique system of auditory mysticism. Falling in an undefinable territory of the post-industrial and neofolk landscapes with both strictly structured songlike fragments and more free-associative passages throughout its 8 tracks, this album features the exalted rhetoric that is Schafer’s stoic orchestral arrangements, Ritter’s tidal electronics and the continually evolving vocal deliveries of both men. Lyrically The Poet & The Blue Flower continues with Kinit Her’s recent bent of drawing on poetry from Germany’s early 20th Century post-romantic literary underground. With this record they drift slightly from Der Kosmikerkreis to the poems of literary and political philosopher Rudolf Pannwitz serving as their sole inspiration. Pannwitz’ poetry effortlessly escalates Kinit Her’s themes of the entanglement of Heaven, Earth, and those who believe to be dwelling in some intersection thereof. Visual accompaniment to Kinit Her’s music, as it was on the recent The Cavern Stanzas, has been graciously provided by the brush of Gianluca Martucci. Comes on grey vinyl in black paper inner sleeve, all housed in heavy full-color sleeve printed on the inner part too. Mastered by James Plotkin.

WEBSITE

DBA121 TURBINE – ‘Lherbuchsuite’ CS
Last year, the 90s Bay Area experimental rock act, rRope, saw their entire discography reissued. An effort that took them from obscurity to praise in everywhere from Pitchfork to WIRE. That is the past though. For the last two decades, rRope’s lead guitarist, Scott Thiessen, and David Barrett of the band VNC, have been tending to a garden of electronics and noise guitar known as Turbine. Their debut 12”, ‘Thanks Karen’ was the first release on Deathbomb Arc back in 2000. Since then, Turbine has remained fairly private with their intimate, romantic sounds. This new cassette, recorded in the summer of 2012, is a rare chance to hear some of the incredibly beautiful sounds being created by Turbine at their Brick Factory studio. Featuring Brian Kinsman (Foot Village, True Neutral) and Ricky Wayne Garrett (Inferno of Joy) on dueling drums, these special tracks have been picked just for you. Recorded by Scott Thiessen & David Barrett. Mastered by Weasel Walter.

DBA122 FAIRHORNS – ‘Satan Replicant’ CS
Matt Loveridge is a secret weapon. Recruited by Geoff Barrow (Portishead) as a founding member of both Beak> and Anika’s original backing band, and most recently brought in as a 5th member of the drum corp, Foot Village. Matt’s completely uninhibited performance style, combined with his truly savant level musicianship, has brought huge waves of creative renewal to the work of others. He has that unnamable spark. So when Matt goes rogue as Fairhorns, it is, as they say, “On another level.” With the latest Fairhorn album, ‘Satan Replicant’ (cassette on Deathbomb Arc this May), this is no exception. The follow-up to 2012’s ‘Doki Doki Run’ (on Invada), Matt dives in two directions at once. Deep, gritty, subterranean burners that also soar high above thanks to some truly (gasp) late 90s emo inspired vocal hooks. On “Nodens”, a staple of the Fairhorns live shows, a beautiful bit-crunched melody is given over to a sludge metal relentless repetition. While Matt’s work in Beak> shows its krautrock cards clearly, this sort of influence creates a more mysterious sound here. These are not genre exercises. This is Matt Loveridges unique statement to the world after many years of helping others with their own. Fairhorns has performed at All Tomorrows Parties in London, Mo’Fo’ Fest in Paris, and toured much of the UK and Europe.

WEBSITE

the One (family) – ‘the One (family)’ C40/CD $5/$7
“the One (family) are a fearlessly migrating force. A husband and wife team who attempt to combat complacency around every turn. Both members are multi-instrumentalists (and experienced producers) who utilize a wide range of acoustic and electronic instruments (including electric violin, analog synthesizers, guitars, percussion and homemade items)… The group blends their studio techniques with live performance, while focusing heavily on textures and dynamics… They are less concerned with genre than creating interesting and unique music. Identifying with the ethos of film-maker John Cassevetes (who allowed the spontaneity of improvisation to shape his works beyond what was initially conceived); the group’s objective is and has always been: to do what is necessary. (whatever that may sound like). Their new self-titled album (actually their 5th release) combines elements of all of their previous explorations, now focused with an ornate and compositionally progressive sound… Foreboding experimental passages give way to dense melodic rhythms (and vice versa), as they utilize every sound at their disposal (including the creaking floor…literally). The most obvious evolutionary tactic on this recording is the addition of lead female vocals by b.burroughs, which aids and desists tension at will. Her operatic vocal style meshes perfectly with the generally freeform nature of the group… One thing is certain with this release: the One (family)’s imprint has been clearly defined. (for now)”

WEBSITE 

1971.038 Shooting Guns – ‘Spectral Laundromat’ C50
We’ve been waiting a long time to make this one happen. If there’s one thing Saskatoon’s Shooting Guns can do well, it’s lay out thick slabs of heavy psych. Collecting 5 live tracks records from all over – pulled from a suitcase of recordings, Spectral Laundromat bridges the gap between their Polaris nominated Born to Deal in Magic: 1952-1976 and their upcoming John McBain produced Brotherhood of the Ram LP. Ed. of 75 w DL.

WEBSITE

Tortura Sistematika CD/LP
TORTURA SISTEMATIKA are remembered as the predecessors of the interesting band Bukaera and the very influential Ruido de Rabia. After several failed attempts, they had never received a retrospective that recovered their raw recordings to them as true pioneers of hardcore and extreme music in Spain. Now the label Truco Esparrago releases “Todos Somos Culpables: Live & Demo Collection 84-85”, a CD that contains most of the material of the legendary band from Gipuzkoa. The album contains four live recordings (Barcelona, San Sebastian, Barakaldo and Azkoitia) and the first three demos from 1984. A total of 82 tracks with remastered sound and a 8 pages booklet with texts, photos and lyrics. Furthermore, Truco Esparrago presents “The Demos: Tolosako Hardcore (84-85): Las Fosas Siguen Abiertas” a limited to 100 copies cassette which includes four demos of the band. Three of them appear on the CD (but here without the remastered sound), and also another demo of long duration (not included on CD). A total of 59 tracks, including lyrics and credits on a pro-tape with DIY presentation.

WEBSITE