Category Archives: UPDATE

II16 Ashan – ‘Ancient Forever’ C42
“Exploring the deep energies of the Earth, the hidden beings, and the magicks that bind us all.” Artwork by Sean Conrad. Mastered by Knowself.

II15 Kaliska/Ashan – ‘Completion’ DL
“Night to day and day to night.” Artwork by Braden J McKenna. Mastered by Max Rivers.

II14 Hear Hums – ‘Opens’ C48
“Hypnotic acoustic instrumentation, wordless choruses, thunderous drums, free, fun.” Artwork by Hear Hums and Forest Clay. Mastered by Jennifer Munson.

II13 Kaliska – ‘The Path We Make’ C44
“Walking a personal path, howling at the moon.” Artwork by Braden J McKenna. Mastered by Max Rivers.

II12 Ashan – ‘To Return To’ CD
“Much love and intention. All songs were inspired by the book Ashan: The Gentle Way. These songs serve as Guiding Messages for me, and perhaps others, to return to.” Artwork by Sean & Rosa. Mastered by Michael Biggs.

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‘MIRACLE OF LOVE‘ compilation C45
Be it the words and structure of an Angel Olsen, a Cough Cool, or a Lantern; the dense, foggy atmospherics of a Listening Mirror, a High Aura’d, a Merryl, or a William Cody Watson; the dream-like vibrations of a Villages or a Padang Food Tigers; or the otherworldly energy of a Difference Clouds, a Lee Noble, or Lazy Magnet… Bathetic Records artists have always carried a vibrance and spirit to carry them to the tippy top of their realm. Miracle Of Love is Bathetic’s offering of endearment to you, faithful follower; a display of our ever-growing love for you. 2012 is offering a warmth that’s helped us grow.

COUGH COOL – ‘Rarities Volume 1: 2009-2012’ C44
Cough Cool crept up in 2009, the solo work of the pro Dan Svizeny. He made some songs, some tapes bubbled and spun out from his lair, and we were lucky to compile a stew of hits from him, that became an early Bathetic fixture, Buy Some Dust — which remains, and will forever remain — a classic bedroom burner of mad decadence. Somewhere along the way, Dan teamed up with Jon P. Mack, to work up the infamous Nude Beach, which took a nose dive after their Facebook page became a beach resort for perverts and another band snatched their name. C’est la vie. Dan and Jon, unscathed, decided ‘fuck it’ and just took up the Cough Cool moniker for themselves. Once again, Bathetic was lucky enough to jettison their first piece of wax onto the world – a monstrous menagerie of absolute 90s cool by way of 2000’s grit. They became lackadaisical, surefire superstars, bent for lo-fi rock royalty. However in the 4 years running of the Cough Cool machine, there’s been some odd men out, and we proudly present that to you as Rarities: 2009-2012. A look back on the hits and misses (if you’d even call them that), the chunks that didn’t make it to a specific release. What you’re going to find are some very #rare gems. Most of this shit is just as priceless as the tracks that made it to tape spool and wax. In their own words: “Rarities 2009-2012 is comprised of songs Jon and I made in our apartment in Philadelphia and basement in New Hope, PA. Our music and lives are influenced heavily by hanging out and talking about shit, and all of the people we wish we could sound like. In doing that, we kind of fell way short of a lot of those influences and along the way, carved out some sort of home for ourselves.” Edition of 100.

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MS07- The Mayonnaise $4
This 1997 recording is exemplary of the MAKESHIFT vibe, with its numerous approaches in sound creation, recording techniques, moods, and ideas. Moods include dreaminess, eeriness, violence, madness. Surreal and trashy, yet calculated & composed art music created by fertile teenage minds in a small town where imagining what experimental music created on a 4 track cassette recorder would sound like brings such things into existence.

MS10- The air conditioners $4
The sequel to the mayonnaise. More experimental, perhaps… more yelling than on the Mayonnaise tape; more variations in sounds and effects and ideas. A semi-loose piling of instrumental mood-swinging madness. Some being very pretty-type songs with ambient leanings, some being extremely noisy wackiness, some being quasi-unnerving scariness, wordless expression singing, some being moderately humorous goof-isms, and some exercises in mood self-contradiction. Air conditioners tape is ok. Dog thinks so.

MS13- Light Bulbs – ‘Macrocephalics’ $4
Schizophrenic array of colors in sound. This is the second installment of Light Bulbs music. “macrocephaly” is a condition where the human head grows constantly. The first side of the tape is a well-fitting continuance of its predecessor’s ideology. A large variance of ideas, as usual with the MAKESHIFT creators. There’s a guy screaming into a barrel, there’s a weird french girl screaming about her dog, there’s big funky drums, there’s noisified spazzings, there’s piano, there’s wackjob nastyness, there’s an electricity buzz-o-rama, there’s sad pretties, and there’s a spoken word guy with a soda can slamming around too. That’s just the first side though; the other side has drawn-out meditation ghoulash. “Advancing macrocephaly” is 18 minutes length of music which, though done a few years before any of the members had heard the music of Glenn Branca, sounds maybe somewhat similar to some of his music. There are 3 other elongated quasi-ambient music segments comprising side 2. They taper off and waver through different feelings of isolation. More surprising levels of creative quality from the adolescent MAKESHIFT minds.

MS16- Light Bulbs $4
Variation of experimentations from acoustic sweetyness, warm piano, noisy and non-noisy art-guitar, polyrhythmic drum overdubs, to a little man yelling “michael!!” from under a toadstool surf.

MS19- Kinetic Dog Hallucinations DL
A collection of Makeshift’s first 4 years, highlighting some of the standouts. Sound collages, relaxing tunes, and psychotic, rhythmic beauty.

MS23- Shivers $4
This music invokes an introspective mellowness. This ambience is partly created by the deliberate absence of electric instruments; a self-imposed challenge to the creator. Acoustic guitar, a very old zither, bells, broken cymbals, trash bags full of crushed cans, and a few other primitive random percussion items are the materials used. There is a fairly large variety of approach between the different pieces, but the recording has a consistent quiet/eerie/somber mood throughout.  Fabulously colorful arrangements. Warm and inviting.

MS24- Meadows $4
Instrumental music designed as soothing background music to help time flow warmly, but was received by friends as being more engaging than mere background. It can likely function either way depending on mood and mindset. Trickly guitar lakes, stretchy reverb, carefully planned drum kit/percussion, a monster groan repeating infinitely, and dripping melted aluminum. Ambient guitar textures designed with alluring percussion patterns and other comforting moody spicing. Earthy comfort moods for reflection and thoughts.

MS26- Light Bulbs – ‘Yum Walbs’ $4
Another instrumental delight from the light bulbs. Tidy instrumentals. High mellowness content. Cello, piano, pseudo-jazz, pseudo non jazz, and happiness. Unique, evocative, and quirky. The usual for a Light Bulbs release, with a decidedly sleepy and contemplative slant.

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WAT C-002 SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE – ‘COVERED IN BLUE COLORS’ C40
Sparkling Wide Pressure is the project of Tennessee resident Frank Baugh. In Covered in Blue Colors, his take on Americana is both intimate and remote. Many moments evoke a mythos of Western experience. Â At other times, peyote-induced passages of unintelligible speech hypnotize. Baugh’s latest work–as always–is cloying and undeniably gorgeous. Tape art by Lynn Fister. Watercolor printed on j-card with unique collage work on each. Pro-dubbed chrome tape with yellow shell. Limited to 75.

WAT C-003 STEPHEN MOLYNEUX – ‘THE STARS ARE THE LIGHT SHOW’ C25
Stephen Molyneux offers us here thirteen capriciously lovely and haunting songs. Distinct with a southern bewitching charm, a buried estate home transforms to a field expedition to distant lands. Â These ancestral memories point to a hybrid history. They seduce with a facade of whimsy, but they will leave an indelible mark. Tape art by Lynn Fister. Watercolor printed on j-card with unique collage work on each. Pro-dubbed chrome tape with kelly green shell. Limited to 75.

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Nite Lite – ‘Megrez’ LP
Limited to 300 copies on black vinyl. A topiary of organic sound. Topos, place. And the ambient surrounds us. The topic: to pick up sounds in your old kit bag for survival; to keep the world alive by clipping and trimming, sculpting shapes out of its sounds. If we can sculpt sound, then we can type on clouds. Clouds are perfect typewriters, the opposite of skin. Sound is organic even when it’s the artificial reproduction of cricket music. Even in field recordings, when we are recording in the field, the field is also recording us, reminding us that we breathe in its microambience. How else could we copy infinity? Sounds assembled to resemble nothing like the world that comes from where they came from. There are webs and we below know they will always be unmappable mazes. This music exists somewhere between sci-fi soundtrack and being inside a music box. It’s an aquatic, underwater sound as if the ocean were a seashell (who could lift it?) and through it we could hear the murmurs of invisible whales using sonar to mirror the deeps from our own aquariums. Nite Lite makes us feel safe enough to experience how any night can be a jungle of the possible, and that the experience of listening is a kind of migration from solar to sonar sonata. -Gregg Biglieri. Music by Philip and Myste French. Recorded in 2012 on Mt. Tabor, Oregon. Mastered by James Plotkin. Artwork by Myste French. Design by Chris Koelle.

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NP175 Featureless Ghost – ‘Personality Matrix’ LP
Personality Matrix is the debut LP by Atlanta duo Featureless Ghost following a steady stream of EP’s including the recent Mind Body cassette on Night-People. All of those prior releases were great but Featureless Ghost were holding onto something special that they have now fully materialized in the form of this LP. Pre-release listens of the vinyl had friends of the band and the label awed by the heavy and deep sound of this record, a true stunner that buries the speakers and space around the sound. A fully realized master work recorded and mastered to perfect specifications; Night-People has never released anything that simply sounds this good. Featureless Ghost set high expectations and surpassed them. Any reference to the aesthetic or influence seems too simple to fully describe what has been accomplished with this release. Synth pop, dark wave, minimal synth, trance, none of it really matters. This is deep eclectic electronic music performed to live midi, hybrid digital and analog perfection. The dual male/female vocal delivery presented on this record shows a high concern for distinctly developed interplay and identity that is perhaps unequaled in contemporary synth pop. Cyber dreams, lost worlds, and dystopian futures seem to be the subject of Featureless Ghost’s expression but the music itself couldn’t be more solidly realized and perfected. Night-People is so honored to be a part of this release and we hope you end up enjoying it as much as we do. Mastered by Pete Swanson. Artwork by Shawn Reed.

NP171 Goldendust s/t LP
Goldendust rides deep and dark but not free of a lush joyful pop sensibility sometimes sneaking in behind menacing moments to disrupt the darkness and let a little light through. If John Carpenter’s soundtracks had more Romanticism or synth pop sensibility in there stark minimalism it would sound a bit like these songs. Still something else is at play that’s not so easy to pinpoint, which is what separates Goldendust from the current crop of minimal synth revivalists. Joe’s vocals are unique in their delivery like a drifters sense of space and time they come not from some urban machine view of the world but from deserted small town parking lots or streets starring out into vacant fields. Maybe the experience is what separates these songs, the identity of the duo itself not as big city chic but of rural state isolation Justin’s dual analog synth approach creates the perfect balance between dense bass riffs and sharp leads and both dig deep into big melody. Recorded by Luke Tweedy at Flat Black Studio and mastered by Pete Swanson for maximum fidelity; this is a record that sounds great and is not to be missed. Artwork by Shawn Reed.

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Year of the Lips – ‘Cannon Street Road’s Feedback Rituals’ CS $5
TBR’s newest release is a collection of music composed and performed by Gab Marras (aka Year of the Lips) called Cannon Street Road’s Feedback Rituals. The eight pieces of music on the album represent several years’ worth of recordings by Mr. Marras. Sonically, the guitars (and harmonium!) used on this album of noise wrangling squeal, jangle, and take the listener on a journey. Marras is based in East London and primarily works as a visual artist. He says he produces music, “…out of a desire to soundtrack some of the visual art I produce, as well as soundtracking mine and others’ lives as they happen without much notice, and without being noticed much. I’m interested in a variety of approaches when it comes to working with sound, not necessarily ‘musical’ ones.” Turn on this album of exploratory tonalities and see if you aren’t changed afterwards as a listener.

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LEE GAMBLE – ‘Diversions 1994–1996’ LP
‘Diversions 1994-1996′ is made up entirely from samples from the collection of Lee Gamble’s Jungle cassette mixtapes. The audio has been subjected to analog and digital deformations, whilst trying to extract, expand upon and convey particular qualities emblematic of the original music. The effect is that of a musical body scan, all that is solid melts into air. Sounds are unearthed, dissected on the operating table, melted and unlocked , evoking sonics not unlike the heavy dub processes of Jah Shaka and Scion in a INA GRM frame of mind or bearing  a similar  methodological approach with what explored Mark Leckey in his piece “Fiorucci Made me Hardcore”. It can be heard as a ‘memory’ of a period of music and for some could work as a ‘cued recall’, which is a form of memory retrieval.  Lee Gamble started out as a teenager dj-ing on pirate radio and on the emerging Jungle scene, however his own approach to music has taken a more experimental direction. Exploring the outer realms of abstraction through digital synthesis/resynthesis, Lee has described his current compositional process as: “…The configuration of material (ex nihilo) via various digital synthesis methods, prompts further disfigurations and reconfigurations. What you then have left is often the detritus or debris of an idea. Phantasms of both previous and current musical, pseudo-scientific and sculptural influences are manifest as new material abstractions, created from the digital blank canvas. This abstraction allows several interests to appear in the works simultaneously…”.  He is a also a founding member of the UK-based CYRK collective and has curated/co-curated several Cyrk events. He has also produced and curated three radio series for London based radio station Resonance104.4FM and he continues to DJ. Lee has released his computer compositions on the Entr’acte label and has collaborated with composer John Wall and artists Yutaka Makino and Bryan Lewis Saunders. ‘Diversions 1994-1996’ E.P is is the beginning of a longer-term collaboration with PAN which also includes a full length album later this year.   The 12″ is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M. It is pressed on 140g white vinyl which itself is housed in a silk screened pvc sleeve with artwork by Kathryn Politis & Bill Kouligas.

NHK’Koyxeи – ‘Dance Classics Vol.II’ LP  
Kouhei Matsunaga’s ‘Dance Classics Vol.II’ is the continuation of his ongoing development of his more dance oriented material, as seen from his sets with Sensational and also his other minimal techno project NHK. Not feeling tied down to one genre, Matsunaga nestles in the PAN roster, and however that isn’t to say that he is dance per se as witnessed from his recent collaborations with Conrad Schnitzler. The album focuses more on bass/base electronics, music for the dancefloor and/or altered state reflection. Having composed pieces for WDR based on Henry Chopin, Kouhei is equally at ease jamming with Sensational, whilst simultaneously executing a obsessively numerical sequence of dance pieces that borders on Hanne Darboven-like compulsivity.   Born in Osaka, Kouhei Matsunaga is a musician and an illustrator. He started drawing during childhood under the influence of his grandfather. He grew up listening to hardcore- techno and hip hop, studied architecture and has been mainly making music since 1992. Under many different aliases (NHK, NHKyx, Internet Magic, Koyxen) he has released numerous albums on labels such as Skam Records, Wordsound, Raster Noton and his first ever album “Upside Down” on Mille Plateaux in 1998. He has also collaborated with artists like Merzbow, Jungle Brothers’ Sensational, Autechre’s Sean Booth, Mika Vainio, Conrad Schnitzler, Anti Pop Consorium’s High Priest, Rudolf Eb.er, Puppetmastaz crew, Asmus Tietchens, Ralf ‘RLW’ Wehowsky and so on. His own label Flying Swimming was founded in 2002 with the main purpose being to publish and curate events of experimental contemporary music and art.   The LP is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, pressed on 140g vinyl. It is packaged in a pro-press color jacket which itself is housed in a silk screened pvc sleeve with artwork by Kathryn Politis & Bill Kouligas.

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Alex Cobb – ‘Passage to Morning’ CD
Composed and labored over for many months between 2009-2011, “Passage to Morning” is the first full-length Alex Cobb has released since Taiga Remains’ well-received “Wax Canopy” (Digitalis, 2009). Sonically however, the two records could not be more dissimilar, with “Passage to Morning” recalling more the meditative guitar minimalism of “Ribbons of Dust,” his prior release for the Root Strata label. Here, glacially moving, eternally receding drones sourced from strings, tape loops and analog synthesizer are the order of the day, expertly arranged into succinct and imminently listenable compositions. Comparisons made of Cobb’s previous recordings to Andrew Chalk and Christoph Heemann’s work as Mirror prove particularly apt here, as “Passage to Morning” trades in the same sort of devotional, faraway sound design for which the pair have been justly praised. “The Immediate Past” opens the record, with billowing, lulling tones hanging thick in the air like a struck bell frozen in time. Later, “Bewildered by its Blue” juxtaposes deep, brooding low-end tones with crackling tape noise and truly hypnotic cycles of analog synthesizer. That this is Cobb’s first full-length under his own name is no coincidence, as here he offers us his most intimate recordings to date.

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LW065 VICIOUS BEAST – ‘Tortura Obscura’ CD 10E
Lim. 200 / DVD slimcase packaging. Kali in bestial form. Grim speech from the shadow land. Satan at your back. Reigning dusk with maliciousness. Spite in the form of viral knives. This is the brainchild of Industrial/Noise/Black Metal artist Thomas Mortigan. Locked away within a mind like a churning worm in the earth, this score for a non existent film is a dismally dark and frightening affair. Field recordings meet treated and inhuman dialect, sounds from behind, the dripping, creeping, gaping walkway into nightmare and fear. This is the sound of a mad mind. A fully live studio recording, which makes this experience even more real and intimate. This frightening electronic/noise/score release is a must for horror fans and the minds of the mad. Pro CD limited to 200 copies. Originally released as a C-45 on Destructive Industries in 2009 in an edition of 45.

LW071 KYLIE MINOISE – ‘Empire Of Puke!’ CD 10E
Lim. 200 / DVD slimcase packaging. EMPIRE OF PUKE! IS THE NEW ALBUM FROM KYLIE MINOISE RELEASED ON CD BY L.WHITE RECORDS (GERMANY). IT FEATURES 6 TRACKS OF FLUORESCENT AUDIO VOMIT, HARSH NOISE HALLUCINATION, CRIPPLED RHYTHMIC BLUDGEON AND ECSTATIC SONIC MELTDOWN. IT IS THE SOUNDTRACK TO THE END OF THIS LIFE AND THE BEGINNING OF THE NEXT. KYLIE MINOISE IS A ONE-MAN HEALTH AND SAFETY VIOLATION. OVER THE LAST 7 YEARS HE HAS RELEASED OVER 5O ALBUMS AND PERFORMED LIVE AKTIONS IN OVER 20 COUNTRIES BREAKING HEARTS, MICROPHONES AND MINDS. HE LIVES IN GLASGOW, SCOTLAND. HE LIKES SUNSHINE AND KITTENS. CATALOGUE OF PERSONAL INJURIES_, 7 BROKEN BONES, 23 STITCHES, 3 CHIPPED TEETH, 200 BRUISES, 3 BLACK EYES, 130 CUTS/SCRAPES

LW072 DEAD BODY COLLECTION – ‘A Constellation Of Scars’ 3″CDr 7E
lim. 100 / DVD mini-case. Like \”Nearly 20 mins of brutal and sadistic harsh noise wall disturbance from Serbia. Not for the faint-hearted!!

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