Category Archives: UPDATE

Whitman – ‘Dust Unsettled: Ten Years Of Whitman’ CD
On April 20th, 2002, Whitman gave his first performance in a church in Highland, California. Wearing a flannel hunting jacket, a long black wig, and sunglasses he strummed a severely out of tune guitar with only three strings. It’s doubtful that anyone in the room would have imagined that ten years later, he would still be performing. But since then he has had 29 releases (not including compilation appearances), and toured extensively. His music has gone through many transformations over the years, but has never strayed from being brutally honest. This CD collects 17 songs from various split artist releases and compilations. It also contains several previously unreleased recordings. This is a limited edition, one time release of 200 glass mastered and pro-replicated CD’s (not CD-R’s) that come in full color jackets with artwork by Emma Backman.

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WaMü – ‘Viafuckt’ cassette
Viafuckt, a limited cassette release (150 copies) from improv punk band WaMu, is now available on Talking Helps Records! Clocking in just under 25 minutes, this is the debut release from the Seattle four-piece bent on aural destruction. Bringing spontaneity to sound, WaMu’s music straddles the fence of deliberation, leaving the listener always with the question: “Did they mean to do that?” The inception of the cacophony saw Eric Ostrowski, once half of the NW noise duo Noggin and accomplished solo violinist and filmmaker, joining forces with Garrett Kelly and Rachel LeBlanc, the masterminds behind Seattle’s self-declared worst band My Printer Broke,. Brittnie Fuller, and her unrelenting sax, joined shortly after to complete the band’s “shrillwave” sound. Viafuckt was recorded live at Hollow Earth Radio. The band has no written material, but nevertheless, a concept album has emerged from the rubble. These songs will rattle your bones with Seattle’s shitty Viaduct deconstruction, the cryptic death of Princess Diana, and the mythology of the goddess Artemis. Stuff that in your mugwort pipe and skronk it.

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The N.E.C. – ‘Six b/w Popsicle’ 7″
33 rpm, 7”, 100 black vinyl, screen printed art. Atlanta’s Natural Extension Concept (The N.E.C.) play dynamic, driving psychedelic rock on their latest single, the lead track of their forthcoming LP, Last Point of Radiation. “Six” is loud, focused, and noisy, as The N.E.C. pummel your ears with a relentless riff. Truly a monolithic sound, the band unify to drive their parts into oblivion. The exclusive B-side, “Popsicle,” yields burned-out sunshine pop, equal parts soul and debauchery. With this flip, The N.E.C. maintain soulful rhythms with a catchy anthem alongside their noisy lead cut. Screenprinted art ensures that each single is a unique artifact for the listener.

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DAVID KILGOUR  – ‘Here Come The Cars’ LP
A year after the Clean’s reunion LP Vehicle (also their first proper album ever) put them back on the international-pop radar in 1990, guitarist David Kilgour retreated with his new Revox tape machine (which he’d been singing about rapturously in his side-project Stephen and elsewhere: “Have you seen my new tape machine?!”) and cut his first solo album, Here Come the Cars, issued by Flying Nun in 1991. From the jarring cover image of David through to the last note, Here Come the Cars is a special pop album, even on a label that had no shortage of them. A sparkling gem cloaked in achingly atmospheric production (courtesy of Nick Roughan), Here Come the Cars has haunted us since its release — it’s just one of those albums that exists outside of time, the opening chords of the title track never fail to draw you out of the world you’re in and into its own magical space. The album was remastered and rereleased on CD by Flying Nun in 2004, but has never before been on vinyl — which De Stijl is happy to rectify here in 2012.

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Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore – ‘The Ecstatic Exchange’ C50
A rare chance to hear Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore reading (and accompanying himself on zither) from his classic collection of shamanic poetry ‘Dawn Visions’, originally published by City Lights back in 1964, when the author was in his early twenties. The poems were written during explorations of mind and space in Mexico and California. As Moore describes it, a period of “immersion on the ocean of poetic inspiration, my near drowning in a sudden flood of imagery and pushing further and further, almost under water in it, surfacing to sing.” From a similar well sprung The Floating Lotus Magic Opera Company, which Moore founded in 1966, blending Zen Buddhism, music and dance of eastern folk theatre and Antonin Artaud into higher dimensions, performing their plays at night, in an amphitheater in North Berkeley, by torchlight. In 1970 he renounced written poetry and became a sufi, traveling widely in Morocco, Spain, Algeria and Nigeria. Moore broke his silence in the early eighties and has since published numerous spiritually informed books, from which a couple recent poems are here included as well. 100 copies.

Den Stora Vilan – ‘LiveGrodor’ C40
We had been talking about this tape for a couple years now: a buncha killer livejams by the great Swedish band Den Stora Vilan (which supposedly translates something as ‘The Great Rest’). Long mellow West Coast influenced psych jams (think ‘American Beauty’ era Gratefuld Dead) meets Neil Young with a bit of Trad Gras Och Stenar thrown in. 200 copies.

Planets Around The Sun – ‘Ram of Heart and The Earthen Chariot’ C75
Planets Around The Sun have been pushing their chariot across the USA for close to a year now, exploring many inner and outer spaces inebriated with fluid acid folk/drone/psych improvisations. Prior to this indefinite tour, they collected these recordings made in various barns, on boats and in bedrooms. An epic collection by these traveling wizards who are also part of the extended Cursillistas, Herbcraft, Tempera, White Light etc. family. 70 copies.

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Cribshitter – ‘Mint Car’ cassette $7
We are releasing a limited-release (40 qty) cassette called Mint Car on May 1st. It contains 16 tracks of mostly new material with a few classic nuggets thrown in from our past two releases (Methlehem, Cry A Little Rainbow) based on what songs sounded best in our cassette testing facility: A white 1985 Pontiac Fiero. Among the new material you will hear anything from psych rock, pure country, dubstep, chill-blare, and even a few makeout tunes. Mint Car will be available on Cribshitter’s bandcamp page May 1st in bright orange cassette tape ($7), or digital download (for all the computer nerd-baits!).

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TR-017: Mubles/Grassa Dato – ‘Oh Pequeño Muble/Los Que Habitan en la Oscuridad’
From Bilbao they proceed Mubles, a band formed in February 2008 by members of bands like Xedh, Kakofunk, Valvula Antirretorno or KRPNTRS, bringing danger back to experimental music. “Oh Pequeño Muble” is an intense, fragile, and unpleasant track, a descent to the sewers of soul, with the special prominent dada verses of Álvaro Matilla.  Grassa Data continues with his prodigious working rhythm. His proposal, based on noise, power electronics and psychedelic electronics, has incorporated new resources and atmospheres. “Los que habitan en la oscuridad” is the most industrial track in the discography of Grassa Data. Its masses of creaky and dense noise are mixed with rhythms and loops, feedback reverbered in hallucinogenic spaces and suffocating atmospheres of dark and violent shades.  “Oh Pequeño Muble / Los que habitan en la oscuridad” is presented in a professional green cassette with two tracks and 42 minutes of music, in an limited edition of 56 copies. You can get the tape for 5 euro plus shipping through Truco Espárrago.

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JAMES BLACKSHAW – ‘LOVE IS THE PLAN, THE PLAN IS DEATH’ CD/LP
Important is proud to welcome back James Blackshaw for his first full length on Important since his breakthrough album O True Believers was released on the label in 2006. James has since forged a remarkable career achieving critical praise for his dexterity, his deep, connected songwriting and his beautiful arrangement. Love Is The Plan, The Plan Is Death is available on CD & LP. LP pressed in an edition of 1000.  Limited stock of color vinyl for mailorder customers.

DUANE PITRE – ‘FEEL FREE’ CD/LP
Running low but blue vinyl is still available. This one has been getting lots of praise since it was released. Highly recommended. The two major focal points in the creation of composer Duane Pitre’s Feel Free, his new work for a unique sextet combination, were rhythm and melody. An open yet orderly system intended to produce potentially infinite variations of self-generating rhythm and melody was carefully created for this piece, allowing the sextet musicians to approach these factors in a freer manner. This ‘musical system,’ combined with the fixed elements of the composition, in turn, spawned a rich foundation of harmony & rhythm that sounds and feels exotic and new.  

ANOICE – ‘THE BLACK RAIN’ CD
Anoice’s first album for Important had a modest (but critically affectionate) impact upon its release. However, sales of the record have been steady & strong since it originally came out in 2006. Now, six years later we’re pleased to finally offer The Black Rain, Anoice’s reaction to both the darkness & hope that engulfed Japan after the 2011 earthquake, Tsunami & nuclear meltdown. Black Rain was written throughout 2011 and recorded in Tokyo and London. The Black Rain is both a reflection on disaster and a prayer for healing.

CATHERINE CHRISTER HENNIX – ‘CHORA(S)SAN TIME COURT MIRAGE’ CD
Limited stock. Released in conjunction with the Sonic Acts fesival. Beautiful new drone ensemble formed by CC Hennix, a student of La Monte Young. This disc is the beginning of a series of collaborative work between Hennix, her ensemble and Important Records.  

ELEH – ‘RADIANT INTERVALS’ CD
We recently recalled copies back from a distributor in order to retain stock for mailorder. Please be aware that the copies we have right now are the end of our stock and we don’t currently have plans to re-press it.  CD reissue of the most recent Eleh full length LP.  Remastered for the digital domain. Heavy duty letterpressed gatefold jackets.

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Irureta – ‘100% Pur Sport’
The full-length cassette is considered “regressive rock” by the band, Irureta – we at TBR just think its cool. These sonic jammers from Trith St-Lywood, France are sure to make you groove when listening to this “sports” themed collection. Irureta is a band that started in the early 00’s. They would simply play, record, get high, and drink delicious beer (not necessarily in that order). Then the recordings would be grossly edited in order to keep whatever was of interest to them during that session. Irureta shamelessly loots: indie-rock, synthesizer music, psych/post-rock, math-rock, afrobeat, sound collage, lo-fi music, and certainly more. That said all those years of playing together helped them mix all this music into a coherent ensemble sound producing this album of 100% pure jams. Edition of 25.

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sicsic024 – Wolf Fluorescence – ‘There Is A Mirk Inside Her Which She Must Tint Brighter or Collapse…’
Music haunted with memories of times past. Dark soundscapes to muse on chances missed, roads taken wrong and hopes failed. You’re still young but aged by experience and ever since your surviving in the shadow of your échec. And even having read your Wittgenstein and knowing about that „the world of the happy is quite different from that of the unfortunate“ you still don’t know how to proceed without circling around your memories like a moth around a lightbulb. Well, relaxe – you’re not the only one.!

sicsic025 – Voder Deth Squad – ‘II’
Having left it’s orbit the Voder Deth Squad is still transmitting waves of warm and human sounds while drifting further into dark, cold and void spaces unknown… It’s the duo’s outstanding ability to deliver this feeling of being snugged in an inhospital enviroment, like Ellen Ripley’s cat in „Alien“. Voder Deth Squad make you purr, but be aware of the evil forces lurking!

sicsic026 – Grasshopper – ‘The Day America Forgot’
Improvised trumpet and electronics are Jesse DeRosa’s & Josh Millrod’s weapons of choice to maintain freedom in a world more and more domintated by restricted and ignorant politics of hate. Nightmarish music for bleak prospects. Music for the Youth Of Today. If not for reading the news what are your oversized hipster glasses good for? Listen. Unite. Act. It’s about time.

sicsic027 – Venn Rain – ‘Cymatic Cymbols’
Synth-driven and meditative excursions into a vast landscape and towards a receding horizon. There’s no rainbow to reach anymore – there’s just time going by while travelling endless spaces full of nothing. All you can do is just to move on and enjoy the ride while it lasts!

sicsic028 – Nathan McLaughlin – ‘Echolocation #6’
Being part of a series of so called „Echolocation Recordings“ this five pieces of minimal guitar drones sound as if Phill Niblock’s decided to cut his often hour long pieces short. Beautiful and rich textured ambient miniatures best experienced via headphones. To celebrate the series glorious ending the tape comes in an edition of 65 handcut and special manufactured covers. So, even if the music’s kinda slow you better be quick and grab one!

sicsic029 – Isle of Sodor – ‘Goshen’
Electronic meditations to put your mind at ease. Adam Miller’s music is the perfect sonic aquivalent to a sundrenched afternoon for swimming in an artifical lagoon. An idealised and synthetic, friendly and mild tempered enviroment designed to comfort you. And that’s a good thing, actually.

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