Shingles/Spectrum Tickets split C36 $7(USA)/$8(Canada)/$9(World)
This split collects new directions from two guys who are certainly no strangers to frying brains with sound. Jesse DeRosa (Grasshopper) starts with a little late night music. Armed with little more than his Electronic Valve Instrument, DeRosa layers absolutely gorgeous melodies that swell and move together in dramatic, sweeping fashion. Themes of isolation and mystery run deep through these tracks, yet there is plenty warmth to be found within. Mike Haley (Wether) soundtracks the awakening of sentient cyborgs on the flip side. Haley develops an atmosphere that is colder and bleaker than DeRosa’s, but certainly no less engrossing. Synthesized patterns and drum machine rhythms stay locked into one another, plowing forth toward a new technological dawn. Pro-dubbed and imprinted chrome cassettes, featuring designs by Caroline Teagle. Edition of 100.
The Aloha Spirit – ‘Under Wild Skies’ C25 $7(USA)/$8(Canada)/$9(World)
Through his thoughtfully curated c60 Radio program, Austin’s Brad Barry has been closely affiliated with experimental music and cassette culture for the past several years. Now, with The Aloha Spirit, he’s sharing his own personal sounds with the world, and what a wonderful thing it is. ‘Under Wild Skies’ finds Barry arranging synth loops carefully and confidently, conjuring placid tones and giving them space to gently buzz and gradually intermingle with one another. This is unabashed relaxation music, teeming with positive vibrations and basking in the radiance of the earth. Pro-dubbed and imprinted chrome cassettes, featuring designs by Caroline Teagle. Edition of 100.
Bedroom – ‘Solipsist’ C30 $7(USA)/$8(Canada)/$9(World)
After last year’s split with Afterlife, Bedroom finally returns with a second missive. Flying solo this time around, Brooklyn’s Michael Chau presents two long-form pieces on ‘Solipsist’ that showcase his ability to make engrossing synthscapes with both maximal and minimal sensibilities. Chau effectively harnesses the power of the Moog in an impressive variety of ways, churning out passages of spine-tingling melody, mechanical sequences, and drones that hover high above the clouds. It all flows together magnificently, and what’s left behind is an expressive, complex work that’s as sensitive and beautiful as it is muscular and intense. Pro-dubbed and imprinted chrome cassettes, featuring designs by Caroline Teagle. Edition of 100.
Ghostrider – ‘Voices’ C33 $7(USA)/$8(Canada)/$9(World)
Germany’s Jens Pauly seemed to appear out of nowhere in 2011 with two of the year’s best synth tapes on Hobo Cult and Digitalis Ltd. ‘Voices’ finds Pauly honing his craft even further with seven new meticulously composed pieces. Each track immediately springs to life with vivid, cinematic detail. Pulsing, heavily sequenced numbers call forth images of high-speed drives through neon-lit urban jungles, while more restrained and amorphous tracks bring to mind slow strolls through a foggy hillsides. Steering clear of the slightest bit of excess, Pauly is truly a master at conveying moods that resonate deeply without wasting a single second. Pro-dubbed and imprinted chrome cassettes, featuring designs by Caroline Teagle. Edition of 100.
All Four New Tapes: $24(USA)/$26(Canada)/$30(World)
Velvet Elvis return in all their ragged glory to lay down a tape that features facets of the their past and present. No Rules in the Wasteland is a cassingle style release of epic proportions; featuring two brand new songs accompanied by two songs from the Favorite Horses sessions. Side A is the sprawling, 15-minute title-track, No Rules in the Wasteland. Here the band rides their signature riffs and soaring dual vocals into new supernaturally charged atmospheres, resulting in their heaviest and most psychedelic work to date. The B-side features two early rockers recorded during the Favorite Horses sessions: Pretty Girls in Lace and Stop and Think. Wrapping up this unearthly phantasm is the spoken word/dronescape, Where’s Your Marlboro Man Now? Printed on Stonehenge artist paper in handmade matchbox style sleeves. Hand numbered edition of 100.
Paired here on our first split release is Russia’s The Cats’ Orchestra with Ohio’s Giant Claw. Each of these artists have had some pretty significant releases this past year and this release works to solidify them within the higher echelons of experimental analog composition. Giant Claw’s Righteous- Injustice-HellEarth is a blissed out suite of warbling tapes and swooping phases, colliding with wild oscillations that evolve into a Riley-esque dervish. On the flip, The Cats’ Orchestra’s Tail Tale invokes the spirits through a séance for organ and ghostly percussion; a welcomed meditative calm following the hyperactivity of the former. Pro printed inserts on heavy card stock. Hand numbered edition of 100.
Thundering in like a psychedelic unicorn form outerspace, Velvet Elvis is the five-headed Hydra of stoner rock. Expanding across the galaxy in their own Ship of the Imagination, the exceptionally crafted songs on Favorite Horses pummel the listener with their heavy riffing and crooning voices. Hand numbered, limited 2nd edition of 50 with different color cover, pro printed on heavy card stock.
Haunted Trails is the artistic alias of Dan Hedlund; postal worker and Pyramido sludge guitarist from Gothenburg. Dan’s solo work has previously appeared on the Utmarken compilation tape “Ett annat Göteborg” and on a great split with Blue Queen (from Bong). Just in time, roughly a year later, the craving elite appreciative of Dan’s talents is served with a cassette tape sequel on Sprachlos. While a mere 14 minutes long, this mini epic collects four “heavy” tracks attesting to the increasingly accomplished music of Haunted Trails. Quality over quantity any day. In a time when narrow minds and listening habits demand music fitted exactly to the confines of certain subterranean music genres it’s certainly refreshing to hear Haunted Trails fall between the cracks. The rough ideas are easy enough to sketch: it’s (drum machine aided) guitar music, it’s (sort of) minimal rock music, it’s not especially noisy (well, most of the time), and at one or two points it gets pretty damn sentimental. But what then? Somewhere you might hear traces of early Skullflower, but it’s transformed into something profoundly less muscular and slightly more twisted. Yet the messy second track on the A side actually does sound like a take on Bower in his bluesy wall-of-guitar mode. Then there’s the ballad. If you’ve got any relation to the Swedish west coast you’d probably say that it sounds like a forgotten Björn Ohlsson demo, and I could agree to that. Perfect Pripps blå music. And the concluding cover of Lee Perry’s “Bird in Hand”? Well, imagine a more psychedelic sounding Danzig getting high on purple drank while trying to do a heartfelt prom tune… Most likely inferno in the form of Jeff Only’s swollen vocal cords awaits you below. A friend said that “Ranger” sounded like Lust for Youth for grownups. An apt description if the entire Cold Cave collection of Hannes’ were to be replaced with beaten up Träd, Gräs och Stenar albums. But let’s be honest. This has nothing to do with so called wave music – it’s “wave” in the sense of Mount Everest Trio’s “Waves from Albert Ayler”. Take a deep breath and forget that you’ve ever heard of glossy synth reissues and lousy tapes characterised by semi-harsh-ambient textures and PE-leaning vocals that’s rather death industrial in their execution. Most importantly though: forget that you actually hate contemporary lo-fi one-man progressive rock.
New 6 track 40 plus minute recording from Vancouver, WA one-man synth-rack project BRIZBOMB. 1107 is BRIZBOMB’s follow-up to the mind-blowing 0909 LP from 2010, and is a continuation of the drone-synth explorations of said album, yet the 6 tracks contained herein stand on their own as the even heavier, intense, and forward-thinking children of its predecessor. All tracks were recorded using an 1.8 meter tall, 147 kilo (5’10″, 325+ pound) rack (click here for complete gear listing) and all audio was generated live with no edits, no overdubs, no computer, no keyboards, no sequencing, no samples, and no pre-recorded material. Mastered at Stereophonic Mastering by Timothy Stollenwerk. Edition of 100 on pro-dubbed high-bias chrome cassette.
New collaborative split cassette between mysterioso noise-maker ADRIANVARALLYAY and psychotropical ambient sound collagist STRNGLV. ADRIANVARALLYAY is a Brooklyn-based experimenal musician and is the mastermind behind COVERED IN DIAMONDS AND JEWELS whose self-titled cassette was Fabrica’s second official release. Using an astounding amount of analog effect pedals, contact mics, bass guitar and other resonant objects like metal pipes, he makes heavily delayed psychedelic ambient noise. STRNGLV is the child of NJ-native Sean Keane, a collagist of both sound and image (check out some his prints here), and this is his second release with Fabrica (and definitely not the last). On this occasion, STRNGLV provides us with a single-side track of post-industrial ambient drenched in tribal, komische and sound cut-ups created by synth, circuit bent effects, and tape loops. First edition of 50 on pro-dubbed high-bias chrome cassettes with amazing cover art by Sean Keane (STRNGLV).