Category Archives: UPDATE

Armadillo – ‘Armadillo II’ C34 $5
Armadillo II opens with warbled tones of strained memory. Guitar plucks are an excavated synth, and the dream logic that guides this moody quest is set. The duo, a collaboration between Atlanta shred-master, Monochrome Sweatsuit, and Detroit-based producer Caleb Stone, began recording in 2015. Stone, whose production credits include Kali Uchis, The Internet and Odd Future, uses bass tones and drums sparingly—Leaving plenty of space for Sweatsuit’s extended guitar-movements. The otherworldly atmospherics of their debut are present, yet the character is new. Here, attic-tracked improvisation paints an abstraction, but one that soundtracks rainy day realism. The langague of Sweatsuit’s guitar harmonies is distinct; the layers of his creative technique are inspired, and his playing skillful. Together with Stone, it’s sort of Durrutti Column spiraling Three-Six Mafia at the gallery. These minimal beauts won’t last long; They’re limited to only 25 copies!

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FORAGER – ‘Sorrow and joy throng the gate, weal and woe in the same land’ C30 $6
Forager is guitar composition, improvisation, and experimentation by Ian MacLean exploring drone tones and ambient textures. The album represents a journey into a sacred temple. There are four gates, each with different challenges or gatekeepers. The seeker circles the temple until finding a way in. In the seeker’s mind the gates and challenges are sequential. Once inside the temple and its inner sanctum, the seeker can see that the four gates are indivisible from the whole structure, and all have equal importance, not just the gate that was used to enter the temple. The resulting knowledge hopefully causes one to dance between gates, trials, without worry.

SEMEN PRIEST – ‘Pink Skyline’ C30 $6
Toronto’s electronic/post-punk outfit SEMEN PRIEST return with a reinvigorated sound on Pink Skyline thanks to electro-psych dub-wise production by KING PONG DUB SYSTEM. Features ‘Police, Thieves & Private Armies’, a mash-up cover of Junior Murvin’s ‘Police & Thieves’ and Vivien Goldman’s ‘Private Armies’.

BEARD CLOSET – ‘Deadly Force’ C30 $6
We’re honored to issue Toronto experimental guitar and electronics artist, Beard Closet’s wordless (but not silent) scream of rage and frustration at the continuing culture of murder and brutality in North America’s police forces. Ambient drones and vast noise textures.

BABEL – ‘This Is The Sacred Fire’ 2Cdr$10
Meditations on the light within and without. A double CD album of ritualistic ambient drones, space jazz and kosmische electronics; temple bells, new age sax, kraut-prog improvisations, drone-metal guitar, ‘Zarathustra’ vocals and ‘Stranger Things’ synths collide. Bridges the gap between BABEL’s previous double albums “Mind Thief” (retro-synth) and “Ceci n’est pas le feu sacré” (psychedelic drone / improv), both still available.

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II051 – Stag Hare – ‘Velvet And Bone’ C54
Velvet and Bone is structured as a Gothic fable. It is about the act of self reflection through knowing another. It is about seeing the shadow and knowing the shadow. It is about seeing death and knowing death. It is about bones, and the way they are shaped by the tensions put on them by various opposing muscles. It is about the swamps of depression. It is about love in its most tragic and therefore most beautiful form. Velvet and Bone includes materials written over many years, dating back as far as 2010 and started as an attempt to finally make recorded versions of some lyrical material I had written over the years. I was in school studying bodywork and energy work and discovering a whole new side of life, the physical side, the flesh and bone side. This was followed by an accompanying realization that my interest in the metaphysical and the spiritual had bypassed, ironically, perhaps a missing link in my exploration. I had somehow ignored or been hiding from the world of the physical, and the importance of personal connection to my three dimensional vessel. Everything changed after experiencing the very real and very tangible power of touch, of intention with touch, and the emotional unraveling that I personally needed to undertake in order to find my body. I won’t say that I have entirely found it at this point, but I know now that I am at least on the journey to retrieving that lost connection, and that I can perceive the reflection playing out in that other realm, in something like a parallel and opposite action. As I reach you I can reach me. Velvet and Bone is the 9th full album from Stag Hare and the 4th release on Inner Islands. It marks both a departure in mood and tone from previous releases, but also a return to form as the first regular full length album in 3 years. It also marks her first album released after an official gender transformation and marking the first release with Garrick now as Willow, after a period of time using various different names and descriptors she now wishes to use her new name, Willow Skye Biggs, a change which will reflect a shifting musical style in the near future as well. There is planned to be one final release in the Stag Hare catalog within the coming year

II050 – Channelers – ‘Space Makes Clearing’ C43
Space Makes Clearing was developed by approaching repetitive sound through the physical sensation of its creation, through finding phrases that feel satisfying to play over and over as though there is something therapuetic in the gestures that produce their tones. There is space to move around in the sound and space to let the mind wander. It is made with reverence for the cycles of life, for the ever-changing sky, for the yearning that drives one forward, for the acceptance that keeps one still. It’s here to hold space for the simplest things. Channelers is a project and practice maintained by Sean Conrad from 2014 into the present. Space Makes Clearing is the 4th album in the Channelers catalog.

II049 – softest – ‘hidden guitar & water music’ DL
Forces that are hidden in plain view. Another world, wavelength, nowhere.

II048 – Channelers – ‘Arden Tapes’ DL
Taking time to feel my song of the moment. A brief practice largely explored through the first months of the year.

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Micro_Penis – ‘Schlim’ LP
Schlim (slime in alsatian dialect) Micro_penis’ third lp released by Doubtful Sounds, is the final instalment of a trilogy. This record is made from rare recording sessions, stretching in time from 2011 until 2015 at the N.E.M. Studio (Noise Ensemble of Mulhouse) located in the Mer Rouge building, Mulhouse, France. The name of the game, collectively agreed on, was that no band member could be chemically restrained. For a psychotic can only ever be himself freed from one’s treatment, thus expressing one’s inside kept insanity. Another rule stated that during each session, one would have to use a different instrument, be it acoustic or electronic, no matter wether mastered or not. This huge interpersonal tension, through a violent rupture in terms of playing modes and tones, resulted in a broad range of pieces, very much dissmilar from one another. Then the group switched to an autarkic mode for a couple of weeks. They finalized and gave birth to their new weird baby during endless listening sessions and mixing sessions including sonic tinkering that only those who do not pretend to be mad are capable of. Cyclothymia and dementia are hidden in each sound, each track of Schlim. Black vinyl with a postcard. Limited to 300 copies. Mastering by Frédéric Alstadt.

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Tristan Welch – ‘Lights (A)’ CS $5
Lights (A) is a collection of three movements. Red, white and blue. Each movement is in the key of ‘A’ and created with guitar loops that are drenched with various textures and shifts in ambience. Lights (A) creates peace and disrupts it. This piece was birthed for an event that was a cross between a live performance and sound installation called Lights (A) – An experiment with sound and light. Since that performance the piece has grown and been nurtured – this recording is a document of that process. Proceeds from this tape go right back into the Lights (A) process which includes live performance and recording. Limited edition – 20 copies available online.Â

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The Skull Mask – ‘La Muerte Es Sabia’ C40 £4.5
The Skull Mask is one of the many side projects of Miguel Perez, one of the hardest working individuals in the global no audience underground. This release marks his second outing on the label after he first appeared as one half of The Will Of Nin Girima way back on our fourth release. The Skull Mask takes a side step from his usual dark drone and static hiss, letting Miguel show off his aptitude on nylon strings. Here, he gives us a journey through barren, desolate lands full of hope and despair in equal measures. Dark dusty landscapes, warm breezes and empty roads populate this gritty expanse. This is guitar improv of a beautifully sparse and rich nature that gets right int he back of your throat. File next to Jon Collin and Cian Nugent. This release is out to coincide with Miguel’s first visit to the UK to bring his Skull Mask project to TUSK Festival in Gateshead. Need I say anything more? Available as a hand dubbed black C40 cassette. Limited to 50 copies worldwide.

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LW103 BASTARD NOISE – ‘THE HUMAN WASTE CHRONICLES’ 3” CD
For the past 25 years, BASTARD NOISE has been entrenched in the production of punishing, alien sound creation. ITS\’ main objective : to create “audio cinema” representing the self absorbed, ignorant crimes of our \”shit species\” and deliver a critical warning that unbridled, violent incineration of our planet is near. With \”THE HUMAN WASTE CHRONICLES\”, BASTARD NOISE delivers three complex and horrifying compositional soundtracks to our days ahead as a worthless lifeform. Noise is music. The brutality continues…

LW095 MADEMOISELLE BISTOURI – ‘Semen’ 3” CDr
After releasing a few nice things since 2011 here the latest work of Mademoiselle Bistouri from Italy. Two long around 10 minutes tracks harsh rumbling noise with a lot of extreme sounds. Brutal and nice!

LW098 VIDINE RAMYBE – ‘Jautrios Antenos’ 3” CDr
RAMYBE is a harsh noise / power electronics act from Vilnius, Lithuania, found in 2008 by Kiras who is well known in a local scene from his other extreme music projects & bands (Seagull Overseas, Faršas, Karma Jawless etc.) New EP \”Jautrios antenos\” (\”Sensitive antennas\”) goes a bit further from the usual rough, wallish V.R. sound in to more melodic, experimental ambient-influenced fields. The lyrical themes on this record are focused on a cycle of birth, life and death and personal psychedelic experiences related to this inevitable process. All lyrics shouted in Lithuanian.

LW101 STOA – ‘At the Stoa’ 3” CDr 7E
Numbed by discipline, philosophy or alcohol we view any atrocity unmoved. Stoa is essential harsh noise, without bells and whistles. No layering, no fun, no mosh, no creativity. Feedback, pedals and the vague feeling that people are not in fact born equal in dignity and rights. Sit back with the beer of your choice, browse the Large Sutra of Perfect Wisdom, and pray that one day they will all get what is coming to them. Stoa has a feeling your prayers will be answered.

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Lucky Dragons – ‘Speak Your Own Language’ 7″
Limited edition 7″ packaged in a silk-screened wrap around jacket. Less than 100 copies are for sale outside of Mexico. Speak Your Own Language (2015) was conceptualized and created by Sarah Rara and Luke Fischbeck of Lucky Dragons as part of their project Variety Gate at Museo Universitario del Chopo in Mexico City in the spring of 2014. While the creative process represented the core of the work, the conceptual framework for the project was to open a creative dialogue between the artists and the public in the form of a performance, a collaborative drawing installation by Sumi Ink Club, a printed publication, and two 7-inch recordings. Based on an auditory illusion in which short fragments of speech, when repeated, can appear as entire words and sentences, “Speak Your Own Language” functions like an audio rorschach test. Spoken syllables, sequenced and altered into layered rhythms and harmonic textures, occupy an area between music and language that each listener hears differently. For the record’s cover artwork, five listeners were asked to write down any words or phrases that they heard, composing lyrics to the music. Lucky Dragons is an ongoing collaboration between artists Sarah Rara (b. 1983, Livingston, N.J.) andLuke Fischbeck (b. 1978, San Francisco, Calif.), Lucky Dragons have been exploring the nuances of sound as a participatory medium for close to 14 years through recordings, performance, software design, workshops, and installations. Their work has been presented in a wide variety of contexts, including the Whitney Museum of American Art (as part of the 2008 Whitney Biennial), the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Walker Art Center, London’s Institute for Contemporary Art, MOMA/PS1 and the Kitchen in New York, REDCAT, LACMA and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, MOCA Los Angeles, the 54th Venice Biennale, and the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, among others.

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MERCHANTS – ‘Merchants’ C60
Merchants is an italian electronic duo composed of Alberto Ricca / Bienoise (Red Bull Music Academy Tokyo alumnus) and Davide Amici. Their music is sample-based, combining dark beats with found sounds in a musical exploration of imaginary countries. Global debris and techno pulses meet in search of possible musics. Merchants s/t full-length album is out October 14 on black cassette limited to 100.

HARAAM – ‘The Sacrifice Of Will’ C30
Haraam (Arabic for forbidden, the opposite of halal) is Copenhagen-based noise artist Martin Schacke solo project. Going on since 2014, he has released a handful of tapes on underground labels as Fallow Field and Cønjuntø Vacíø as well as on his own Moral Defeat. On October 17 Yerevan Tapes will release Haraam latest effort The Sacrifice Of Will. Largely inspired by the refugee crisis and changes in the political environment in northern Europe, these six tracks are a perfect blend of bass heavy rhythmic noise, lo-fi industrial techno with a great focus on atmosphere, droning noise and concrete soundscapes from the Middle-East. Comes on white cassette limited to 100.

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Yves Malone – ‘Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life’ C28
Yves Malone is back with a 28 minute, four song EP for our International Cassette Store Day release of 2016. Dialing down the abject horror of previous programs, he nonetheless manages to find that balance between idle dread and victorious exultation, an idiosyncratic current that binds his catalog together. These tracks, abandoned from a nebulous video game scoring project, have been reworked and refined into something resembling a krautrock jam on the eve of a massive tumultuous downturn…

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