Animal Psi

NR-008 Abstinentiadivinorum – ‘Hopelessness/Benzedrine’ 2xC90 $10(US)
In this 2xC90 are some of the darkest drones and soundscapes to grace magnetic tape. Abstinentiadivinorum is a project hailing from Russia by Viktoria Mengele, and centers around very longform drone pieces that are rich with emotion and texture. The command the listeners attention and yet lull them. The feeling of imminent doom. Pulsating pain. For anyone who enjoys drone and dark ambient. Limited to 25 copies on black and white hand labeled tapes, with full color double sided three panel artwork by Viktoria herself.

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Dylan Ethier – ‘Nightly Exchange’ $5
“Tape reconstruction of saturated analogue electronic patterns focusing, through fragmentation, on the exchange between lucidity and loss. Recorded September 2011- February 2012 in Nashville, Tennessee. Edition of 100. Includes high fidelity download. An alternate version of nightly exchange was presented as an interactive installation on march 9, 2012 in Nashville, TN in collaboration with the exhibition titled Nest curated by Molly Lahym. The installation involved real time collaging of deteriorating 1/4″ tape recordings. These recordings were then looped / manipulated between three tape machines at various speeds which additionally subtly triggered synthesized video projections. Presented inside a structure of black fabric and wood, exhibitors were free to further manipulate the audio / visual content. The intent here was in utilizing found materials in the process of constructing a creative and meditative environment.”

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Duckyousucker – ‘OF TOMORROW’ C15 $2
Edition of 100. Duckyousucker is a San Francisco-based trio utilizing samplers, saxophone, drums, and guitar. While many of their songs are instrumental, to call them simply post-rock is a long way off. They pull from a rich canon of influences, summoning the spirits of Pharoah Sanders and Gilberto Gil, unleashing the Melting Paraiso UFO. Looped samples nucleate grooves that weave throughout densely layered textures. Before you know it, dance happens.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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