Animal Psi

Amph – ‘Polar/Mongol’ LP €17.5(EU)/€18.5(World)
Having defended the art of the press release in Matthias Andersson’s Fördämning zine (#1), it’s unfortunately been laid upon me to describe an album of my own, making it decidedly harder to come up with the kind of witty, meta-reflective noise scene commentaries I usually resort to. Left to offer then is some thoughts on the development of Amph up to this point. The band, consisting of myself and Andreas Malm (Skeppet, Body Awareness, Kosmisk Väg label) started operating in 2010. Having tried to make music together but not really found a common ground, we stumbled upon an LP by Messages on De Stijl. A path seemed to open. On this great release, Tres Warren, Taketo Shimada and Spencer Herbst successfully capture the spirit of 60s/70s New York minimalism within a distinctly contemporary musical framework. While initially aiming for something similar, we didn’t really sound like Messages in the end – more like Metgumbnerbone… What we borrowed is perhaps the unhurried pace and dedication to repetition, most prominently concretized in the use and abuse of the tape loop. Since the resulting debut, Rapport om blinda, a few more editions and compilation tracks has appeared on labels like Järtecknet, Untergeschoss, Hästen & Korset and Release the Bats. While the sound from the very beginning has been based around different repetitious structures, we’ve tried to push ourselves in new directions – whether we’ve wanted or not moving beyond the primitivistic appeal of the earlier tracks. The two cuts presented here are not necessarily less crude – the foundational elements are still hissy, slowed down four-track tapes – but it’s a crudeness approached, at least in part, with a greater compositional sensitivity. It’s hard to point to any one defining influence that’s paved the way for Polar / Mongol, but in different ways Amph’s current aesthetic points to everything from the on-going INA-GRM reissue campaign to Yoshi Wada, Raymond Dijkstra, Foxy Music, La Düsseldorf, the Potlatch label, Ashley C’s Timeless Reality, Graham Lambkin, Thurnemans, Wandelweiser, Regim, Dilloway, Choi Joonyong and Keith Rowe. In my opinion, this latest synthesis provides one of the more successfully realized examples of what we’ve tried to accomplish since the start of our collaboration. Edition of 250.

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BONG – ‘Untitled’ LP
Brand new full length release from Newcastle psychedelic doom droners BONG! It continues the bands long drawn out epic jams into a sludgey druggy haze, any self discerning stoner should know this band by now, and, if not, they probably need to smoke a little less weed and listen to a little more music. The band have previous had releases on MIE Music, Ritual Productions, and Brave Mysteries to name a few. They played Roadburn Festival in 2010 (the set was so damn good Roadburn released it on vinyl in 2011), and have had split releases with Gnod and a host of Newcastles underground scene. This untitled LP is pressed in a limited edition of 400 copies only for Record Store Day 2013. Pressed on 180 gram purple vinyl with multi-colour splatter and packaged in a deluxe clear PVC sleeve.

ANDREW LILES – ‘Murgatroyd The Monster (A Northern Noir)’ LP
Andrew Liles is one of the UK’s finest experimental/avant garde artists, not only performing in Nurse With Wound and Current 93, but releasing a huge catalogue of solo material on some of the worlds finest experimental labels. So it’s with great honour that Blackest Rainbow releases Andrew’s latest LP, ‘Murgatroyd The Monster (A Nothern Noir)’, a new instalment in his MONSTER series of releases. As with all the recordings in the MONSTER series Liles takes us off on another wild and unpredictable tangent. ‘Murgatroyd The Monster (A Nothern Noir)’ is primarily a narrative piece, arguably a recording much in the vein of a ‘radio play’ mixed with ‘cool’ jazz which has all been blended together with an intoxicating cocktail of surrealism and avant garde scrapes, groans and studio wizardry. The story narrated by two Americans (artist Alex Jako and Nurse With Wound member M.S. Waldron) talk us through a bizarre tale of a young lady who has stolen a huge sum of cash from Murgatroyd, a local mobster. She is trying to escape but Murgatroyd and his gang are hunting her down. This all sounds fairly standard fodder for a film noir tale but the twist is the language. The words used are entirely Yorkshire and Lancashire slang and dialect. Most people south of Nottingham will struggle to understand the words used and the wider world will be more than slightly dumbfounded. ‘Murgatroyd The Monster (A Nothern Noir)’ is a very unusual recording, both ridiculous and intelligent, unpredictable yet clichéd. It is another valuable addition to the Liles canon that is testament to his indomitable desire to create new and very different music. Limited to 300 copies released for Record Store Day 2013. Pressed on 180 gram clear vinyl with full colour sleeves.

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RC68: ALA VJIIOR – ‘INFLICTED INFLEXIONS’ C32
A stream of consciousness plummet through sun-stripped funnels. Duplicated at Rotifer HQ on type II chrome cassettes. Color inserts. edition of 40.

RC69: LATELATELATENIGHT – ‘BIO-TECHNO-INFOSPHERICAL INTEGRATION’ C56
Fellow well-wisher/pulpiteer Sean Dean left me with these possibly decade-old treasures. Behind-the-headband thoughts on defining and redefining a universe. Duplicated at Rotifer HQ on type II chrome cassettes. Color inserts with track titles. edition of 50.

RC70: PAUL HARES – ‘BLURRED’ C56
Celebrating our 70th release, give a warm welcome to newcomer Paul Hares of Russia. A legendary first release dripping with tasteful, crisp beats the whole ride through. Professionally duplicated on type II chrome cassettes. Color inserts with track titles. edition of 100.

RC71: RATKILLER – ‘EXOTIC SURGERY’ C34
Ratkiller’s Mihkel Kleis is back on board with Rotifer again. Stepping up to higher levels. Tasty chunks of energy on every track. Duplicated at Rotifer HQ on type II chrome cassettes. Color inserts with track titles. edition of 50.

RC72: NAG DOLLY – ‘NINE-TENTHS LIGHT’ C34
The latest from Nag Dolly. Stuck in a sticky time, in an peculiar place that may or may not have ever existed before. Windswept memories to cap off your winter. Mastered by Graham Pisarek.
Duplicated at Rotifer HQ on type II chrome cassettes. Color inserts with track titles. edition of 50.

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mm-017CD – Ernstalbrecht Stiebler – ‘Ton in Ton’
Modern Classical – Minimal Music. Ensemble Modern performs “Ton in Ton” a minimal work commisioned by the Hanne-Darboven-Foundation.

MAX0011 – Markus Wormstorm – ‘Not I, but a friend’
Electroacoustic – Soundtrack for mental cinema. The sounddesigner for NY Times illustrator Christoph Niemanns “Petting Zoo” app – releases his forst solo album.

mm-021 – Denseland – ‘Like Likes Like’
Popular Avantgarde – Experimental. David Moss, Hannes Strobl and Hanno Leichtmann present their new album.

MAX0012 – Uphill Racer – ‘Golden Anchor’
Pop – Bedroom electronica. You can expect a sublime album. Golden Anchor is a masterpiece of futuristic dream pop.

MORA = M.O.R.A. – ‘phonetic More of radical Architecture’
Part ONE to THREE. Music dedicated to buildings of radical architecture.

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JAMES BLACKSHAW & LUBOMYR MELNYK – ‘The Watchers’ CD/LP
The Watchers is a historic collaboration between Lubomyr Melnyk and James Blackshaw. Both artists are well known as composers but here it is their impovisational skills that are on display. First 200 copies of the LP will ship on blue vinyl. CD version is packaged in a heavy duty digipak.

LAWRENCE ENGLISH – ‘Lonely Women’s Club’ LP
Beautiful new work from Lawrence English. Pressed in an edition of 500 copies. First 100 copies are on violet vinyl.

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Morphine Bandit – ‘Smokescreen’
Weird spectral explorations of sonic landscapes through drones and noises reiterative devices.

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Goat Lightning – ‘Sister’s Crystals’ CS $5
Minimal electronic psychedelia. Only 25 copies made.

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GOD14 duo adé – ‘Freilassing’ one-sided LP
Although their music sounds very serious and complex, duo adé don’t want to be considered as abstract formation. Graz-based duo, comprised of members of cult band, Code Inconnu, already established themselves as very specific low-fi electronic constellation on their first release, Hungrige Speisen. This time, avoiding any kind of electronic devices and electronic manipulations, they sat themselves on (out-of-tune) piano, set different tempo each, and recorded eleven versions of Freilassing (one available on the record and the rest as free download!). The piece is half-structured improvisation, combination of micro-tonality, bitonality, rhythmically independent counterpoints, integration and disintegration, and (in)homogeneous repetitions. 25 minutes of extremely challenging piano music, on the run into the unknown known… Seriously, thought they do not want it to be!

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PHR-99 REVERSE MOUTH w/ BRIAN OSBORNE – ‘Jacko Blues’ C60 6€
Recorded in Brooklyn, New York in 2009, the day Michael Jackson died, Reverse Mouth shreds along w/ free-form percussionist and long time bro, Brian Osborne (Heat Retention Records, member of Blastocyst, George Steeltoe Ensemble and The Gate Trio w/ Dan Peck, among others). Somewhere between Harry Pussy, cripple prog, punk ra + nihilism, this is a fine example of no future basement noise. Edition of 40 spraypainted tapes housed in cardstock wrap-around covers. Already half-gone!

PHR-98 BIG CITY ORCHESTRA – ‘Screaming Meeme’ CDr 6€
New installment by the veteran, surprising supergroup, filled w/ avant chants and lynchian drones. An esoteric thesis on silent screaming and growing isolation through an eroded –but detailed– magnifying glass. The staff on this release was Ninah Pixie, Cliff Neighbors, Rosie Langabeer, Jonathan Segel, Univac, Daevid Allen, Melissa Margolis and Das. Edition of 65 copies w/ glued color artwork on lime cardstock and stenciled discs.

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