Bathetic

Villages – ‘Theories of Ageing’ LP
Asheville, NC’s Ross Gentry takes his time fine-tuning his art. Theories Of Ageing is a pinnacle; prime example of the painstaking process a true artist can go through to sculpt a masterpiece. Gentry picks up his Villages mantle and flows beyond himself, taking his delicate sounds to an epic field of staggering, emotional landscapes. Theories Of Ageing takes a sound process, weaving elements together, and in its finality, what’s what is left in the wind. Delicate floating synth atmosphere with open-tuned acoustic guitar strums, banjo and piano slide in and out of the spaces, creating an entirely enchanting, if a bit haunting record. As a reference, Villages takes on a level of ambient artistry seen throughout the works of Labradford or Stars Of The Lid; never scared to embrace more than just textural sound layers; but also build, mould, and shape pure music. This is not background art. Recorded in the colder months of 2011 and 2012, snug and secluded, Gentry constructed a timeless piece – nostalgic in feeling, with an underlying optimistic emotion.  Setting the overall mood, Theories of Ageing is layered with acoustic instruments at it’s foundation – a pump organ, acoustic guitars, banjo, piano.  An eclectic group of electric and analog instruments, field and voice recordings are carefully woven throughout.  Recorded onto both reel to reel and digital formats, Theories is soaked with texture allowing for its vibrant consciousness to breathe. Villages is a force to be reckoned with, and we expect even more sincere greatness to come. Theories Of Ageing is a pristine record, full-force, beautiful, and robust in a tender way. Each record comes shrink-wrapped in a matte varnished jacket. Includes hand-numbered insert. Mastered by James Plotkin. Artwork based off of original photographs by Herb Snitzer. Edition of 312.

Angelo Harmsworth – ‘Silent Orgasm’ C45
Angelo Harsmworth does it again, with his return to Bathetic via Silent Orgasm. Silent Orgasm is lush and vibrant, while also stark and abrasive in its measures. Harmsworth is not afraid to step outside the comfort zone; employing both rolling, reverbed piano loveliness as well as toiling, wavering sine waves — crisp, electric, and lawless. The air of melody is never left, forming a true duality in the music of Silent Orgasm, but not falling into the trappings pigeonholing as simply ambient music.  There is a spirit within the tones, almost touching arenas constructed by the likes of Black Dice, Fennesz, or Fabio Orsi. Silent Orgasm is minimal in approach, but in tonality and space it’s encompassing; filling the space around it.  Never contrived, and able to conquer an entire spectrum of emotion, Harmsworth has a glorious, sunbaked treat to douse our heads. Edition of 100.

Dinner Music – ‘Tomb of Comb’ C40
Rick Weaver returns to Bathetic with is brand of warbled and warped cinematic music. It’s like a Lynchian smear of uncomfortableness that is both blooming and bodacious, while maintaining an awkward and alarming air. Afterhours music; like Captain Beefheart exchanging tales of trips to the gates of hell with a young and broken Tom Waits to the ghost of Evel Knievel, amongst sputtering, broken tones and ghastly and unnatural timbres. Beautiful in its controlled chaos. Dinner Music is Rick Weaver playing organ, percussion, voice, corpse piano, tone bank, acoustic guitar, sound effects, & tapes – recorded during the weekend of archetypes.  Take a trip through the Tomb of Comb… you’ll enter a world like nothing you could’ve imagined. *each cassette comes with a 6″ x 10″ b&w insert-poster. Edition of 80.

WEBSITE

Like Young

LY008 Conveyor – ‘Conveyor’ CS
Conveyor have created a masterwork of musicianship, vocal harmonies and delicious electronic infused pop jingles to make your life that much better. Blending in some of the best parts of each genre, and making them their own, Conveyor have struck gold and hand you their self-titled offering via cassette. Thanks to the wonderful people at Paper Garden Records who have allowed me the opportunity to release one of the greatest records I’ve ever heard. Seriously. This release also includes: 1. Cassette Tape 1. DropCard including the entire S/T album + a 6 track EP that is exclusive to Like Young Records, and can only be obtained through purchasing this tape! 1. 3 design button back Yellow /50 Green / 50 *CONVEYOR EXCLUSIVE COLOR*

LY004 Like Young/Wolf Grey split CS
Wolf Grey has a style on their own, combining emotion driven lyrics upon loud, minimalistic / blown out, dub laced noise. They are a force to be reckoned with, and for a reason at that! Solid dudes hailing from Utrecht in the Netherlands. Released on black & white tapes, each out of 25 copies. Both shells have white imprinting, and will coincide with the artwork / bands related with this release! Also included with each tape is a button back, one button to represent each artist. Black /25 White /25 *Each tape comes with a 1″ button back.

LY005 Like Young/Quiethouse split CS
Like Young is for fans of Stars Of The Lid, Tycho & Goddamn Electric Bill. Quiethouse plays favor to Flying Lotus, Mount Kimbie & Bonobo. Clear w/ Blue Liner /25 Clear w/ Green Linter /25.

LY006 SEXES – ‘Cults’ CS
Blown-out, drone laced tracks from New Albany, IN. FFO: Circle of Ouroborus, Monster Rally & Xasthur. Grey Tapes /50 *Each tape comes with a 1″ button.

WEBSITE

Mark Bradley

mark bradley – ‘offerings’ C44
we are not good in words, therefore we make music. florian schneider mark bradley obviously loves this quote. but just by listening to “offerings” you sense his deep knowledge of the 70s german kosmische musik. the feeling of everything is kept in slow motion while playing the tape. stumbling over melted moonlight with the wisdom of supernatural probabilities. timeless structures switching to freeway notions. your fingers producing traces while moved in front of your eyes. power plants humming in the dark, irrlicht between your feet. but besides this kosmische quality bradleys music has structure. the track order is like a big cycle, the tracks themselves sometimes like songs, droning verse, minimalist chorus, droning verse. tape slicing copy and paste anachronisms. superb. kraftwerk’s conceptionalism combined with high quality kosmische lift off. you will love it. mark bradley – offerings (medley) by cosmic winnetou chrome tape, home-dubbed on akai tape deck in real time. professionally printed j-card. artwork by rahel & floyd. limited to 50 hand-numbered copies.

WEBSITE

Pan y Rosas

(pyr062): julia a. miller – ‘solo variations’
about the artist: julia a. miller is a sound artist, guitarist, improvisor, composer, visual artist, curator and educator. a founding member of the chicago scratch orchestra, julia performs frequently as a guitarist with the electroacoustic trio auris, the group gmlet eye, and as a frequent soloist and collaborator in experimental and avant garde chamber music and free improvisation. she recently participated in the $100 guitar project, a double cd of improvised and composed short pieces which will be released on bridge records in the fall of 2012. julia is a faculty member at the music institute of chicago and an adjunct assistant professor in sound at the school of the art institute in chicago. about the album: solo variations is a live recording of guitar improvisations captured at one of the sunday solos series at the experimental sound studio in chicago. shred feedback electronics. guitar as multiple instruments. percussive drone. pure tone barrage. spider fingers. liquid rips through space. bent time.

WEBSITE

Retrograde

rgt #09: M. Akers – ‘Tough To Kill’ LP  $17(US)/$20(CAN)/$24(World)
Born and raised in the shadow of Detroit, Matthew Akers is a native of urban decay and withering cityscapes, political corruption and crime beyond the scope of “normal,” and the general unsettling vibe in the air that somewhere, not far away, some ugly shit is going down.  Around 2009, he picked up a synth & drum machine & taught himself how to channel the settling dust of a crumbling city into the sound of gritty electronic soundtrack scores, influenced by old gods of the genre such as Froese, Carpenter, and Frizzi.  2010 was the year of his first recording, the self-released, The Future Barbarians, followed by The Elders Of New Detroit on Retrograde in 2011.  A handful of releases and a year or so later, Akers has transformed himself from bedroom electronic composer to full-on cinematic-sound mercenary, armed to the teeth with analog gear and the collective years of ingesting OSTs & the work of pioneering electronic musicians.  Culminating into Tough To Kill, this evolution serves as a milestone in the timeline of Akers’s rapidly growing body of work and a benchmark for the burgeoning retro-soundtrack scene.  From dark, brooding ambient to the throb of dance-floor-ready Italo disco, the ominous air and driving rhythms of TTK are presented in classic Carpenter-esque ultra-polish, MIDI-free, sample-free, and on virgin vinyl for maximum clarity.  Retrograde is proud to offer Akers’s latest & greatest for those familiar with his work as well as a shining introduction for listeners hearing the new sounds of past soundtracks for the first time. From the man himself: “For fans of 80’s film scores, krautrock, early techno, italo disco, war-torn jungles, futuristic dystopias, cynical mercenaries, and cops who smoke too much. If you ever find yourself laying low in a motel in some shithole town with only a bottle of whiskey and a loaded .45, light up your last cigarette and turn on your ipod. This is for you.” Tough To Kill comes housed in a handsome 4 color, split-fountain style screen-printed jacket, each one done painstakingly by hand with an edge-worn look – no two copies are exactly the same.  Also included is a 12×11 poster/insert with liner notes.   Additionally, the first 50 orders include a bonus c50, Deleted Scenes, culled from material created during the writing of Tough To Kill that serves as a more nebulous companion to TTK for early bird orders. Edition of 398 copies.

WEBSITE

Field Hymns

Andreas Brandal – ‘Staying Is Nowhere’ C48 $6
RIYL: synth transmissions, interstitial metabolism, the exquisite poetry of the cosmos.  A beautiful, zoned out narrative from Andreas Brandal – the most apt way we can think to introduce Staying Is Nowhere is to imagine David Attenborough producing a film about the mathematical makeup of the universe.  Although this nails the feel, it is not quite descriptive enough. Suffice to say we fell in love with it from the moment we heard it and can’t quite get enough of it. Limited edition of 100 pro-dubbed & imprinted cassettes w/ download card.

WEBSITE

Tanzprocesz

[tzpCS24] Lazy Magnet – ‘Careless In Heat Vol.1’ 10E 2xCS
Double tape collection by lazy magnet. beat or not. melodies or not. noise or not. psychedelic or not. ax(e) cuts. because lazy magnet will do anything when he wants to, two tapes is a good start.

[tzpLIVE09] Ero Babaa – ‘Live Series Vol.9’ 5E CS
9th volume of the live series. sax pedals guitar mayhem. this is the live they destroyed the recorder. this is freedom. this is free noise. handmade sewing machine artwork.

[tzpLP06] Headwar – ‘Touche Pas L’Enfant’ 7E LP
headwar are playing dead rock. headwar are still alive. headwar are drums guitars locked grooves screams obsessive riffs. headwar are from this part of France which was the future.

WEBSITE

777 was 666

777-020 Kommissar Hjuler – ‘Konkrete Poesie’ C46 Y1,200(WORLD)
Limted to 30 copies.

WEBSITE

Robert & Leopold

Leif Elggren – ‘Sleepwalking’ C30  $8(US)/$10(World)
Edition of 100.  Swedish artist Leif Elggren has a monumental list of creative accomplishments in both the visual art world as well as a recording artist.  His first recorded piece, Cu, from 1982 firmly established Elggren as a archivist of his own work using recorded source material and field recording techniques.  For his newest cassette lucidly entitledSleepwalking, Elggren taped notation of his recent performance which was debuted at the Sleep Disorders exhibition in NYC during the Summer of 2012. Listen in to full report of what happened after the artist’s eyelids have closed and the parallel universe unfolded.

Death Houses – ‘…All But The Crimson Light Remained’ C10  $8(US)/$10(World)
Edition of 25.  Painful, seducing feedback noise culled from Ryan Martin (York Factory Complaint / DeTrop/ Hanel Koeck).  Lashing electronics, blarring distortion that muddy down into a looping industrial death trap. Short and to the point, no need for excuses.

WEBSITE

Enough Records

dUAS sEMIcOLCHEIAS iNVERTIDAS – ‘4’
4 is the 4th album from the Portuguese psychedelic jazz rock noise project dUAS sEMIcOLCHEIAS iNVERTIDAS (dSCi). Titled after the self-titled 4th albums of other notorious bands, this album is now made available free for download to celebrating the end of their kebab tour 2012 while the band is still making their way back to Portugal crossing through Spain, France and Italy. // 4 é o quarto album do projecto Português de jazz psicadélico rock noise dUAS sEMIcOLCHEIAS iNVERTIDAS (dSCi). Titulado segundo outros quartos albums de bandas notórias, este album encontra-se agora disponivel para download gratuito celebrando o final da kebab tour 2012 enquanto a banda retorna a Portugal, ainda com concertos marcados Espanha, França e Itália.

WEBSITE