Animal Psi

fon36 – Charlatan/Clathrus split $9.5(World)
Two drone swordsmen from America and Russia join forces on this cassette release to bring some altered beats to whatever is going on in the new noise. Brad Rose‘s body of work includes excellent releases under The North Sea cloak, as well as industrial noise damage of Ajilvsga and blurred pop brilliance of Altar Eagle, among others. Being the boss of Digitalis Brad had introduced the world to hundreds of records that melted minds, including quite a few of his own compositions. Charlatan‘s previous releases were mostly filled with lucid synth moves and slow drum pulses, varying from chill instrumental electronica to tongue-in-cheek frenetic twists. The new material is a transition release for Charlatan – kind of shedding the old skin and trying on the new one (that will then lead to the “Isolatarium” LP). One’s in for delicious heavy synth throbs, skipping arpeggios and techno wabi-sabi. Dmitriy Vlasov has been a dark knight of the new Russian experimentalism with hisBilliam Wutler Yea over-the-top digital rituals, later to return to Clathrus guise and explore the possibility of keeping it intricate and make the material more accessible. His “Aloof Out Rwanda” cassette on, you may’ve guessed, Digitalis Limited was such a strong statement Dmitriy needed to cement it with Brad Rose. Sad-eyes downtempo slopes overlap mutant dub explorations, assembled with a traditional stamp of Russian melancholy. Black / white tapes with full-colour J-cards designed by Ivan Afanasyev. Each comes with a download code! Edition of 100.

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Cosmic Dead – ‘The Exalted King’
This Scottish psych hoard unfurl two side-long monstrous jams, setting the controls for heart of some darkened, dead planet. This is not a white hot, big bang skronk fest, however. This is the fallout after the bang, the slow mixing of elements in mercurial pools thick with murk, black waves slowly breaking and hissing upon jagged, newly formed igneous rock. Tumbling bass lines boil over simmering drums, while fuzzed guitars and synths roil and toil in great green clouds storming across the atmosphere. A far, far cry from self-indulgent guitar workouts or resin-stained one-riff snoozefests, The Cosmic Dead take you through the peaks and valleys of their world with great skill and restraint. But be advised, things get pretty hot once you get pulled in by the gravity of this band.  w/ download.
 
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L A N D – ‘Night Within’ CD/LP
Guest contributions include David Sylvian, Daniel O’Sullivan (Miracle and Ulver), Duke Garwood and many others with the two creators, Daniel Lea and Matthew Waters, both taking a directorial role. The album was sculpted in Reykjavik by Ben Frost, enhanced by his signature aural physicality and visceral sub bass. The album is a vast collision of sound, from free brass and woodwind to “geometric” bowed cymbals and metallic percussion.

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE – ‘Live As Troubadour’ LP
Screen printed jackets to use up leftover records. Edition of 100.  These are located in the special edition section of the Important site.

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EXPO ’70 – ‘Beguiled Entropy’ LP £12
Expo ’70 has garnered a great deal of notoriety over the last few years in certain circles in which the moniker is usually mentioned to describe types of cross-genres. After completing a couple US tours and a handful of limited releases and re-releases in 2010, a short hiatus was in order. During this time last year Justin Wright, sole operator of the project, recorded tracks for an upcoming release. Wright entered a basement studio and improvised over two nights layered recordings for the first time in several months. A track from this session was released earlier this year as the title track for Sound of Cobra’s “Hovering Resonance” one-sided limited LP. That song did not take up the full record and Wright returned to the studio with his current 3 piece line-up to record “Moon Raga”, a more eastern-sounding influenced exploration. The edition of 200 hand silk screen covers which disappeared extremely fast. The remainder of the solo session is collected here as one full album entitled “Beguiled Entropy”, which explores more fidelity in sounds and texture than “Hovering Resonance”. Soft synthesizer creeps along to explorations dominated by drifting melodic guitar leads, quickly shifting in textural atmospheres. As “Beguiled Entropy” is flipped to side B, the narratives drop and a more driving synth line bridges a rising pulse that takes the steering wheel in to a more cosmic psychedelic territory, adding analog drum machines leading the listener deeper into a trance-like state. This release co-insides with Expo ’70’s first European tour this September. Mastered by James Plotkin. Pressed in an edition of 500 copies, 100 copies pressed on 180 gram blue vinyl with orange swirl available only directly from Blackest Rainbow and 400 copies on 180 gram black virgin vinyl. Includes a download card for the entire album as FLAC, WAV, MP3 etc, you decide what format! Order at Bandcamp and get instant download of a track from the album.

ORPHAN FAIRYTALE – ‘Comets Come Alive’ LP £12
Orphan Fairytale emerged mid 2000s from the Belgian underground which seems to be a consistently solid ground for fantastic music emerging. This brand new LP from Eva Van Deuren’s Orphan Fairytale project follows on from her fantastic ‘Ladybird Labyrinth’ LP on Ultra Eczema as well as releases on Rampart, Foxglove, Release The Bats and many other great labels. ‘Comets Come Alive’ is a beautiful dreamy album of keyboard, layered with various unknown objects, toys and other non-instruments creating a sea of sound that is so stunning it’s hard to put into words. The sounds Eva creates have a childlike nursery rhyme like quality which is what makes her music so charming, it’s simplistic, but there’s not much else out there that sounds like what Eva does, she blends the minimalistic with the psychedelic. ‘Comets Come Alive’ is pressed on 180gram virgin vinyl including a download code. Edition of 500 copies, 100 copies pressed on 180 gram green vinyl with red, yellow and blue splatter with a hand numbered insert available only directly from Blackest Rainbow and 400 copies on 180 gram black virgin vinyl with an un-numbered insert on a different coloured paper to the coloured vinyl edition. Includes a download card for the entire album as FLAC, WAV, MP3 etc, you decide what format. Order at Bandcamp and get instant download of a track from the album.

SPACE VICTIM – ‘Decreased Awareness Of inner Processes’ CDr £6
New CDR of nightmare visions from this relatively unknown Newcastle duo that features Mike Vest of Bong/Basillica etc. Potentially one of the most weird and eerie projects I;ve heard from Mike, fractured strings echo across vast bellowing strange sounds. Probably one of my favourites from all his associated projects so far. Black and white art printed on coloured card.

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Ryan Jewell – ‘Infinite Light’ CS $6
Ryan Jewell’s astral audition of Furniture Music and study in clairaudience develops through the serene modulations of its reflective, percussive bowing. Part I is an ember of yogic minimalism and cantabile, Part II is the slight return. Dungeon Taxis 20. $6USD

Pak – ‘Cast Shadow’ CS $6
Artifact miniatures of choral filament and cardiac thump dunked in impish mains buzz and cyclic nice gunk. Lauren Pakradooni’s palimpsest of crawly melody is kindled in fungal medley, lattice of ooze. Entropy in the mouth of the earworm. Dungeon Taxis 21.

Legendary Hearts – ‘Music from the Elevator’ CS $6
Andrew ‘Angel Eyes’ Cowie and Kieran ‘Superstar’ Hegarty’s debut as Legendary Hearts bends Fourth World drum programs through a heavenly screen of Romance keyboard moire and subaltern electro ostinato, elegantly ghosted by chimed Dream & Desire guitar counterpoint. Six glassed arenas of upstairs tuneage and vanishing point melancholy in BM/EZ ascension. Dungeon Taxis 22.

TLAOTLON – ‘Teeth Alphabets’ CS $6
Jeremy Coubrough’s byzantine stepper of tuned detonations, radiant circuitry and molecular percolation rocks in hyperbolic space – an Aqua Worm Hole of talking-drum boink, atomized bounce and damaged Schaffel, filtered as Ewe music through the dizzy mixed meter and ecstatic syncopation of Footwork. Dungeon Taxis 23.

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Yuichiro Fujimoto – ‘Speak Melodies’
Yuichiro Fujimoto is an artist, musician, and photographer living in Urayasu, Japan. Speaks Melodies is his fourth album, including releases on Norway’s Smalltown Supersound, German label Ahornfelder, and this is his second release for Audio Dregs. The CD for Speaks Melodies comes in an eco-wallet package that contains a 16 page booklet of street photographs by Yuichiro and is designed by Norwegian design hero, Kim Hiorthøy.

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Mike Shiflet – ‘Forgotten Somewhere’ C24 $7
It’s a daunting task to think of where to begin when it comes to offering up a succinct summation of Mike Shiflet’s copious and exquisite body of work. Over the past eleven years or so, the Columbus-based musician has investigated a breadth of approaches to sustained sound, from slow-burning microcosmic tones that gradually shift into distinctly unfamiliar forms to more carefully coordinated layers of melodious treatments of guitar, synth, and field recordings that actively extract unorthodox inflections from such familiar sources. Forgotten Somewhere has Shiflet mastering both of these attitudes, the title piece constructing a nebulous, dusky fuzz of subtly gorgeous vibration while “Omicron Meditation” is a textural excursion into crackling, jittering snaps, recalling a piece of warped blank vinyl spinning from damaged speakers. This cassette is a transcendent testimonial from one of the underground’s most celebrated talents, hinting both at territory investigated on 2010′s acclaimed Llanos CD and earlier works such as 2004′s Xenakis Youth CDR. Pro-dubbed/pro-printed edition of 100.

York Factory Complaint – ‘Origins Of Sabir’ C24 $7
Originally recording and performing as the duo of Ryan Martin (founder of the Robert & Leopold label, co-founder of Dais Records) and Michael Berdan (of recent hardcore heroes Veins and numerous other projects), York Factory Complaint have since expanded into a quartet, adding on talents Theresa Smith and Michael Yaniro (ex-Twin Stumps), and thus forging forth an approach that has helped refine the project’s bleak, caustic demolition of harsh-noise, power electronics, and other post-industrial microcosms of extreme music. Origins Of Sabir follows releases on Hanson Records and House Of Alchemy (not to mention to the many that have seen the light of day on Martin’s Robert & Leopold) and an infamous live collaboration with the legendary Genesis P-Orridge, with Sabir finding the solidified foursome pushing their discord to the brink; feedback blankets the pandemonium while all manner of electronics and guitars are defiled in the ensuing disorder. Both sides inhibit shades of what an evasive collabortion between Hijokaidan and early-period Ramleh might have culminated in. Ugly, cruel, and marvelous. Pro-dubbed/pro-printed edition of 100.

Rambutan – ‘Surrounded’ C40 $7
Eric Hardiman is an upstate NY musician who in addition to operating the superb label Tape Drift Records and performing as a long-time member of both psych-rock ensemble Burnt Hills and as one-half of the prolific Century Plants also records prodigious and multifarious drone compositions under the alias Rambutan. Surrounded has been on the table for a long while, and its engrossing, captivating constitution manifests as an audacious rearrangement of guitar-focused experimentation. Hardiman constructs these four pieces around intense manipulations of his guitar and various unidentified electronics using a hand and mind that works both patiently and fearlessly. Pieces like “Unfamiliar Moments” and “Trace” inhabit a state of contemplative obscurity, carefully avoiding the easy pay-off of cheap bombast while the title track, along with “Perimeter,” confidently explores the heavy, hazy psychedelia of British experimental legends like Ashtray Navigations and Matthew Bowers various projects. A pronounced and striking work of a consistently gifted voice in the American underground. Pro-dubbed/pro-printed edition of 100.

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Deep Magic – ‘Closed Eyes’
After spending some time recently blazing minds with his Heatwave project Alex Gray returns to his Deep Magic guise with the cavernous “Closed Eyes”. Blending his approach to layered instruments with field recordings from 5 different continents, “Closed Eyes” is a twist on the laid back vibes Alex normal trades in. The album reflects the cover’s colder tone compared to Alex’s normal vibrant pallet. Chill as in icebox yo. Mastered by Sean McCann.

Daniel Bachman – ‘Oh Be Joyful’
A drink concocted by restless Civil War troops, “Oh Be Joyful” was made out of such things as turpentine, tar water, lamp oil, and brown sugar. As Daniel Bachman puts it, “…it fucked them up. They drank it and they loved it.” Such interest in minute details are reflected not only in the Philadelphian’s passion for mid-1800’s history, but also in his song construction. Oh Be Joyful is the 7th release for Bachman, and the 2nd on Debacle. This digital/CD format re-issue (from the vinyl on One Kind Favor) features the 21-year old virtuoso’s warm, unfolding rhythms meandering from his finger picked steel guitar. Branching beyond the American primitive style he’s recognized for, this latest 7-track offering forays into new elements of style, particularly on tracks “Sita Ram (Who is God)” and “The Bridge of Flowers”.

Dull Knife – ‘Dull Knife’
Garek Druss (A Story of Rats,Tecumseh, Stenskogen) and Adam Svenson (Karnak Temples Little Claw, Du Hexen Hase) have been members of Dull Knife for over 6 years. Originating as a super-jam between key players of the drone/noise/weird scene of Seattle, Dull Knife has been paired down to the nucleus of Druss and Svenson. They maintain the original vision of deep dusky organic drones that reflect the wet and mossy vision of Seattle’s grey skies and open waters. Dull Knife seem to approach their pieces with a studied patience, focusing on improvisation and organic touches. Chords and timbre’s naturally build over time, allowing individual instruments to separate and become identifiable in the mix. Side A’s “Excavating” begins from a NNCK-style free-jam into the stacked fuzz of Tim Hecker-like maelstrom in the latter half of the piece. The mournful drones introducing side B’s “The Fallow Field of Vision” slowly break away into an almost uplifting bass line seeming to evoke the heart of a resolute man stumbling towards the horizon. It is precisely this amount of freedom the two players allow themselves that makes this LP so magical. Freedom of instrumentation, freedom of form, freedom of tonality, freedom of vision. Mastered by James Plotkin.

ZEPHYRS – ‘Order of the Arrow’
It’s difficult to describe all the things going on in the background of new ZEPHRYS album from long time besties Cam and Pierce. Setting the scene: The young duo finds themselves on the brink of college, the brink of indefinite hiatus, the brink of manhood, the brink of change. Written cooperatively between the two, “Order of the Arrow” seems to act as a final monument to growing up in the Pacific Northwest. Breaking down what it means to be a young man, what it means to be friends. Also bubbling under the surface is carrying the torch for PNW indie-punk heroes, invigorating the guitar/drum template with a level of honest righteousness that only youth can bring. Some would say this album falls outside the normal purview of Debacle, but one does not come across this level of talent, heart, and songwriting and just let it slip away. Mastered by Phil Petrocelli.

Particle Being Trio – ‘Post Terrestrial Vol. 1’
The first missive from the newly formed Particle Being Ensemble, “Post Terrestrial Vol. 1” is psychedelic treat, Balancing free-form freakouts and syncopated song forms in one cohesive release. The ensemble is paired back to a trio for this release. Weaving in members from various Seattle groups the trio showcases core members Jon Carr (Patternmaster, Brain Fruit), Garrett Moore (Brain Fruit), and Nils Petersen (Rose Windows).  The three Seattleites have produced a multidimensional release featuring Petersen’s swirling processed trombone amid Moore’s jazzy percussion and Carr’s staccato synthesizers. Droning synthesizer and trombone gently peak and build as the opening seven minutes, on “Free Energy”. From there, the album takes you on a seamless journey through driving “Action and the Orbital Horn”, straight into explosive “Aggregate Resilience” with an overdrive straight to the album’s pinnacle. The final track, “Relative to Light”, smoothes things down, melding all the elements of the album into a bubbling, floating conclusion.

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DK035: Caldera Lakes – ‘Live at Odgen Theatre’ C37 5€
Caldera Lakes’ sound like a ritual…  voices are cyclic like mantras, whispers change into  howling exhortations , electronic sounds are like the bonfire who turn on quietly and  instantly wrap all the scene with its flames. Odgen Theater in Denver was undoubtedly charmed by this performance, recorded where Eva and Brittany opened for a Sonic Youth gig. Caldera Lakes cassette comes in a ltd.100 copies pro-dubed tapes. Artwork by Le_scottature.

DK036: Hex Breaker Quartet – ‘Method for astral amelioration’ C30 5€
Sidereal travel soundtrack by HBQ (aka Grasshopper’s Jesse DeRosa and Josh Millrod, plus Telecult Powers’ Mister Matthews). Flugelhorns layers and themes counterpointed with synthesized pulsations will conduct your ego into a hypnotic and meditative journey of outer-space without you’re moving from your seat. Loop this tape on your deck for a long night experience of star watching !!! Method for astral amelioration comes in a ltd.100 copies pro-dubbed tapes. Artwork by mic_nodolby

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Good Willsmith – ‘Is The Food Your Family Eats Slowly’ cassette
Good Willsmith is three Chicago-dwelling human beings named Max Allison, Natalie Chami, and Doug Kaplan. They make music together out of extended loops, analog synth elements, and standard rock instrumentation processed through huge chains of electronics.  “Is The Food Your Family Eats Slowly” is the band’s second full-length album, and the first on a physical medium. Across a continuous live-in-the-studio session, Chami constructs overlapping loops of lead voices and choral synth harmonies. Kaplan infuses his neo-Frippertronics with bursts of harsh noise and extended tremolo picking. Allison aims for maximum sustain as his bass tones swell into deep, foundational drones. The trio’s structured improvisations channel Music for Airports, Maggot Brain, and the Theatre of Eternal Music.  Cassette Tape – Clear shells with white imprint, pro dubbed, download code included.

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