Animal Psi

CSD06: D//VV/D – ‘Terminal’ C25 4€
The modern consumers of the 21st century lie burning on terminal beaches. Their lives, both entropic and phantasmal, are haunted by the dismembered recollections of television sex scenes… Four slabs of brutalist post-industrial drone and collapsed tekno, featuring: cold synths, dissonance, skittering rhythms and an endless nightmare haze of dissipated theory and dystopian dreams. Tape hiss and digital distortion compete with noise and atrophied bass to produce the ghosts of pop songs. D//VV/D reflects on the combustible hopes and blank-eyed horrors of the 21stcentury. Cars crash and bodies explode while an old Huggy Bear tape unfurls in the shadow of a wrecked tower block. Limited to 25 copies on black cassette in library case with hand-printed label.

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[mn035] Stelladrine – ‘Ancient Mechanical Grace’ CD
Erratic mental states as patterns of spiritual revelation. Drunken hovercab rides home at 2 AM. Sentimental collapse on an Alphane Moon. Goodbye messages recorded during failed atmospheric re-entry. Stelladrine’s new album goes to what the project owes its very name to, Philip K. Dick’s “Our Friends from Frolix 8”, and stacks a selection of the author’s bibliography on top of it as primordial fuel for these 12 tracks. The collage-heavy and sample-driven nature of past albums gives way here to lush synthesizer pads, arpeggiated chords and deep drones influenced by 70’s and 80’s sci-fi synth soundtracks but informed by the sonic experimentations of Andrew Lagowski’s S.E.T.I and Bad Sector. Artwork kindly provided by the ever reliable STPo. The limited CD edition of 200 copies will be out in September / October 2012.

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AARON LUMLEY/THE KNOT – ‘Arachnidiscs Split Tape Series 9/10’ C40 $7(CAD)
Side 9: Avant improv bassist Arron Lumley has been making waves lately with his harrowing long-player Wilderness. We posit this improvised session goes one further, both visceral and teeming with expression in the traditions of Dave Holland and François Rabbath. Recorded by Matthew Dunn in Toronto who, in Lumley’s words, “brought the fuzz and grime to the fore.” And we have to agree. In the middle ages, people were burned at the stake for playing music like this—he’s clearly possessed by some kind of demon. Side 10: the debut release for The Knot, the duo of cellists Tilman Lewis and Nick Storring. With allegiance to both form and freedom, they embark on sonic explorations that draw on various folk traditions and experimental musics. The pair love to bend the instrument’s lyricism, drawing not so much on extended techniques as on an array of audacious contra-techniques: preparations/ apparati (practice mutes, hair-clips, clamps, wine corks, mallets, egg beaters, plectrums etc.). They still, however, permit the cello’s natural beauty to have its place. Their large palette of sonorities is channeled and combined into single unified textures, and everything from improvised heterophony, to stark contrast.

BABEL – ‘GLOCKENGEISTER’ CDr $8(CAD)
Sixteen beautiful, serene though often unsettling pieces for electronically manipulated glockenspiel, bells, mixing bowls,drums, wood block and ornamental gongs. Resonant tones weave and drift through ambient harmonies and transcendental reverb drones accentuated with dramatic percussion expressions. Something like if Feldman adapted a Japanese Kabuki score for Balinese gamelan in a medieval European cathedral.

BABEL – ‘ALPHABETA’ CDr $8(CAD)
A conceptual work where the pieces are composed from notes corresponding to the letters in their titles. Ranging from white noise freak-outs to measured, melodic themes, the 17-part suite covers the history of modern compostion from the 20th century minimalists such as Cage or Reich through Miles Davis’ jazz-fusion to maximalist post-rockers like Godspeed! and Tortoise.

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NNA050: Matt Carlson – ‘All Moments’ LP
NNA is proud to present our 50th release, Matt Carlson’s “All Moments” long-playing record. Where 2011’s “Particle Language” LP acted as a study in texture and density within experimental synthesizer music, “All Moments” finds Carlson engaging with the more traditional musical materials of melody, harmony, and rhythm, calling to mind his work as one half of Portland, OR duo Golden Retriever. The pieces on this record range from shorter pop études to longer, more open improvisatory synth studies, retaining a sense of playfulness and expressiveness within a highly focused and calculated framework. Recorded to four-track cassette and primarily hand-played with very little-to-no auto arpeggiation, “All Moments” captures an often-overlooked warmth and human quality in electronic music, emphasized further by Carlson’s use of modal and tonal vocal studies, electronically transformed by his use of the vocoder. The result is a well-rounded collection of colorful, exuberant electronic music. Mastered and cut by Lupo at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Artwork by Jason Traeger.

NNA051: Oneohtrix Point Never/Rene Hell split LP
NNA’s second split LP unites two American artists on the cutting edge of experimental electronic music: Brooklyn’s Oneohtrix Point Never and Los Angeles’ Rene Hell. Daniel Lopatin and Jeff Witscher have each been working tirelessly in the US underground for the last several years, releasing progressive, forward-thinking, and highly acclaimed music under a wide variety of guises and manifestations. In 2012, we see them each offering their respective unique visions and interpretations of digital music in the modern world, processing the world around us through the lens of technology and modern sound. Oneohtrix Point Never brings us “Music For Reliquary House”, which consists of sonic reworkings from the “Reliquary House” audio/visual installation, a collaboration between Lopatin and video artist Nate Boyce. In a series of five pieces, Lopatin delivers a sequence of hallucinatory informatic assaults, a satirical re-envisioning of modernist sculpture. Picking up where 2011’s “Replica” left off, OPN uses digital technology to dissect human speech patterns and timbres almost beyond recognition. Via computer, Lopatin converts pieces of text to human speech, only to dismantle it entirely, surgically reassembling the scraps of frequencies and the shrapnel of pure sound into something new altogether… starkly melodic at times, but altogether harsh and inhuman as a whole. Rene Hell presents “In 1980 I Was A Blue Square”, a suite of five pieces for piano, synthesizer, and computer. Juxtaposing mid 20th century classical music with chaotic electronic blasts, Witscher creates his own style of contemporary music that is peaceful and violent on top of itself, creating a rift of confusion that sits nicely between more vast, soundscape-like vignettes. Witscher’s previous forays into the worlds of noise and ambient are tastefully apparent here, indicative of an artist who is able to retain a broad array of influences and use them in a way that is both personal and original. Mastered and cut by Lupo at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.

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PURR 0009: Quiet Evenings/Former Selves
Descend into the deeply personal sound of Quiet Evenings and experience music in both time and space. Gradually resurface on the sustained, perfumed bubble of Former Selves’ soporific harmonies.

PURR 0010: C V L T S – ‘Realiser’
All of the objects that surround you start to disintegrate as the electron beams sweep across your retina.  Picture clay images so hazy and familiar yet surreal, it’s as if viewing claymation for the very first time.  In this spirit, Beer on the Rug and Constellation Tatsu present an extended version of CVLTS – Realiser.

PURR 0011: Saguache – ‘Terrain’
C. Yantis under the moniker Saguache takes his free form improvisations far past the realm of apprehension.  Now completely frozen with fear; the body relaxes and a new state emerges of such convergent cacophonies.  No note escapes untouched.

CTATSU 001: Seabat – ‘Crescent ParC’ LP + DVD
Seabat offers a glimpse through the keyhole at a glittering future world formed from a pastiche of clever, nostalgic samples and dreamy synth work.  Illusions flow smoothly in your mind’s eye as Seabat’s world takes shape.

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Choplifta | no_signal – ‘Pile of Accidents’ C67/DVD/poem $12
Pile Of Accidents begins with a curated survey of ihaa history presented by Choplifta. Combining elements of the best pieces of the ihaa catalogue blended in with remixes and soundscapes Choplifta puts forth a unique compilation redefining the greatest moments of ihaa history. 67 minutes on red hubbed clear tapes uniquely hand-stamped by the Annapolis Chosen. Continuing to further artistic representations and to stimulate further the senses – no_signal hand-plucked his favorite ihaa tracks and developed archival and psychothriller video representations of each track mixed into ten epic videos. Represented on a DVD with artwork by ihaa roster SAO. Pile of Accidents continues to titillate with a frenzied poem hand-written by Eric Larsen of Western Pines. A unique collaboration of fan and artist to present the label’s 100th release and a celebration of 6 years of business. Limited to 20 copies and includes c67 / DVD / Poem and mp3 download.

Fear Konstruktor – ‘Green River Shores’ C32 $5
A buzzing feeling of electricity fills the room. The movement of emotion and the humming sound of electrons bouncing back and forth against each other. Finding a void and channelling from one side of your brain to the other. A synapsis or controlled experiment. The force of electricity becomes overwhelming… shocking. Green River Shores takes on the presence of tossing the hair dryer into the bathtub – a lightning rod struck inside the pool… the calm moments before the storm… the heat lightning off in the distance dancing in the night sky as it slowly follows the thunderous clouds and the downpouring of rain. Fear Konstruktor captures these moments superbly with this limited edition c32 tape. Limited to 26 on yellow cassettes and chrome tape.

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Fasenuova – ‘A las Puertas del Ruido’
Ernesto Avelino: “This album is a glance to ten years of work, a selection where cohabit archaeological remainders of our Goodbye phase and also recent rehearsal tracks, recorded after the release of our last album to date “A la quinta hoguera” (Discos Humenates, 2011). “A las puertas del ruido” compiles pieces of our life as rehearsal-room musicians, willing to leave it all only to spend an afternoon flying behind the controls of our machines. This album distills part of the essence that guided us during the long period that goes from our beginnings, in the days in which we had the strong proposal of transfer the doors of noise and explore the landscape that there is at the other side, the same as Alicia behind the mirror; until today, in this special moment in which is released this compilation, working as we are in a new recording”. “A las puertas del ruido” is presented on a profesional digipack CDr with 10 tracks and 54 minutes of music, in a limited edition of 100 copies. You can get the album for 5 euros plus postage and handling through the label Truco Espárrago. Note: First 25 orders will receive two special photographs signed by the band.

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Kösmonaut – ‘Emanations’ C60 6€(EU)/7€(World)
Synth arpeggios and pulsating drum-machines, a soundtrack for intergalactic travels. Soft poly cases with hand-stamped inserts. Limited to 50 copies.

Kheta Hotem – ‘Live at Yläkaupungin yö 2011’ C60 6€(EU)/7€(World)
The shamans have gathered again to perform their ritual, which includes throat singing, free jazz saxes, tribal percussion and other hypnotic sounds. Limited to 50 copies.

Jorge Vicario – ‘Broken Music’ C40 6€(EU)/7€(World)
Tape dust, record skipping, CD glitches – all the “broken” sounds become something new and beautiful on this tape. Soft poly cases with hand-stamped inserts. Limited to 50 copies.

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Human Adult Band – ‘Lazy Determination’ CDr $7
One blown out skronk opener to weed out th’ right people, two jammers featuring Kevin Winter (2673, PIV, Dogo & Crackerjacks) on electronics, one tearjerker and an old favorite blown to hell by Kevin. Derek Ligget (Adult Band’s original drummer/C.O.W./Fn’ Pissed) also returns from Amsterdam to do vokills on th’ skronk.

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(pyr059): 900piesek/rbnx – ‘prague bratislava’
About the artists: with his experimental/psych/noise project 900piesek, matúš mikula, searches out the relationships between chaos and linearity. he’s fascinated by clashes of anti-poles and inhumanity. he is currently a member of the czech-based collective of like-minded freaks, hluková sekce. rbnx is tobias potocny’s one man project that has been in existence since early 2001. tobias uses his self-constructed instruments rbnxtronics to create his take on improvised electronic noise composition. both mikula and potocny are from bratislava, slovakia. about the album:prague bratislava is a split release that documents two separate improvised performances from 2012 – one by 900piesek (prague) and one by rbnx (bratislava). air fades in to reverbed nothing, raw electricity underneath. metal chimes in a cathedral. space-ominous foreshadowing. melt/pierce into grind/crunch. buzzing drone and liquid metal over rocket roar. approach the forbidden planet and fall into the sun.

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