Animal Psi

JL Maire – ‘Dogon’ C46 1€
Cassette de 46 minutos del músico electroacústico madrileño J.L. Maire, que en “Dogon” se centra totalmente en su faceta más electrónica al mando de su colección de sintetizadores modulares. Pulsaciones, torres concentradas de sonido y cristales electrónicos en una meditativa cara A que enlaza con el trabajo de grandes como Eliane Radigue.  En la cara B un festival de riqueza analógica que hace de reverso nervioso de la pieza anterior. Música poderosa capaz de mover el aire y alterar la percepción auditiva.  Un trabajo serio que es un orgullo editar en Afeite Al Perro. Doble portada en blanco y negro impreso en papel academia y cinta tóxica.  70 copias. 1 euro.// 46 minutes cassette by electroacustic musician from Madrid J.L. Maire. In “Dogon” he is totally focused on his most electronic side, controlling his modular synthesizers collection. In the side A,  pulsations, concentrated towers of sound and electronic glass. Meditative music linked to the work of Eliane Radigue. In the side B a festival of analogical texture that works as nervous reversal of the previous piece. Powerful music capable of moving the air and altering the auditory perception. A serious work and a pride to edit in Afeite Al Perro. Double b/w cover printed in academy paper and toxic tape.  70 copies.

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NK34: Lebeha Men – ‘Garifuna Field Recordings’ C30
In 2010, No Kings co-founder Stephen Molyneux traveled to Cambodia and made some bewitching field recordings, which Tiny Mix Tapes called “24 minutes of haunting legitimacy”! This year he took a month long sabbatical to Central America, his first and last stop was in coastal Hopkins, Belize where he crafted this follow-up of sorts with locals, the LeBeha Drummers, who incidentally were nominated for a Grammy! (traditional music category) in 2006 for their first album. Garifuna Field Recordings is the group’s second physical release and was made directly onto cassette in single takes by Stephen, and focuses on a performance of two core group members Warren Martinez, Clayton Williams, and their teacher Jabbar Lambey, so they’ve retitled themselves for this release as LeBeha MEN, which translates to “The End Men” in Garifuna. This comes on the heels of their recent win at the Central American Battle of the Drums!!! Edition of 200 tapes with 2-color risograph artwork. Watch some videos here.

NK35: Secret Birds – ‘In Hex’ C34
Damon Black of Australia recorded this audio cryptogram of interlocking loops, riffs, and textures when he was living in Tokyo in 2011. Moment to moment, this record is hitting many touchstones, part Kraut / psychedelic / drone, but always expansive, outward, and visual. Shapes and forms: waves, hexagons, prisms, serpentines, pyramids. A druggy wah in the distance buried over with fuzzy ether. Edition of 80 pro-dubbed tapes with risograph artwork.

NK36: German Army – ‘Hoatzin’ C36
Awesome Ike Yard vibes on this new long player from these California Kill Shaman allies, following the deep sticky haze that was Papau Mass on Night People, and Cattle Border on Clandestine. Hypnotic monotone vocals with a double dose of slapback echo coast along on top of static analog drum patterns. Hoatzin will whip you into liminal trance. I wish these dudes were the house band in some dank smoky LA club. Oh man I would hang out there. All the time. Burn out the sun. Drink 10 beers. Put on the fog machine and breathe deeply. Edition of 80 pro-dubbed tapes with risograph artwork on white, blue, or grey paper.

NK37: Tim Coster – ‘Mediterranean Years’ C30
Had the great pleasure of witnessing this Auckland/Melbourne charmer play a show at my house earlier this year while on his US tour. With a background in fine art sculpture, his suitcase set with tiny modular synthesizer, looping pedals, keyboard, and accoutrements laid out on the floor looked sufficiently feng shui as the sound drifted slowly out into the room and enveloped the crowd in a lulling cloud that was imbued with folk sensibility and fervor, in addition to restraint. Mediterranean Years includes material he recorded in Echo Park on that trip, and it’s as if he bottled that luminescent cloud and transferred it to tape, still moving, slowly dissipating. Edition of 80 pro-dubbed tapes with letterpress / risograph artwork.

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Joey Chainsaw – ‘Wraiths of Stokes Croft’ C18 £4(UK)/£4.5(EU)/£5(World)
Make no mistake this is a vivid slice of Joey Chainsaw… a glittering wound of luminescent noise from deep within Cava basement clawing at the sky in a abattoir of electrics and mangled supermarket trolleys… limited to 25 and housed in a limited edition screenprinted box.

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SM040 LUPERCI – ‘Scorched Earth’ CS
A conceptual effort, Luperci’s second release on Sonic Meditations drops the listener right into cave of sound that echoes like a hive of bees and escalates into a massive sound that’s like taking all of La Monte Young’s recordings and pushing them into the red. Comprised of mainly sitar and synth, tracks presented here are saturated into fields of dense sounds with haunting melodic tendencies.

SM048 SOUNDING THE DEEP – ‘Return to the Quiet’ LP/CS
After and hand-full of limited releases on cassette, CDr and CD formats, Sounding the Deep’s fifth album has the pleasure of gracing a vinyl record. Started by David Williams, which blossomed into a trio this past year to rehearse and record compositions, unlike like previous releases, the outcome is a very mature effort. Williams stripped the music down from electric amplification to straight acoustic, adding cello, cymbals and percussion. Arranged with acoustic guitar, the accompanying musicians also lay down accents by way of light percussive rhythms with deep brooding moods. Although it may seem like a new direction, Williams keeps a steady mood in the vein of previous efforts, but retains momentum in capturing a more subtilely deep, yet brighter and playful effort. The second half of the record begins more ambient and minimal leading into a meditative rhythm that reaches back into a more melodic reprise as the album matures to the center of the ending point. This past year, Sounding the Deep has performed with Scott Kelly, Luperci, Hedia, Expo 70 and more as this strong line-up.

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Sun Splitter – ‘III’ LP
Chicago-based Sun Splitter has created a monolithic hybrid of doom,  industrial-metal, drone and noise with this new 50-minute, five-song collection for BloodLust! This LP is closest in style to the ancient “Thanatos Descends” CD (B!013, 1996) by Dead World, and fits very nicely in the heavy Chicago scene with Anatomy of Habit, Rabid Rabbit, Arriver, The Atlas Moth, Pelican The Swan King, Oyarsa, Russian Circles, Locrian, Indian, Beak, etc. The heavy drum machine-driven foundation, dark electronics, layers of  distorted-yet-melodic guitars, and echoed-out vocals will appeal to fans  of doom, sludge, psychedelic, experimental noise and forward thinking metal groups such as Jesu, Neurosis, Nadja, The Human Quena Orchestra, Godflesh, Halo, (early) Pitchshifter, Sonic Violence, (early) Scorn, Dead Times, Floor, etc. The album was recorded by Matt Talbott (from the band Hum) and it was  mastered by preternatural metal mastering guy Collin Jordan (Leviathan,  Zoroaster, Nachtmystium, Batillus, Lord Mantis, Pelican, etc.).

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Superstorms
Superstorms, a new solo project by ex-Tusco Terror/sometimes Trouble Books member Michael Tolan, is born out of creative impulses that are simultaneously subversive of and sensitively attuned to their musical lineage(s). Frustrated and bored with the tropes of contemporary ambient music, Tolan began experimenting with harsh digital samples and clipping source material, finding himself liberated at the prospect of productively using sounds which previously would have been left to lie dormant on the cutting room floor. He began working with a palette comprised of in-the-red, bit-crushed digitalia, setting to work kneading these stubborn blocks of harsh sound into a sequence of five pieces which, despite their considerable barbs, retain the fluidity and pathos of the ambient tradition from which they were inspired. Tolan’s Tusco Terror/harsh noise connections rear their head in the form of both the intensely prickly and pointillistic aspects of each composition and by way of the informal, spontaneous, almost punk sensibilities which they each possess. Indeed, Superstorms is at once organic and robotic, forceful and calm, coherent and unpredictable. In short, it is a meshing of oppositions- binaries smashed together and expertly sculpted into truly powerful sonic miasma. LP edition of 300 available August 30 2012.  All music by M. Tolan. Mastered by James Plotkin. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering.

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Giant Claw – ‘Mutant Glamour’ LP
Mutant Glamour is the new full length LP from Keith Rankin’s Giant Claw project, a culmination of three years of steady musical output. The album has a variety of themes: mutation, fashion, freaky sex, trash culture, our weird alien bodies, and so on. Musically it’s a sprawling, layered combination of improvisation and meticulous composition through editing, one that is deceptively seamless and of a whole. On the record you’ll also find wild atonal saxaphone, free jazz breakdowns, a lush ballad, and the insane sequences and broken arpeggios that one might expect from such a “synth act.” Except Mutant Glamour is much more than synthesizer music. It’s a restless document of clashing cultures and sounds expressed through electronics, flirting with a lot of traditions (dance, noise, jazz, prog rock) but never really settling on any one platform.

Team Jordann – ‘Champion’ CS
Music makers known as Daytime Television and Teams join up to form Teamm Jordann. We’re excited to present their record, Champion, on Orange Milk. I keep saying that I’m not exactly sure what is sampled and what’s performed on the album, which is part of what makes it so exciting. What I do know is that it bangs pretty hard, is super catchy, and puts an emphasis on editing, chopping, and screwing. If you’ve seen the video for “Stadium” (https://vimeo.com/26452463) then you have a decent idea of what you’re getting into: the sounds of a pixelated digital screen within a screen, a beach run against a DX-7, Michael Jordan dunking.

Pajjama – ‘Starch’ CS
I have a hard time resisting the urge to call Pajjama an epic Norwegian prog rock outfit. Really though, their sound is more nuanced than that description might imply. There is a heavy synthesizer presence, for one, and a certain winking cheesiness that recalls a darker Yellow Magic Orchestra or some forgotten funky library record. Also — the composition skills. They are at the forefront for much of Starch, which makes the album’s 13 minute runtime go by in a flash. But don’t be fooled, some band’s work their whole careers to stumble on this many exciting sounds, ideas, and irresistible melodies. Just listen and you’ll probably be hooked.

HCMJ – ‘Honeybee’ CS
James Webster’s HCMJ project continues to evolve in unexpected ways, and we’re happy to present Honeybee, an experiment in twisted droning metal, dark synth weirdness, and galloping acoustic ballads. Diversity is key here, with contrasting movements passing by like cogs in an epic tone poem. The album is also conceptually based around a group of sailors from the late 16th century who return to the shores of Spain only to discover that the land has become like a corrupt jpg – broken and whitewashed.

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DBA119 Gang Wizard – ‘So Excited’ DL
If the X-Men have done anything truly striking to transform the ancient legend of the phoenix, it is to insure that we must always be surprised by its return. Despite the predictability of its definition. Gang Wizard is no different. Their return in 2012, after nearly a 4 year disappearance, was something most never saw coming. But here they are, truly reborn. Still masterminded by their founder, Mike Landucci, the band is now populated by his own teen sons. But while the internet has completely changed the face of DIY from complete brutality to total chill zones, Gang Wizard’s approach still proudly stands on its rickety and splintered legs. So this release is in honor of a band that has never compromised, presented in glorious, free digital to help pass the tradition on to a new generation. The album, called ‘So Excited’ even includes a video performance recorded direct to ipad. Thats modern, right?

Gang Wizard – ‘Hood Rip’ square lathe 7″
The 2nd limited edition release from the new garde, 2012 reborn version of Gang Wizard. 4 brand new rippers on square shaped 7″s, handcut in Olympia, WA. Only 20 available, so you know the deal.

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Hobo Cubes – ‘Slow Summer Soul’ C30
Hobo Cubes is Montreal’s Francesco De Gallo. On Slow Summer Soul, he digs away at the concept of summer listlessness. Approaching the solstice time stretches its legs, and then gives way to increasingly shorter summer days. There’s a point in the evening, as the sun is setting, where its colour intensifies and imparts a recognition that nothing lasts forever, not even summer. That’s where this music lives. Exquisitely assembled, the cover features printed transparency overlays on shiny gold cardstock. To hold this in your hand is to hold a fragment of a true pimp’s soul. Pro-duplicated edition of 50.

Reedbeds – ‘Heirloom Rust Garden’ C40
Reedbeds is Sacramento’s Carter Mullin. Ornate guitar loops transport us to a botanical garden for a nature walk at dawn. Appropriately titled, Heirloom Rust Garden takes long deep breaths. These waves of sound gently construct spiritual origami. Inner wellness ensues. Lovingly designed, the cover features printed transparency overlays on textured silver cardstock. It must be held to be appreciated. Pro-duplicated edition of 50.

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