Velvet Elvis – ‘In Deep Time’ LP $15(US)/$20(Can)/$25(World)
We are incredibly excited to present the debut full length LP from Velvet Elvis, In Deep Time. Recorded at GFI Studios in the early months of 2012, where Velvet Elvis drank deep from the well of rock to bring about six dark tracks of paranoia and depravity that capture hallucinogenic vignettes into a future gone wrong. The songs thunder and crash, sweep and swoon with a greater depth of clarity and vision than we have seen from this band in the past. An expanded sense of texture and dynamics move their signature plodding riffs along to crescendos that could open a hole in the sky. In Deep Time is pure unapologetic rock and roll. The album was produced by Velvet Elvis and Sam Polizzi and mastered for vinyl by Joe Lambert. Hand numbered, limited edition of 300 copies that include a lyric sheet, a section of the analog tape included in the recording process, and digital download card containing the whole album with exclusive bonus track Brass Tacks.
Lefterna – ‘Not Here (If Anywhere)/Degredation_Obsession’ C40 $6(US)/$7(Can)/$9(World)
The mysterious Lefterna dropped two very distinct EPs on us, released together here… Not Here (If Anywhere) opens with a slow rumble, giving way to waves of soft contemplation in this post-apocalyptic drone-state, ending with rhythmic beats and bleats that invoke just a trace of hope. Degredation_Obsession obsessively loops and degrades throughout its duration, churning all your senses in on themselves. Pro printed, hand numbered edition of 100.
April in the Orange – ‘In the Mirror Under the Moon’ C43 $6(US)/$7(Can)/$9(World)
In the Mirror Under the Moon is a carefully sequenced collection of Aril in the Orange’s earliest recordings, dating from the prelapsarian dystopia of 2007 and early 2008. Each song is a butterfly-blue weave of melody rolling through a changing sky of strum and solo, overtone Casio and cut-up piano – chromatically rich and vaguely alien annotations on AitO’s translation from murky tongues of sky-dreaming, solo bedroom madness into bright dialogues of humane collaboration. The aesthetic of the amorphous at its most shimmering. – Flavius Dionysius, Pro printed, hand numbered edition of 100.
Riasni Drova Consort – ‘A Still Better Seaward Peep’ C31 $6(US)/$7(Can)/$9(World)
Riasni Drova Consort uncovered a dark, yet inviting, dust covered corner of the world where one can revel in the wonders of rusty strings, old wooden floors, creaking doors and musty books. These three musician/non-musicians weave an awestricken soundscape from the primitive, old and discarded, where melodies find their way in and out of these scraped, scratched and tortured sounds. The first side Full of Folds is an instrumental that slowly works to envelope you into its mysteries taking you onward to the enchanting rendition of the classic folk ballad I Wonder as I Wander. Pro printed, hand numbered edition of 100.
Fear Konstruktor – ‘Mirror’ C38 $6(US)/$7(Can)/$9(World)
Listening to Fear Konstruktor’s Mirror can easily compare to staring at an iced over pond on a bright midwinter’s day… blinding white light and cold, murky indecipherable depths infinitively repeated into dark black spots of nothing. Yet somehow, somewhere with all that cold there is a promising fleck of warmth from deep below the surface. Pro printed, hand numbered edition of 50.
Fossils From the Sun – ‘Blood 08’ C38 $6(US)/$7(Can)/$9(World)
Blood 08 is a series of 4 dark, throbbing postindustrial hymns from Ray Hare’s (Century Plants, Burnt Hills) ongoing solo investigations in sound and voice, Fossils from the Sun. The title track is a focused and evocative meditation comprised of low register pulses accompanied by interjections of feedback and Hare’s mumbled and stuttered vocal incantations. The flip side contains three divergent studies that work off aspects of the main theme to create compelling sonic investigations of their own. Pro printed, hand numbered edition of 100.
Rambutan – ‘Typhoon Shapes’ C37 $6(US)/$7(Can)/$9(World)
Typhoon Shapes sees Eric Hardiman (Century Plants, Burnt Hills) flexing his muscles in several different directions, from the sonic miniatures Lightning Whelk and Vapor Columns to utterly surprising and fascinating Robert Ashleyesque vocal montage of More Than You Should Know. Rambutan works to shifts and move you in and out of drift and clarity until finally sweeping everything away with the epic closer, The Future of the Inevitable. Pro printed, hand numbered edition of 100.
BLACK CHALK – ‘BLACK CHALK’ C24 $6(US)/$7(Can)/$9(World)
BLACK CHALK is the collaborative project between Ray Hare (Fossils from the Sun, Century Plants), Eric Hardiman (Rambutan, Century Plants) and Cory E. Card (Stone Baby). Established in the summer of 2009 and originally intended to be a one off performance at the UAG Gallery in Albany, New York, but due to the success of that performance the three decided to continue working together long distance. The premise of BLACK CHALK is for the performers to limit their sonic pallet to the use of vocals, effects and microphones. Contained on this tape are the results of their exploration: three of the tracks were constructed and mixed throughout the Fall of 2009 and into 2010, and the final two works are excerpts from the live performance. The results are a mix of dynamic, pulsating rhythmic loops, eerie feedback and ghostly voices. Pro printed, hand numbered edition of 100.
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‘Restrict|Suppress|Censor’ is a three-way Noise split between Poland’s Sleep Sessions (David Kowalski) and Australians Arefyu (Michael Ellingford) and agit8 (MD Bailey). Comparisons are ready across the disc to Japanese wall noise, but more accurately, those Americans under the influence (Bastard Noise, Menche, Wiese himself), as well as Australians of the Extreme scene more close to home. Complementing the frenetic, mechanistic, cut-up style of the like-minded artists involved, the disc’s glossy, commercial production is a nonlinear blast of language and texture which sufficiently obscures authorship; the precious space allotted to each artist is used to thank one another, and the label repeatedly – an act of glad-handing which taken positively is a collective abdication of ownership in the true spirit of collaboration. For this reason, attributions will not be made, and the granular barrage of this disc must speak for itself. The first chunk of tracks follow a most aggressive pasting technique, splicing broadcast materials – pop music, speeches – between pitch-bent frequencies and hard loops in gabber anti-rhythm. Given the brief length of these 1-3 minute tracks, the aggregate effect is easier to spot, and makes these little sketches (“Mute But Armed”, “Adroit”, “Cunning Duplicity”) something more expository. Moving on to what appears to be the first of the “Kokoda Trails” trilogy (again, this sleeve is a fucking runestone), longer piano/string/drone samples offset the erratic contours of the blister-and-scratch laid overtop; where the former tracks suggest intense composition, these echo the movement and two-handedness of live performance. By the final third of the disc, all sweetness and light – once the human element, then the symphonic sounds – has dropped out, and a confluence of the edit-heavy first block blends into the sustained attacks and recursion of the middle segments. Pooling with blood into the final, 10 minute piece, the whole affair seems to (literally, sonically) materialize as it slows, revealing the manual sweeps, blows, and scrapes that the artist filters and affects in accelerated time. In many ways a lot of classic Noise in a relatively new bottle, the disc has multiple options to offer the initiated despite its own prohibitions.
