Animal Psi

Turned Word #25: AMPS FOR CHRIST – ‘Circuits’ 2LP $18
Circuits was originally released in 1999 on the Vermiform label. It was well received, even charting on CMJ. Comprised of stellar originals, Scottish, English and North American folk songs and Child ballads, biblical lore, and choice pop folk cover tunes, Circuits is singular in its approach. Heavily referencing Steeleye Span and Pentangle’s moves in working with songs of the British Isles, as well as Jean Ritchie and North American Appalachian songlines in general, as well as DIY noisenik modalities, AFC uniquely adds to the history of these song lines. This reissue puts Circuits on vinyl for the first time as a deluxe double LP with a gatefold cover and a full bonus side of unreleased material . Circuits includes AFC collaborator Tara Tavi (ex-Blue Silk Sutures, Bastard Noise, Savage Republic, currently of Auto Da Fe) who plays yangqin (Chinese hammer dulcimer) and sings. Former Man Is The Bastard drummer Joel Connell plays tablas and percussion. Remastered for vinyl by Tim Stollenwerk (Mississippi Records, Sublime Frequencies, Fat Possum). Co-released by Turned Word Records. The four song bonus side begins with “Empire”, a song recorded for a compilation that was supposed to be released by L.A. venue, The Smell. Barnes and Tavi are joined by then AFC member Erika Anderson (EMA, Gowns).The comp never saw the light of day, but Empire now has. “Yamasuka” adds fellow former MITB member, Aaron Kenyon on bass to this release and rounding off the bonus side are folk standards Knight On The Road and Bonny Greenwoodside. The latter recorded live at the Claremont Forum in 2001. Amps For Christ use unique instrumentation in an eclectic approach to play”folkcore”, coined & defined by founder Henry Barnes. Mr. Barnes modifies Hammond organs to a fixed scale that defines AFC’s sound. He builds his own electric bouzoukis, sitars, guitars, violins, metronomes, oscillators and noise machines. Prior to AFC, Mr. Barnes was a founder of Man Is The Bastard and Bastard Noise. AFC has at least 15 releases in their prolific catalog on labels such as Kill Rock Stars, Shrimper, Vermiform, RRR and Woodsist.

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Pierrot Lunaire – ‘As Himself’ C30 $7(US)/$8(Canada)/$10(World)
After starting the year with a bang with his first vinyl release on Hooker Vision, California’s John DeNizio shares the magical fury that is Pierrot Lunaire in a live setting on ‘As Himself’. Working with saxophone, voice, tape, and semi-functional electronics, DeNizio conjures his singular and soulful blend of free jazz, noise, and outsider pop on the fly. The spaces where these recordings were made play as much of a role in the final product as DeNizio and his gear, with sounds echoing off of walls and telling inscrutable tales of all that’s happened in each room. A nimble and versatile player, you never know where DeNizio will take you next, but it’s always a thrill to behold. Pro-dubbed and imprinted chrome cassettes, featuring designs by Caroline Teagle. Edition of 100.

Thoughts on Air – ‘Glow On’ C53 $7(US)/$8(Canada)/$10(World)
Hamilton’s Scott Johnson is a wonderful soul whose brilliant sounds will always have a happy home on this label. It’s a pleasure to share almost an hour of new instrumental recordings from his flagship project, Thoughts on Air. Conceived as an homage to friends and fellow sound travelers, ‘Glow On’ is comprised of eight new works for guitar and synthesizer. Each extols the lo-fi warmth and intimacy you’ve come to know and love from the project, but surprising new avenues are explored this time around as well. From riffs fit to fill an arena to rhythmic organ grooves, Johnson is unafraid guide his bedroom star ship to many fascinating realms of the psychedelic universe. Pro-dubbed and imprinted chrome cassettes, featuring designs by Caroline Teagle. Edition of 100.

Eagle Altar – ‘Cut America’ C42 $7(US)/$8(Canada)/$10(World)
The alter ego of Tulsa’s Altar Eagle, Eagle Altar is Eden Hemming and Brad Rose’s outlet to set aside song structure and allow themselves to ride the electric current of improvisation. The first new release from the project in more than two years, ‘Cut America’ collects five pieces for synthesizer and drum machine. Blissful, blown out melodies cut through thumping, pulsing rhythms that aren’t quite meant for the dance floor, but are no less invigorating. Despite the loose nature of this project, each track is remarkably tight-knit, hitting all the right marks and building toward incredibly satisfying climaxes. Hemming and Rose are ready to take you on bullet train through the heart of our country, which may not always be pretty, but this is a glorious ride from start to finish. Pro-dubbed and imprinted chrome cassettes, featuring designs by Caroline Teagle. Edition of 100.

Imperial Topaz – ‘Imperial’ C24 $7(US)/$8(Canada)/$10(World)
You’re most likely familiar with Caroline Teagle’s visual talent by now, but you should know that she makes great music, too. Her new duo with Jake Pepper (NT, Fergus & Geronimo), Imperial Topaz combines experimental sensibilities with finely-tuned pop, which falls within a warm space between reggae and the heyday of 4AD. Field recordings and improvised passages drop instantly into pop gems, layering Pepper’s catchy, reverb-drenched guitar lines and Teagle’s ethereal vocals with hypnotic keyboard melodies and drum machine rhythms. Nicely timed for spring, each of the four tracks on ‘Imperial’ is excellent accompaniment for sunshine and ocean breeze dreams. Like a beach party for everyone the luxury liner left behind. Features Jef Brown on saxophone. Pro-dubbed and imprinted chrome cassettes, featuring designs by Caroline Teagle. Edition of 100.

All Four New Tapes: $24(US)/$26(Canada)/$30(World)

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Vales – ‘Iridial’ 4CD $14(US)/$16(CAN)/$18(WORLD)
Iridial is a 4 CD album of no edit improvisations using the Casper Electronics Drone Lab analog synthesizer and effects processing. Each disc contains one improvised piece, totaling 3 hours of material. The first 20 orders will also come with a white bonus 5th disc, which has an extra 70 minutes of material from the two previously released cassettes: “Sun Sick” (2:00AM Tapes 2010) and “Fever Monument” (Baked Tapes 2010). CDs come boxed in a white 6×9 MediaPac box with full 12×9 wrap around art. 48 Copies.

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Zashiki Warashi – ‘The Ghosts of 131th Street’ CS 5€
2 x 20 minutes – Cassette (SC003)  Recorded at the now demolished Hinthouse. Winter 2003. Excerpts from 12 hour piece played between 8PM and 8AM. Music by C. Thornton. M. Heyner. S. Scott-Moncrieff. Snacks and moral support by J Geisert. 70 copies. artwork by Tessa De Ceuninck.

Kosmische Keuterboeren – ‘The Waiting Grounds’ CS 5€
2 x 20 minutes – Cassette (SC002) Excursions in Dystopia by Geronimvs and Voaals, backed by fellow travelers Hellvete and Younes on the B side. Recorded in attics around the Kuype of Ghent and ground-controlled in the base of Fôrst.  artwork by Tessa De Ceuninck. 70 copies.

Die Urpf Lanze – ‘He Will Drink The Milk Of A Thousand Mothers’ CS 5€
20 minutes – Cassette (SC001)  Weirdly agressive outsider acoustic deathmetal and/or ectoplasm blues by Belgian visual artist Wouter Vanhaelemeesch, captured live in ‘O Tannenbaum’, Berlin 2011.   artwork by Tessa De Ceuninck. 70 copies.

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(pyr050): Marina Poleukhina – ‘LP1’
marina poleukhina is a composer and improviser based in moscow. her interest lies in composition and improvisation on various objects and the instability of sound; silence and silence as the sound; real life and real life as sound. amongst others she is inspired by ligeti, nono, feldman, waits, yoshihide, and hosseini. her first album is a collection of improvisations and compositions. it sounds kind of like: pulse flute flutter and trills. warble pops and muttering percussion. dropped cymbals. conversation in cries and rolls. natural space. quiet exploration of scraped vibrations. surface areas calculated. squeaks and hoarse voicings. thunder and roar, guttural friction and noise. everything at once. voice in the woods. quiet patience. strum rewards.

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TASHI WADA – ‘Gradient’ 7″
Tashi Wada is a San Francisco-based composer and performer whose recent work focuses on sound perception as a basis for direct modes of listening. His work has been performed throughout the United States and Europe, and for several years now he has performed alongside his father, Yoshi Wada. Gradient is two sustained tones, a fourth apart, positioned along a wall, one at each end. The string player produces a very slow glissando from one pitch to the other while physically moving from one pitch to the other – in other words, the string player moves so that pitch distance coincides with spatial distance. The two possible directions form a sculpture-like presence shifting through all of the blue notes. Harry Partch often worked with this type of harmony, so Tashi and Marc Sabat used one of his adapted violas for the recording.

MICHAEL YONKERS – ‘Goodby Sunball’ LP
We found a very limited stash of these Original, Sealed LPs. They won’t be here long.  Michael Yonkers’ small cult following is mostly based on a record he cut in the late ’60s (though it wasn’t released until 2003), Microminiature Love, which is hard psychedelic rock so raw it verges on outsider music. Recorded several years later in his home studio and issued as a private pressing in 1974, Goodby Sunball is an entirely different proposition that might be surprisingly better or worse than listeners familiar with Microminiature Love expect, depending upon their tastes. There’s no hard rock at all here; instead, it’s haunting, even spooky acid folk, rather quiet and subdued in tone, though no less intense than what he’d been laying down in the late ’60s. Perhaps the slightly disturbing, distraught ambience of the LP could be put down in part to Yonkers having written the material on acoustic guitar while he was making a difficult recovery from serious spine surgery.

MICHAEL YONKERS – ‘Michael Lee Yonkers’ LP
What’s undeniable is that his music underwent a considerable change, Yonkers offering tremulous tunes with an off-kilter fragility and spiritual bent that makes some of these compositions sound almost like hymns, if of the spacy hippie folk variety you’d rarely hear in churches. The basic home fidelity, with vocals recorded in an actual bathroom for echoing ambience, adds to the strangeness, the tunes also sounding on occasion like holiday carols by and for celebrants not quite certain they’ll live to see another Christmas. Though not every fan of rare psychedelia will agree with this assessment, it sounds immeasurably better than Microminiature Love, as the songwriting is substantially superior; the melodies far more varied and affecting; and the vision far more likably personal. There’s no need to worry that it’s far more mainstream, either; while the playing is certainly competent and the fidelity OK if basic, it’s probably way too strange to have attracted the interest of any sizable major or indie label back in 1974, though not quite eccentric enough to qualify as outsider stuff. The closing, nearly eight-minute version of the title track (also presented in a very short rendition to open the record) is the only one that’s self-consciously weird and experimental, and not to good effect. Very difficult to find in its original pressing, the album was reissued as an LP in 2010 in an edition limited to 500 copies.  Again, a very small stash of these have been found.

MARK TUCKER – ‘Batstew’ LP
This is one of those lp’s that I’ve heard about for years. People’d say to me “Roland, it’s right up your alley” or “Roland it’s terrible. You’d love it!” but when I’d ask’em to describe it they’d go doe-eyed & get all pickle faced ‘n say “you just have to hear it for yourself.” Well finally, thanks to the De Stijl label, I have. And let me tell you something; I am perplexed about what I heard. Mostly, I guess, ’cause I ain’t hearin things what other scribes have insinuated I should. Department Store Santas? Desperate Bicycles? Not in my kung fu village! To me this lp teeters on a precipice between euphoria & anguish. It is certainly the work of an unstable mind & tortured soul. I mean, you can almost feel Tucker’s circuits shorting out as the record progresses. You don’t need to read the insert to hear that! There’s alot of sadness & confusion goin on too. It’s a record about a guy’s love for his car. It’s a record about guy’s love for his girl. There’s a song that’s evidently an ode to homosexual love (not that there’s anything wrong w/that). The guy records himself talkin to his car, slammin the doors, the girl whispers & sings along sometimes. Yeah, it has it’s moments; like the naif, art brut-ish noisescapes that Tucker occasionally creates or like the dingaling song at the end of side 2 that’s about a Cadillac (among other things) that eventually crumbles into a fuzzy guitar “freakout”. It is one odd fucker of an lp, there’s no denyin that. But how someone-& I won’t say who-winds up comparin it to the albums by Department Store Santas & Desperate Bicycles is beyond me. Oh sure, those’re nice lures your tossin out there, but they’re inappropriate. Those bands lp’s are challenging. Tucker’s is more challenged. Maybe what they meant to say was that one day Mark Tucker saw someone dressed as a department store Santa, went banana’s, then desperately rode a bicycle to the mental institution. I dunno. I wasn’t there. If I was to sell you this record I would say “imagine a record that sounds like someone who claims to be Daniel Johnston who rerecorded Smile” or “imagine if Larry Fischer had been commissioned to do the Pink Moon lp as literally a Volkswagen commercial”. Would you buy it? I know I would because that sounds like something that’s right up my alley & the descriptions are terrible enough that I’d probably love it. That said, Batstew is certainly a unique album. I dunno about a masterpiece, but shorter people are prone to exaggeration. And that’s a fact! I’m glad I got the hear it & props to De Stijl for reissuing it.

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LUNN POLY – ‘THEE COSMIC DONALDS’ CDr £4
Monged loops of vocal drivel from salt-mining central. LUNN POLY hail from east of the river Weaver in Wharton, in Winsford, in Cheshire. Sit back and become fairly underwhelmed as indecipherable voice box farts, squelches, grunts and general contact mic abuse temporarily homogenises, before collapsing into pools of fumble. Always moving and strangely dynamic, the forty four minute piece holds its glass up to phonation failure and (anti?) repetition, repetition, repetition. THEE COSMIC DONALDS comes with felt tip cretin art work, and is a timely and timeless testement to a pair of Cestrian wipe-out scoundrels uncomfortable with the notion of silence and working in very difficult conditions. One track – forty four minutes. A so far unlimited edition with seasonal artwork.

SMEAR CAMPAIGN – ‘RAPUNZEL, LET DOWN YOUR MOTHER’ C42 £4
Alright Chap? All hail Stuart Arnot, famed futuro-medievalist and div-sound stalwart. RAPUNZEL, LET DOWN YOUR MOTHER is the second part of his Rapunzel trilogy. Mr Arnot has many guises / collaborations / whatevers to his name, including but not to limited to: Hard Pan Trio / Plum Slate / The Game Cock / Acrid Lactations / Mid-Leopard Violet Prism / Ghost Of An Ocotopus / Filthy Smear and a whole bunch of other things we can’t remember or pretend to know about. RAPUNZEL, LET DOWN YOUR MOTHER is a warped, scrooned C42. Botched, smleted, pikcled, battered electronics. Rapunzel syndrome for the 2012 generation. Schizoid bouts of reverb, crashing castle-noise, feudal analogue peasant grunts, distort-weird-lumped-natter – it’s a real Ludwigsburg of a cassette! Perhaps some sort of robotic knight from Dresden blowtorching a shoesmith in Saxony for not paying his taxes or some sort of wooden bird plane with flint propellas sent from a future that never existed. It’s all in there. Stuart really puts the GRIM in Brothers Grimm. Audacious Flagon Saxony-Glasgow futuro-beatbox break metldown… C42, edition of 30, complete with individual, abstact cassette and symbolist historical cover art.

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Luscious Skin – ‘Ventriloquist’ C35 $7
If not for the diligent and courageous work of the Kansas City Police Department Luscious Skin’s debut album Ventriloquist might never have seen the light of day.  After months of writing and recording the exquisite left field pop tracks on the album a laptop containing the sole copies of the tracks was burgled from vocalist/songwriter Rhys Ziemba’s apartment.  At this point Rhys and the other member of the duo, Kyle Combs, were faced with the option of re-recording the entire album or scrapping it and starting with new tunes.  After a few months stuck in this quandary  the aforementioned K City Police Dept. amazingly found the laptop at a local pawn shop and even more amazingly, all of the tracks and files remained!  We are lucky that they did because the sounds and songs on these recordings are totally irreplaceable.  The title track “Ventriloquist” sums up all of what is fresh and appealing here with it’s opening infectious acoustic guitar lick, it’s 8 bit pulse and most importantly it’s powerful and playful lead vocals, this is the sound of guys who’s day job is art handling and who’s influences of Afrobeat, Tropicalia, World Folk Musics and Balearic Beat are transmuted into something clearly Del Norte but retains much Soul.  Unlike many other “Western” albums that have borrowed sounds from other cultures (ie Graceland) Luscious Skin’s influences lie buried deep within the sound in a subtle way.  The result is something they can truly call their own and perhaps deserves a new Genre (maybe Plainsbeat?).  Whatever you call it we say it could be the ultimate soundtrack to your Spring and Summer. 

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ARBOR 136; PEDESTRIAN DEPOSIT – ‘KITHLESS’ LP $16.5(US)/$19.5(CAN)/$26(world)
Pedestrian Deposit (Jonathan Borges and Shannon A. Kennedy) possesses a certain, restrained relationship to texture.  Sources both electric and acoustic operate on a logic of hybridity_ becoming compositional elements organized through their activation of a shared acoustic space.  This functions in multiple directions: in some instances, the cello is captured and converted to a subtle electronic variation, expanding the range of the tone through this capture, at other times it acts as a sort of mimicry, tools of one sort operating on the language of the other_ the cello played like a burst of noise, or electronic presence informed by the technique natural to the bow.  The compositional practice developed by the duo is strict, bearing the marks of tension informed by the rigor of live performance.  The pieces on Kithless are documents of this practice; Drift Gently Down the Frigid Tides of Sleep was recorded live at ‘Activating the Medium XIII:ICE’ in San Francisco on April 17, 2010.  The performance extends the use of hybrid and musique concrete forms by engaging with the physical limits of the body through voluntary hypothermia, transforming the performers state and relationship to compositional tools.  Under a Veil of Living Light, a staple from the 2009 East Coast tour, is a drifting of the hybrid forms expressed above, weaving in and out of each other; traces of texture, combined and re-combined.   Kithless is Pedestrian Deposit’s first LP album since its incarnation as a duo in 2008.  It follows their compact disc releases Austere and East Fork / North Fork, both on Monorail Trespassing (2009 and 2010, respectively)_ their body of work thus far shows a dedication to a minor, often overlooked, field in contemporary practice directly concerned with the technologies of composition and the ways in which sounds touch each other.  Recorded June 2009 – June 2010, and mastered by William Hutson, and transferred for vinyl at Dubplates and Mastering by Frederic Stader on March 16, 2011.   In an edition of 500 copies.

ARBOR 126; RAGLANI – ‘HUSK’ 2xLP $22(US)/$25.75(CAN)/$35(world)
Husk, a career-spanning double-LP retrospective marking Raglani’s “early period” (2004-2009), is both the artist’s “Best-of” collection*, as well as a document of a personal orientation within the canon of electronic music.  As a devoted student of E.M. history and synthesis techniques, Joseph Raglani has spent the past decade in his St. Louis studio consuming and refiguring.  While highly-informed, these tracks avoid simple derivation, the traces of influence are not easily decipherable; the common descriptors fall away.  The sonic legacies orbiting the INA GRM axis cross paths with pop sensibilities more akin to the sensuous pulse of New Order.  Raglani mines the expressiveness of this fertile boundary space.  The compositions on Husk are dense featuring a palette of analog and digital electronic instruments as well as guitar, voice, pedal steel, organ, melodica. Disparate elements find a way to resonate to maximum emotive effect.  The sonic energies are not bound to their sources, but are rather utilized for their ability to express.  One fourth of the material is available here for the first time; the remainder from private-press and small run releases has been remixed by Raglani and re-mastered by Greg Davis for presentation in this collection.  Husk is Raglani’s second mass-market release following his 2008 CD Of Sirens Born released on Kranky Records.  Artwork by Robert Beatty (Three Legged Race / Hair Police / Resonant Hole).  In an edition of 500 copies with printed inner-sleeves.

ARBOR 124;  EVERYDAY LONELINESS – ‘RECONTEXTUALIZATIONS’ C40 $15.5(US)/$19(CAN)/$25.5(world)
Everyday Loneliness, Jonathan Borges intermittent tape music project, tunes to a  melancholy slowness; different paces, the way a day blurs: a series of vignettes presenting growth at a small rate, as much dependent upon the listener’s focus as the artist’s, a tangential motion rooted in stillness.  Through a shifting relationship between the background/foreground positioning of decay and melody, the distinctions between repetition and newness, remembered sound and experienced sound, present a psychological connection to time.  An appropriate use of the cassette medium.  Recorded May – July 2010.   In an edition of 175 copies, professionally duplicated/imprinted Type II High Bias Chrome cassettes, and cardstock covers.

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