Animal Psi

FAB006 A FULL COSMIC SOUND s/t C30
A Full Cosmic Sound (AFCS) is a constantly rotating improvisational ensemble from Santiago, Chile.The inspiration to form AFCS was born during the equatorial summer of 2007 in Carlos Barbosa, Brazil after Alvaro Daguer (a frequent collaborator of Chilean psych-jammers La Banda’s), Felipe Mantovani and Clovis Barbosa (both members of the experimental/dub franco-brazilian project Du O des Etoiles) shared a casual psychoactive-inspired UFO sighting.Since then, and with varying lineups, AFCS has been a natural and spontaneous union of bodies and souls on a cosmic trip. On this, their debut release for Fabrica Records, AFCS deliver a total of 5 tracks which conjure up the sounds emitted by playing dusty early “easy listening” electronic music records on your turntable, the psych/sonic explorations of Throbbing Gristle, early Sonic Youth, Spectrum, Experimental Audio Research, and the echoes of Santiago’s busy urban sound-scape. AFCS features current and former members of Chilean psych-ensemble La Banda’s and Psychedelic Schafferson Jetplane. Pro-dubbed edition of 100 (only 50 copies will be available for distribution in the USA).

FAB008 ORBLESS Spinning Liquid Mirror C30
Spinning Liquid Mirror is a suite of deep journeys through modular synthesis. Influenced by research into planetary harmonics, phenomenological frequencies, and zero point energy systems, Orbless has delved headlong into closed system frequency modulation and self generated looping patches. With SLM, Orbless has pushed further into new realms of synthesis based composition. Pro-dubbed C-30, edition of 100.

FAB009 EARTHMASTERS Dwellings C20
EarthMaster’s compositions and improvisations produce submerged and cavernous sound environments. Heavily influenced by psych, drone, and slowed down 80′s new wave, EarthMasters taps into zonked out lo-fi psych pop, ritualistic chanting, and lush synth/vocal drones to create an ethereal sound-scape. Pro-dubbed C-20, first edition of 50.

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Knotted Cord – ‘Polyphonic Beasts Expand In Parallel’
Knotted Cord is the band of Northern California-based musician Rebecca Keehner. Rebecca plays all instruments in the band, including Guitars, Drums, Bass, Keyboards, Violin, Vocals, Horns, and Percussion. Rebecca has played guitar in noisy multi-piece bands for several years. This is her first solo project which she began in August 2010. The band’s influences include Deerhoof, Spiritualized, Psychic Ills, and D Rider/Dead Rider, and has also drawn comparisons to Thurston Moore/Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Throbbing Gristle, Philip Glass, and Wendy Atkinson. The band is located in Sacramento, CA, US.  Polyphonic Beasts Expand In Parallel is Knotted Cord’s first full-length release following up on the Moth-Shaped Flame EP (S/R Feb 2011).  The songs on the new album expand on the dreamy fragmented minimalism of the EP with denser compositions, elastic rhythms, layered guitar and bass melodies and dissonant noise, analog keyboards, and emotional and chaotic drums. Vocals are used as a layer of instrumentation—often flowing in and out of instrument sounds, lyrics relate to dreams, tension, out-of-body experiences, parallel realities, and coinciding occurrences. Ongoing insomnia while writing and recording contribute to the frenetic energy and psychedelic dreaminess of the album.

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KWJAZ LP $12
San Franciscan Peter Berend’s mystery mixtape unit, KWJAZ, flashed forth this debut self-titled slab of “post-plastic sublime decomposed luxury grooves” on cassette via his own rarified Brunch Groupe imprint early in 2011 and the 120 listeners lucky enough to grip a copy know who they are. It only took half a listen before we green-lit this tape-degraded gem for vinyl treatment and we are dee-lighted to present it thusly. Comprised of two side-long suites, “Once In Babylon” and the oddly monikered “Frighteous Wane,” KWJAZ nimbly ebbs and flows the proceedings through airy cloud-jazz passages (complete with smoky crystal vibes keys and narcotic hiss-hazed horn sections), bouncy weirdo dub-funk vignettes, stretched-out syrupy synth stews, and smooth faux-Steely D soft-rock abstractions, all without ever sounding schizo or style-hoppy. A major feat, and a real riddle of an LP that deepens and ripens with each spin. Hopefully you were savvy enough to catch him on his recent coast-to-coast summer tour with Swanox and Sudden Oak; if not, tune in to this. Black vinyl LPs (mastered at Dubplates in Berlin) in jackets with cosmic floral artwork by Austin Cho/Casey Grr. Edition of 700.

ROBEDOOR – ‘TOO DOWN TO DIE’ LP $12
LA’s most downer erosion architects continue their 6-year-deep narco drip into psych-streaked bleak house, the latest saga of which is Too Down To Die, the band’s first full-length since March 2010’s Burners LP and the journey there-and-back was a cryptic and crooked crawl. The entirety of Side A is dominated by “Parallel Wanderer,” a lumbering kosmische bruiser triptych and consistent live staple that spills from astral ambient dread (bathed in crystal piano and trademark MGG modular synth textures) into a loner riff march before detonating into a wasted ghost-rock vacuum. The B features a suite of songs new and less-so, from the industrial headbanger “Universal Migration” to the nod-out braindead negative throb closer, “Afterburners.” Out of step and out on the ledge. Recorded at Green Machine in East LA and cut at Dubplates in Berlin. Black vinyl LPs in jackets with blasted orb artwork plus a photocopied insert. Edition of 600.

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To Live and Shave in L.A. – ‘The Cortege’ LP
The Cortege is the closing installment to two decades of remarkable albums and riveting live performances from To Live and Shave in L.A. The core trio of Ben Wolcott, Rat Bastard and Tom Smith has led this collective of legendary musicmakers since the early 1990s when they crossed paths in the early Miami Beach punk/noise/experimental scene. Recorded by Don Fleming in 2007 at Think Tank studios in Hoboken, NJ, The Cortege is a completely different journey from what one might expect from TLASILA. Songs like Flattering Circles of Hell and Til Their Legs Gave Way go far beyond the usual noise exercises they are known for. The Cortege finds TLASILA utilizing an almost pop format in terms of not only length but repeating themes throughout each song. Bright Lights, Theatre, Fur inaugurates the LP with its minimal electronics introduction until it explodes with guitar, delayed violin, and its almost singalong repeat of the title. While some songs seem minimal in execution throughout, such as a Rodent, others like I Found My Ruin Instead immediately layer guitars and sax below Tom Smiths tortured vocals. When you reach the end of The Cortege is hard to not think to yourself that not only is this TLASILAs best LP, but also a glimpse at what avant music can be when focused, yet boundless. The TLASILA collective for The Cortège includes Ben Wolcott (oscillator and treatments), Rat Bastard (violin), Tom Smith (lead vocals), Misty Martinez (lead vocal on Flattering Circles of Hell, backing vocals, saxophone), Andrew W.K. (backing vocals), Nondor Nevai (backing vocals), Cherie Lily (backing vocals), Mark Morgan (guitar), Chris Grier (guitar), Don Fleming (guitar), Dimthingshine (percussion and voice), Mark Shellhaas (percussion), Kelly Jamison (percussion), Graham Moore (synth modules), Gaybomb (magnetic card readers), and Patrick Spurlock (electronics).

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Sarongs s/t $5
Shotgun blast evil surf from Syracuse, NY.  Born in Lindsey’s beer-soaked attic when everyone would get together and play really loud and people would usually show up and get really shitfaced and a show would happen.  Socio-political taunts bellowed over searing riffs and quick-snap time changes that hit the city like a tire iron to the ribs.  It was everything we needed up there: dark, immediate, brash, honest.  Then graduation rolled around and Lindsey moved to L.A. and that was the end of it.  It’s our pleasure to release this first tape of songs compiled from a number sessions the band did last winter when we were all buried under 6 feet of snow and there wasn’t anything to do but make something that burned. Edition of 50 on black cassette.

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MY DEAR KILLER/RELLA THE WOODCUTTER
My Dear Killer has been our first release. After years spent in scientific research in three different countries he’s back working on a bunch of new songs for a new proper album to be released soon. In the meantime he gives us this track, still reminescent of his early tunes, slow, sad and dissonant. Rella introduces himself with a couple of shorts tracks, smelling of sunny backyards, acoustic guitars and various discomforts. The first track opens with a tribal chant deliberately different from what follows, just a small hint of one of the many things that our man likes.

FATHER MURPHY – ‘HOW MUCH WOOD WOULD A WOODCHUCK CHUCK IF A WOODCHUCK COULD CHUCK WOOD’
Our heroes Father Murphy just went through the -nth EU tour, this time sharing the stage with Sic Alps at times. Before they left they recorded a personal re-interpretation of VU’s Jesus, a possibly darker and noisier version as they imagined it. What a pleasure to welcome on the flipside another dark-ish trio from Turin, with a great bandname, great musical tastes and huge personality. There you go fellas, surfing through both sides of this perfect headstone to the warm season. This 7 inch is co-released with Aagoo, Avant! Records, Brigadisco, LaDelirante and Madcap Collective.

RELLA THE WOODCUTTER – ‘I KNOW WHEN IT’S TIME TO GET THE FUCK AWAY’
Rella, a new entry in the Boring Machines family, will be protagonist of a series of releases, started with the 7 inch split single with MDK and now continuing with this cdEP made of five songs. An entire new album of songs is set to be released later this year. From the initial sonic assault of Apocryphal, the five tracks guide the listener through shades of early nineties electric blues (think Palace, Songs:Ohia and fellows), sixties psichedelia flavoured from the spirit of Skip Spence. Rella’s singing is rich, intense and perfumed, sometimes plunged into deep trance, like in Are You Expired? or Wrong Affection where instruments and voice rise together in a psichedelic unison building from a country-like opening. Rella demonstrates he can manage nude guitar&voice songs, like in Coward where he accompany himself just with acoustic guitar fingerpicking and also skeletal electric blues like Bodies which transfigurates in a noisy orgy of percussions and violin. Recorded at home, this EP is the prelude of a forthcoming album which is part of the vynil trilogy started with the self released Nihilist Shack.

HEROIN IN TAHITI s/t  LP
This duo from Rome declared to have invented a new genre, with the tipical boast that only romans have. When we actually saw them playing a gig with Stellar OM Source at Codalunga we tought that if it’s not new, it’s surely weird enough to be released on Boring Machines. Heroin in Tahiti welcomes you to death surf, the sound of a possible apocalypse which surrounds two twanging guitars. The album moves slowly through Morriconian tunes and other ‘surfing’amenities, all covered in a hazy numb of loops, effects and drum machines. Think of drinking a frozen Daiquiri in Mururuoa during the atomic test while watching spaghetti western b-movies and you probably get the image.

RELLA THE WOODCUTTER – ‘THE GOLDEN UNDERTOW’  LP
A complete album from the man with a guitar that made us think at the same time to old bluesmen, psychdelic jammers with injections of modern slowcorers. Recorded at home in a week this album sounds as a perfect synthesis of what we like on a songwriter. Good lyrics, great flexibility between styles and a general psychedelic feeling that make us think of a sunny afternoon in the frontporch with lots of beer, cigarettes and nothing to do except watching the horizon. Get yourself a rocking chair and a hat.

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DPRCD06 Mountainhood – ‘America 2 or Nahuel Huapa: A Saga, The Intense Vibes of the Rainbow, A Tale of Transformation Of My Brother’ 2xCD
Edition of 200. New mammoth 2 disc set from Michael Curtis Hilde aka Mountainhood, following on from releases with Important, Reverb Worship and Blackest Rainbow. Michael takes us on a lucid journey of far out lo fi folk over 2 discs and nearly 1 hour 50 minutes! This incredible album was recorded well over a year ago and has been in planning for nearly just as long! Ranging from the beautiful (“Have You Ever Wished”) to the bizarre (“Trees Message (Nahuel In The Woods)”) Michaels music is both emotionally exhausting and totally mind melting. A vast array of instrumentation is used to create a variety of moods and textures, mainly centred around Michael’s unique and enchanting vocals, giving the album a strange sensation of late night camp fire psyche outs recorded onto tape and left for us to find decades later. This album is a wonderful documentation of Michael Curtis Hilde’s Mountainhood project and it’s overall sound and unique artistic vision, which is unlike anything else around at the moment. All artwork by Mountainhood.

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RxRy – ‘Alpha’ LP
If the blogosphere hype machine were represented as a physical city, every overblown diatribe rendered as a gaudy tower scraping at soot-filled skies, then the Alpha EP is the crumbling warehouse on the edge of the grid, it’s dilapidated facade streaked with the arrhythmic patterns of distant and dying neon lights. Windows glowing against a polluted twilight skyline, harboring some secretive and pulsating celebration within. As the architect, the shadowy figure(s) known as RxRy have poured their foundation onto IDM and techno, then raised a framework on ambient and drone. Electric melodies are wired into walls of static and thundering low-end vibrations, billowing sheets of noise and compression decay over a shuddering scaffold of analog warmth. New algorithms are emerging from the digital dust – intelligent dance music for the next generation of sound-seekers. Turn your ears and minds towards the fringes, you’re within earshot. Limited to 400 copies (250 on black vinyl, 150 on clear vinyl).

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VATICAN SHADOW – ‘pakistan military academy’ 2xCS
under a september sky. edition of 125

VATICAN SHADOW – ‘mural of saddam’ CS
it was business as usual yesterday in shops across the city. edition of 125

VATICAN SHADOW – ‘washington buries al qaeda leader at sea – deck 1’ CS
the new york stock exchange traded shares. edition of 125

VATICAN SHADOW – ‘washington buries al qaeda leader at sea – deck 2’ CS
new york’s baseball teams stuck to their schedules. edition of 125

VATICAN SHADOW – ‘washington buries al qaeda leader at sea – deck 3’ CS
the world turned as ever on “as the world turns”. edition of 125

ASH POOL – ‘together they serve to define the process’ CS
third demo, recorded in between the first album and the second 7″

AMES SANGLANTES – ‘silver chamber bars’ CS
dirty electronic industrial noise. edition of 125

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Midday Veil – ‘Subterranean Ritual II’ C48 $7
The latest installment in Midday Veil’s “Subterranean Ritual” series of improvised recordings, SRII consists of two long, slow-building tracks that glisten with dynamic tension and ecstatic restraint.  Atmospheric vocals, stately drums and otherworldly synths provide a slippery, haunting exploration of cosmic coalescence and decay.  Limited to 200 cassettes featuring artwork generated by the band during a residency at the Experimental Television Center. Download card included.

Fungal Abyss – ‘Bardo Abgrund Temple’ C70 $7

Debut full length from Fungal Abyss, the psychedelic improv sister project of Seattle based prog-metal heavyweights Lesbian.  Free-form, entheogen-inspired session builds from spiraling, sonorous drones to shuddering climaxes.  Limited to 250 cassettes featuring artwork by Darwin Rodriguez. Download card included.