Animal Psi

MARSH CAVERN – ‘Nuire’ CS 
Solo guitarist Marsh Cavern returns with a 4 new songs tape recorded last february, nearly three years after the previous session. These tracks are less worried than before and could be described as a clair obscure sound. “Nuire” enfolds carefully the spirit and the thoughts like a distant time coming to present, like a landscape naturally made of recent and old elements. The distorded single guitar leaves space for both visual and auditory imagination. The guitar sound is more personal than in the previous recording. MC uses an early 70′s guitar amp that makes his sound more organic and authentic. The title “Nuire” must not be understood as its real meaning, but as a self-created verb which means “qui amène la nuit” / “bringing the night”. Recorded by Bertrand Duchemin at Studio Chaudelande in february 2015.

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rgt#18 Amalgamated – ‘Bulbing, Cricket, Splash’ C40
True to their name, Amalgamated’s “Bulbing, Cricket, Splash” fuses free-improv electronics, rhythm-bolstered drones, field recordings, & heaps of who knows what else into three flowing tracks of air & movement. Great stuff for come-ups, come-downs & all-arounds. Type II, high bias chrome tapes. Edition of 50.

rgt#15 Kraken Mare – ‘Outer Resonance’ C19
Two side-long missives here, the first a travelling concrète exploration of uninhabited zones & outlying places. The second employs intersecting melodies and as a monument to distant objects & occurrances from now to the early times. Type II, high bias chrome plus tapes. Edition of 50.

rgt#14 Buried In The Basement – ‘Lye Over Truth’ C36
Nate Buker offers up a wealth of scorched-circuit writhe & cold-void misanthropy, cracked fried & multiplied. Clanging, chattering, subterranean sounds hemorrhage from this grizzled DIY-maker’s buzzing lair onto tape. Type II, high bias cobalt tapes. Edition of 50.

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Aujx-2 Amalgamated s/t CD
Since 2010, Amalgamated has had a handful of highly regarded releases on their own Intangible Cat label, ((Cave)) Recordings, and Denmark’s Metaphysical Circuits label. A new full-length heaping of Amalgamated’s electronic / organic meshing of aesthetics takes place over about 55 minutes on the present CD, and is continued in the 20 minute download-only bonus track. This self-titled album collects 9 (counting the 20 minute download-only bonus track) specially selected pieces from the heap of material they recorded between 2004 and 2007. As per their standard procedure thus far, these tracks have been sculpted from their original improvised form into more delicate and intensely textural states. Strongly informed by 80’s industrial / cassette culture artists and creation methods, they mingle the sensibilities of home-tapers with their love for more current electronic artists and technologies. Noisy, dreamy lo-fi psychedelic elements are placed against carefully sculpted hi-fi electronics. The memebers of the group have worked on other projects; Gushing Cloud (Cory Bengtsen), Homogenized Terrestrials (Phillip Klampe), Headless Ballerinas Underwater (Bob Newell), Dog Hallucination (D. Petri), & Rebekahs’ Tape (Cory Bengtsen & Mike Richards). Traces of these projects are evident in Amalgamated’s work throughout the album. This recording is a further selection of standout segments in the group’s improvisation oeuvre, and represents a near-purging of their 2004-2007 back-stash, setting them free to unleash materials from their recent (2013 & ongoingly periodic) cache of recordings. ltd. 250 copies

Aujx-4 Amalgamated – ‘Solve et Coagula’ C60
An unusually abrasive multimedia emission from Amalgamated discussing the state of Earth and human society. The anxiety and hopelessness of the current state of things is acknowledged as fact but not accepted as inevitable or irreversible. A sort of power-electronics palette of various splintering signal overloads and textural agitations predominates. Differing perspectives are injected periodically, noting the presence of revelatory possibilities and potentials. The booklet and the audio are a unit. Various abstract digital images created by Bob Newel. Fractals, ‘sacred’ geometric forms, circuitry, rivers, veins, and roots are all transporters. Naturalistic photos taken by Phillip Klampe & D. Petri. ltd. 35 copies.

Aujx-5 Noosphertilizer III – ‘STRNGLV/Pelktopia’ split C60
The 3rd Noosphertilizer split release. This time three artists are featured: STRNGLV (New Jersey, US) and Pelktopia (Tokyo, Japan), and artwork D. Petri.
STRNGLV was discovered via the excellent Fabrica Records’ release of Psychotropia some 4 years ago. Also a visual artist near to the collage & street art mindset, Sean Keane’s vision comes across potently regardless of medium. Within STRNGLV’s audio category, trashed sounds and rhythms gurgle and permutate. Older-school electronic sound making equipment is funneled through and/or blended with manipulatory powers of software. Gritty and weird home-cooked urban psychedelia is here. Pelktopia was discovered via the excellent Ashtray Navigations / Pelktopia split LP put out some 2 years ago by Yogoh Record in Japan. Pelktopia is active within the Tokyo underground improv scene, and curious/interested parties would likely be pleased to check out the live-captured performance videos posted at their online home. Beautiful, intimate and dreamy guitar sketching against intuitively tuned-in textural backdrops. Design, assembly, art booklet photographs & hyper-glyphs by D. Petri. ltd. 35 copies.

Aujx-6 Homogenized Terrestrials – ‘Shadows Think Twice’ CD
Shadows Think Twice is the follow up album to The Contaminist (Intangible Cat 2012). Once again there are eerie dreamy atmospheres and surreal explorations of unrecognized places and events. 16 tracks of strange other worldly sounds allow the listener to shift away from the present into a place where both familiar and unusual details blend together to form the unexpected.
Photographs & design by Phil Klampe. ltd. 250.

Aujx-7 Dog Hallucination – ‘Mitzi’ C77
The music on this album was created mostly between 2004 and 2007, with a few pieces created between 2007 and 2011. Between 2011 and 2015 the music was edited, sequenced & mastered. Introspective emotional energy is the primary characteristic of the album and its companion booklet. The unshakable urge toward curiosity and the desire for understanding is slathered in feelings of awe and wonder. Aspirations for higher levels of experience are pushed forward by dog-like unrelenting enthusiasm. Raw, intimate personal experiences are juxtaposed with surreal & hopeful dreamworld imaginings, aiming toward a meeting place comfortably in the middle between the two. The organic is the experienced, the psychedelic is the imagined – and vice-versa. ltd. 25 copies

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Helm – ‘Olympic Mess’ 2LP
Where his previous effort, 2014’s ‘The Hollow Organ,’ dealt in dense, distressed sonics, ‘Olympic Mess’ is Younger responding to a period spent engaged with loop-based industrial music, dub techno, and balearic disco. These musical references, all of which can induce hypnotic states and feelings of euphoria, inform ten evocative aural landscapes which unfurl over the course of an hour and act almost as a counterpoint to the turmoil that spawned them. “It’s about exploring a perverse desire to pull the rug from under yourself, and the struggle to achieve a healthy equilibrium between one’s personal and artistic lives,” Younger says. “Dealing with the problematic consequences of pushing your own limits, forming and dissolving relationships, transient lifestyles, physical and mental exhaustion, excess, and other kinds of personal chaos”. Crafted using an array of heavily processed samples, found sound and electroacoustics, personal conflict manifests in “I Exist In A Fog” and “Outerzone 2015,” where visceral noise disintegrates into veiled, ambient strata. The disquieting crescendos of “The Evening In Reverse” and “Fluid Cloak” offer no such relief, while the title track and “Don’t Lick The Jacket” are mineral, multilayered abstractions twisting around a brittle pulse. Following a period of extensive touring throughout the States and Europe, which included 20 dates in support of Danish punk group Iceage, ‘Olympic Mess’ was recorded in London, New York and Berlin by Sean Ragon, Luke Younger and John Hannon. The album is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, pressed on 140g 2xLP and CD. It features photography by Kim Thue and artwork by Bill Kouligas.

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DAIS068 Tor Lundvall – ‘The Park’ LP
In 2012, ambient composer Tor Lundvall and Dais Records presented his second instrumental masterpiece entitled The Shipyard (2006’s Empty City being the first). After its release and universal praise, Lundvall had confided that there was a third instrumental album nearing completion entitled The Park. Fostering his natural habitat of the wooded landscapes of Eastern Long Island, Lundvall again set about capturing his portrait studies and composing a lurid and abstract ambient soundtrack to accompany his source of inspiration. In Tor’s own words: “I first thought about making an album about a quiet park during a morning walk back in the frigid February of 2011. Song titles started popping into my head long before any music was recorded. ‘Symbols on Pavement’ was the first title that came to me, but ended up being the last piece recorded. Like most of my previous albums “The Park” follows a timeline, in this case, beginning on an early spring morning and ending on a late summer evening. The track sequence also maps out the shifting light and weather patterns during the course of a day. For the first time in years, I’ve incorporated field recordings into the music, other than the sounds recorded from outside my studio window. I carried my portable recorder with me during bike rides and walks through my favorite parks, recording birds, insects, lawnmowers, wood chippers, field games, and other less definable sounds. Parks have always been my sanctuaries and my greatest sources of inspiration since childhood. Although this album is not focused on one park in particular, the music resonates strongly with memories of my favorite childhood park, The James A. McFaul Environmental Center in Wyckoff, New Jersey. The McFaul Center is a place of quiet beauty, but it is also filled with shadows and secrets, especially deep within the Nature Trail. The final track, ‘Closes At Dusk’, is an homage to the siren which shrieked every evening from behind the towering pines.” Limited to 300 vinyl editions with artwork by Tor Lundvall.

DAIS074 Sightings – ‘Amusers and Puzzlers’ LP
After the release of their well-received ninth studio album, Terribly Well, and their successful month long European tour in 2013, Sightings did the unexpected and quietly disbanded without notice or explanation. More than 15 years in the trenches and making a mess throughout New York City, the band made more of a polarizing impact to formalized underground music that most of their peers. Sightings would have been a national treasure if the whole country was laid to waste in Armageddon. During the sessions that birthed Terribly Well, a complimentary album was recorded in tandem which, while not intended to be their final statement, produced the jaded epilogue from the mouth of experimental rock’s most lasting monolith. Amusers and Puzzlers is the schizophrenic culmination of their brand of damaged rock. Isolated noise patterns shifted from Mark Morgan’s unorthodox guitar patterns sewn up from his nervous, scattered vocal phrasing. Richard Hoffman’s stampede-like momentum on bass slammed against Jon Lockie’s drum triggers made the past couple decades crash into itself. The final LP from Sightings, limited to a single pressing of 500 copies with cover art/design by Bill Nace (Body/Head).

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Mossy Throats – ‘Imaginary Virus’ 5xC90
IMAGINARY VIRUS contains out-of-print material from the MOSSY THROATS catalog. Spread across 5 90 minute cassettes and 3 cdrs, this sprawling, limited box set showcases a wide range of styles and techniques. Comes with full-color booklet with art and information for each release and xerox poster. Housed in library-style vinyl case. Hand-numbered edition of 14 box sets.

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Panabrite – ‘Disintegrating Landscape’ C39
Disintegrating Landscape is a brand new limited cassette release from Panabrite following his 2014 album Pavilion (Immune 033). In late 2014 Panabrite’s Norm Chambers began stitching together recently collected bits of sounds and field recordings to create a sort of epic travelogue of ideas and movement, where things end up in stark contrast to how they begin. Initially Disintegrating Landscape was one continuous 47-minute piece, but has now been edited for cassette; each side a stand-alone piece with themes that recur throughout and carry on the idea of it as one larger piece. Chambers did a fair amount of traveling down the West Coast during the summer of 2014, collecting photos of many coastal regions and reflecting on the idea of the gradual decay of land into the ocean; of continuous movement and evolution. The music reflects this notion with its underlying bed of familiarity, yet the turbulence near the top is constantly shifting and eventually swallows everything. Disintegrating Landscape is limited to 120 copies professionally duplicated on chrome plus tape with printed shells and a 5 panel full color J-card.

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GOD 28 ALVIN LUCIER – ‘Dark Matter’ LP
I don’t do anything special with the instruments. I don’t use extended techniques. I use the pure sound of the instruments, with alterations in tuning to make audible [acoustic] beating. – Alvin Lucier.

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Hell-P-008: True Deceiver – ‘True Deceiver’ CD 6€
True Deceiver is the new sludgy post-metal electronic project from Portland, Oregon based electronic-folk producer Cars & Trains. It sits in a heavier, darker end of the spectrum from his work under the Fake Four, Inc affiliated work under the Cars & Trains name. The synthesized hammering of drums, hissing static, and heavily detuned baritone guitar provide a stark contrast to the echo laden melodies of the vocals and brooding, fluttering cello. The lush shoegazer sensibility and immense wall of sound have a level of energy that comes as surprising to those familiar with earlier, more subdued work from Filepp. The heavy pulsating guitar and distorted electronic drums bring to mind influences like Godflesh or later Killing Joke, while the sense of melody, synth lines, and flickering cello parts evoke lighter acts like My Bloody Valentine or Slowdive.

Hell-P-009: Bloodmoney & Morbidly-O-Beats – ‘The Art of Self Destruction’ CD 8€
Portland,OR based emcee Bloodmoney and Chicago,IL based producer Morbidly-O-Beats made this album a few years ago, it came out on tape but now you can grab it on limited cd.

Hell-P-010: Hoot – ‘Down’ CD 6€
New EP from SantaCruz,CA based producer Hoot
This collection of songs is a direct tribute to the golden era of hip hop production wise, DJ Premier/Pete Rock/Dilla/Marley Mal pre-94. Paying homage to the sliced reprogrammed breaks on top of chugging chopped soulful samples, It’s beats made for the invisible rapper in your head to kick some rhymes over while you drive through a meadow slightly buzzed from taboo recreations.

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Loop Minded Instrumentals – ‘A Hitchhiker’s Guide To A Beat’ C38 $8
A Hitchhiker’s Guide To A Beat strips the vocals from the Loop Minded Individual’s 2014 release and leaves bare the beats that have made this album a stunning masterpiece. A limited edition cassette features Esh the Monolith and Intrikit with guest appearances by Emoh Betta and DJ Merf. The album is cohesive and brilliant with a well produced sound. Limited to 100 black cassettes. Loop or die.

Richard Catesh – ‘Scenography’ C28/CDr $7/$4
Abstract hip hop artist / new cocoon collaborator, Richard Catesh offers a peak into the warped mind of electronic beats and sounds. Scenography relates to the study and practice of performance design, perfectly illustrated on this 28 minute cassette tape. Catesh brings out experimental sound with electronic beats that mesh and mold into a new form, a being that exists with little control to time and place. The album is rounded out perfectly by a The Notwist cover remix, thus perfectly aligning itself deep into the realm of experimentation. Limited to 20 cassettes and 4 CDrs.

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