Animal Psi

Uncommon Nasa – ‘Cold War Era’ C32 $7
Cold War Era is a collection of highly experimental instrumentals that combine 80’s era 8-Bit Synthesizers with Jazz and World Music. It’s a chaotic soundtrack for a chaotic war that began with the USSR’s invasion and ended with the USA’s abandonment of Afghanistan. Limited to 150 “jelly green” cassettes.

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Cloudsound – ‘II’
To me, “II” sounds like it was birthed in discovery. It is an effort to capture moments of unexpected beauty when a pedal is turned ever-so-slightly, or that moment right before dusk when the sky explodes into radiant oranges and reds. “II” is full of moments like that. Faintly oscillating guitar drones, opaque guitar lines etched with waves of distortion that crest just at the right moment. This album is about trying to stake a living in those moments. Turning on the sustain pedal is the aural equivalent of taking a picture. We could live in this hope forever. As always, all proceeds from the sale of “II” will go to the Malindza Refugee Camp Library to pay for the general upkeep, supplies and stipend for the librarian. The camp has been experiencing a rough time. Your donations go a long way.

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[blr16] Mark Dicker – ‘Universal Processes’ C29
Following on from two cassettes under his own name, one of which the Quietus rightly saw fit to include in its list of tapes of the 2014, comes a second foray into deep, heavy, scraping electronics by Mark Dicker. seen very much as a companion piece to Talk of the University, Universal Processes expands on the aural themes of what came before. Using a sparser palate, space and time are stretched even further, allowing for each of the three pieces to evolve into unsettlingly tense spheres of sound. Universal Processes marks an exciting leap forward for someone who is sounding increasingly sure of himself and his art

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FH052 Grapefruit – ‘Some New-Age Bullshit’ $6
RIYL: Tangerine Dream scoring a Ken Burns documentary. Back for his sophomore release for Field Hymns, Charlie Salas-Humara (Panther/The Planet The/Sun Angle) doubles down on the Krautrock spiritual tribalism that made the first album so captivating and pushes the project deep into overdrive – it’s like Bitches Brew for the hippies.

FH051 Go No Go For Launch – ‘Re-entry’ $6
RIYL: inspirational zinger music from the Live at 5 Action News Team. I first heard this album in 2006 when Randall Taylor (Graveyard Orbit) sent a demo to a label I was working for. I can honestly say that when this was rejected it planted the first seeds of Field Hymns in my mind – there had to be a place where music like this could exist AND be heard. Almost a decade later we are fully and totally stoked to right that injustice – one of our favorite albums ever and potentially one of yours.

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[mt102cs] LXV – ‘Witness/Recall’ C28
From Philadelphia comes a much needed, refreshing take on digital sound art composition. LXV reminds us of the glory days of the early Mego scene, injecting a raw edginess into what has become an otherwise sterile medium. Under buzzing synthesis, snippets of familiar culture and dialogue are caught and sent back into the shredding DSP tornado. At the core of it all is a human element, an ear for texture, timbre and composition that is lacking from most contemporary work in this field. Edition of 125, Full color covers and labels.

[mt103cs] Scant – ‘Wake of Dissolution’ C20
Main man Matt Boettke — Baltimore by way of Richmond, VA, man about the East Coast. Dark hallucinations of metallic resonance swirl through a brick wall of thick and impenetrable sub bass oscillation. A haunting aura looms. Your subconscious knows you all too well. Edition of 125, Full color covers and labels.

[mt104cs] Gene Pick – ‘Separate Control’ C16
Baltimore’s golden boy. Self-designed systems create cycles of brief, crunchy, sputtering blasts of frequency patterns that use the building blocks of noise and early electronic music towards something unique and individual, to the future. Salute. Highest recommendation. Edition of 125, Full color covers and labels.

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NNA074: Chris Weisman – ‘The Holy Life That’s Coming’ LP
NNA is happy to set off the new year with the latest full-length record by veteran songwriter Chris Weisman. A long-time resident of the creatively fertile valleys of Brattleboro, Vermont, “The Holy Life That’s Coming” is the newest addition to his vast, accomplished discography that includes numerous full-lengths, limited cassette editions, collaborations, and conceptually ambitious releases (the 2012 88-song YouTube release “Maya Properties”, for example). However prolific, Weisman remains somewhat of a cultural hermit, remaining quietly tucked away on his throne in the hills of “Beatleboro”, giving very scant live performances or appearances, and little public insight into his music and creative world. Weisman instead remains a reclusive gardener diligently tending his artistic crops. Fortunately, we as listeners are given rewarding musical offerings in the form of his unique and personal recordings that serve as documents of the creative process, and as insight into Chris’ observations on the world around him. Militantly adhering to a limited palette, his recordings are all captured and constructed on a four-track cassette recorder, lending to the intimate, homegrown quality of the songs contained within. In the case of “The Holy Life…” in particular, the instrumentation is limited to steel string guitar and voice, with the occasional subtle keyboard accompaniment. These rudimentary tools are a deceptively conventional songwriting setting for content so melodically, harmonically, and lyrically unconventional as Weisman’s songs. His personal brand opts for a more twisting, shifting journey, a chordal harmonic exploration that often keeps the listener on their toes and guessing what will come next. Perhaps born out of his studies in jazz and music theory, Weisman’s style thrives on the juxtaposition of withholding traditional melodic progressions, but at the same time, the glowing, distant ember of Lennon/McCartney influence is never too distant. Despite these structural complexities, the core of Weisman’s songwriting remains deceptively simple: a process of surrendering to a universal flow and “letting things happen”, embracing the results and allowing ideas to take shape on their own. The outcome is reliably delicate and gentle, creating worlds in song that are heartfelt and vivid. This is the case for “The Holy Life That’s Coming”, perhaps his most welcoming record yet. Seemingly influenced by the manic qualities of New England seasonal shifts, this LP comes across as the quintessential “winter” album, reflecting the state of psychosis that can develop when faced with the grey, unending bleakness of a Vermont winter (a familiar feeling for those of us who have endured the madness). There are a range of topics that are touched upon, stemming from observational thoughts about daily life and one’s surroundings. The mundanity of bathtubs and chimneys are met alongside feelings of dissociation and dissatisfaction with earthly reality and the human existence. A nostalgic longing for emotional connection, paired with a desire for the dissipation of the human self and a reintegration into the infinity of the cosmos. We also encounter a spiritual personification of objects in nature brought about by casual walks in the park, making observations on the backpack people around us, pondering concepts of birth and death, while entertaining the juxtaposition between cynicism and enlightenment. Other songs come across as Surrealist poems, traveling through hallucinatory dream worlds induced by the endless circles of time, or triggered by those chords that dad used to play on his guitar. Weisman succeeds in binding fragmented ideas together with universal human feelings, never intending to solve problems or answer questions, but simply exist inside them. “The Holy Life That’s Coming” is a record that rewards the listener with new discoveries upon each listen, a gratifying quality that is the signature of a musician who has succeeded in personal diligence to their craft, while endlessly staying true to oneself.

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SP-53 Hollowfonts – ‘Primitive Masonry’ CS
Although Primitive Masonry is only Michael J. O’Neal’s second proper release, following the exquisite and haunting XLVIII cassette on Phinery in 2013, the six pieces contained within suggest decades of refined tinkering and honed subtlety. “Hushmoney” opens the set with a hollowed-out dirge littered with sonic static and heaving atmospherics, highlighting the heightened sense of sonic diversity ahead. Pummeling low-ends and paced, scattershot rhythms perpetuate the dimmed scene with true malevolence and spidery presence. It’s a transcendent experience that grey-scale powerhouses like Modern Love strive to achieve. The title track continues the alluringly dreadful narrative with distant and disfigured runs of tribalistic, post-industrial flair. Elsewhere, “Men of the Collapse,” “Red Curling Mist” and “Dominator” throb their misanthropic meanderings with callous seduction and crippling atmospheres, permeating a hopeful ambivalence in otherwise abhorrent aural atrocities. It’s an uplifting rouse after the fall. Limited edition of 100 copies. Comes with free download code.

SP-54 Invisible Path – ‘Hallowed Ground’ CS
For the past decade and from U.S. coast to U.S. coast (initially NYC, now Berkley), Michael Bailey (former member of Barn Owl) has created wholly amorphous sets of cosmically-shaded, eternally elusive ambient music with an improvist’s ear and a genuine curiosity of sound. As Invisible Path, Bailey records celestial suites of long-form, aural meditation, issuing intoxicated washes of meandering sound via Not Not Fun, Jehu & Chinaman, Mineral Tapes, and other denizens of wayward intent. Hallowed Ground, Bailey’s latest under the Invisible Path guise, is arguably the producer’s master work, culling deeply mesmerized and mesmerizing movements using a mix of stringed instruments, amplified metals, various tape machines and modular synthesizer. Balanced across two side-long pieces of equal but disparate expansiveness, the tape finds Bailey effortlessly but boldly surveying far-reaching terrains of meticulously layered sound. Tectonic shifts of all-consuming sound segue in and out of one another in a series of drifting, sonic vignettes. All you can do is yield to the bliss. Limited edition of 100 copies. Comes with free download code.

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HF10 Head Dress – ‘Mesa’
An archival release of 2010 material from Los Angeles based Ted Butler. Howling, chugging riff worship inspired by the ideas and imagery of magic, murder and drug abuse in the old American Southwest. Forty five hand assembled copies, professionally dubbed on chrome tape. Inserts duplicated directly on individual pages of a 1979 copy of the novel The Survivors, by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Paul Edwin Zimmer.

HF09 Nikta – ‘Pulsars Down The Road’
Better known as the prolific Fear Konstruktor, Russian artist Nikitia Evsuk introduces a new moniker, Nikta, through which to create mystical extraterrestrial meditations using processed sounds, Synthesizer, and Turkish Saz and Baglama. Forty five hand assembled copies, professionally dubbed on chrome tape. Inserts duplicated directly on individual pages of a 1974 copy of the novel Mythmaster, by Leo P. Kelly.

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DAVE PHILLIPS & CHRS GALARRETA – ‘The Invisible Cage of Comfort’ C30
Live collaboration recorded at Oslo 10, Basel/Switzerland, 31 May 2014 on side A plus a fully new piece by DP (CH) and CG (Peru) on the flipside, based on their solo live sets performed and recorded the same night. Processed and mixed by DP/CG. High bias C30 chrome cassette with white on-body print, housed in printed cardboard slipcase.

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Eunuch – ‘Riven in Twain’ $5
Eunuch is an experimental guitar duo from Parts Unknown, and Riven in Twain is our debut recording. The music was recorded on May 2, 2014 by Kris Hilbert at his studio Legitimate Business in Greensboro, North Carolina. The tape was quietly released October 24, 2014. The tape was produced in an edition of 100 black and white split shell cassettes. The artwork is by Jonathan Tuttle.

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