Animal Psi

Atomizador/C-utter split LP
Disco compartido entre Atomizador y C-utter, proyectos formalmente antagónicos pero hermanos espirituales. En la cara de Atomizador, diez temas propios y una versión del clásico de Mekons “Hello Cruel World”. Cinco temas instrumentales de guitarra y cinco temas de ukelele y coros vocales. Más bucólico y expansivo que nunca, debido a que fue grabado el año pasado en el estudio de Mau (Esperit!) en las montañas catalanas. Atomizador/C-utter by Atomizador En la cara de C-utter, seis piezas electrónico-sulfúricas construidas a base de grabaciones de campo, micros de contacto, etherófonos y demás cacharrería diy. Música oscura, ambiental, incómoda imposible de domesticar. Edición de 300 copias en vinilo negro de 140 gramos. Portada y contra por HAZ. 10 euros a través de Afeite Al Perro o Knife Cult. // Atomizador and C-utter split record. Atomizador side: 11 songs including a cover of Mekons classic “Hello Cruel World”. Five guitar instrumentals and another five vocals and ukulele songs. Recorded last year with his friend Mau (Esperit!), more bucolic and expansive than ever. C-utter side: 6 electro-sulfuric pieces made with contact mics, field recordings, etherophones and more diy inventions. Dark, ambient, uncomfortable and indomitable music. 300 copies in 140 grams black vinyl. Artwork by HAZ. 10 euros.

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Ridgewell – ‘Transitions’ $7
Limited to 25 clear cassette tapes. Transitions was recorded over the course of a year from 2013 to 2014 in the Bay Area. It is Ridgewell’s debut release.

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Topdown Dialectic – ‘/\\02’ C20 $7
Clear c20 in 4×5″ clear poly bag. Edition of 100.

De Leon – ‘/\\03’ C23 $7
Clear c23 in 4×5″ clear poly bag. Edition of 100.

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NNA073: Battle Trance – ‘Palace of Wind’ LP
Palace of Wind is a piece that not only transcends genres, but also transcends time and space. Existing in the cracks between contemporary classical music, avant-garde jazz, black metal, ambient, and world music, Palace of Wind is an album-length composition that pushes the four saxophonists to the limit, shedding new light on the saxophone as an ensemble instrument. The players use circular breathing to build continuous, hypnotic waves of sound; multiphonics layer to create intricate textures that seem to come from an ancient time; and blisteringly fast lines seem to liquefy into each other. Unorthodox articulations and unusual fingerings are also part of the vast sonic vocabulary that the members of Battle Trance have painstakingly mastered. However, Palace of Wind isn’t merely concerned with demonstrating the virtuosity of the ensemble, nor with impressing or entertaining the listener. Instead, it is meant to be a portal of resonance where there is no separation between the listener and the sound. Battle Trance had an auspicious inception. One morning, Travis Laplante (Little Women and a trio with bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Ches Smith) literally awoke with the crystal clear vision that he needed to start an ensemble with three specific individuals: Matthew Nelson, Jeremy Viner, and Patrick Breiner. Laplante was actually unfamiliar with their work as musicians and had only a minimal relationship with them as individuals. He was also aware that a band of four tenor saxophones could be the worst idea ever. In spite of this, Laplante followed through and contacted Nelson, Viner, and Breiner. He gave them very little information beyond his morning experience But no one hesitated – the ensemble formed that evening. Since many of the techniques used in the piece are nearly impossible to notate in traditional form, Palace of Wind was transmitted via the oral tradition. The rehearsals were much like martial arts training: intricate sounds were rigorously copied and repeated by the ensemble members until they perfected the techniques. Many hours were spent building the sheer strength required to sustain continuous circular breathing for extended periods. Likewise, a steady focus on physicality was required to repeat rapid note patterns for long periods without sacrificing speed. Palace of Wind is such a demanding composition that there is a high risk of physically burning out before the piece concludes, as once it begins there is no opportunity for rest or even a quick drink of water. There was also extensive training in dissolving the distinct individual identities of the players into the greater collective sound: The band did various long-tone exercises, similar to group meditation, the purpose being to blend together in o one sound, so that the origin of the collective sound’s components is completely impossible to discern – even by the members of the ensemble. Palace of Wind does embrace both the cerebral nature of composition and the visceral act of performance, but immediately locates itself, the musicians and the audience in a purely spiritual space. It is a new kind of music and therefore modern, and yet it’s absolutely primordial, the transformative act of human beings blowing air through tubes and producing something timeless. Mastered by Aron Sanchez. Cut by Lupo at Calyx Mastering in Berlin, Germany.

NNA067-LP: Great Valley – ‘Lizards Of Camelot’ LP
Nestled in the lush greenery of southern Vermont on the banks of the Connecticut river, lies the bizarre haven of Brattleboro, home to the chivalrous rock and roll duo Great Valley. Comprised of Peter Nichols and Jo Miller-Gamble, Great Valley have been kind enough to bestow their latest opus, “Lizards of Camelot”, to their northern neighbors up here at NNA. “Lizards” manages to cross over from a mere concept album into what we would call more of a “journey” album, by creating a vivid tale of a reptilian-led escapade through lands unknown. Peter and Jo weave this folklore with the classical palette of guitar, drums, vocals and keyboard, resulting in a warbly, technicolor flavor of rock that stands alone in terms of sonics and atmosphere. Tastefully twangy guitar lines flutter out over fat organ bass lines and ultra locked-in drum beats, with a unique concoction of bombastic drum triggers and synthesizer filigree bringing it all together. At times resembling The Cure playing a heated game of D&D, “Lizards” mi es up all the tastiest facets of rock into a cohesive whole, with elements of New Wave, progressive rock, surf guitar shred, and classic Sixties psychedelia all thrown into the mix. Peter’s slithery, love-soaked crooning narrates the adventure, like a bard’s song unfolding over a technical assemblage of rock-blocks. The strong, groove-laden songwriting is reinforced with warped, nitrous balloney interludes melting throughout, with plenty of digital flutes, chimes, and keyboard solos accentuating the odyssey. While hard to categorize, “Lizards Of Camelot” is soaked through with the unmistakable “Brattleboro sound”, fitting in nicely alongside like-minded freaky friends such as Blanche Blanche Blanche, Happy Jawbone Family Band, Chris Weisman, Flaming Dragons of Middle Earth, Big French and so on, many of whom have lent loving contributions to these recordings. Although DIY at heart, “Lizards” has all the makings of a well-conceived and executed proper Album, assembled at home by pouring imagination into an 8- rack, like a punk mentality shining through a Brian Wilson-esque lens to create the ultimate bedroom fantasy. Vinyl LP version – co-released with Feeding Tube Records. Limited edition pressing of 250 Copies. Comes with MP3 download coupon.

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UVESEN – ‘III’ C44 $7
Pro-duped, encased in plaster bandages. Pull black tab slowly and hear. Uvesen is a Norwegian duo of percussionist Børre Myklebust and the highly prolific Andreas Brandal who has been releasing challenging and transcendental music since 1994, racking up hundreds of releases over several projects. With Uvesen the two embark upon free-improv psych experimentation of the highest order. Deep majick drones and wild aural landscapes. Abstract, percussive textures and bowed strings mingle with wild freak-folk dances and expansive electric guitar. This music is such a beast it had to be encased it in plaster for your safety.

Reverend Moon – ‘Coyote Gospels’ C44 + book $13/C44 $7
C44 cassette tape 20 page 5×8 perfect-bound lyric book. 1-inch “coyote pyramid” insignia pin and 3x illustrated lyric cards in linen bag. 1 full colour fold-out poster of cougars riding on the backs of bears. Download code included. (Another 25 copies available as cassette/download only). REVEREND MOON is Jakob Rehlinger of Toronto-based psychedelic space-rock band Moonwood and founder of the Arachnidiscs Recordings label. Over the past 20 years the Reverend has been slowly working on Coyote Gospels, an album of 13 songs of ersatz-praise and upside-down faith. The song cycle was born in the manger of university poetry workshops beginning in 1994. It grew into an awkward adolescence at the dawn of the millennium when Rehlinger suffered a nervous breakdown and was paid for his trouble in what he called several “dark prophecies” in the form of visions. These hallucinatory cosmic messages from beyond are recounted in the songs “A Message for You”, “Black Sun Rising” and “Old Graves” — wherein animals reclaim the Earth from humans. Since 2007 Rehlinger has been polishing these heretical-hymns and pseudo-psalms over several demo versions before setting out to record them in earnest beginning in 2012. Limited to 25 copies.

Moonwood – ‘Hexperience’ C60 $6
Live mixtape: 2012-2014. Improvised segments extracted from live performances. Deep, heavy, drone-infused jams never played before or since. Tribal rhythm, Eastern tonality and fuzzy Western wah-wah. All would have been lost to time if not for the vigilant recordists. Captured at various Toronto psych zones over two years.

TOTENBAUM TRÄGER – ‘PROJET MUET’ C60 $7
High bias tape, transparent red shells, fold-out poster and stamped edition cards featuring art by Lenny P. Robert, packaged in a translucent red envelope. Two projects by Montreal drone guitarist and composer Dominic Marion on one tape. With Totenbaum Träger he explores sometimes blissful, sometimes harsh guitar drones and noir-ambient spaces. A post-rock soundtrack for a lost David Lynch film. The chamber trio Projet Muet travel similar roads to both Totenbaum Träger and his other outlet Mad/Mod, but to different destinations and by different modes of transportation. Projet Muet rides waves of minimalist harmony on a raft woven from free-jazz and experimental no-wave. Churning, industrial thrum mix with meditative drones and zentropic bells.

Téléphone Maison – ‘Toujours Partout’ C40 $7
Foil sealed cassette boxes with stamped enveloped and numbered insert cards. The solo project of Alexis Maurice Brien of the Jeunesse Cosmique collective (Ylang Ylang, A Sacred Cloud, Hazy Montaigne, etc), Téléphone Maison is a rabbit sized electronic k-hole of psychedelic world pop. He takes the sound of the house band at some Bartertown disco and warps the grooves through a Neuromancer lens. Features contributions by YlangYlang and Eddie Wagner. The cassette comes sealed in adhesive foil for maximum freshness.

TRANZMIT – ‘Übertragung’ C50 $7
Transparent blue shell, download includes two bonus tracks. THIS CASSETTE ALBUM IS INTENDED TO BE EXPERIENCED ALONE, IN THE DARK, WITH HEADPHONES. EBM sound collage audioscapes meet darkly psychedelic hip-hop constructions. All sounds and voices sourced from the internet. Tones created on web-based virtual synths, samplers, sequencers and drum machines.

BABEL – ‘RILLINGEN’ CDr $9
While the city the rumbles with the subterranean boom of frost-quakes, RILLINGEN (meaning “Shivers” or “Chills” in Dutch) burrows deep into a frozen landscape of trembling souls, burning themselves to keep warm as they freeze to death in an orgy of winter ecstasy. On this hour-long polar vortex of solo electric guitar improvisations, BABEL‘s more lyrical side returns to join the percussive, extended techniques of the previous two EPs—HEURTER and STURM und DRANG—bringing two halves of BABEL into one cohesive whole.

Ross Baker/Tranzmit – ‘Arachnidiscs Split Tapes Series Vol. 10’ C60 $7
The final two sides in Arachnidiscs’ split tape series. One hour of dystopian soundscapes. SIDE 19 — ROSS BAKER: Terra Incognita. Soundtracking the countless distant landscapes and buildings glimpsed momentarily during 28 years of car, bus and train journeys. Sprawling farm and forest punctuated by sinister unidentified buildings and distant motorways. Ambient washes and sci-fi movie memories with a synth-pop interlude. SIDE 20 — TRANZMIT: Deep Video. Film dialogue and Star Trek sound FX. YouTube video collage and movie trailer audio. Retro television commercials. Public transit, elevator and busker field recordings re-mixed. Augmented vocoder demonstration video audio. Spam emails read by text-to-speech and modified Bach. Voice synthesized random phrase generator and Twitter and Facebook updates. Digitally synthesized zen monks.

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Chase Smith – ‘Falling Out’ 12″
From a workbench in Machine Age Studios, amongst walls full of custom-built & rehabilitated synthesizers, Chase captures the underpinning sound of modern city life, the symbiotic fusion of sturdy, mechanical infrastructure with the messy, organic passions of humanity. Pulsing, hardware-produced dance music that eschews the genre’s decadent trappings for something more unembellished, elegant, and essential, Chase Smith builds on critically-acclaimed releases for Argot, W.T., Pittsburgh Tracks, Technoir Audio… with 4 brand-new cuts. The Harmony Society is proud to present this vinyl-only EP in a limited, hand-numbered edition of 400 copies in individually hand-stencilled disco-jackets.

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DAUGHTERS OF THE SUN – ‘RIDE TO DIE’ LP
scorpion-boot rock through cosmic burial psych. on tour up and down the coast this september. dates online.

DELICATE FEATURES – ‘THE PASSENGER’ CS
st petersburg duo with a melting-heart fatalist new age mood mixed into atmospheres and ice songs. debut album.

LEGENDARY HEARTS – ‘AERIAL VIEW’ CS
kinetic light sculptures from this rare chemistry duo from the melbourne underworld. fluid guitar/synth glassblowing above shifting vacancies.

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Hakobune/Oliwa/Former Selves/Panabrite – ‘Oceanic Triangulation’ C22 + C37
Spanning three continents, separated by the Pacific Ocean, four artists have come together to each contribute a piece to this beautiful and sprawling collection. While each piece retains its own microcosm, the four work with cohesion to take the listener through distinct stages of reflection, buoyance, serenity, and wonder. The pieces were gathered earlier this spring with inspiration from writer and photographer: Ana Cabaleiro, a main curator of the Microphones in the Trees blog. She dreamed of this gathering of sounds and so it came to be. The album features photography from fellow Microphones contributor: Marlene Parra.

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Joel Vandroogenbroeck – ‘Meditations Vol. 1 & 2’ LPs
The story continues.. A few months Aguirre released Joel Vandroogenbroeck’s first solo effort Biomechanoid, an outstanding dark electronic ambient album. Now we present his two Meditations albums. Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. In these library music albums the emphasis lies on his flute talents, paired with some great moogy electronics and mellow pre-new age ambience. Both volumes still stand after all these years and prove Joel’s ability to create wonderful library albums. Think Klaus Schulze, Harmonia, JD Emmanuel and Joanna Brouk. Though the Belgian-born Vandroogenbroeck, 74, may not be a household name; in an ideal world, he would be. As the founder, flautist, harpist, sitar player and keyboardist of the seminal acid-fried Swiss psych outfit Brainticket, he spearheaded the groups three main (and collectible) releases in the early 70s – Cottonwood Hill, Celestial Ocean and Psychonaut. Combining a love of exotic instruments coupled with mind-bending out-of-body excursions, the ever-changing collective developed something of a cult following throughout Europe and earned a reputation as one of the heavier psych outfits on the circuit – which was something of a double-edged sword. While their experimental sound resonated with hippies everywhere, it didn’t with the authorities, who associated the act with heavy drug consumption and subsequently began a ban of their music, especially the Psychonaut album, if for the title alone. After that bitter brush with censorship, the group quietly disbanded in 1972. After the dissolution of Brainticket, Vandroogenbroeck departed for the island of Bali with the intent of learning to build and play the gamelan – an ensemble of primarily percussion instruments from Indonesia. It would become yet another weapon in his ever growing arsenal of exotic instruments: he was already proficient in the sitar, harp, kalimba, assorted percussion oddities and all woodwinds by this point. Vandroogenbroeck became so enraptured with the frenetic sound of the gamelan that he subsequently left the tropics to start up a joged bumbung (a variation on a gamelan) band back in Switzerland. While playing small festivals and civic events with this group, Joel began to slowly gravitate towards the synth-heavy kraut sounds of artists like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze at the same time. And once he began dabbling with oscillators, he never turned back. After inking a library deal around this time with the nascent Coloursound label, who gave him complete creative control, Vandroogenbroeck began turning out releases at a rapid rate, ften three to five a year, and under a variety of aliases like V.D.B. Joel, J.V.D.B, and Eric Vann. Starting with the desolate synth drone of Biomechanoid, he continued to expand his sound palette on while on Coloursound, moving from early arpeggiators on Computer Blossoms to percussive sound collage on Birth Of Earth; and from Oberheim DMX drum breaks on Video Games & Data Movements to Apple II ambient programming on Digital Project.

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Martial Canterel – ‘Austerton’ LP
Much-needed re-issue of this privately released 2007 album. Martial Canterel’s Sean McBride is the progenitor of American cold synth sounds of the 21st Century. He began under the moniker Moravagine before he started releasing limited edition cassettes and playing Brooklyn dives as Martial Canterel in 2002. Since then, McBride’s bleak intellectual exercises in the dark and danceable have flooded North America and Europe through the frosty fairwaves paved by Pieter Schoolwerth’s Wierd Records. With an inimitable minimal style merging bright, urgent melodies ornamented and punctuated by the noises of industry and McBride’s sonorous, stern vocals, Martial Canterel’s earlier releases (You Today, Refuge Underneath) have garnered both critical acclaim and a rapidly growing rabid fan base. Sean is also one half of the duo Xeno & Oaklander together with Miss Liz Wendelbo. The album Austerton consists of some of his earliest work recorded in 2003. The ten minimal synth songs on the LP are reminiscent of music by bands like Dark Day, Snowy Red, A Blaze Colour, League Of Nations. Through the collision of a uniquely humanistic means of production via live analogue synthcraft expertly paired with vocals and lyrics that reflect the pitfalls and pleasures of our age, Martial Canterel provides a visceral kick best felt on the dancefloor, amidst a flurry of flesh in motion.

Frozen Ducks – ‘Frozen Ducks’ LP
Frozen Ducks were the two brothers Hans Grauwen and Lex Grauwen. The short-lived duo had Hans behind the mic and playing synths, Lex also played synths and did the production of the tracks. The 9 electro / new wave songs sound a lot like the Tranquil Eyes “Walks” album (OS15) and this release can in many ways be seen as the accompanying release to the Walks album. The line-up of the bands is almost the same, the bass and the overall production is just as deep, rich and poignant; only this time the drum patterns are more apparent and the sphere is much darker with lyrics about a troubling childhood and a vague view on what the future will bring. During the mid-eighties Hans & Lex produced fifteen tracks of early electro / new wave songs of which only two ever got released. Beginnings and Lost Freedom were released on the legendary Dutch experimental compilations Contactdisc 4 and Contactdisc 5. Which included bands like X-Ray Pop, Twilight Ritual, Tranquil Eyes, Kapotte Muziek, De Fabriek. All other tracks on this album are previously unreleased and come from the vaults of Lex Grauwen. With much dedication and joy these tracks have been unearthed and compiled into this posthumous album. A true pleasure to listen to and a must for every minimal synth, new wave and lo-fi Italo disco fan.

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