Animal Psi

Shitao – ‘Sunday’ C26 $6
French beatmaker from Paris, Shitao is somber and cinematic. Sunday flows like a film soundtrack, weaving between dark emptiness to beat driven progression and downtempo piano pieces. The sampling bridges movements and moments together and juxtaposes cinematic scenes with smoke filled nights against a broader orchestra of instruments. The music tells a story and carries the listener with the sounds and tempo. Sunday was originally self-released digitally in 2013. This marks its first time on cassette, limited to 50 yellow cassettes that features the same music on both sides.

Valance Drakes – ‘Memories Of Yesterday’ C10
Producer Valance Drakes from London England is known for his surreal experimentalism and turntable styles that create sound sculptures with texture and layer. Memories Of Yesterday furthers the sentiment of glitches out beats and very realistic effects that drawn the listener in with broken sounds and a gripping atmosphere. Warped sounds are featured within the beats that seem to want to break loose of a vortex of scratching and modular synth waves that bend and warble. The almost 10 minutes of sound stretch the tape and loop back together for repeat enjoyment. Limited to 100 aqua cassettes.

Perkin Warbek/marcjacobsmodel – ‘ihaa After Party’ C20
Perkin Warbek and marcjacobsmodel were given the same 7 songs from the ihaa back catalog and asked to recreate a 10 minute track only using these songs. The remix mashup heavy album features two very distinct approaches as both artists distort and layer the original tracks into their own material. Perkin Warbek masters the building and layering of these tracks, allowing moments of absolute bliss fold into distortion. Warbek constructs the tracks, takes clips and creates a new track with the loops he creates. marcjacobsmodel on the other hand does less dicing and reconstructing as he fades and distorts the original tracks in a much more “mash up” style. Allowing multiple tracks build on one another and run into each other, clashing and collaborating together into 10 minutes of confusion and chaos. Limited to 30 clear cassettes.

WEBSITE

AQUA DENTATA – ‘THE CYGNET PROCAMBARUS’ CD £4
A slow burner, a low rider, an easy goer. A time sink without the lip sync, THE CYGNET PROCAMBARUS is a hypnotic, mind-smoothing presentation from the Beartown-proclaimed drone duke of North East London. Swirling sine waves wallow beneath the waves of a great billowing audiocean. Distant hisses and cascading rumbles coalesce and then disperse. A must listen for those with a keen ear for the transient beauty of dust motes hanging in the sunlight porches. As AQUA DENTATA succinctly explains… “recorded at home & by a river”, with “synthesiser, metal, shells”. Edition of 50 with full-colour collage of birds and that plus a tripped-out spyrograph vibe on 100% recycled Nepalese prayer paper (for looking at when you’re listening to the hypno-mulch).

BBBLOOD – ‘UNTITLED’ C35 £4
How’s what? Been along time clacking, but KeyKeg mauler Paul Watson OBE checks in for a wand of C30 toffee, AVEC BLOODY DAFT TOFFEE ‘AMMER. Cultivate my nice strands, then run away with me. Albeit, measured, lovely lad -cracking crimes all under one chrome roof. Edition of 30, complete with coloured pasty, collage artwork and incredible, jolly boy (from left to right) A5 insert.

WEBSITE 

Pacific 231 & Bardoseneticcube – ‘The Traditions Of Changes’
CD packaged in a luxurious 6-panel A5 folder with silk touch finish and UV varnish. Limited edition of 300 copies. This is stx.25. Collaborative composition in 6 movements, a modern re-interpretation of Francis Bacon’s “New Atlantis”. Psychedelica, field recordings and abstract electronics create a ‘New Language’ by dint of colliding utter chaos and with a slippering affect from quietness

stx.28 GUNFIREORCHESTRA – ‘Unstable’
Pro-duplicated tape with 4-colour insert. Limited edition of 200 copies. This is stx.28. Three musicians with a background in jazz embark on an experimental guitar and feedback improvisation, ranging in sound from subtle and sparse minimalism to full-on noisy dissonance.

stx.32 Last Dominion Lost – ‘Towers Of Silence’
LP (140gr black vinyl) with an A4 insert. Limited edition of 300 copies CD jewel case. Limited edition of 300 copies This is stx.32. Ten years after “The Tyranny Of Distance”, finally the 2nd album by this Australian old-school industrial ensemble consisting of Jon Evans, John Murphy & Julian Davis Percy with brand new recordings from 2013/2014

stx.23 various artists – ‘Epicurean Escapism I‘
CD + DVD + 24-page art catalogue, packaged in a luxurious 6-panel A5 folder printed on matt image paper with dispersion varnish Limited to 350 copies This is stx. 23. Including a CD with new and exclusive tracks by IRM, JARL, ANEMONE TUBE & HUMAN LARVAE and KRANK, a DVD with selected video work by MARTIN BLADH and a 24-page catalogue with essays & artwork by MARTIN BLADH

stx.31 CON-DOM – ‘We Who Were Living Are Now Dying’ DVD
DVD in a digipack with high quality 400 chromolux paper Includes woven patch with Con-Dom logo Limited to 222 copies This is stx.31 A collection of super-8 short films and experimental movies created by Mike Dando from the 1980s to early 1990s, digitally restored in 2013.

WEBSITE

James Hoff – ‘BLASTER’ LP/DL
James Hoff used the Blaster virus to infect 808 beats and then utilized the mutated results as building blocks for seven new compositions. Hoff’s interest in computer viruses lies in their ability to self distribute through (and ultimately disrupt) networks of communication and Hoff’s agency as an artist centers on placing these parasitic forms into pre-existing genres, such as dance music. BLASTER is a timely exploration of the infectious qualities of sound, and how it too, as a carrier, makes it’s way through social networks, reduced to bits and programmed to infiltrate and replicate. “Viruses, like art, need a host. Preferably a popular one.” Interested in ways in which the virus works could mutate and spread socially, the first side of ‘Blaster’ contains these sonic presentations, and the second houses all of the artist’s infected samples and serves as a scratch record for DJ’s, an object of utility, and ultimately a provoca- tion, mobilizing its new hosts as a point of potential transmission. Blaster is a logical progression from Hoff’s PAN debut LP “How Wheeling Feels when the Ground Walks Away”, which dealt with aural documents of riots and disruptions and the record is part of a larger body of work by the artist that also includes virus paintings. The LP is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M. The artwork was constructed using viral images from the artist and typography by Bill Kouligas.

WEBSITE 

LUCIERNAGA – ‘Tile’ C47 $3
The new limited edition Luciernaga release contains 5 new pieces on Side A and a side-long 22.5 minute shruti box loop on Side B, ideal for meditation or conjuring. It comes packaged in an uncoated white brad-pack and each copy is hand-numbered. Luciernaga is the project of Joao Da Silva, one half of Brooklyn-based independent experimental label Fabrica Records. Luciernaga’s music has been described as more surreal than ethereal, dark and somber. Luciernaga tends to bypass melody in favor of complex layers of sounds and textures created through processed field recordings, treated acoustic/electric guitar, buddha machine, tibetan signing bowl, shruti box, mbira and voice. Edition of 20 home-dubbed (each copy is subjected to quality control before being shipped out) 47 minute long cassettes.

WEBSITE

Bridgetown #110 Shivering Window – ‘When We Were Metal’ C44
For over a decade, Matthew Gray has found comfort in tape machines and grimy guitars, sneaking his brand of outsider pop into the subconscious of the unaware. “When We Were Metal” is Gray’s most accessible collection of songs, shimmering with the glow of hidden treasure in an abandoned attic. Dusty and worn, these are the eccentric but relatable tales of an ageless alt-rock ghost revisiting his youth in New England. Gray produces his songs in a manner befitting the cold, brisk air that hangs over a snowed out colonial town before the plows come around, finding friends in thin guitars, antique drum machines and gentle vocals wrapped in a couple coats of hiss.

Bridgetown #109 Tanner Garza – ‘There’s More To Life Than This’ C30
A prolific explorer of dark formless fields, Tanner Garza finds rhythm and pacing that gives structure to the intangible realm. His sound work is akin to the inspection of a mirror that reveals a window into nothingness. No self, no outside world. “There’s More To Life Than This” is the result of isolation, of working in hermitage not towards any one thing. Instead, it is the natural document of cycles in a personal abyss. The recurring patterns of breathing and bloodflow captured on tape loops that slowly shift like the movement of muscles in gradual growth.

Bridgetown #108 Hollow Sunshine – ‘Atascadero’ C15
Morgan Enos and Reuben Sawyer summon coastal fog into thick swirls of heavily downtuned melodic haze. Returning to Bridgetown with another set of grunge songs that draws inspiration from the duo’s tenure in doom metal as well as the Siamese Dream generation of their youth, Sawyer and Enos bathe sparkling pop songs in a syrupy sludge. Sweet and addictive, the four songs that comprise “Atascadero” offer a glimpse into an understated but diverse range of styles and feelings that stem from crushing guitar tones in simple, subtle arrangements.

Bridgetown #107 Reighnbeau – ‘Hands’ C39
Bryce Hample’s songwriting experiments as Reighnbeau have always approached traditional composition and arrangement from unconventional angles, producing music with a pure immediacy that feels familiar while escaping comparison. On “Hands,” Hample complements the hushed whisper of his trademark vocals with a blend of lush, organic instrumentation sealed off from the world within an electronic suit of glitchy, orchestral static. Glistening guitar chords swell like whalesongs and bend like wind whistling through trees while synthesized noise crunches in sync to the primal pound of drums.

Bridgetown #106 Widesky – ‘Silhouette, And The Stars Emerging’ C44
Work on Seth Chrisman’s final album under the Widesky project, “Silhouette, and the Stars Emerging” began over three years ago and was initially intended to be his debut before entering a suspended state of uncertainty. Sourced from field recordings of transportation terminals, aircraft, public spaces and fragmented radio transmissions, “Silhouette…” is a study in the nature of thresholds, transition, and locality. Chrisman augments the sonic properties of physical places with the gentle layering of muted tones plucked from their atmospheres.

Bridgetown #105 Autococoon – ‘Spirulina’ C33
Caitlin Payne Roberts has a remarkable aptitude for personifying the ocean, cosmos and metaphysical universe as interactive denizens of an alien world that exists all around us. The elaborate arrangement of her lyrical narratives flow like the brisk current of casual conversation, washing over personal experience and mercurial dreams. The crystal clear instrumentation, lush riffs, and buoyant rhythms are brushed in starlight, anchoring these emotive stories of life in the aquatic field.

Bridgetown #104 Apollo Vermouth – ‘Fractured Youth’ C30
Freezing the cathartic energy of live performance, these serene ambient pieces condense an overwhelming rush and blur of emotions floating in icy stillness. Alisa Rodriguez revisits the echoing memories of growing pains with powerful restraint, shaping and guiding them like the slow descent of fragile snowflakes piling high along the sidewalk. Dedicated to and catalyzed by the critical self-reflection that followed the tragic loss of friend Jessie Blodgett in 2013, “Fractured Youth” is a memorial to the notion that internal growth comes not with age, but with the will to do so.

Bridgetown #103 Filardo – ‘UNKNOWN Sessions’ C20
Thomas Filardo has emerged in recent years as the rare and extraordinary kind of songwriter that escapes reference and captures a snapshot of life in the modern world with a profound timelessness. These five songs effectively serve as a time capsule of a unique voice reflecting on the act of dreaming in our contemporary moment. Filardo’s words poetically illustrate the joy of finding a renewed optimism through late night patio conversations, vividly accented by simple, mature and effective instrumentation with creative collaboration from Gregory Campanile, Stephen Steinbrink and Phil Elverum.

Bridgetown #102 Paper Armies – ‘Trying’ C42
Jason Calhoun’s sophomore album for Bridgetown showcases a remarkable growth in his natural finesse for sculpting the raw elements of post-rock, ambient and other instrumental genres into deeply vivid and evocative images. Calhoun has placed a heavy emphasis on graceful piano and string melodies anchored by the ragged crumbling of subharmonic frequencies and whirling noise in the stereo field. “Trying” is the wordless saga of remaining firmly rooted in steadfast hopefulness while traversing a torn landscape draped in shadows and emotional shrapnel.

Bridgetown #101 Big Waves of Pretty – ‘It Is A Sight He Never Forgets’ C29
In less than two years, Big Waves of Pretty has proven themselves as nomadic DIY road warriors that seemingly live nowhere and everywhere all at once. Birthed on a dirt-road farm in Highland, Wisconsin, the group exists almost exclusively as an entity that writes and records on tours that stretch across the seasons. The constant shifting of circumstances the boys find themselves in lends to their distinct style of intricate drumming and interweaving guitar parts. Frantic, jutting patterns collide into a sonically expansive mutation of pop music that defies classification. The songs written and performed on their 100+ date 2013 U.S. tour form “It Is A Sight He Never Forgets,” a clever commentary on the irreverence of twentysomething youth culture, long drives on summer nights, and sitting out on the lake with your dog, boombox and best friends.

Bridgetown #56 Vehicle Blues – ‘Koz Park’ C5
A brand new one-two punch from Chicago heavyweight Gabe Holcombe. The current champion of concise bedroom shoegaze hits where it hurts without leaving a moment to breathe. Rejecting the superficial fluff, Holcombe condenses the bottled up feelings of everyone who’s ever felt alone and the optimism of returning to your feet and getting your life back into pure and focused textural pop. Downtuned despair with no downtime. The crowning moments of the Vehicle Blues discography. Packaged with a glossy 6-panel j-card featuring vintage photography from 1936 by one of Gabe’s family friends.

WEBSITE

Siobhan/Mud Brick Couch CS
Side A is Siobhan aka Travis Galloway (Traag, All Gone Records): Extended rhythms and crusty atmospherics loitering at mid-tempo. There’s some soulfulness here, but Siobhan injects it with gonzo adolescence — boneheaded loops smooshed together like some late-wave Spawn vs. Ghost Rider. For huffed-out goons with illustrated porn. Side B is MBC aka Jarrod Zlatic (Fabulous Diamonds, Redundancy Tapes): Eerie pulses and radio transmissions stippled with drips and smears. MBC nabs that liminal space between house party ambience and modern compozishon, liquidating grooves and lending them a heady abstraction that offsets Siobhan’s scumtown bung.

WEBSITE

DAIS060 Youth Code – ‘A Place to Stand’ EP
Youth Code’s latest release, A Place To Stand, is an expression of rage that could only come from Los Angeles. Perfectly capturing the frustration and claustrophobia of the early 80s LA hardcore scene but re-appropriating that aggression and melding it to the strict, pounding electronics of classic industrial. Produced by Josh Eustis (Nine Inch Nails, Telefon Tel Aviv, Sons of Magdalene), Side A of A Place to Stand features four new Youth Code tracks that showcase the band exploring an evolved sense of melodic synth work and more varied tempos than anything they have released to date. From the pure adrenal rush of opening track, “Consumed By Guilt” and the Wax Trax-esque dance floor anthem “To Burn Your World” to the lush synthscape melodies of “For I Am Cursed” You can hear Ryan George and Sara Taylor perfectly balancing respect for their elders whilst creating something that’s uniquely their own. Rounding out the Youth Code originals on Side A, “A Litany (A Place To Stand)” figuratively stands out, as it is a spoken-word diatribe on society that encapsulates the feeling of the entire record. Side B of “A Place to Stand” collects four remixes of earlier Youth Code tracks, from artists as diverse as Corrections House’s Sanford Parker, Sub Pop signed avant rap crew Clipping., industrial / EBM mainstays God Module & the dark and minimal techno mastermind, Silent Servant. What makes A Place to Stand exceptional is Youth Code’s ability to coax raw, organic emotion out of cold, primitive synths. A trait that stems from the band’s peculiar genesis. (Matte finish jacket with spot gloss logo overlay! Limited to 400 on Marble, and 500 on Clear Bottle Green).

WEBSITE

The Gate – ‘Stench’ LP 18€
The Gate is Dan Peck, Tom Blancarte and Brian Osborne. Formed in 2008, and originally named Dan Peck Trio, the band has developed an aesthetic that is unique and uncompromising. Dividing time between improvisation and Dan’s compositions, the music ranges from bleak landscapes of near-­silence to massive, horrifying sound sculptures. The Gate seeks to break down and confuse the conventional roles of a horn-bass-­drums ensemble, revealing the most raw and elemental aspects of organized sound. This time the trio is accompanied by Tim Dahl and Nate Wooley, making Stench the gnarliest and blackest The Gate experience so far. The LP was pressed on high quality heavy vinyl, and is housed in an open screen printed sleeve on heavy stock.

WEBSITE

LEE GAMBLE – ‘Kuang’ EP
Lee Gamble is a UK-based artist and electronic music producer with roots in the original jungle-techno and extreme computer music fields. In 2012 he released a couple of highly acclaimed records via PAN, ‘Dutch Tvashar Plumes’ and ‘Diversions 1994-1996’, that refracted dancefloor and home-listening dimensions into trippy new head-spaces which touched a raw nerve with ravers young and old(er). He’s since expanded those records into live audio-visual performance with fellow CYRK collective founder Dave Gaskarth and continues monthly broad- casts of his NTS radio show. The ‘Kuang’ EP heralds the release of Gamble’s keenly awaited 2nd LP ‘KOCH’ (due September ’14) with three tracks of dissociative ambient/techno. ‘Kali Wave’ opens with a bittersweet breakbeat roller sounding something like early AGCG playing in a hall of mirrors, whereas ‘Mimas Skank’ diffuses oily acid and dry dub techno inna dancefloor wormhole, and the detached ambient drift of ‘Girl Drop’ rends a gasp of post-rave bliss into twelve minutes of spectral sublime or precipitous dread, depending on your perspective. The 12″ is mastered and cut by Christoph Grote-Beverborg at D&M. It is pressed on clear vinyl which itself is housed in a silk screened PVC sleeve with artwork by Bill Kouligas & Kathryn Politis.

WEBSITE