Rising from the red sand Volumes I - V
‘Rising From The Red Sand’ was one the most comprehensive compilations of early 80’s industrial, wave and underground music, spanning a total of five cassettes, compiled by Gary Levermore for his own Third Mind Records label (which has also recently been revived). The original five tapes are now released as a 5xLP set, following several months of tracking down as many artists as possible to obtain their permission to reissue their material. Almost all were found, although nine tracks are missing…
Nekropolis 81 Vol.1-4
Peter Frohmader alias Nekropolis is a german artist known for his distinct and very dark athmospheric electronic compositions as well as his extreme visual art-projects leading to many exhibitions, films, multi.media-events and collaborations in the field of art and music (incl. H.R. Giger, Chris Karrer...). In 1981 at age of 23 Peter released his first Lp “Musik aus dem Schattenreich“. At same time he produced a series of 4 Tapes called Nekropolis 81 Vol.1-4 which can be found on his comprehens…
Faint Wild Light
Emptyset's James Ginzburg turns a hand to folk music on a surprising solo debut. "Between 2003 and 2012 James Ginzburg masterminded the release of hundreds of records on the various imprints of his Bristol UK based label house Multiverse Music, including Tectonic, Subtext and Kapsize, overseeing the second renaissance of bass music in Bristol. It’s unsurprising that such a hyperactive spirit would begin to find the strictures of dance music creatively stifling. Focusing on his Subtext label, Mul…
Ripatti 02
Sasu Ripatti links with the legendary Max Loderbauer (NSI., Sun Electric, MvO Trio) as Heisenberg for two knotty, complex riddim trips on his \"studio diary\" imprint. Adopting the mantle of the eponymous fictional meth chef*, the duo conduct fevered but controlled experiments in frayed, often frantic grooves eaten up with dissonant, freeform electronics. A-side is a 125bpm techno tunnel groove with offset bass hits embedded in a swarm of combustible modular chain reactions that dissolve to a gu…
Remember your black day
“Remember Your Black Day” features the first material conceived and produced as a full length by Dominick Fernow for the Vatican Shadow project following almost a dozen tapes (mostly released on Hospital Productions) and vinyl editions (released by the likes of Blackest Ever Black, Modern Love and Type) over the last three years. None of the 8 tracks included have been released before on any other format. At a time when the scene is saturated with “Noise Techno” the album is almost celebratory b…
Spit
Debut album from Ron Morelli, founder of the influential L.I.E.S. label featuring 8 electronic variants; from House and industrial tape experiments to saturated metallic beat tracks... There’s so much that could be said about Ron Morelli, his L.I.E.S. label, or the fact that his debut album comes to you via Hospital Productions, but instead, here are some words from the man himself. “I’m a regular guy, enjoy a good steak, drinking beer, and occasionally a game of pro basketball, Republican talk …
Remixes
Marcel Dettmann, SHXCXCHCXSH, and Old Apparatus follow Vatican Shadow's lead to remix Tommy Four Seven and Alain's These Hidden Hands project. Dettmann's 'Laika' mix finds a cool balance of ruggedly stable techno groove and teasing, almost uplifting synthlines; SHXCXCHCXSH's 'Kheium' version works on some mutant bashment tech-noise grine; Old Apparatus reject rhythms in favour of an epic, widescreen take of 'Hidden' rent with sepulchral harmonics to bleedin' scary effect. Good stuff...
Alpha Recordings
*Another precious find from Andy Votel and Demdike Stare\'s Dead-Cert imprint featuring foundational Concrète experiments from the director of IPEM, Belgium\'s equivalent of the Radiophonic Workshop. Transferred from the original Mastertapes by Andrew Popplewell and remastered by Gareth Mallinson and Matt Colton, limited Edition pressing of 500 copies* Dead Cert illuminate three unique and chilling electro-acoustic compositions by the pioneering head of Belgium\'s Institute of Psychoacoustic and…
Eaten away by shadows
“It's flashback time at Shock! Everybody loves the '80s now innit, and everybody positively adores old tapes of bedroom noodling... So, always keen to exploit the latest trends, Shock has rummaged through the archives to come up with EATEN AWAY BY SHADOWS, over 79 minutes ('value' for money!) of SJ archive stuff recorded between '82 - '83, before editing Shock Xpress, playing in Whitehouse, Skullflower etc…This was recorded mostly in Bristol, some in London while living in a squat up the road fr…
EP1
Stefan Jaworzyn, the legendary underground figure with Whitehouse and Skullflower on his CV, revives his Shock label - home to stacks of releases by Coil, NWW, Ramleh in the '90s - with a discombobulated analog assault on the weirdest dancefloors. Two sides unfurl a barrage of modular bleeps and mescaline flash electronics equally inspired by the linear hypnotism of minimal techno and free jazz aesthetics. A-side 'The Fucker' is driven by a a rugged breakbeat through bracing, atonal maelstrom of…
Demiurge
Multiverse - the constellation of forward-thinking Bristol labels that also includes Tectonic, Kapsize and Caravan - reactivates its seminal Subtext imprint for a daring new LP from Emptyset. A collaboration between Mutiverse boss James 'Ginz' Ginzburg and Paul Purgas, Demiurge is the second album by Emptyset, and finds them reducing their production process down to a singular signal chain channelled into a modulated analogue hardware line (or so we're told). The results are somewhere between dr…
UKMerge/Strict
Hand-stamped 180g white label Inga Copeland furnishes new imprint All Bone with two grubby sound system tools produced by John T. Gast ov Henny Moan fame. It follows her \'Don\'t Look Back, That\'s Not Where You\'re Going\' 12\" with a more rugged, minimal UK dancehall sound iced by those knowing vocals. Top side stars the barely-hinged, pitching snares and dread digi dub of \'UKMERGE\' gilded with drowsy utterances, whilst flipside they tilt the tempo to a bouncing blend of mutant Dubstep and b…
Perceptions
Perceptions is the debut vinyl release from Age Coin, the Danish duo of Simon Formann and Kristian Emdal whose work you may have previously encountered as members of the Copenhagen based bands Lower, Var and Girlseeker. Originally issued as a short-run cassette on the Posh Isolation label in 2012, Alter is pleased to rescue this powerful industrial gem from potential obscurity and present a vinyl edition. Two long pieces of slowly developing wind-tunnel noise and air-craft hangar electronics tha…
Damballah 58
Damballah 58 is the monstrous sequel to 2012's deadly Black Mamba 12". The title-track's diabolically addictive vaudou rhythms insinuate deeply before uncoiling convulsively into an irrevocable reclamation of the consciousness. The B-side features "Mamba Muntu" (sister track to the previous "River Mumma" and "Witness the Spread of the Dream"), the treacherously beautiful "Belladonna Theme," and the marauding, burning rush of "Immersion." Written and produced by William Bennett. Original vév…
Retrieval
Blackest Ever Black welcome Barnett + Coloccia to their coven with the desolate scapes of 'Retrieval'. Whilst both artists have a background alloying metal and experimental modes - Faith Coloccia with Mammifer, Pyramids and Everlovely Lighteningheart, and Alex Barnett in Oakeater or more recently, solo for the likes of Catholic Tapes and Nihilist - their introspective 'Retrieval' collaboration is perhaps best defined in terms of their palette: tape-manipulated recordings of acoustic instr…
Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1980
Blackest Ever Black presents the first vinyl edition of Dickon Hinchliffe's original score for 1980 -- the second part of Channel 4 and Revolution Films' Red Riding trilogy, adapted by Tony Grisoni from David Peace's quartet of novels and first screened in 2009. Each film in the Red Riding trilogy, a landmark achievement in British television history, was helmed by a different director and had its own distinctive look, sound and feel. While Julian Jarrold's 1974 and Anand Tucker's 1983 were bo…
One Verse Sharpens Another (EP 2)
Ricardo Donoso completes his latest trance mission for Digitalis with 'One Verse Sharpens Another'. Four tracks of serpentine arpeggios, rolling bass pulses and stealthy, soaring synth chords simulate cybersex in anti-G, from the X-Files atmospheres and alien seduction of 'The Redeemer', to the piloerect triggers and tense pizzicato strings of 'Open Drawer, Full Of Masks' on the A-side and over to the sublime, supple bass roll and gentle ambient caress of 'Child Primitive' or the mind-wea…
As Iron Sharpens Iron... (EP 1)
Digitalis trance-master Ricardo Donoso scales heady heights with the first of two EPs (plus a 3rd remix 12") further exploring the potential of electronic hypnotism. The mission first conceived with 'Progress Chance' has now evolved in line with like-minded projects such as Loreno Senni's 'Quantum Jelly', plotting new vectors for a trance music free of fromage and yet still true to the sound's original intentions. On these four tracks his vision is focussed with laser-guided precision, em…
Hornbread
The collaboration between Victor Meertens & Werner Durand dates back to the mid 90s, when they started performing together in art circles in Germany. At the time their performances consisted of Victor's Actions, which included bread making processes with text recitals in combination with werner's musical performances on his invented wind instruments and his playing of Victor's home baked Bread Instruments with inserted pipes.In 2003/4 Werner was artist in residence in the Worpswede artists…
Quarry
*Limited to 200 copies* "Quarry is the latest chapter in the ongoing collaboration between the London-based composer-performer of musique concrète Adam Asnan and the Italian sound artist and mastering engineer Giuseppe Ielasi. As the title may suggests, this encounter produced a dusty sculpture whose shape was only drafted immediately after the stone has been excavated from the ground, and where it is hard to distinguish the acousmatic touch of Asnan from the rhythmic textures of Ielasi. "It ven…