Triangles
There's something almost religious about this Charlatan (Brad Rose) LP, its narrative arc swinging from light to dark and back again. From the opening chords of "Lime Beauty," we're awash in polarized-lens glinting twilight, fluorescent skies over the water. "Trace Blue Outlines" is trance-like and reflective, with long, arpeggiated figures chasing each other skyward in a fugue. Darkness creeps in around the edges of "Vodka Rocks," with almost post-rock moodiness bringing the side to a cl…
Instrumentals
Clams Casino is the memorable pseudonym of New Jersey resident Mike Volpe, who has shot from relative obscurity to production sensation thanks to a handful of blistering tracks. Edging into the limelight after passing tunes to Soulja Boy and Bay Area superstar Lil B, his originality has resonated with more than just rap fans. Clams hasn't confined his songwriting to rap music alone, and listening to his productions you can hear a keen sense of harmony, a pop sensibility and a willingness …
Red Horse
Red Horse is the blistering free-post-everything project of drummer/multi-percussionist Eli Keszler and guitarist/mad-scientist Steve Pyne. While both musicians are active in a number of different projects (you probably wouldn't believe Pyne's day job even if we told you), Red Horse catches them working with a distilled sense of focus and is for many their breakthrough project. Red Horse (not to be confused with the similarly-titled debut) is the duo's second album, and follows the rush of…
Alphabet Of Movements
With the music of Milwaukee-native Jon Mueller, patience is the key. His radical snare workouts are meditative master-classes in drumming, but require a distinct offering of time and attention to truly enjoy the dense clouds of sound his music creates. After crafting 2010's critically-acclaimed The Whole, Mueller decided to put together a live set that, while not reflecting the over-dubbed nature of the album itself, reflected the philosophy held within. The result was "I Almost Expect To…
Eager To Tear Apart The Stars
James Leyland Kirby is a prolific artist with a remarkably long and varied career working inside, outside and beyond the electronic underground. From his roots as renowned audio prankster and sonic agitator V/VM to his critically acclaimed work as The Caretaker and, most recently, Leyland Kirby - he's always attracted the attention of an often bewildered audience, although his stature and position as serious auteur has somehow grown exponentially with every year that has gone by since his…
Container
Container is a recent moniker of Nashville, Tennessee resident Ren Schofield who's been actively shifting about the U.S. playing shows and releasing cassettes on his mysterious I Just Live Here imprint for a long while now. Known primarily for his God WIlling project, a disjointed, confusing, maze of crude oscillator, tape, and guitar, Ren has established himself as a staple in the east coast underground. Here we have a new experiment in electronic beat oriented music. This is no …
The Drawing Of The Line
Seattle's Emuul has been around the block a few times over the last few years, releasing an excellent string of tapes on Digitalis, Monorail Trespassing, Stunned and others. Emuul (Kyle Iman) has always shown a masterful level of restraint and subtlety, leaving the listener to fill in the blanks. Iman uses each song as a dot on a map that ultimately leads you to an aural treasure. The Drawing Of The Line is his most fully-realized work, crafting a set of deceptively complex songs that flir…
21st Century Field Hollers And Prison Songs
This album has been made entirely from samples taken from the Midnight Crossroads Tape Recorder Blues album, which I made with Ralf Wehowsky for A Bruit Secret. Like that album it is a tribute to the spirit of the blues, viewed through a prism of 21st century cultural criticism. It evokes an earlier era when the relationship between a performer and a song arose out of a community, not a property relation. In appropriating my own material I have short-circuited the prevailing ethos of piracy and…
Music for Sounding Sculptures
Twenty-three wonderful pieces recorded live in a tower in Tuscany, in which master percussionist Marcello Magliocchi plays sound sculptures byAndrea Dami, made of various metals including iron, brass, copper, steel, aluminium and featuring other elements like strings, stones and gongs. Imagine a mix between Indonesian Gamelan, Bertoia, Alvin Lucier, obscure recordings from Africa, Beaver Harris and Don Moye, all infused with Marcello’s unique approach to polyrhythm, dynamics and modulation, the…
Love tape
A concept tape packed with unconditional love to whoever hears/buys/does whatever with it.C30, white shells with watercolor labels by SK; each tape is unique.Edition of 60; also comes in a numbered limited edition of 9 with different covers, each one featuring an instant picture of/by Silvia Kastel.
Untitled #205
Based exclusively on end grooves from vintage records, 'untitled #205' is a straightforward and joyful exploration of the potential for reincarnation of these unintended sonic structures into new life. More a tool than a final product, it delves into static, noise and rhythm with a hopeful perspective.' The untitled #205 mix on the a-side brings us 18 minutes of hissy, textural sound in dissolution, ranging from ryhthm to noise. The b-side has the 20 original loops López constructed out of…
Split
Fantastic split album from Dekorder presenting two contrasting works showcasing the vast possibilities of Don Buchla's famous Modular Electronic Music System (originally invented for use by the likes of Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, Terry Riley et al at the San Francisco Tape Music Centre). Keith Fullerton Whitman is a noted master of this system: his staggering 'Disingenuity b/w Disingenuousness' put it to mind-bending use last year on Pan Records - topping many end-of-year charts in t…
Shining Skull Breath
This ultra limited, and long out of print cd-r from 2007, finally available again, now as a super swank (and still quite limited) lp...Another gorgeous sonic transmission from right here in the Bay Area, from AQ fave Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, the man behind Tarentel, and the Root Strata label. Those familiar with Cantu-Ledesma's music know that he usually speakers in hushed whispers, breathy and breathless, soft sonic shimmers allowed to drift like billowy clouds into your ears. But here, C-L …
Ponytail, Ponytales
Tommaso Clerico and Luca Sigurta' mixed noise, ambient, fake hip hop and weird techno: the new frontier of melanchofreak or if you prefer a ride on deformed flying horses. Second album full of guest stars, from the legend of American noise To Live and Shave in L.A. to the giants of no(w)wave Zeek Sheck and MC Trachiotomy, plus some incredible Italian artists such as Bologna Violenta, Madame P, IOIOI and Trashsound.
Sikknastafari Slash Crasstafari
Screw chill wave, aloha kill wave. The first time we saw Sewn Leather was on an infernal summer night at Bo Diddley's old house in Gainesville. Never since have we felt that close to the limits of our own mortality and immortality simultaneously. His shows aren’t performances so much as bloodletting rituals. A spontaneous group-trance ceremony transpires from a multitude of sweaty limbs, heads, and feet-- stomping, swaying, punching, pulsing, and hypnotized into one singularly-thinking-en…
26000
Angel is Ilpo Väisänen (Pan Sonic) and Dirk Dresselhaus (Schneider TM) who play time-transcending freeform sound with the weightlessness and gravity of electromagnetic signals, together since 1999. These five tracks describe the last period of a 26,000 years-long cycle that leads to a new situation on this planet. 26000 was recorded between 2008 and 2010 at Construction Site Studios in Berlin and Ilpo's cottage in Karttula, Finland and features guest appearances by Hildur Gudnadottir, BJ N…
Get Lost
And yet another killer album from the ever-productive Mark McGuire (Emeralds). It just keeps getting better, as he delivers another fine set of tunes in his perfected style. A few more electronic elements than usual and even some voices, but still the unique blend of feel-good riffs, electric and acoustic loops and melodies that just stick in the head. This album is chockablock with short hits and one long jam of blissed-out McGuire ambience. Awesome. Electric and acoustic guitar, vocals,…
Ten horned moses descended the mountain
Terrific triple CD set...Formerly of 1990's dark ambient pioneers Endvra. Three previous full lengths on U.K. label Cold Spring. Over three hours of music focusing on subtle changes that command attention and focus; imagine if Philip Glass composed a three hour drone piece... Triple disc set, each disc with its own artwork, held together by a custom band with genuine letterpress printing. Original landscape photos reflecting the mood of each disc by Chris Walton himself, and packaging design by …
Einem Luftigen Akustischen Kosmos Entgegen
Collaboration performance by this two infamous german visual artists, writers & sound-poets, recorded at Lyrik-Kabinett München, June 1991. This is Carlfriedrich Claus' only sound-collaboration ever. Both artists prepared a 60-minute backing-tape and wrote a detailled score for live-performed poetry and voice-operations. In addition to these fixed compositions they left room for spontaneous improvisation and the use of small cymbals ('tschinkas'). This is like nothing else. Very serious, …
The Decline Effect
Parapsychology introduced the notion of the decline effect as a statistical phenomenon of diminishing results whilst investigating extra-sensory perception and psychokinesis. Where initial findings might substantiate proof of such abilities, further studies would almost always demonstrate the contrary. As such, this ontological disappearing act stands in allegorical parallel to the entropic art of Jim Haynes and frames his 2011 opus of the corroded drone and a compacted disintegration of …