Conrad & Sohn
Gorgeous one-off private-press released in 1981 by one-time Tangerine Dream / Kluster associate Conrad Schnitzler, which was given only to friends and family. Tracks 6-11 are pretty odd, even for Schnitzler, with its pitched up vocals & arbitrary lo-fi synth drippings; but the real prize are tracks 1-5 featuring his teenage son Gregor on electric bass and completely fried vocals (in English no less) as run through Conrad's massive modular synth rig.Limited to 500 pieces. Unplayed archival copy
L\'Ethique
Richard Pinhas is internationally recognized as one of France's major experimental musicians: the "father" of French electronic music. He was the founder of Heldon, a band whose violent fusion of electronics and guitar in the '70s rivaled the German electronic school. As a guitar player he has been compared to Robert Fripp. Cited as an influence by many electronic musicians, Richard Pinhas has helped to define the Spacemusic genre. Since founding the seminal spacerock band Heldon in 1974, Pinhas…
Iceland
Richard Pinhas has been at the forefront of new rock music in France since the early 1970s, when he founded the band Heldon. Heldon was one of the first bands to meld rock music and electronics, releasing a number of 'classic' albums during the 1970s. He has long been recognized as a pivotal figure in the development of electronic rock music. His stature in France is roughly analogous to that of Tangerine Dream in Germany: the father figure of an entire musical movement. Iceland was Richard's th…
DWW
Recorded between 1983 and 1991, DWW contains some of the finest material devised by the former Heldon leader since that band's "demise." All that is Pinhas is here in its glory: guitars soldered with "Terminator" steel, coruscating electronics, and sequencers that tear electrons from their molecular womb. This is a music that uses King Crimson circa 1974 as its template and couches its aural metaphors in a tapestry of post-Philip K. Dick mind blasts and William Gibson-fused cyberpunk. In fact, D…
Suoni di Frontiera
Back in 1975 when "Suoni di frontiera" ("Borderline Sounds") was released, Claudio Rocchi was already a well known figure in the Italian pop scene. In the late 60's Rocchi had burst onto the scene as a member of Milanese psych-prog legends Stormy Six. He performed on their "Le Idee di Oggi Per la Musica di Domani" LP in 1969 and soon after, the acid folk of "Viaggio", Rocchi's solo debut, was released in 1970. That same year Rocchi hosted an influential radio show on the Italian national broadca…
Underneath the surface
Since the very first notes, this music appears to be about memory, decay and subversion. It is a deep investigation on the ability of sounds to freely attract or reject each other, in accordance with their own nature and disposition, and still maintain their meaning. Combining dense, multilayered sheets of synthetic sounds, treated bass, electronic percussion, the six tracks reveal their non-architectural principle as the music develops through warm textural details, reverberations, underlying m…
Mag Magazin 6
Obscure early tape, very thought to find nowadays: this tape is rich with texture and dynamics that make for a stunning listen, its details are intricate resonation and transformations of the sound sculptures in the environment
23/20
This is the double LP version, featuring a full colour gatefold cover, full colour inner sleeves and 180 Gr. heavy vinyl ! "More than ever, fringe culture methods and cutting edge acoustic science mate for the generations of endless layers and bursts of sonic pleasure: voices and drones clans across plans and peaks, fishing for universal tremors and sensorial catastrophes... iconic translations of lost symbols flow like pathogenic lava into temporal sequence and weather forecasts become performa…
Spilt
Nate Young airs two of his alter egos on this great split LP: Demons, featuring Steve Kenney (oh you know, Steve Kenney - he's in those well-known beat combos The Pterodactyls and Isis & Werewolves.... No?) and Hatred, which combines Young once again with Kenney, but this time with the added presence of Spence Bryant. The Hatred side sounds like the motor on your turntable is continually breaking down, as if some perpetual Technics power-down effect was causing all manner of primitive pitch-slid…
LMJW
Beautiful new collaboration between John Wiese and Lasse Marhaug. Two tracks of harsh and heavy noise for 10 minutes of music, recorded in Oslo in January 2008. Limited edition one-time pressing of 200 copies. Highly recommended.
The Empty Quarter
Recorded earlier in 2007 in Michigan 'The Empty Quarter' is the latest chapter in the ever growing (and ever changing) Hair Police story. This is a band I am well and truly smitten with, after hearing their truly seminal 'Constantly Terrified' album I was a convert and went looking for anything and everything the band had put their name to (which is a lot, trust me) and they rarely disappoint. Each limited slab of wax has positioned them somewhere a little different and the bar is raised again j…
Totaled And Stranded
Awesome release: recorded in a hotel room after we totaled out tour vehicle and became stranded in the worst snowstorm in Ohio history†Beatty, Connelly, Tremaine. Artwork: hand cutted black cardboard, Xeroxed recycled paper, raw paper inner sleeve. The B side is screenprinted by Serimal. Limited edition in 500 copies. A 1-sided album of piercing vocals, walls of guitars, precise heavy electronics and thundering drums. A fusion of metal, noise rock, free jazz, industrial, and harsh electron…
Anthology Box
'Accident de chasse', 'I'm... I come... I was...', 'Schiluuk', 'Stable', 'Electrocoagulation tapes', 'Les victimes sont dangereuses', 'Moll', 'Lost in karrack', 'Early tracks', 'Live with or without audience', 'In death we trust!' (extract), 'Program T.4' (extract), 'Drug' (revised), 'The prehistoric tapes'. The best way to enter into the world of brume aka Christian Renou, French composer of musique concrete.
Ecstasy Shorewed Its Petals With The Full Peal Of The Bells
'Last summer, while in Paris, I was given a beautiful small bell as a gift. it has been a constant sounding companion ever since. At times, during my travels, I would shake it to bring certain spirits forth, and at times it would ring on its own, living in constant motion in my pocket or my bag. As with some of my earlier works with single sounds (the lamp, chair, splint series and the tea cups in winter couplet) I wanted to see what such a simple singular object could generate, as well as if so…
Stars Of Ice
Last copies. All sounds generated and-or organized by Steve Roden at the Bubble house, nov-dec 2008. Sound sources: the chinese Christmas Carol stars of ice, from can old 7 record; the song snow from the 78 set songs from the first grade reader; and various other objects and instruments. The poem is the lyrics to stars of ice, with numerous words erased.
Under Milk Wood
The new LSD March album Under Milk Wood is their first full length since 2007's Constellation Of Tragedy for Important Records. With grace (in the rock sense), style, humor & the perfect touch of heavy riffage this tremendously unique and original recording is a classic of the new Japanese underground. Recorded at Black Snowflake Studios in Japan, Under Milk Wood is a fascinating ghostly rock album full of clean untreated restraint and a grounded calm compliments of Takahashi Ikuro's drumming. I…
All Are Guests In The House Of The Lord
With so damn many records pouring out, there are precious few artists who strain against sagging shelves and actually merit the “must hear” designation. One of them for me is Kevin Drumm. Widely known “guitarist” and relentless disassembler of technique, expression, and expectation, Drumm has recorded seminal solo records (first on Perdition Plastics, then the epochal Sheer Hellish Miasma), tussled in some notable duos (with, for example, RLW with Ralf Wehowsky), and even shown up to upend some …
Superstitions
Amazing early P. Bastien tape Pierre Bastien (born Paris, 1953) post-graduated in eighteenth-century French literature at University Paris-Sorbonne. In 1977 he built his first musical machinery. For the next ten years he has been composing for dance companies and playing with Pascal Comelade. In the meantime he was constantly developing his mechanical orchestra. Since 1987 he concentrates on it through solo performances, sound installations, recordings and collaborations with such artists as Pie…
L\'Enorme Tragedia
rare original tape by LA 1919 (aka La 1919 Spontaneo) were a Milanese avant-progressive band that first started life in September 1980. Their sound is electronic-based, but still consists of traditional rock-band instruments, such as electric and bass guitar (with assistance by clarinets and saxophones on later releases). Mostly though, the band uses keyboard effects and tape looping, combined with a Frippian and Frithian guitar sound, supplied by Margorani (much more evident on their second an…
Manifesto Rumorarmonico Post Futurista
Vinyl compilation devoted to "Luigi Russolo" the father of Futurist music and the first man theorizing that music has to be composed mainly by rumors And not by harmonic sounds! His music was played with an instrument "l'Intonarumori" or "Rumorarmonio" which was invented by himself! Russolo is the forefather and theorizer of the "Electronic music" concept and for sure we can say today that he was the first man playing "Industrial" muzak! For this project we found four artists which are known for…