The invisible city
Recorded and mixed during 2008-2009 in Berlin. All tracks composed by BJNilsen using tape recorders, computer, organ, acoustic guitar, electronics, viola, subharchord. Field recordings from Sweden, Iceland, Norway, UK, Japan, Portugal and Germany. The subharchord was recorded in the EAM Studio @ Adk, Berlin. Viola played by Hildur Gudnadottir. Mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye.
Impossible Duets
HIGLY RECOMMENDED!! Haunting and enigmatic new Mudboy full lenght LP with a mindblowing packaging... Last temptation of Raphael Lyon's Mudboy, after dozen recordings as the seminal This is Folk Music (Last Visible Dog, 2005) and exciting Hungry Ghosts (Not Not Fun, 2007) the doctor of experimental organomics explore new approaches to his personal hallucinations.The works on this album are only the hapless product of stumbling fingers, hammered out by so many orangutans fighting over garbage.In t…
Wisdom Thunderbolt
Oh psychedelic-noise fans your saviours have returned! After a three year absence (okay so there were loads of odd limited releases, but no proper albums) they're back with 'Wisdom Thunderbolt' which to my mind one of the collective's strongest offerings to date. You might have caught members of this psych supergroup dotting themselves around the sprawling scene - I know whenever I go to a gig these days I try to spot the Vibracathedral member - it's a bit like a geeky muso's version of 'Where's…
The Queen Of Guess
Masterful, transcendental psychedelia from the mighty Vibracathedral Orchestra, who prove they're capable of making a varied and multifaceted din on this nine-track, seventy-one minute album. The group truly excels on the two long-form pieces (both 'Ramshackle Sunrise' and 'Goodnight Stars Goodnight AIr' hover around the twenty-minute mark), although the shorter tracks reveal the wealth of different instrumental approaches that goes into making up the band's considerable repertoire. It's that ma…
Suicide
This remarkable debut album, released a full seven years after the group had formed, was still way ahead of its time back in 1978. Suicide--Alan Vega on vocals and Martin Rev on keyboards and drum machine--are one of the most original acts in the history of popular music. They're often called the first synthpop act; synth-punk is closer to the truth--their music was far more edgy and menacing than that of any of their followers, with the notable exception of Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, …
Remixed No. 1
Moondog's outsiderness ensures an approach to modern composition that doesn't ever establish any single, fixed identity, which is of course what makes this man such an alluring figure in 20th century music. Mr Scruff remix is a post-futuristic-jazz influenced by hip-hop cadences that makes appear how important Moondog has been in the past and how he will be for contemporaries and future generations.
Magpie Attack On The Back Road To Albert Town
1st 7" in chunky black vinyl inspired, in name at least, by childhood memories of being divebombed while cycling to a friends house by territorial Australian magpies nesting in pine trees alongside the road. Quiet/loud messy drones featuring a tambura and some chimes amongst other toys, recorded mid-way through 2007 in rainy old London town.
Musculus Trapezius
An epic performance captured pristine, unfurling its massive limbs patiently and cannily over the course of seventy-plus minutes. Conrad mingles amongst his trusted wood-and-steel sidekicks, engaged in both age-old conversations and inspired new inquisitions; Yeh bookends his passive/aggressive behaviour on violin with spare piano incantations; Duchs acts as a ghostly anchor, casting formidable binding and deft velocity. Yes, the drones do flow freely, but these reliable horizons fracture into s…
Sentinelle
Inspired by the likes of the largely unknown first wave of continental European minimal electronic bands of the early ‘80s (Absolute Body Control, Twilight Ritual, Martin Dupont, Snowy Red), the seminal early industrial bands, as well as the emphemeral, psychedelic atmospheres of the British shoegaze bands of the 1990s, Xeno and Oaklander perform using entirely analogue synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines to produce a highly-crafted, complex of form of moody, electronic pop music that is…
Invisible Landscape
Kraut-driven psyche-rock heaviness from Portland's Eternal Tapestry delivering their second album for Not Not Fun after 2007's 'Vibrations New Dawn'. These guys sound like an amalgam of Parson Sound, Can, Neu and Wooden Shjips, but you could imagine that they're not even aware of it, as they sound so damn into their groove that's it's just what they do naturally do, like they just picked up instruments, started hitting/strumming/picking at them and this is what came out. Of course, that's not th…
Tonspuren
This is the first solo album by Dieter Moebius, recorded at Conny Plank's studio and originally released in 1983 on Sky Records. By 1969 at the latest, Dieter Moebius was synonymous with the avant-garde electronic music scene in Germany. He and Hans-Joachim Roedelius formed Cluster, a seminal electronic/ambient duo, while Moebius was also a member of the so-called Krautrock supergroup Harmonia (with Michael Rother and Roedelius), as well as collaborating on various other projects with the likes …
Sonic Messenger
Limited ed. of 400 copies with a bonus album of music packaged in a custom designed full color gatefold case with a mounted 12 page booklet of bonus artwork. What if the Voyager space craft became sentient? Would it destroy humanity? Who is to say it wouldn’t become the most far-out musician of the galaxy? Expo ‘70’s sonic reach seems to extend past even the concept of space/time itself. One Eno Eon past normal, the patter of Expo ‘70’s dark matter squeaks and moans in wave forms, like the Dopp…
Thunder Perfect Mind
"Remastered 2CD reissue of this NWW classic! Remastered by Andrew Liles and featuring expanded artwork by Babs Santini in a 6 panel digipack. The second disc features very rare tracks as well a previously unreleased material from the same era."
Stone Circle
RESTOCKED! 10/10 on Foxy Digitalis, writing "best psych album of the year! Maybe even best psych album ever?! “Stone Circle” deserves much more than a measly ten stars!”. Wood-land have released a few bits and bobs on the Install label but i'm totally unfamiliar with their work. 'Stone circle' is the duo's first full length release, limited to a super small run of 100 copies. On first listen i reckon it's total winner. Twenty tracks of brooding lo-fi instrumentation that sounds like it was recor…
Dry
Is MTV unplugged still going? I haven’t watched MTV in about 15 years... Anyway Aidan Baker has a CD out on Install called ‘Dry’ and the name is a clue to what’s happening on the recording. Basically the man is playing his electric guitar ‘“Dry” i.e zero effects. Okay so his guitar is plugged in but this is kinda like his Unplugged session. What a session it is too as his sound is stripped right back to its basic elements. What this really reveals is his genius guitar playing which can sometimes…
Dispel space - Time lust
Another week, another fine drone/ambient release, this one is from Jason and Shinobu through the mercurial Install. Slow waves of evocative drifting textures are randomly assaulted by sinister outbursts of grizzled fuzz, creeping up the sides of the stately walls like curious splashes of acid whilst someone in the distance metrononically taps a length of piping in an echo chamber. Further investigation reveals a CD that is quite bleak & industrial, kinda post apocalyptic. The sounds on 'Headless…
Snow Blind
RESTOCKED!! Limited to 300 copies only "We haven't heard from New Zealand dronescaper Peter Wright in about a year. Well, it's been at least that long since we've reviewed one of his discs. Somehow two other Wright discs slipped through the cracks in that time though, which is a shame, since pretty much everything we've heard from Wright is fantastic. This latest double disc is no different Nine looooooong tracks spread out over two discs, most in the 15-20 minute range, which is ideal for Wrigh…
Summons Of Shining Ruins
2008 release ** Limited edition of 100 copies. "Summons of Shining Ruins is a project of Shinobu Nemoto, who works with electric guitar, tape delay, old rhythm machines, stompboxes and 4-track-recorders. No computer or software is used to record this work. And you can hear that in every tone."
Eth
2007 release ** ""The enigmatic Luke Hazard emerges from the black woods of West Virginia with an album that sounds cursed and burnt up from the very beginning. Eth boldly marks the birth of the Install label and as you might expect, it doesn't fool around. At times primordial and cosmic, Ourson guides you through barren windswept landscapes of rock and mud while simultaneously ripping apart the stereo field like a crusty blood-stained cloth. Eth is a truly epic recording of both gentle and unfr…
Peruvian electroacoustic and experimental music (1964-1970)
splendid double CD set documenting César Bolaños - one of the leading artists of the Latin American avant-garde of the mid 20th century - amazing early electronic work. The recordings bring together for the first time a definitive edition of his work on a double CD, the music have been digitalised directly from the original tapes and really have a fabulous clarity. So much music these days is labelled as experimental but I often I ask myself if it's creators are genuinely experimenting. That ce…