★Blackest Ever Black
Life At The Water's Edge
**Edition of 300 with 6.5" x 6.5" illustrated lyric sheet included** Genius art-rock pop shots chipped from Officer!'s '8 New Songs By Mick Hobbs' (AAA, 1983) tape by avowed fans, Blackest Ever Black. Making their first appearance on vinyl following BEB's issue of 'Dead Unique', they give two sublime glimpses of Hobbs' gift for "ambiguous, ecstatic, anguished" songwriting and arrangement that may well have lain undiscovered by the rest of us otherwise. A-side finds the confessional cathar…
Mince Glace
**Edition of 300 includes download code** Blackest Ever Black part the curtains to reveal Tarcar's compelling debut of "shut-in dub dysfunction" at the closing strokes of 2014. Sealing the label's most prolific year to date on a particularly evocative note, Mince Glace dwells in the nether regions of the echoplex, dreaming of creaky psych dub from AC Marias to Leven Signs and peddling sozzled, spectral organs for reclined minds. Vascilating between bombed-out and spiked-up vibes, it's a superb s…
Festival Of The Dead
2LP version housed in high gloss gatefold sleeve. Includes mp3/FLAC download. It is said that the gods of the dead demand you ritualistically commit to each intensely hot beat of the ceremonial drum. Now, here, is the music for their celebration of death, music to dance together with, to oblivion, a music both spectacular and ecstatic where, like never before, the spirits of Santería and Voudou mix with raw electricity into burning diabolical polyrhythms. Festival of the Dead is without do…
Moin EP
An EP from Moin, the duo of Tom Halstead and Joe Andrews aka Raime. This 12" follows Moin's debut offering "Elsie," which appeared as part of a 2012 split 7" release with Pete Swanson on Blackest Ever Black's Confessions sub-label. Three new tracks recorded with drums, guitar and bass, arranged with effects and sequencer. Cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy and housed in a full picture sleeve.
This is always where you've lived
Blackest Ever Black's last release of 2013 comes from Secret Boyfriend, the solo project of North Carolina's Ryan Martin, who is also one-half of Boyzone and founder of the Hot Releases label -- a catholic endeavor that has seen him release records from the cream of the contemporary N.C. underground as well as reissuing classic sides by the likes of Maurizio Bianchi, Ghedalia Tazartes, and Ashrae Fax. To date, Secret Boyfriend's presence has been felt largely in the shape of live performance…
The '81 Demos
"Now that things are different, a moment on your own brings back memories..." Blackest Ever Black is pleased to present the first vinyl edition of the legendary demos recorded in 1981 by Weekend - the trio of Alison Statton, Spike Williams and Simon Booth. Alison Statton began her recording career with Philip and Stuart Moxham in Young Marble Giants, one of the most unique and important bands to come out of the UK post-punk/independent scene. YMGs dissolved in 1981, at which point Statton began…
Killing Sound
Oblique sound-system murderers from the trio of Amos Childs, Seb Gainsborough (Vessel) and Sam Kidel -- members of Bristol's noted Young Echo collective. Killing Sound make their full recorded debut on this self-titled 2x12", with four tracks cut obnoxiously loud across four sides by Matt Colton at Alchemy.
Dead unique
Blackest Ever Black presents to you Dead Unique, an album by Officer! recorded in 1995 but - outrageously, inexplicably - never before released into the public domain. This then is not a reissue or a revival; it’s a new record that just happens to have been maturing in the cask for, oh, a little shy of 20 years. It also happens to be a lost classic of English art-rock, and the crowning achievement in the career of its mercurial creator, Mick Hobbs. Londoner Hobbs’ roots are in the fecund RIO sce…
Second launch
Mind-shattering double LP of dysphoric space-rock minimalism from two luminaries of the Swedish punk underground. Second Launch follows Bremen’s self-titled debut of 2013 and comprises 11 controlled improvisations, reinforced with overdubs, that take clear inspiration from the dark side of kraut and progressive rock, early electronic and drone music, whilst also owing something to the fathomlessly bleak interior landscapes conjured by Nico/Cale on The Marble Index and Desertshore. The complex di…
Will to be well
Will to be well is the new studio album by Dalhous, their second for Blackest Ever Black. This double-LP, due to be released on June 30th, reflects writer-producer Marc Dall’s continued interest in the life and arcana of R.D. Laing, but also alludes to more universal and enduring mysteries: the relationships between body and mind, illness and wellness, the physical and the metaphysical. The fifteen tracks assembled here also showcase the maturation of a uniquely gifted and expressive composer: D…
Dark pool
Dark Pool is the new studio album from Black Rain, the project’s first in 18 years. Produced in New York City by Stuart Argabright, Black Rain’s founder and figurehead, Dark Pool is a work of hard-edged sonic fiction rooted in cyberpunk's quintessential neo-noircityscape/dataspace but projecting into a farther future of biotechnological advancement and alienation. Partly inspired by the writings of Philip K. Dick protégé K.W. Jeter (particularly 1996’s Edge Of Human, which picked up where Ridley…
Drained of connotation
Drained Of Connotation is a collection of synth improvisations recorded by Stefan Jaworzyn in 1982, recently rediscovered by the artist when trawling his cassette archive for the 2013 Skullflower KINO reissue/compilation series. Writer, musician and misanthrope Jaworzyn was a notorious and energetic presence in the UK underground of the 1980s and '90s. Following a brief stint in Whitehouse, in '86 he formed Skullflower with Matthew Bower and remained the band’s guitarist for four years, playing …
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…
Protoplasm
Hand-stamped edition of 500 copies** Blackest Ever Black present recordings of Black Rain's riveting performance at Corsica Studios in October 2012. It's the first release by Stuart Argabright (Ike Yard/Death Comet Crew) since BEB compiled and reissued their seminal cyberpunk missive 'Now I'm Just A Number: Soundtracks 1994-95' on LP, and offers a murky glimpse of what to expect from the Black Rain album due in early 2014. There are few others who do this sound with such authenticity and …
An Ambassador for Laing
LP version. Debut album from the Edinburgh-based duo of Marc Dall and Alex Ander, who work with intricately-stacked percussion, dub-wise bass and a rich harmonic tapestry of processed voices, keys, harp, vibraphone, guitar, woodwind, strings and synthesizer -- every sound re-sampled to the nth degree then subjected to subtle automation and rigorously fine-tuned over a period of many months. From the mesmerizing, pastoral drift of "Anger Sees Red" and "Dwelling by the Meadow" to agitated arabesqu…
Licht
Licht is the debut album by Shampoo Boy, a new guitar, bass and electronics trio from Vienna, comprising members Christian Schachinger, Christina Nemec, and Peter Rehberg. Schachinger and Rehberg have played together in various projects over the last 25 years, most notably Peterlicker -- see Last Slave (2010) and Nicht (2011), both released on Editions Mego. Schachinger was also involved in Der Scheitel, their album In einem Haus das Liebe heißt being a classic of German "Schlagermusik." Rehberg…
The Word As Power
Lustmord first emerged as an associate of SPK in the early '80s, before embarking on a solo career that has yielded such classics as Heresy (1990), The Place Where the Black Stars Hang (1994) and (with Robert Rich) Stalker (1995). Lustmord has also contributed to numerous Hollywood films as music and sound designer, and collaborated with the likes of Clock DVA, Chris & Cosey, Geir Jenssen, The Melvins, Tool, Aaron Turner, Monte Cazazza, and Coil's Jhon Balance. Sometimes described as "dark ambie…
Through the Window
Through the Window is the new album by Prurient, his first for Blackest Ever Black. It is, in a sense, both the conclusion and the climax of the journey that Dominick Fernow began with 2011's Many Jewels Surround the Crown 7" and continued with that year's Bermuda Drain LP and Time's Arrow EP. It was recorded before the Hospital Productions founder's move to Los Angeles, but in tone, subject matter, and scale it firmly anticipates his current stint navigating the desert c…