SOFT ABUSE
Soft Abuse is an independent record label based in Minneapolis, MN. Soft Abuse was founded in Tallahassee, FL by Chris Berry, who also operated the label briefly from Brooklyn, NY. The first release on Soft Abuse was a 7" single from Frog Eyes, who hail from Victoria, British Columbia.
They Sweetheartstammers
Pigeons have shifted into more dense, heady modes for their new record, They Sweetheartstammers. Heavy doses of melody and dissonance dip into Broadcast & Meddle-era Pink Floyd territory, as well as more straightforward nods to Opal's Happy Nightmare Baby, Galaxie 500 and Brigitte Fontaine. Pigeons are also now a four piece featuring Jason Meagher (No Neck Blues Band) on bass and Nathan Bowles (Black Twig Pickers, Pelt) on drums
La Catacomb
La Catacomb, purloined from a great abyss of uncertainty, is finally among us. The fourth album proper from Steven R. Smith’s blisteringly psychedelic “power trio” guise, La Catacomb languished for a few years awaiting release from this label & that before landing at Soft Abuse HQ. La Catacomb is the perfect follow-up to Ulaan Khol’s Ceremony trilogy, offering more smoulder than flame, more rumination than provocation. Smith's meticulously-crafted heavy drones & dirges have rarely sound…
Music For How Mata Hari Lost Her Head And Found Her Body
Julian Lynch and filmmaker Amy Ruhl first collaborated on Lynch's Seed video from his proper debut album (Orange You Glad) on Olde English Spelling Bee. Around this time, Ruhl was beginning work on her first film, an animated, allegorical biography of the courtesan, dancer & spy, Mata Hari. Spurred from talks about a using gamelan to score the film, Ruhl asked Lynch to contribute songs to the film & he delivered five new instrumentals. Drawing on both Indonesian music and his own bedro…
III
III is as immediate as a truck with failed brakes crashing through your living room wall. The third and final installment of a trilogy entitled Ceremony, its opening moments rage and wail, with distorted guitars pulling out in front of the drums like hellhounds that have slipped their master's leash. But this isn't a mono-dimensional freak-out. Smith paces himself, pulling back into brooding drones and pensive picking before lashing out once more. As befits a journey that's taken three di…
Harem of the Sundrum & the Witness Figg
First solo album from leader of the mysterious & bongtastic loft-psych champions THE VANISHING VOICE (Troubleman, 5RC, DeStijl, 3 Lobed). Uber trippy/heady folk influenced in equal parts by legendary hedonists Fleetwood Mac & West Coast sad sack Judee Sill with tips of the cap to other early 70's West Coast signposts of despair & excess David Crosby, Grace Slick & Gene Clark. The intention to create something timeless & ageless informs each note of the music.
II
All heavy with warmth & mystery, Ulaan Khol returns with another round of vertical incantations aimed at the heavens. As Ulaan Khol, STEVEN R. SMITH (Hala Strana, Thuja, Mirza) creates dense tapestries that revel in the eternal & infinite. The bursts of tones & grip on formal structures can compare to the best of Hototogisu or Handful of Dust, though filtered through an ample dose of Ash Ra Tempel. Supreme while discreet, these songs carry a sense of unnerving calm & optimistic gloom, often with…
I
Steven R. Smith has had a hand in creating some of the most compelling & singular instrumental psychedelic music of the past ten years. As Ulaan Khol, Smith digs in deep with a palette of drums/guitar/organ to craft a monolithic & expansive freeform, feedback-heavy atmospheric din that bonds the disparate realms of Fushitsusha & High Rise with Popul Vuh & Flying Saucer Attack. Smith has planned a maximalist three-part suite, Ceremony. In this first installment of the trilogy, the tone is overwhe…