New Arrivals
Popofoni
This 2LP is a reissue of the holy grail of Norwegian free-jazz and electronic music, Popofoni, released by Sonet in 1973. It features compositions by Arne Nordheim, Terje Rypdal, Kåre Kolberg, Gunnar Sønstevold and Alfred Janson played by an extended Jan Garbarek Quintet. The Popofoni-project was initiated after a heated debate on Haagen Ringnes’ TV-show Åpen Post in autumn 1969, which dealt with the subject popmusic. Standing on one side you found the defenders of pop, actress and sin…
Weight / Counterweight
"Recorded in April of 2008, Weight/Counterweight, the new release by Bill Dixon marks his return to small group playing, his first trio since the Dixon/Taylor/Oxley Victoriaville recording. The group, assembled by Hall at Dixon's suggestion, marks a new direction in Dixon's instrumentation with no untreated trumpet whatsoever and a barrage on pitched and unpitched concert percussion creating landmark skeletal architecture which Dixon pushes out from into unmediated solos of gravity and we…
Four Aims
LP has tracks not on the CD and not available via download. The Four Aims is the much-anticipated second full-length by the long-running duo of Mick Flower (Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof, Michael Flower Band) and Chris Corsano (Flaherty/Corsano, Jandek, Bjork, Sunburned). In the couple years since their debut, The Radiant Mirror (Textile), the two have toured and recorded frequently, expanding their range to include a mind-boggling array of free sound. "I, Brute Force" kicks off the record w…
Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night
Double LP version. Originally released in 2004 on the Les Disques Du Soliel Et De L'Acier label and now reissued by Type, this is the debut release by On -- the collaborative duo of Chicago-based percussionist Steven Hess (Haptic, Pan American) and French composer/producer Sylvain Chauveau. The concept behind Your Naked Ghost... is simple: the duo record an album in the studio, and then place it in the hands of a third party. The resulting work is then "remixed" (for want of a better word) and t…
S/T
All things must come to pass, if you love something set it free, it’s better to burn out than fade away, blah blah blah. No platitude can mask the permanent bummer of a favorite band breaking up in their prime, and such is the case with Iowa City’s most untamed civic treasure, feral-psych foursome Raccoo-oo-oon, who decided to dissolve this year after nearly half a decade of radical and galvanizing activity (tapes, tours, t-shirts, etc). Fortunately they’re generous sorts, so their parting gift …
ØØ Void
Double LP edition: Lengths of stretched distortion rattle the grey matter, unnervingly slow and severe. With Sunn O)))’s second album, ØØ Void, the sonic misery nurtured to functionality by Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley stays simple and repetitive, a tabula rasa having yet to realize the full scope of its potential. With this album, Sunn O))) worked as a three-piece, collaborator Stuart Dalquist coming up with its opener, “Richard,” which is a solid fourteen and a half minutes of be…
Tidings / Amethyst Waves
Mark McGuire has been a member of triadic mega-unit Emeralds since their inception. Besides contributing to their ever growing catalogue, he's also worked with Daniel "Oneohtrix Point Never" Lopatin as Skyramp and a prolific number of other solo projects. His most recent album for Weird Forest (originally released on Cassette by the Wagon label) has been hailed as his most definitive to date, crossing astral lines and psychedelic boundaries between noise squalls, lush-out synth washes and …
The Revenant Diary
"Don't look back," repeats one of several voices within Mark Van Hoen's The Revenant Diary, his fifth solo album and first release on Editions Mego. Surrounded by weighted beats, analog synthesizer drones and granular dirt, the unidentified, siren-like female voice's advice is as much seduction as warning. Tellingly so, for as well as being both Van Hoen's most ambitious and his most accessible work, The Revenant Diary is an eloquent meditation on the allures and dangers of memory, regret …
Desertshore/The Final Report
**Gatefold double 180g vinyl LP, with 12" booklet of liner notes and photos**Industrial Records presents the much-anticipated two album release Desertshore/The Final Report, a unique collaboration by Chris Carter, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, and Cosey Fanni Tutti. This is a two album release celebrating both the progress inherent in change and the fulfillment of two exceptional, yet separate projects. The Desertshore project is a "re-imagined" cover version of Nico's seminal 1970 album, f…
Old news #8
More archival works from Jim O'Rourke see the light of day on Old News #8. Recorded in 1991-1992. Originally released as part of Disengage by Staalplaat. Special thanks to Geert-Jan Hobijn and Frans de Waard for their years of support. Jeff Cortazzo (trombone), Sue Wolf (cello), Michael Prime (shortwave), Geoff Fontaine (voice), Gretchen Wells, Matt Guerierri, Scott Shell. "Merely" recorded live at DePaul University, 1991 -- Carrie Biolo (percussion). Remastered in 2012, Steamroom Tokyo. This on…
The Emotional Plague
Includes digital download voucher redeemable from the label** "Jagjaguwar is proud to reintroduce the first ever vinyl pressing of 'The Emotional Plague' from 1996. Supreme Dicks put out one single in their career, Ia double B-side. Maybe they had a sense of humor, but in hindsight it's hard to tell. Falling somewhere between Captain Beefheart, Throbbing Gristle and SALEM in the lineage of musicians who've found a muse in the nasty, brutish brevity of life, Supreme Dicks chose to cloak d…
Gramercy
On 'Gramercy', we find clarinet abuser Gareth Davis (who might be best known for collaborations with Machinefabriek and Steven R. Smith) paired with virtuoso cellist Frances-Marie Uitti. Uitti is widely revered for her unusual and original twin bow technique, which allows her to eke out far more sounds from the humble cello that you might initially expect. These sweeps and drones are matched perfectly with Davis's patented haunted drones and breathy chokes resulting in a deftly academic yet unne…
Family album
Double hybrid LP: One LP on black vinyl and one LP on clear fuchsia vinyl and picture disc artwork on the back side (first time!). "Of all the records I got from 2000 to 2010, a coupla by Second Family are among my fav... they remind me a bit the good old Sunburned Hand of the Man (or at least that tradition) but of course, with their own unique sound. Anyway, I wrote them... Tony kindly sent me stack of stuff... I selected & compiled a few things and they kindly agreed without exception. …
Heads Full Of Poison
North Carolina instrumental rock duo Ahleuchatistas belong to the beyond-category sector of such iconic, genre-flouting combos as John Zorn’s Naked City, Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, Swans, Tortoise, and Sun City Girls.Ahleuchatistas combine wicked precision with intense abandon, droll humor with analytical construction, and a sly gregariousness with uncompromising vision. This pair interweaves elements of punk rock, jazz, classical music, speed metal, grindcore, progressive rock, noise, …
A static place
Deluxe edition on double LP, an edition of 155 copies, individually inscribed and numbered, cear vinyl, 140g audiophile quality "Sourced from a mic’d gramophone playing 78rpm records from 1928 to 1932 with a cactus needle for a stylus, A Static Place has the more urgent, dynamic feeling to it. There is heavy use of hissing and layers of analog static to be heard on "Schwarzschild Radius", but it is used sparingly, burying processed choral arrangements and organ passages in its fuzzy warmth. Viny…
Life...The Best Game In Town
After releasing several albums in the 90s, Harvey Milk are celebrating their own renaissance by lauding the virtues of "Life...The Best Game In Town". Spearheaded by the alternately burly and angelic vocal stylings of Milk mastermind Creston Spiers, "Life" is both tumultuous and grueling, resonating with the glorious slow-motion radiance of Total Dirge Power. They've since been joined by Thrones legend Joe Preston.
Narc Beacon/Nag Nag Bacon
Goodiepal or Gæoudjiparl van den Dobbelsteen, whose real name is Parl Kristian Bjørn Vester, is a controversial Danish/Faroese musician and composer. The eccentric and self-made Goodiepal has influenced the course of modern music through radical excursions into computer technology and media art. Until recently he has been employed as a teacher at DIEM (Danish Institute for Electro-acoustic Music) at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark. Goodiepal declared intellectual war against …
Live in Germany, 1983
In some ways, Commitment was typical of many bands of their time. Between 1978 and 1984, they enjoyed a modest success by the subterranean standards of the Lower East Side. They struggled for gigs during the waning years of the New York loft scene, enjoyed higher profile gigs at several Kool Jazz Festivals, made one short European tour, and recorded one LP. But their music is more significant than this story might indicate. Hwang was among the first improvisers to emerge out of the Asia…
Live At Praxis 1984
Decades before his time, political and musical revolutionary, Sun Ra, developed a new plane of cultural existence where black people were all-powerful beings from outer space, sending their intergalactic message through jazz music. Recorded live in 1975 at Cleveland's legendary jazz club, the Smiling Dog Saloon, when Sun Ra and his Arkestra descended on the city for a week-long residency. You can imagine how the uninitiated's jaw must have dropped when Ra and his 15 musicians marched out onto th…
The Ballasted Orchestra
The much-in-demand vinyl version of the second (or third, depending on how you calculate) Stars of the Lid album, their first for Kranky, now finally reissued on vinyl. The original 4 track cassette recordings were remastered and new lacquers were cut, and the original artwork has been updated* When it comes to genre-defining releases, even releases that define a band's career, few sum up ambient music, and the work of Stars of the Lid in general like 'The Ballasted Orchestra'. Released in 1…