New Arrivals
Live In San Francisco
Astromero is the psychedelic synth-noise project of Japanese pioneer Hiroshi Hasegawa (Astro,CCCC), and LA's Damion Romero (Speculum Fight). Side A is a Live show in San Francisco, a total scorcher with an immense level of energy where shifting walls of synthetic sound produced by Hasegawa are complemented by the signature rumbling low end frequencies coming from Damion's custom electronics. Side B is a new studio track, full of brain melting tones and showing the more compositional side of this…
What I Became
"If string theory is correct, this is approximately the thirteenth album Matt Valentine has released that definitely shouldnt be filed under a group name (Tower Recordings, Bummer Road, Golden Road, etc.). On the other hand, if string theory is correct, this might also be his 11,000th album. The truth, one suspects, is somewhere in between. Since bedding down in southern Vermont at the dawn of the century, MV has been as cussedly prolific as anyone. The gout of LPs, cassettes, CDRs, singles and …
Dumb Supper
Blood n guts folk from the Anglo-American duo. The Wire says “The twining harmonies…recall the heyday of English pastoral folk song”. Plan B says "Dumb Supper is one of those rare modern folk albums that will find a home both in the longstanding 'traditional' music community and among those attracted to the form's more experimental and lo-fi possibilities". Most of the tracks are re-discovered and adapted by the Tylers, their searing harmonies and sparse, vital instrumentation breathing n…
Things That Happened
Joke Lanz aka Sudden Infant creates an unique blend of physical sound-poetry and dadaistic vocals, using contact microphones, prerecorded soundloops and noises. The result is abrupt Musique Concrète juxtapositions of spasmodic gibbering and a battery of disorienting electronics. It's a fragmented field of sound that comes to its own autonomy!' Two great live recordings which shows more the competence of Joke Lanz then the most studio recordings ! Termite Club, Leeds, England (Live 2004-08-21). R…
God Is Saying This To You...
More than a mere odds-n-ends collection, Kurt Vile’s latest LP is a compilation of tracks from Overnite KV, a tour-only CDR, along with a handful of extra tracks recorded specifically for this release. Here we find Kurt solo, four-trackin’ as usual, and blowing minds with his mix of bluegrass guitar, blazed singer-songwriterisms, and the knowledge of how to balance these contexts out with laidback precision. Psychedelic to its core, these twelve tracks speak to the will of the casual perf…
Our Anthems
a duo project by Karla Borecky and Scott Foust from the Idea Fire Company plus long-time collab-orator Mike Popovich. They were actice in the mid- to late-1990s and released the album »Our Pledge« on SWILL RADIO at the time. »Our Anthems« was recorded in 1996 but remained unreleased until now. The sound is somewhat similar to IFCO, although within at least some sort of a song structure. The 12 pieces on the LP present themes and sketches of atmospheric musical beauty created by synths, haunting …
New Bodies
Peter Kolovos is a free sound artist from Los Angeles, CA. Over the last decade he has developed an intensely personal sound vocabulary based on raw texture, volume, and duration. The result has been physical, abstract work that constantly shifts and evolves in real time. The mechanisms of impulse, memory, intent, restraint laid bear. Mastering: Rashad Becker. Full Color Heavy Tip-On Cover-180 Gram Vinyl. Edition of 500 copies.
Gangnam Basement
Songs and field recordings from up and down the Korean peninsula and under the ground during 2006-2007: native winds and bells, charismatic tongues, mountain shamans, fauna, charms, university innards, resurrected ancestors, missteps, ceremony, morning, winter, night, glass rooms beneath Gangnam, totem + taboo; concluded with nitrous-damaged pop songs, Bowie cover and cellphone karaoke. Handmade art,
Soft Terminal
Digitalis invite us to dive headfirst into the synth froth of 'Soft Terminal', the latest emission from maverick soundscaper Norm Chambers, aka Panabrite. Over the last few years he's amassed a small library of exceptional material for the likes of Gift Tapes, Aguirre and Digitalis, plus one rather special pearl, a real scene classic, produced incognito and which we've been sworn to secrecy over. Compared with the stacks of dribbling dronesmiths and half-baked fantasists who populate this …
Brand
“Brand” is the new trio of Gary Smith (guitar), Silvia Kastel (voice and synth), Ninni Morgia (guitar). On this recording Gary Smith produces the playing for which he’s considered a master of avant guitar: multiple layering, complex grainy textures, dense counterpoint, influences of birdsong. Fused with the guitar of Ninni Morgia, which floats between minimal movements of primordial electronics, pre-war slide blues and Hendrix-esque feedback. Over, and blending with them, Silvia Kastel’s mo…
Unraveling Designs
Edition of 110 copies, vinyl only, one time pressing with download card. “Whereas most other music squabbles for your attention whilst it plays, Unraveling Designs is content to remain in your subconscious mind, gently seducing you in an unhurried manner. The steady swelling of opener Recognition is a welcoming crescendo of highly atmospheric textures, seguing perfectly into the bubbling Down From The Sea, which is certainly one of the most carefully conceived and expertly executed number…
LA Vampires & Zola Jesus
Easily one of the releases of the year so far, finally available on limited edition vinyl* Ghostly goings on from gothic psych queen Zola Jesus and kindred spirit LA Vampires (the current guise of Amanda Brown from Pocahaunted), who collaborate across this killer new mini album. 'Bone Is Bloodstone' rumbles into motion with those familiarly smudged out, indecipherable vocals and evaporating drum machines but there's a heavy bass groove and some ghoulish melodic developments set to balance …
Another Dull Dawn
When Chris Corsano turned 6 years old, I already begged him on my wounded knees to record an LP for Ultra eczema. He played it cool, was clearly annoyed but remained polite. From then on (he is now 46) I would email him the same question daily. I slept in a tent in front of his house, sent him letters every week, had all his different cell phone numbers, I even gave him new clothes, though he kept wearing his fully blue outfit. Much like Michael Jackson, corsano, the last drummer on earth, alway…
Zones Without People
'Zones Without People' was released in 2009 on a highly limited vinyl run for Arbor. All seven tracks featured in his Wire chart-topping 'Rifts' compilation, predating his mindblowing 'Returnal' album (surely one of the best of 2010) and displaying its prodigiously gifted creator amidst some of his most affective synthscapes. From the outset we could consider this to be classic material, as the miniature 'Computer Vision' - one of his very earliest creations circa 2004 - plugs into a spir…
Sacred & Profane Love
We haven’t made any secret of our love for Estonian Producer Maria Minerva, and this latest offering for 100% Silk might just be her finest yet. She’s had to bat off plenty of comparisons with Nite Jewel, Glass Candy and others from the nu-disco set, and this collection of six tracks should be where those comparisons end. Here Minerva explores a wider range of dancefloor styles, beginning with woozy late night Chicago gloom on ‘A Love So Strong’ with its detuned vocal hook and punchy bas…
You Are The One I Pick
"Nottingham duo Felix make their Kranky debut with this fine and idiosyncratic collection of songs. The main focus here is the vocal/piano/cello talents of Lucinda Chua, whose sparse yet quirk-loaded minimalism receives guitar and bass backing from Chris Summerlin, who's probably best known for his work in the rock band Lords. Chua's writing is quite unlike anything else currently out there; her lyrics convey strange or often very simple, domesticated ideas delivered in a pared-down, plaintive f…
Ausland
Just two years separate Pyrolator's 1979 debut Inland and the 1981 album Ausland. Nevertheless, they could hardly be more different from one another. If Inland reflects the industrial decay and politically-explosive atmosphere of 1977 and the years thereafter in the Federal Republic of Germany, then Ausland is a buoyant, playful and yet groundbreaking pop album. There had been some significant developments since 1979. The Ata Tak label, which Pyrolator had co-founded, had hit a rich vein of…
A
A is Sunburned's second album with producer Kieran Hebden, a.k.a. Four Tet. Directed by Kieran like actors in a film, Sunburned is taken off the bandana smokestage of their previous collaboration -- Fire Escape -- and put onto a sweat-soaked 4am lysergic dance floor. Kieran uses the band like his live instrument laptop and sampler. The results are truly stunning which makes this record into one of the best moments of each artist's respective musical careers. With artwork by California vis…
Hallway Of Mirrors
VHF is releasing a bunch of solo guitar dudes over the next few weeks. Here's one of 'em! It's an album from New York's Alexander Turnquist called Hallway of Mirrors. It says that above so it's kinda pointless me saying that. Having said that the New York thing was a new bit of info so it's not all filler! I've not heard this chap before but I was rather taken with him on first listen. It's not a million miles away from the likes of James Blackshaw.... ie extreme 12 string fingerpluckery which i…
Group: Xex
Xex were an all-synthesizer band from South River, New Jersey who recorded their debut album group:xex in 1980. Formed when a trio of high school misfits with funny names (Waw Pierogi, Thumbalina Gugielmo and Alex Zander) teamed up with some friends from Rutgers CollegePerformed entirely on then-state-of-the-art Arps, synths and electronic drums – no guitars anywhere – group: xex aims for the future, but comes across now like a time capsule from the deepest, darkest Reagan years. Each song burro…