it took ernesto gonzalez more than three years to record the follow-up for his 'vallée de dith', but it was definitely worth the waiting! 'el telonero' is a tribute to the art of opening up for other bands. this album was created during a period in which gonzalez got more comfortable on stage, often setting the vibe for the night. concentrating on the ultimate tuning-in quality. the loose kraut-inspired jams of his second record are pretty much absent here. the focus is on analog synths a…
Robedoor have acquired a "drummer/modular synth dealer" since last we heard from them, and with this new LP - their first since last year's Endlessly Blazing - they let fly with their newly enhanced line-up, stirring up smudged-out psych nightmares that sound like they're being performed from somewhere deep within a cave system. In fact, if the blind flesh-eating monsters from The Descent had a house band, 'Indo Shadow' might be the outcome. The album's second half is especially good, with the f…
We're not complaining. Seems like a week can't go by without some new Not Not Fun opus dribbling out from the west coast label, aimed at bleeding our brains of logical thought processes and launching us into galaxies where laws are read backwards and progress is measured in long, untethering tracks of psychedelia muttered through interstellar Ham radios. This week it comes by way of slow-boiled loops and synth warbling that build towards wordless rantings best quantified as the dark prayers mean…
Gorgeous one-off private-press released in 1981 by one-time Tangerine Dream / Kluster associate Conrad Schnitzler, which was given only to friends and family. Tracks 6-11 are pretty odd, even for Schnitzler, with its pitched up vocals & arbitrary lo-fi synth drippings; but the real prize are tracks 1-5 featuring his teenage son Gregor on electric bass and completely fried vocals (in English no less) as run through Conrad's massive modular synth rig.Limited to 500 pieces. Unplayed archival copy
Cow's milk vinyl, artworks and music by Chris Pottinger, with insert. Side A originally released as a limited edition CD-R art set in 100 copies on Tasty Soil, Creature. B1 track is unreleased, recorded in 2007. B2 originally released in 2006 on Fag Tapes as a side of a tour cassette with Sick Llama. B3 was played as a loop for 8 months straight on a pirate radio station that broadcast out of the Cloud House on 107.9 FM. Far-out electronic music for the third millennium! The track on side A is s…
on yellow vinyl! All string synths and spring reverb, this is an analog dream. Nothing less than some of the finest classically-orchestrated synthetic pop of the thirty odd years people have been attempting it.
Douglas Quin's Fathom brings together four extended underwater soundscapes-two each from the Arctic and Antarctic. The recordings have been gathered over a period of 15 years, capturing an extraordinary palette of sonic voices, events, spaces, and textures. To the human ear, these soundscapes are haunting and otherworldly; yet they are very much of this world-out of earreach. The tracks are minimally edited and are his first field recordings to be archived in vinyl. Included with the rele…
"Previously, a boy dreams the dreams of many other boys. He meets three other boys and they dream together. Sadly, one of his co-dreamer's dreams become nightmare. In an effort to avoid seeing their own dreams relegated back to sleeping, our hero and his fair dreaming compatriots leave their troubled friend to face his nightmares on his own. His nightcap is quickly filled and the boys march forward, eventually seeing all of their dreams made manifest. In this installment our boy has beco…
Mind Over Mirrors might not be a familiar name to most, but the brain behind the project, Jaime Fennelly, has been involved in numerous acclaimed and respected projects over the last few years. Primarily known for his work as an integral member of Peeesseye, he's also involved with Acid Birds, Manpack Variant and Phantom Limb & Bison. The Voice Rolling is his first solo record in five years and the first under this new moniker.First and foremost, this is a harmonium record and that's important t…
'Concussion Summer' on Not Not Fun is by a merry band of travelers called Social Junk. I've never had concussion but I was hoping to this summer, sadly there's been no decent weather for me to go out tree climbing or trying to get myself set upon by gangs of local toughs. Next year, eh? It's kind of hard to know what to say about this LP really, other than I like it. Some bits are noisy and lo-fi tribal a bit like that amazing Heavy Winged LP from a couple of weeks back and there are even…
Limited edition of 320 copies, mastered and cut by LUPO at D&M. Includes free download code for FLAC or MP3 redeemable from the label** John Chantler offers his most substantial solo recordings in over seven years. Housed in lustrous, silk-screened sleeve, 'The Luminous Ground' glows with a deeply instinctive feel for bewildering, alien harmonics and psychoactivated tunings arising from processes of modular synthesis. A pulsing and glimmering collision of oscillated tone, filtered texture…
Another highly sought-after pressing from the Olde English Spelling Bee, this time from Christelle Gualdi aka Stellar Om Source, featuring Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point never* Intrepid sci-fi soundtrack-y synth excursions from the mind of electronic visionary, Christelle Gualdi aka Stellar Om Source, collated by the good folk at Olde English Spelling Bee. 'Trilogy Select' is essentially a directors cut of tracks taken from Stellar Om Source's trio of self-released CDr albums made bet…
a pure mantra: blending North African and Middle Eastern textures within a western context into our experience, regrettably the experience of a small few, but hopefully a wider community of listeners to come. Not only important historically, but musically: a wide range of music genres over the last couple of decades have worked with drone-note principles and it is an increasingly common device, but Sandy Bull was/is a superlative master of utilising the drone sounds;understated but effective in …
With a treasure trove of analogue, swirling effects, arch songcraft and a sweet yet assured vocal delivery, Trowel & Era brings to the table the epic debut long player by the one man band Apothecary Hymns (AKA Alex Stimmel). Stimmel has made a collection with one foot in kaleidoscopic coastal loner psych that floats on a musical bed of whimsical levity and another foot rooted firmly in the grand ethos of east village troubadours of the mid 60s." Alex Stimmel: acoustic & electric guitars 6 & 12 …
Dreams is a reissue of Chris Forsyth's second solo album. In 2009 Forsyth pressed up 100 LPs for a European tour and created quite an uproar of approval by the heads who managed to score a copy. Now available again, Dreams rightfully shows Forsyth at the creme of American guitarists who blend masterful skill of country/blues with sometimes violent aggression or mind-bending arrangements. Dreams was recorded and mixed between 2007 and 2009 and catches Forsyth in the studio layering acoustic and e…
A journey in free improv noise ambient performed by a duo comprised of Stefano Pilia (3/4havebeeneliminated) on guitar, audio collages and effects, and media artist Andrew Hooker on electronics. Higly Recommended
Smegma has been around, in one form or another, since 1973, issuing an average of a record a year out of odd tape-loops and jarring-yet-ambient original instrumentation long before electronic sampling was even a glimmer in Mr. and Mrs. Casio's eyes. They achieved a small degree of noteriety in the '80s as one of that proud elite of North American new-music acts hiply obscure enough to have European-only record deals. They're also known among the anti-pop sound exchangers of the international cas…
Cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin August 2011. 'Elemental Disgrace' is an album that needs to happen now. Finally, the next phase has arrived - a stunning double side-long record of some of the U.S. best underground synthesizer music we have heard here at the Spectrum Spools headquarters. Whatever rise to the synthesizer came later on in the 00's is hardly of any concern to Greh Holger and his Hive Mind project. Having released private press cassettes of solo synth works as far back as 2002, …
Beside the usual noise- and experimental-projects there were also great new-wave-bands like The Misz. Eddy Merckz is a good example for the extreme high quality of the 80′s cassette-culture-scene. Their very catchy sound is comparable to early Virgin Prunes with some more pop-appeal; fine harmonies and male/female singer made this band to remarkable milestone in european new-wave, although they unfortunately never reached a bigger audience. And “Eddy Merckz” is in my eyes their best wo…
the new record is a full lp (+/-40min) from marcia bassett's solo project zaïmph. marcia is well known for her leading role in freefolk/improv groupssuch as double leopards and ghq, as well as for her groundbreakingwork with free guitar/flesh metal duo hototogisu. with her soloproject zaïmph she starts off from the base these groups laid outand takes things to another level, shredding boundaries betweendark noise, drone and psych music. it's deeply meditative yet darklydisturbing and emotionally…