Kauf Nicht Von TPK
One step back on the timeline of half German, half American postmodern punks Teenage Panzerkorps. A collection of released, unreleased and compilation tracks recorded between 2003 and 2006, including some songs featured on the long out-of-print Nations Are Insane CD-R. Der TPK recall the kraut-rock of Can and Neu! with a cuttin-edge lo-fi allure influenced by Savage Republic and The Ex. The result is an exclusive blend of obscure sounds and confused German vocals buried under layers of guitars, …
Grosses Wasser
Recorded in 1978, Grosses Wasser was the fifth album by kosmische musik pioneers Cluster (their seventh if you include the two Eno collaborations). At this stage in the band's lifespan Cluster was a duo, manned by Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, although Tangerine Dream's Peter Baumann acts as co-producer, helping craft some of the group's most experimental material since they swapped their 'K' for a 'C' in the early seventies. Nowhere is this air of sonic exploration more apparent th…
The Peregrine
LP version. Room40 presents a reissue of Australian sound artist Lawrence English's acclaimed 2011 album The Peregrine, inspired by John Alec Baker's 1967 nature writing classic of the same name. "I first discovered The Peregrine when I was visiting my friend David Toop in London. He had the book on his desk and I picked it up and randomly turned to a page. It was an exquisite description of an Owl silently hunting. I was struck by the detail and evocative sense of listening in the writing. It w…
Kwjaz
Absolutely killer album of frayed and unstable electronic mutations from the Rangers-related KWJAZ project (boomkat) San Franciscan Peter Berend's mystery mixtape unit, KWJAZ, flashed forth this debut self-titled slab of 'post-plastic sublime decomposed luxury grooves' on cassette via his own rarified Brunch Groupe imprint early in 2011 and the 120 listeners lucky enough to grip a copy know who they are. It only took half a listen before we green-lit this tape-degraded gem for vinyl treatme…
Cryptography
Limited to 400 hand-numbered copies! Helm is the ambiguous solo moniker of London-based sound architect Luke Younger. Although, perhaps best known as one half of the pioneering avant-drone outfit Birds of Delay, it is in the more esoteric work of Helm that Luke's art takes on its most radical shape. Using processed piano, Casio MT-40, cymbal and guitar strings Cryptography steers the Helm sound through a melange of fringe territories: glacial drone meditations, reconfigured gamelan cluste…
The Way Things Go
** 515 copies ** Here, finally, is the gorgeous presentation that astronomy domine Rick Reed's music so richly deserves: Two black vinyl LPs, pressed on 180-gram virgin vinyl, with full-color labels, inside black poly-lined sleeves, housed in a matte-finish full-color gatefold jacket adorned with Reed's vibrant and fantastically evocative paintings. Included with each copy of this set is a full-color download card featuring access to high-quality MP3s of the complete contents of the vinyl record…
Progress Chance
In recent years, Boston has become an epicenter for some of the best experimental music emerging out of the USA. A native of Brazil, Ricardo Donoso has floated under the radar until recently, but has become an integral piece of the Boston puzzle. Not only is he half of the exquisite Perispirit and the brains behind the Semata label, but he's also a member of avant-metal outfit, Ehnare. Donoso's previous two solo efforts were both cassettes (on Digitalis and Razors & Medicine, respectively) bu…
Triangles
There's something almost religious about this Charlatan (Brad Rose) LP, its narrative arc swinging from light to dark and back again. From the opening chords of "Lime Beauty," we're awash in polarized-lens glinting twilight, fluorescent skies over the water. "Trace Blue Outlines" is trance-like and reflective, with long, arpeggiated figures chasing each other skyward in a fugue. Darkness creeps in around the edges of "Vodka Rocks," with almost post-rock moodiness bringing the side to a cl…
Instrumentals
Clams Casino is the memorable pseudonym of New Jersey resident Mike Volpe, who has shot from relative obscurity to production sensation thanks to a handful of blistering tracks. Edging into the limelight after passing tunes to Soulja Boy and Bay Area superstar Lil B, his originality has resonated with more than just rap fans. Clams hasn't confined his songwriting to rap music alone, and listening to his productions you can hear a keen sense of harmony, a pop sensibility and a willingness …
Red Horse
Red Horse is the blistering free-post-everything project of drummer/multi-percussionist Eli Keszler and guitarist/mad-scientist Steve Pyne. While both musicians are active in a number of different projects (you probably wouldn't believe Pyne's day job even if we told you), Red Horse catches them working with a distilled sense of focus and is for many their breakthrough project. Red Horse (not to be confused with the similarly-titled debut) is the duo's second album, and follows the rush of…
Alphabet Of Movements
With the music of Milwaukee-native Jon Mueller, patience is the key. His radical snare workouts are meditative master-classes in drumming, but require a distinct offering of time and attention to truly enjoy the dense clouds of sound his music creates. After crafting 2010's critically-acclaimed The Whole, Mueller decided to put together a live set that, while not reflecting the over-dubbed nature of the album itself, reflected the philosophy held within. The result was "I Almost Expect To…
Eager To Tear Apart The Stars
James Leyland Kirby is a prolific artist with a remarkably long and varied career working inside, outside and beyond the electronic underground. From his roots as renowned audio prankster and sonic agitator V/VM to his critically acclaimed work as The Caretaker and, most recently, Leyland Kirby - he's always attracted the attention of an often bewildered audience, although his stature and position as serious auteur has somehow grown exponentially with every year that has gone by since his…
Container
Container is a recent moniker of Nashville, Tennessee resident Ren Schofield who's been actively shifting about the U.S. playing shows and releasing cassettes on his mysterious I Just Live Here imprint for a long while now. Known primarily for his God WIlling project, a disjointed, confusing, maze of crude oscillator, tape, and guitar, Ren has established himself as a staple in the east coast underground. Here we have a new experiment in electronic beat oriented music. This is no …
The Drawing Of The Line
Seattle's Emuul has been around the block a few times over the last few years, releasing an excellent string of tapes on Digitalis, Monorail Trespassing, Stunned and others. Emuul (Kyle Iman) has always shown a masterful level of restraint and subtlety, leaving the listener to fill in the blanks. Iman uses each song as a dot on a map that ultimately leads you to an aural treasure. The Drawing Of The Line is his most fully-realized work, crafting a set of deceptively complex songs that flir…
21st Century Field Hollers And Prison Songs
This album has been made entirely from samples taken from the Midnight Crossroads Tape Recorder Blues album, which I made with Ralf Wehowsky for A Bruit Secret. Like that album it is a tribute to the spirit of the blues, viewed through a prism of 21st century cultural criticism. It evokes an earlier era when the relationship between a performer and a song arose out of a community, not a property relation. In appropriating my own material I have short-circuited the prevailing ethos of piracy and…
Music for Sounding Sculptures
Twenty-three wonderful pieces recorded live in a tower in Tuscany, in which master percussionist Marcello Magliocchi plays sound sculptures byAndrea Dami, made of various metals including iron, brass, copper, steel, aluminium and featuring other elements like strings, stones and gongs. Imagine a mix between Indonesian Gamelan, Bertoia, Alvin Lucier, obscure recordings from Africa, Beaver Harris and Don Moye, all infused with Marcello’s unique approach to polyrhythm, dynamics and modulation, the…
Love tape
A concept tape packed with unconditional love to whoever hears/buys/does whatever with it.C30, white shells with watercolor labels by SK; each tape is unique.Edition of 60; also comes in a numbered limited edition of 9 with different covers, each one featuring an instant picture of/by Silvia Kastel.
Untitled #205
Based exclusively on end grooves from vintage records, 'untitled #205' is a straightforward and joyful exploration of the potential for reincarnation of these unintended sonic structures into new life. More a tool than a final product, it delves into static, noise and rhythm with a hopeful perspective.' The untitled #205 mix on the a-side brings us 18 minutes of hissy, textural sound in dissolution, ranging from ryhthm to noise. The b-side has the 20 original loops López constructed out of…
Split
Fantastic split album from Dekorder presenting two contrasting works showcasing the vast possibilities of Don Buchla's famous Modular Electronic Music System (originally invented for use by the likes of Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, Terry Riley et al at the San Francisco Tape Music Centre). Keith Fullerton Whitman is a noted master of this system: his staggering 'Disingenuity b/w Disingenuousness' put it to mind-bending use last year on Pan Records - topping many end-of-year charts in t…
Shining Skull Breath
This ultra limited, and long out of print cd-r from 2007, finally available again, now as a super swank (and still quite limited) lp...Another gorgeous sonic transmission from right here in the Bay Area, from AQ fave Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, the man behind Tarentel, and the Root Strata label. Those familiar with Cantu-Ledesma's music know that he usually speakers in hushed whispers, breathy and breathless, soft sonic shimmers allowed to drift like billowy clouds into your ears. But here, C-L …