★Fourth Dimension Records
Tales From The Trenches
Mostly known for his work as founder, vocalist and main songwriter for The Legendary Pink Dots, Edward Ka- Spel has long forged an equally prolific career as a solo artist given to sometimes exploring similar sonic realms as his group but clearly working at such a pace the need to channel ideas and songs in this capacity must be enforced. And just as well too, because Edward Ka-Spel is one of those rare and exceptional artists whose high workrate doesn’t betray a keen sense of quality control. L…
Mummies and Madmen Grow Dark In The Sun
24th August 1983. The scene: a small and chaotic terraced house in Craven Street, Coventry. Bob Oliver, main man of eclectic tape label Slob Tapes, and Alan Rider, head of early industrial label Adventures in Reality Recordings (Attrition, Stress, Irsol, SPK, Test Department, Muslimgauze and others) and one half of electronic duo Stress, have come together with the mysterious Cryptic Z Mostmen to record a single track, ‘Mummies and Madmen Grow Dark in the Sun’, over the course of an afternoon. I…
Beyond the Flat Earth
Tip! *300 copies limited release* "Fallen Sun, the noise/industrial moniker of Reverse Image from Malaysia, approaches the creation of noise music through the layering of sonic textures aligned with a sense of space and movement. Using Harsh Noise Wall as distant inspiration, she takes the seed of an idea and expands and contracts it, before further compressing and then twisting it, layer upon layer, until the idea has morphed into itself. 'Beyond the Flat Earth’'s ten concise tracks explore thi…
Gloriosa
Brighton's Map 71 are a duo comprised of Andy Pyne (percussion, electronics) and Lisa Jayne (words, voice). Together they have been working away at an approach that draws from post-punk, improvisation, electronics, and other such realms of music to create a refreshing environment where reflection, wry observations, the abstract, and immersion can develop. They have existed for a few years now and had several releases out both on their own Foolproof Projects imprint and via a couple of other labe…
Avalanche Zone
*300 copies limited edition* Originally released in spring 2021 by US label L.I.E.S. on vinyl, Anthony Di Franco of Ramleh returns to Fourth Dimension Records with a timely and well-deserved reissue. Featuring three additional tracks to the original six, 'Avalanche Zone' is a weighty and abrasive follow-up to 2018's 'Weapon Design' that's propelled by cranium-crunching bass, icy and portentous textures, battlefield rhythms and just the faintest nod to Anthony's love of both old school noise and …
For the Lives Once Lived
Several years ago Gary Mundy of Ramleh/Broken Flag (and far more besides) declared to me that he wished to do one new Kleistwahr album every year until he's no longer able to do them. Fourth Dimension Records has subsequently fulfilled a promise to honour this plan as much as possible and is managing to keep up so far. How Gary manages to keep pulling new ideas out of the proverbial hat at this rate is anybody's guess, but the latest album, 'For the Lives Once Lived', illustrates very clearly th…
Lost in Room: Mark Perry, Alternative TV and Related, 1977 - 1981 (Book)
"That’s my argument against the way punk’s become so cabaret. It’s almost patronising [when bands play all their hits]. Oh, we’d better play ‘How Much Longer’ because people want that. To me, that’s just patronising to the audience. I’d like to feel, and I always have done, that an Alternative TV audience wants us to experiment or to try new things out through that sense of exploration, or that childlike sense of wonder about making music. That’s why I’ve always wanted to retain that. I haven’t …
Direct Action
Since their formation in 1977 Mark Perry’s group Alternative TV have moved far away from their more direct punk rock beginnings into all manner of other areas of music that have sometimes themselves drawn from improvisation, free jazz, industrial and electronic music. On 'Direct Action', Alternative TV’s first studio album since 'Opposing Forces' in 2015, we are presented with six instrumental tracks which steadily rip apart all expectations as they shed all allusions to rock music in favour of …
Book 3: 1990-1993 (Book)
The third and final book in the trilogy of volumes dedicated to Grim Humour fanzine, which ran between 1983 and 1993 and lasted a total of eighteen editions. Following on from the first two, published respectively in 2020 and 2022, this book continues the same approach through its mixing reprinted original pages with rewritten features, some insightful reflections on many of them and additional material by both editor/publisher Richard Johnson and various other contributors. Writers involved wit…
Down But Defiant Yet/Acceptance Is Not Respect
Fourth Dimension collects a couple of immense, previously CD-only albums into one neat package from Ramleh/Broken Flag's Gary Mundy, operating under his Kleistwahr handle. 'Down But Defiant Yet' and 'Acceptance is Not Respect' were originally released in 2017 and 2018 and were created with a more spiritual intent than previous works. Essentially, we get blasts of cinematic, ominous black psychedelic sound that channels elements of krautrock into harsh, brutal yet cleansing elegiac noise.
One From Then Another
*300 copies limited edition* Phil Todd's existence as Ashtray Navigations began in the mid-1990s. Since then, it has been everything from a fully-fledged group to a solo endeavour that's embraced ur-drone-orientated noise, sprawling psychedelia, crude electronics and the more lysergic realms of the avant-garde. Amongst many other things. On One From Then Another, however, we are presented with two lengthy pieces (the first of which is broken into two sections and clocks up almost 30 minutes in t…
Don’t Let Go: Complete Kleistwahr 1982 - 1986
*300 copies limited edition* This double-disc set does exactly as the title indicates and collects all the material Gary Mundy of Ramleh released under his solo Kleistwahr guise between 1982 and 1986. Everything originally appeared on cassette on Gary's own much lauded Broken Flag imprint, although certain titles (as noted) have appeared on limited edition vinyl reissues as well. Some material has never before been reissued, however. The material featured is as follows: Myth album (originally re…
No/On
*In process of stocking* Debut album from this London based group whose contemporary take on a guitar-driven post-punk sound equally inspired by early '90s grunge is energised by ferocious melodies and an impulsive charge rarely found right now. With two brothers, Aaron and Hayden Brown, serving as both the main songwriters and lead vocalists, Blue Statue focus on existential malaise, mental health issues and other such concerns in a setting that's accessible and angry yet augmented by an openne…
Astro-Noetic Chiasm X
"In listening to Astro-Noetic Chiasm χ by Zsolt Sőrés, one quickly has the impression that the sounds being heard are coming from an anomalous nowhere. As if they were not generated here but received from there. They simply sound otherworldly. So, what is their actual address in space and time, as well as the sender’s or the receiver’s? How are we to identify them?
We could of course try to single out the sonic settings and processes we hear according to the technology that produced them (uncon…
Stanford
Debut collaboration between Puppy38 (Hiroshimabend) and Alan Rider (Adventures in Reality, Stress, Dance Naked, Attrition, etc.) co-released by Opiumdenpluto and Adventures in Reality besides Fourth Dimension Records. This album brings together incredible electronic works designed to recreate the sound experience of the notorious Stanford Prison Experiment. About the music, Puppy38 himself says, "A dash of John Carpenter, whispers of early Cabaret Voltaire and a portion of gingerbread stuffed wi…
Do Not
*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 300 copies.* Limited edition reissue of this album originally released in 1986 on cassette on Broken Flag. Comprising two untitled side-long pieces, 'Do Not' catches Gary Mundy of Ramleh in peak 'noise' mode with his solo endeavour, taking much from his place as one of the innovators of the so-called power electronics genre yet pushing this confrontational avant-garde sensibility somewhere entirely new. It is a sound that Kleistwahr has continued to ex…
Mobility
*Limited edition of 300 copies. One-sided LP.* Limited edition reissue of this cassette originally released in 1983 on Broken Flag, gathering five untitled solo pieces by Gary Mundy of Ramleh in full on early power electronics mode, firmly illustrating his place as one of the innovators of this genre yet likewise pushing this confrontational avant-garde sensibility somewhere entirely new. It is a sound that Kleistwahr has continued to explore and add new dimensions to ever since, but never compl…
Nemo Point Soundmap for Terrestrial Melanoheliophobics
Representing Ahad's Flux Worlds 1, the lengthily titled 'Nemo Point Soundmap...' album is the very latest solo offering from this Hungarian sonic traveller now based in Berlin, Zsolt Sőrés. Spread over the two discs are seven pieces that take a combination of viola, bass, piano strings, voice, mellotron, dictaphone, percussion and all manner of other instrumentation and objects into a realm where inner space folds in on itself and unwittingly assumes the guise of multitudinous journeys to those …
Common Values
*Limited edition of 300 copies.* Since 2014 Gary Mundy of Ramleh and Breathless has been releasing most of his solo work through Fourth Dimension Records. Common Values is his seventh such album for the label (not including a reissue of 2009’s The Return album, originally released on vinyl by USA’s long gone by legendary Noiseville, and the LP reissues of the Broken Flag albums Mobility and Do Not due, after many delays, in late September/October 2021) and gathers another six mighty cuts that on…
I Am The Dirt Under Your Fingernails
*Limited edition of 400 copies.* Since 1983, Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, Council Estate Electronics, The Sidewinder, etc.) has been producing largely solo, but sometimes collaborative, work under the Final moniker. Beginning as a more obviously power electronics-inspired project it has during the past two decades or so evolved into one which still retains that sonic intensity but has a more expansive sound. 'I Am the Dirt Under Your Fingernails' is the latest album, closely following 'I…