★Not Not Fun Records
Cloudland Canyon / Mythical Beast
This pairing has been in the wings for a few years now by our count, but tripped things come to those who wait, so better late-as-shit than never. Cloudland Canyon have been spanning geographies (Brooklyn, Germany, Memphis) and genres (krautrock, drone, psych-pop) since at least 2002, but only recently has their technological studio-sorcery began to gather steam. Their offering here (“Harvest Hunt”) is a mechanical motorik ascent into symphonic hypnosis. Comparisons to classic Teutonic psych out…
Lowlife
Eclectic selection running from midnight jazz moods to swinging house and dusted downbeats. As much as Los Angeles gleams in the global mind as a gateway to dream fulfillment and televised wealth / fame amalgams, it’s equally a desert of disappointments. Hence the dead-end yoga cults, under-the-bridge tar dealers, valley burnouts, Inland Empire night-stalkers and seas of destitute Eastside lowlifes. This vibe is central to Afterhours’s languid, nocturnal musical vision, which has evolved from sl…
Mother Rhythm Earth Memory
"NNF debut (after an EP on 100% SILK) by this Iowa City electronic maximalist. M.R.E.M. is the first purely solo Cuticle release, after working with a series of part-time collaborators, and it's freed him to let loose his wildest and weirdest impulses."
We're In Heaven
Vinyl debut by this Viennese rave abstractionist boils down pulsing LED beats and deep synth strobe FX into a cavernous laser-streaked fog. In blinding Alex Grey-style acid-body artwork by Mr. Cruise Family himself
Maria Minerva's Cabaret Cixous
Over the course of a 12", cassette, and a stream of ace youtube vids, Maria Minerva has emerged as one of the most interesting artistes to come into leftfield-pop focus over the last 12 months. 'Cabaret Cixous' is her debut album, a coruscating water-bed of mottled '90s dance-pop memes writhing under blankets of slyly sexy new age synths while her dreamy vocals whisper and croon seductively suggestive lyrics. It's not quite aural soft porn, but there's an inescapably lascivious element to …
Radian lines
Wet Hair heads Shawn Reed and Ryan Garbes have been jamming sideways strains of long-lensed electricity music for years now, but their trajectories as visual artists arc back even farther. So after a small infinity of J-cards and zines and LP sleeves designs, it’s a real pleasure to finally be able to present a preferential suite of some of their finest (and, till now, unseen) compositions in a glossy, full-color, pro-printed 22-panel art volume, bookended by a brand new black vinyl 33 RPM singl…
Psychic Reality/ LA Vampires
Restocked, few available "The first side of this fun split LP is from San Francisco's Leyna Noel, aka Psychic Reality, whose grit-spewing no-fi electronics and spluttering drum machine ditties accompany weird and heavily distorted songs. Noel may be somewhat out of tune and fairly primitive with her arrangements (to say the least) but there's something massively enjoyable about her unusual brand of wailing pop psychosis. LA Vampires on the other hand, is a new project from Pocahaunted's Amanda B…
Scales
*Orange Vinyl* Like a would-be soundtrack to some forgotten Wagnerian saga, Mythical Beast's debut full-length unleashes sonic elements akin to trudging minions in an epic struggle for tonal supremacy. This bloodless battle is for hearts and minds though, and is shot through with majesty and pathos. It's no wonder that a trio commanding this type of simple yet nuanced compositional energy would risk life and limb crossing the New Orleans "security" perimeter one month post-Katrina to rescue thei…
Ring Mining
Ring Mining unites a psychedelic dream team comprising Brooklynites Heavy Winged and Portland's Inca Ore. On the first side its down to the epic fudge-filled grooves of Heavy Winged to dominate the horizon, blistering through their hallmark freeform avant-metal with an extra fathom or two of depth supplied by the wandering ambience of Inca Ore's toils. Flipping over, Ms. Ore takes to the mic - and it's as if Heavy Winged suddenly turn into a fully fledged rock combo with an actual lead singer. I…