New Arrivals
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…
Absent Coast
Another sublime drone album from the unshakably good Root Strata camp, En's The Absent Coast is a real upper tier ambient release. Distinguished by its depth and effortless musicality, this album is one for genre fans to really savour. After the sandblasting noise/tonal onslaught of 'A Dying Sun/Return To Holyoke', the album calibrates itself to a stately simmer that comes to life during the quite sublime 'Honeysuckle Heart', which combines glassy sustains with crackl…
Echohaus
LP version. “This latest project by the Hamburg-based musician, composer, and futurist, Felix Kubin, (his second release on Dekorder) is a collaboration with the contemporary music chamber group, ensemble Intégrales, and the reknowned German underground pop producer and sound engineer, Tobias Levin. Echohaus was recorded in and around Levin’s Electric Avenue studio in the basement of Westwerk, a former squat and cultural centre for non-commercial art and music in Hamburg. A special recording tec…
Sensacao Do Principio
Sensacao Do Principio is the third release proper from Tropa Macaca and their first with an American label. Their previous efforts on Ruby Red and Qbico were magnificent (though hard to find) efforts of blotted, aural sci-fi codifications somewhere between Anar Band and Blues Control. The two-track full-length continues their foray into post-psychedelic instrumental morphine, where Moolah's LP and Pink Floyd's "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with …
Don't Ollie On Thin Ice!
Hand-numbered edition of only 100 copies LP from Belgian visual artist Dennis Tyfus’s Vom Grill project: two tracks of non-spazz electronics, keyboard and profoundly deformed tongue, moving from scraping, skittering sound werks that come over like Blood Stereo play John Cage’s cartridge music to a fantastic fat, doomy synth solo that makes like Heldon hymning Lucifer. Less madman and a lot more moody than you might expect, this makes for a consistently bent atmosphere from start to finish.…
Weighted Ghost
It's no secret that Aaron Dilloway is one of the best around. Opening with some seriously demented synth growl, Weighted Ghost gets down to business in no time at all. Stoically repetitive sequences build and build until the pressure in your skull reaches the breaking point. Dilloway pushes past the point of no return, scowling all the way until each layer is sufficiently soaked in dirt and brine. This isn't pretty and it isn't meant to be. The flipside fakes you out in the beginning,…
Pyramid of the moon
When Maserati first began performing new songs for their next album, the one that immediately stood out with audiences was “Pyramid of the Sun,” a chugging behemoth driven, as usual, by one of the best rhythm sections in underground rock. It was an instant fan favorite and quickly cemented itself as an institutional song that would surely show up in the set list virtually every night for years to come. Unbeknownst to fans, there was an alternate version of the song that took the head-nod…
The Cry!
Exact repro, originally released in 1962, a spiritual jazz masterpiece. "In the early '60s, flutist Prince Lasha's work with alto saxophonist Sonny Simmons was often compared to the trailblazing free jazz that Ornette Coleman was exploring at the time....Free jazz performances like 'Bojangles,' 'A.Y.,' and the rhythmic 'Congo Call' are abstract, cerebral, and left-of-center, but they're still a bit more accessible than Coleman's harmolodic experimentation.
Ex Patris
The title Ex Patris (from the fathers) plays on the idiomatic baroque lute compositions presented here which emulate the classical repertoire. It also refers to this almost forgotten instrument, which was passed on by the fathers. The aim is to bring back and liberate the lute. The four compositions on Ex Patris form a circular narrative of interlocking repetitive melodic series. The follow up to Important release “ It is all that is made” kicks off with the pro apocalyptic track “The Day is Com…
Lunes
Second album by Texas psych duo CALEB COY (guitar) & ETHAN COOK (organ), written in the desert, yet recorded during an endless NYC winter. A cold, expansive sound made ripe for these turbulent times: it's drone rooted deep in the American tradition. RIYL: Earth, Growing, Brightblack Morning Light.
Puech Gourdon Bremaud
Mindblowing totally acoustic drone record, musicians are Jacques Puech (cabrette), Yann Gourdon (hurdy-gurdy) and Basile Bremaud (violin). This totally acoustic set is a variation around two bourrées in triple time, both themes are taken out of the tradionnal Mont d'Auvergne repertoire. Hand made, spray painted cover
Endless Falls
Endless Falls is the fifth full length release by Scott Morgan under the loscil moniker. The album begins and ends with the sound of rain recorded by Scott in his back yard, precipitation being a constant presence in his home city of Vancouver. Many of the other sounds on the album are derived from these same recordings, processed and combined with other harmonic sounds to create the textures and drones. Something completely new to this release would be vocals, of a sort, a first for any loscil …
The Remixes Part 1
Limited to 455 transparent vinyl copies, including remixes from Vatican Shadow, Roly Porter and Kangding Ray* Violetshaped is a collaboration between the enigmatic Violet Poison and Berlin-based artist Shapednoise. "Violetshaped Remixes Part 1" is the first of a remixes series divided into several parts. This first instalment features remixes from Roly Porter (formerly of Vex'd) following on from his acclaimed debut album for the Subtext label, Vatican Shadow - aka Dominick Fernow, owner …
Le viandier de taillevent
for almost 10 years, the québécois collective napalm jazz gets its hands dirty with its unorthodox approaches to improv.' 'mostly activ as a duo with erick d'orion and philémon they like to get different guests like for example a_dontigny, arnaud rivière, erikm or erik minkkinen. limited to 181 copies and coproduced with notype from montréal." (label info)
The african twintowers suite
LP version, The African Twintowers Suite" represents a lost soundtrack; compiling the most interesting recordings, newly edited, layered, collaged, shortened and mixed between 2009 and 2010. Seminal German director Christoph Schlingensief (R.I.P. 2010) shoots his latest feature film "The African Twintowers" in Lüderitz-Namibia with Irm Hermann, Klaus Beyer, Robert Stadlober, Patti Smith... Autumn 2006: Schlingensief approaches Berlin musician-composer Hanno Leichtmann (Groupshow, Static, …
Piano Piano
Bureau B reissues Piano Piano by German keyboardist Hans-Joachim Roedelius, originally released in 1991 on the Italian label Materiali Sonori. In classical music, "pp" (piano piano = pianissimo) is a dynamic indication of particularly soft music. And Piano Piano is a very soft, quiet album. Roedelius assumes the role of a fairytale character with his piano music, transported to a strange, fantastical landscape where, filled with awe and amazement, he tries to get his bearings. What he see…
A Fire
23 minute piece of solo guitar wrangling by the avant blues elder statesman. Limited, hand-numbered edition of 350 housed in screen-printed wrap-around with insert in poly jacket** "Connors is an avant-garde legend, with more than 100 releases of his singular alien take on the blues. RIYL: Jack Rose, Michael Chapman, Jim O’Rourke, John Fahey. A Fire is a single-sided LP by master guitarist Loren Connors. Recorded live in Philadelphia in 2010, this 23 minute piece follows in the style and visual …
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…
More Moondog
2nd LP, originally released in 1956. Continues the NYC street performer's exploration of minimalist composition & field recording, mixing percussion & sparse melodies w/ piano solos, street sounds, & monologues. Surprisingly accessible despite it's avant-garde nature, bridging the gap between the familiar & the bizarre. Another all out masterwork from one of 20th century America's most unique minds.
Suite The Hen's Teeth
*Exquisite black and silver silk screen printed cover. Limited edition** Oh man, this match-up must be a dream come true for at least a handful of freaks, somewhere, us included! The tenth release on Jozef Van Wissem's Incunabulum imprint sees the label curator jamming with LAFMS legends, Smegma at the Pink House in Portland, 2010, infusing his 13-course swan neck baroque lute into their uncontainable free improvisations in eight parts. They appear to be entirely respectful of each others space,…