New Arrivals
Outdoor Spell
Rhys Chatham has trail-blazed a course through late 20th century music, equally aplomb in post-minimalist composition as he is in punk. Not since Roebling laid his span across the East River has there been an artist who builds bridges in both how we hear music and how we can appreciate art. His latest album, Outdoor Spell, is a further document in that direction. Here has has eschewed 100 guitars, or even himself playing a single guitar, for the trumpet and voice, both electrified and dry. It is…
In Celebration Of Knowing All The Blues Of The Evening
Phantom Limb & Earth’s Hypnagogia is the project of Jaime Fennelly (of Peeesseye, Evolving Ear Records) and Shawn Hansen (who also has releases on Evolving Ear). The two join their forces here for an epic ride through the volatile moments of twilight. A synaesthetic kind of excursion, inspired by the deepening shades of light and dramatically rendered through the warm, swelling tones of Farfisa organ and analog synthesizer. In Celebration... in all its moody and cinematic drive could be the quin…
Middle Eastern Rock
An inspired fusion of Middle Eastern rhythms and psychedelia resulted in this the gorgeous album by accomplished oud player John Berberian and his troop of skilled musicians. First released on Verve/Forecast in 1969 this exotic album features music based on traditional themes from Turkey, Armenia, Greece, Arabia and North Africa blended with the terrific improvised energy of psychedelia. So what you end up with here is bustling bazaars and scorched sands passed through the prism of the lysergic …
Razoj
the new creature by M.Gabola (A Spirale, Aspec(t), ASp/SEC_, Strongly Imploded) and Stefano Ferrian (psychofagist, Udus, FFATSO, de-noize). Razoj moves to the limits (ExtremeMetal/Elettroacustica/Free Jazz/PowerNoise, see the individual experience of the two musician); reduce the reality and generate the unthought, the chaos;
Goner
2009 release. Portland, OR. bedroom wanderer Ilyas Ahmed emerges from the shadows and offers up his first new batch of songs in some time. Over a year in the making, Goner sees Ahmed telescoping his previous acoustic wanderings into fuzzed out rockers and a hypnotic set of beautifully tight knit nocturnes. The kick off of 'Earn Your Blood' is probably the most amped up and stoned out Ahmed has ever sounded, a heavy blown out thump of hiss & electric strum. From their Goner really gets los…
Camber Sands Sunday
Recorded live at Camber Sands Holiday Park, England on May 14, 2006. Featuring RICHARD YOUNGS (bass guitar) & ALEX NEILSON (drums)"At this 2006 concert, we have Jandek with a sympathetic rhythm section, and like a rhythm section that would back, say, a Lightnin’ Hopkins or a John Lee Hooker, they adapt themselves to the artist’s flow and provide a kind of pillowy environment or canvas on which he can do his thing. To give you an analogy from the free jazz world, some of the recent Jandek p…
Guts
Deluxe 2LP version. More voraciously bestial soundwork coming from Daniel Menche -- this time, his chosen theme is the piano, in which he attacks, investigates and dissects with the precision of an autopsy surgeon, adding a whole new meaning to the concept of prepared piano, or should we say, unprepared piano, for an all-out assault. Guts lays out quite possibly some of the finest slabs of Menchian sonic mayhem to date. Slightly different track sequence over CD and vinyl formats due to ti…
We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
In May 2011, Foxygen's Sam France and Jonathan Rado nervously handed off a CD-R of their homemade mini-opus Take the Kids Off Broadway to producer and visionary Richard Swift after his performance in a Lower East Side club. The duo, who had just mixed and burned the disc that very night, had been devotees of Swift's outsider-pop oeuvre since high school, when they first began recording their own pubescent forays into oddball rock n' roll (At least a dozen records were finished before they …
New Egypt
"This latest in the ever-popular Latitudes series comes from Drag City avant-folkists White Magic, who have turned in a single ten-minute piece based on Eastern harmonies, delay loops and a tranced out approach to jamming that verges on Sunburned Hand Of The Man territory. For the vast majority of its duration 'New Egypt' relies upon a central three-note piano riff, which soon accumulates layer after layer of various other instrumental sources while seemingly improvised lyrics haunt the song thr…
Rythmes d'etain
This CD represents the end of his trilogy, but certainly not the end of his adventure into Sound. Concerning this new opus, he says: I was going for a raw sound, close to the actual sounds made by the instruments and sources, with minimal dressing-up. The organ's sub-bass frequencies include extremely low frequencies.His range of instruments: Church organ, tympanies, bass drum, large drum, tubular idiophones, toms, cymbals, hi-hat, voices (sped-up, slowed-down, texts in Latin) + stokes and…
Rozenhall
A re-mastering and repackaging of two previously released LP’s (2001 & 2003), this CD is a collection of 5 quite different pieces. All are mixed-moving-surrounding sounds and natural and manipulated noise - some can be considered as drone though they aren’t at all. No name for Rozenhall’s style. Very intense. As the CD liner notes say, “Play loud!”. Trk 1: “A Plumage…” - Early 60’s satellite type mixed sounds going round and round the Earth, then they come at you. Grabs your ears with claws. Sho…
Lo-lee-ta
Vladimir Nabokov: the master of "chamber music in prose" (literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki) and composer of crackling word sonatas. Franz Koglmann: a commuter between jazz/avant-garde and literature, and writer of intimate sound novellas. It was only a matter of time before Koglmann would create "Music on Nabokov," and transform literary motifs and characters into music. Together with his Monoblue Quartet (Tony Coe, clarinet/saxophone, Ed Renshaw, guitar, Peter Herbert, bass) the trumpeter K…
Omni
Kato Hideki (electric bass with prime number tuning, bass synthesizer). Tetuzi Akiyama (prepared electric guitar, electronics). Toshimaru Nakamura (mixer, headphones, electric guitar). Recorded live by Kato Hideki at SuperDeluxe in Tokyo on November 25, 2008. Concert organized by Noda Shigenori Callithump). Live sound engineering by Noribumi Uchida (SuperDeluxe). Mixed and mastered by Kato Hideki at Shadow World Studio in Brooklyn, NY in 2009. 'Time is an essential subject in music. Conventional…
Experimentum Mundi
CD reissue of the ultra rare Multhipla related (on its sublabel Fonia) LP from 1981 - the works of Giorgio Battistelli (b. 1953) are often linked to the theater, and even his instrumental works are highly dramatic, with various instruments and elements considered as 'characters' in a drama. For the past 20 years, 'Experimentum Mundi' has been one of the most-performed works of 'musique concrete,' i.e. music made with everyday objects instead of conventional instruments. In this work, 16 everyday…
Burnt Offerings
The Preservation label presents Burnt Offerings, the fourth album from Brooklyn's Padna. As Padna, Nat Hawks initially made his name in the cassette underground on the revered Stunned label with two works of pop experimentalism displaying a bustling -- often boggling -- and vivid imagination. Veritable joyrides in sound and style, these releases were in line with the DIY aesthetic, primitive songcraft and eclectic sonic stew pioneered by the likes of Tall Dwarfs and forwarded by Olivia Tremo…
Rewound groves
Krampus used to be busy with St. Nicholas during December. But soon after St. Nicholas began to wear shiny red and white costume, he was no longer needed.He took long time to figure out why it happened, why he was abandoned. On the other hand, he could spend more time playing with old fellows in the mountains, and noticed what is most pleasant in his life.This album is released on 5th December - the day of Krampus. This edition is limited to 123 copies, wrapped in fur pocket (brunet or blond) an…
My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky
After a fourteen year absence, Michael Gira resurrects his legendary apocalyptic no-wave band for a fabulous new album on his own Young God imprint. Assembling a cast of musicians that includes familiar Swans and Angels Of Light conspirators, Gira also welcomes a few new members to the fold with guest stars including Devendra Banhart, Mercury Rev's Grasshopper, Bill Rieflin (of Ministry, REM and Robyn Hitchcock's band), Shearwater multi-instrumentalist Thor Harris and even Gira's three-and-a-hal…
Reflectors
The Preservation label presents the second album from New York's Nickolas Mohanna. Also working as a visual artist, Nickolas draws unique forms from the wealth of sounds found in New York's complex sprawl and imbues them with feeling and subtlety. The sounds on Reflectors buzz with rich detail and rhythmic interplay for a work alive with beauty and mystery in its atmospheric reach. Previously living in San Francisco for a number of years, Nickolas studied with noted electronic composer Bob…
In light
Four years after the release of their debut album Outflow, Japan’s Small Color, a duo comprised of Rie Yoshihara (aka Trico!) (accordion, voice, vintage keyboard instruments) and Yusuke Onishi (guitar, banjo, bass, programming and production) are back with the beautifully polished In Light. This album marks what some may consider a departure for 12k: sublime and gentle, minimal, acoustic J-pop, which once may have been destined for the now-defunct Happy label, but can now sit comfortably beside …
Tetralogy (1978-1982)
'A 2-CD set containing four very different settings all featuring Paul Rutherford (trombone & euphonium): two festival solos - one with electronics and the other without; a festival brass quartet with George Lewis (trombone), Martin Mayes (french horn) & Melvyn Poore (tuba); and a studio trio with Paul Rogers (double bass) & Nigel Morris (drum set). The electronically enhanced solo and the brass quartet are unlike anything else in Rutherford's discography. All previously unissued.'