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The story behind Dopesmoker, the final LP in the life of pioneering stoner sludge trio Sleep, is one of perseverance not usually associated with such dedicated grass aficionados. Intended to be the Cali band’s third record and first for major label London, the album took shape as a single 63-minute track entitled “Dopesmoker,” an ode to the joys of getting baked. After nearly two months of work, the band (guitarist Matt Pike, bassist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius) pronounced the opus…
Limited to 300 copies. Field recordings, sine waves, computer data, lloopp, electric guitar, tremolo pedal, condenser microphone, contact microphone, mixing board. Recorded and mixed: 2006-2009. Mastered by Valerio Tricoli. Photography by Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga. Package design by Pafsanias Ioannidis.' label info
Over the past 10 years 12k has established itself as a label on the forefront of minimalist music and has become home to some of the most important artists of the genre. It is label that time and time again has not been afraid to release debut albums from new artists, drawing on the new energy they interject into both the scene and the label.With the release of Blueprints, 12k presents 2 tracks each from 6 artists new to its roster and showcases some of the new sounds and influences that will ca…
The Southern Records Latitudes juggernaut thunders into town once more, this time driven by Kranky's very own Boduf Songs, aka Mat Sweet, who for the purposes of this release teams up with a couple of collaborators and strays slightly from his established sonic parameters, venturing into the realms of dark, cinematic drone for first piece ' Please Extract My Teeth With Your Rustiest Pliers (For Redemptive)', whose title is not only massively 'eww' inducing, but commits a grammatical felony at th…
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…
Volume 3 in the series of Sun City Girls singles, compilations, and rare tracks, consists of material recorded between the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Much of this collection reflects the Arabic guitar instrumental and acoustic pseudo-Asian vocal folk styles of the band from the period when they recorded relentlessly. The 14 cuts vary wildly in scope yet maintain a consistent listening experience throughout, bridging a wide gap between the band's second full-length LP Grotto of Miracles (T…
Recorded up and down the West Coast by JESSE JACKSON, CORYDON RONNAU, and JOHN WIESE and featuring appearances by YELLOW SWANS, PETER KOLOVOS (OPEN CITY) and PAUL COSTUROS (DEATH SENTENCE: PANDA!). Studio and live recordings with concrète witcery.
Some bands produce a CD every week; by now it seems 'normal' to have three year gaps in releasing records for Beequeen, which is a fresh antidote to the music business of more = more. For Beequeen, like good wine, things mature given more time. Whereas 'Sandancing' (2008) featured Olga Wallis a guest singer, on this new album she's a fully fledged bandmember, adding her beautiful voice to Beequeen's off beat songs. 'Port Out Starboard Home' features surreal dream-pop, but always with that unique…
3 amazing pieces for Percussion and Live Electronics by Chris Brown’s (b. 1953) whose music has evolved within the intersections of many different traditions and styles. Following early training as a classical pianist, he was influenced by studies of Indonesian, Indian, Afro-American, and Cuban musics, and then took off on branches provided by the American Experimentalists in inventing and building a personal electronic instrumentation. Collaboration and improvisation have been primary in …
"Don't look back," repeats one of several voices within Mark Van Hoen's The Revenant Diary, his fifth solo album and first release on Editions Mego. Surrounded by weighted beats, analog synthesizer drones and granular dirt, the unidentified, siren-like female voice's advice is as much seduction as warning. Tellingly so, for as well as being both Van Hoen's most ambitious and his most accessible work, The Revenant Diary is an eloquent meditation on the allures and dangers of memory, regret …
Originally released on Polydor in 1968. During this year, The Chris McGregor Group were riding high on the London jazz scene, playing and hanging out with all the rising stars of British free jazz. Very Urgent, their eagerly-awaited debut recording, was a joyful call of intent. The album mixes simple but utterly unstoppable tunes and exhilarating horn charts -- immediately establishing a vitality and exuberance that would continue to define the group. Nevertheless, their evident preference f…
The soundtrack for the movie Blue (directed by Hiroshi Ando and starring Mikako Ichikawa, winner of Best Actress at the 2002 Moscow International Film Festival), which was based on acclaimed comic artist Kiriko Nananan's comic book of the same title, was composed by internationally renowned musician Yoshihide Otomo known for his borderless sonic creations. Utilizing the basic musical material used in the film and the same musicians, Otomo did additional studio recordings to create another sonic …
Since her Sacred Bones debut last summer, ZOLA JESUS' profile has risen exponentially. Her next full length isn't due 'til 2011, but we feel pretty certain this will tide you over until then. Recording her vocals for the first time with professional instruments, Nika's voice is brought to the powerful forefront of the mix, unleashing emotions that previous work only hinted at. It's a siren song for the apocalypse! Industrial progress is a good analogy for the changes that occur through each cons…
Crazy about the sound: the composer as a medium fHis bizarre way of composing earned Giacinto Scelsi not only fame and respect; he was also mockingly accused of dilettantism. Scelsi regarded himself not as a composer in the traditional sense, i.e. one to combine form, rhythm, pitch and sound in an intelligent way and note the result down on paper, but as a tool. His music was created during periods of meditative contemplation recorded by him on tape, to be noted down only afterwards. Eastern rel…
Dan Warburton: subbass piano, Bwana remix & post-production. Al Margolis: post-post-production, passing traffic, kitchen noises. Mastered by Tom Hamilton. About the CD : 'To prepare for our concert at De Witte Zaal in Ghent, Belgium, on April 4th 2008 - a triple bill with Mecha Orga and Illusion of Safety organised by Esther Venrooy and Han van den Hoof - I took all the Al Margolis / If, Bwana CDs in my record collection, loaded them into the computer and timestretched each piece to last prec…
The title of Fern Knight’s 2006 release, Music for Witches and Alchemists, served simultaneously as a wonderfully apt description and an unambiguous product warning. If you prefer the mundane to the magical, move on: These are not the druids you’re looking for. Since then, the group has relocated to Arlington from Philadelphia, and while Fern Knight’s music evokes far-away times and places, it turns out the band fits in nicely with the D.C. area’s musical history—assuming you can stomach …
Sultan Hagavik is first Polish band (and probably the second one in the world) which performs music using tape decks. It was founded in July 2011 in Wroclaw, in circumstances hard to specify. The band utilizes recordings found on old cassettes, as well as their own material recorded with analogue dictaphone. Using tape decks as musical instruments allows duo members to create completely new sonic quality. In their sur-conventional compositions they refer to many musical genres; from pop to punct…
To paraphrase online reports: Svarte Greiner's Erik Skodvin comes riding from the dark, epic wastes of Scandinavialand, quaffing wyrmblood out of a hellmug and pronouncing mad soliloquies of doom. This kind of marketing creates strange dissonances with the music on Kappe. Sure, it's gloomy and foreboding. But it's also strident and glacially paced; it sounds more like a depressed La Monte Young than an heir of metal ancestry. At the same time, it strongly evokes the modulating bass o…
Fledg'ling's 2004 reissue of one of the highest-regarded British folk-rock albums, featuring Sandy Denny. Originally issued by Island in 1970 (previous Hannibal CD long o/p). With additional artwork and bonus tracks. Fotheringay's beautiful debut album was recorded in 1970, and has long been regarded as one of the greatest achievements of British folk-rock. Sandy Denny, Trevor Lucas, Jerry Donahue, Pat Donaldson and Gerry Conway created a magical ensemble sound and one of the finest albums of…
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…