Bis Aufs Messer weekly news 01 October 2021
hi. Welcome to another newsletter. As usual a bunch of great records arrived. Fall is coming up … we got three fantastic re issues of the ICP label via Our Swimmer records like the DUDU PUKWANA / HAN BENNINK / MISHA MENGELBERG - Yi Yole LP and more, the new JERRY DAVID DECICCA - The Unlikely Optimist & His Domestic Adventures LP and restock of the ELI WINTER LP via Worried Songs along with fantastic WORRIED SONGS #1 Fanzine (incl. Yasmin Williams and Gwenifer Raymond, Eli Winter and more on 88 pages in A4) and a beautiful TOTE BAG, also the new MATT SWEENEY & BONNIE PRINCE BILLY - superwolves LP on DRAG CITY arrived, NEON CHRIST - 1984 LP re issue, a bunch of Phantom records releases incl. Pisse restocks, the RUTH MASCELLI - A Night At The Baths LP, the new RAZEN LP (!!), LUKE SLATER - Dialogue (With Anthony Child, KMRU, Lady Starlight, Speedy J & Tom Moth) DLP, MASSAGE - Still Life LP, DUSTER - 1975 LP (!!) BRANNTEN SCHNÜRE - Muschelsammlung LP, THE BODY / BIG BRAVE - Leaving None But Small Birds LP, CLARA ROCKMORE repress and more
Also lots of restock by Low (also a few colored Hey What Lps) , Godspeed, Amyl & the Sniffers, Emma Ruth Rundle / Thou, KMRU - Logue LP, Sofa DLP, Ursula Bogner, Andrew Peckler, Pharmakon and much more …
We also received the test press for the upcoming LIIEK LP .. so keep an eye out for pre orders starting soon
Thank you for your support in those difficult times
We are also back on the store MONDAY TIL FRIDAY from 11 °° - 19°° and SATURDAY from 11°° - 18°°
Norman & Robert
mailorder@bisaufmesser.com
www.adagio830-records.bandcamp.com
LP
ADRIAN YOUNGE & ALI SHAHEED MUHAMMAD - Jazz Is Dead 9 DLP (jazz is dead - Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge are best known for their collaborations with vocalists and MCs, but these two multi-instrumentalists and producers excel in their ability to conjure musical moods with or without vocal accompaniment. Similarly, the musical legends that these two handpicked to collaborate with across this series are all jazz legends equally at home crafting unadorned compositions as they are collaborating with vocalists. This 2LP collection presents exclusive instrumental versions of songs originally released on the Jazz Is Dead albums; Roy Ayers JID002, Marcos Valle JID003, Gary Bartz JID006, and João Donato JID007.) 36.00
THE BODY / BIG BRAVE - Leaving None But Small Birds LP (thrill jockey - The Body and BIG|BRAVE are bands possessed of an unequaled ability to convey overwhelming weight with simplicity, repetition, and detailed sonic atmospheres; artists who continue to alter the definition of what it means to be a heavy band. The Body are consistently prolific while increasingly ambitious as untethered producers and collaborators. BIG|BRAVE shape sound with dense waves of guitar and feedback, minimalist and hypnotic crashes, and emotionally exacting vocal melodies. In collaboration, The Body and BIG|BRAVE shift the gravity of their compositions to woven layers of percussion and unspooling guitars that sprawl through stark frameworks of earthy folk. Their debut collaborative album Leaving None But Small Birds distills the two ensembles’ pioneering approach to heavy music into psalms for the forgotten, threnodies of lost love, and odes to vengeance. BLUE TRANSPARENT) 27.00
BRANNTEN SCHNÜRE - Muschelsammlung LP (* Edition of 300, silk-screened cover * Vinyl reissue (originally released by Vrystaete in 2017) with silkscreened cover and inserts, available in 5 different colour editions. When Brannten Schnüre initially released their second vinyl record four years ago on Dutch label Vrystaete in a micro-edition of 150 copies the Franconian duo’s music was still considered a hidden gem. In the years since they built up a solid international underground following and with that attention grew the demand for a re-release of the long sold-out and sought after “Muschelsammlung”. The new established label Milder Wahn (a sublabel of Youdonthavetocallitmusic) will offer a 2nd pressing of the album in an edition of 300 copies with a brand-new silkscreened cover artwork and two silkscreened inserts, available in 5 differently coloured versions. Brannten Schnüre is an experimental dark folk group out of Würzburg, Germany. Christian Schoppik composes and plays all the music and Katie Rich whispers, recites, and sings. Together they make astoundingly beautiful folk with rich instrumentation leaning toward the atonal spectrum. inspired by the likes of Nico, Novy Svet and David Jackman the duo create dreamy soundscapes with traditional instruments, looped obscure recordings (including crackles) and eerie vocals… sometimes song based but often more drone or collage like… with their music they pour a surreal world out over you…) 30.00
CLARA ROCKMORE - Theremin LP (fantome - Lithuanian-born violin prodigy Clara Rockmore became the best-known master of the electronic theremin after emigrating to the USA, her uncommon approach enabling its integration in the classical milieu even as she refined its construction. This landmark debut surfaced in 1977, when she was already 66; produced by synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog and featuring her sister Nadia on accompanying piano, Theremin (aka The Art Of The Theremin) showed all the majesty and grace of Rockmore’s approach to the theremin, her classical grounding and virtuosity enabling an emotive response from the instrument, with uncommon nuances of pitch, tone, and cadence. This one-off masterpiece is a musical gem ripe for rediscovery, a must for all fans of the theremin and anyone interested in the nexus of the classical and electronic forms.) 25.00
DIE FORM - Ad Infinitum (Limited Casebound Book) DLP (mechanic - Limited edition of 474 numbered copies on double vinyl with a deluxe 16-page casebound hardcover book featuring unpublished images as well as other reworked photographs taken from “The Visionary Garden”. Every copy includes a certificate and one sticker. Die Form is the seminal post-industrial electronic act started in the late 70’s by French musician and multimedia artist Philippe Fichot. He began recording a number of experimental cassettes under different names but Die Form became the main project and with which he has developed a prolific career during more than four decades. Whilst the project was still in its first stage, the underlying concepts were already evident: a combination of esoteric electronic experiments with an underlying theme of eroticism, death and other taboo subjects, apparent in both the music and artworks. “Ad Infinitum” was recorded with dark and stifling atmospheres almost simultaneously with the album “Confessions”. It includes cult pieces such as “Bite of God” and “Chronovision”, which has made the success of Die Form in clubs, alongside more ambient and industrial tracks such as “In the Evening of Life” or “Unlimited”. “Ad Infnitum” was originally released on CD in 1993 by Hyperium Records and is now being made available FOR THE FIRST TIME on [Double] Vinyl. This new edition not only includes the complete original tracklist, but also a selection of [8] instrumental versions and unreleased tracks from the same period. ) 65.00
DUDU PUKWANA / HAN BENNINK / MISHA MENGELBERG - Yi Yole LP (our swimmer - Recorded at the ICP Jubileum, a festival in Uithoorn, Holland, in 1978, Yi Yole brings together the core of the Instant Composers Pool – pianist Misha Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink – with legendary South African alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana. Longtime member of the Blue Notes, Pukwana was a beloved figure in European free music after he left South Africa in the mid-sixties and settled in London. There he worked with all of the leading lights of free improvised music, recording extensively with the Brotherhood of Breath and eventually releasing LPs under his own leadership before his untimely passing in 1990 at the age of 51. What the three tracks on Yi Yole make clear is how surprisingly well the Dutch and South African sensibilities fit together, an overall relaxed vibe leading to unforeseen directions in the music. Han Bennink ranges far beyond his drum kit and its metallic add-ons, playing trombone, clarinet, and viola; his collage design for the record, as with all ICP productions, is brilliant and perfectly matched to the music. This is the only time these three prime movers of free music would record as a trio, hitting just at the moment when the Instant Composers Pool was gaining momentum and South African jazz was growing in international stature. Released on ICP, Mengelberg/Bennink’s self-produced label, Yi Yole saw limited distribution and attention in its time, but it remains an absolute classic of improvised music, presented here in all its glory with Bennink’s design, remastered from original tapes, the box of which is reproduced on the interior spread, replete with never-seen hand notations. ) 24.00
DUSTER - 1975 LP (numero - Y2K prepper-rock for the underemployed. Tracked at home in 1999, the 1975 EP expands on Stratosphere’s slacker-positive dreamscape, with layers of guitars both clean and fuzzy, humming organ, and—gasp!—a drum machine. Needle down, candles on.) 26.00
ELI WINTER - The Time To Come LP (worried songs -‘The Time To Come’ is the first release from Worried Songs and the striking debut from twenty-one-year-old, Texan (now residing in Chicago), Eli Winter, noted as one of the Guardian’s ‘artists to watch in 2020’. These masterfully composed instrumental pieces for six-string, twelve-string, and electric solo guitar showcase the raw talent of this young guitar powerhouse. In ‘The Time To Come’, Winter remembers the dead, considers the dynamic nature of memory, and attempts to chronicle the nearly inexpressible difficulty of processing loss. Winter began recording sessions in Houston immediately after Hurricane Harvey, and this album's turbulent emotional landscape is in some ways a response to the devastation of the storm. The record revolves around its title track, a meditation on the passing of a close friend. In the days after her death, Winter wrote a long piece for guitar in which every part would feel essential. “I wanted to conjure her through the music,” Winter says. "This song is the closest thing I have to a memory of her.” He calls it aspirational: “How can you maintain hope in the face of grief?” ) 25.00
FIX - More Is More LP (phantom - Der Headliner für‘s nächste post-Pandemische Hausfest im hippen Leipziger Osten: 15 z.T. neuarrangierte Tracks des dezidiert deutsch-jüdischen Hardcore-Vorhabens, bestehend aus tollen Typen, zwei-sprachig, US-gemastert. Eine 7“ ist schon im Orbit. Jetzt wird natürlich nachgelegt. Semi-wütende Grundstimmung (Top-Themen: Sinnhaftigkeit von Dingen), bestenfalls jedoch just plain and catchy HC-Punk mit bekannten Szene-typischen Redundanzen! Die Cow Bell– / Surf–Einlagen fallen da schon aus dem Rahmen. Anyway, für Fans von „Dean Dirg“ im Alter, dem leichter „Urin“-Geruch anhaftet jedoch ein absoluter Fachgriff. Hier gibt‘s nix zu verlieren (anders als in der Spielo)! Das Ricaletto–Cover zeigt übrigens Hallenser Fachangestellte bei der Nutria–Tafelspitz-Herstellung (Hanoier Anhöhe im Hintergrund).) 17.00
ICP TENTET - Tetterettet LP (our swimmer - Recorded in 1977, the Instant Composers Pool’s Tetterettet is the first classic of the band’s larger incarnations. Assembled out of elements recorded live in Uithoorn, Utrecht, and the band’s home base of Amsterdam, with Misha Mengelberg using a cut-and-paste collage method akin to Teo Macero’swork with Miles Davis, the record features an all star lineup that added three leading lights of free music: bassist Alan Silva and saxophonists John Tchicai and Peter Brötzmann. In this period, Brötzmann made the long train trip from Wuppertal, Germany, to A’dam on a weekly basis to rehearse with ICP, bassist Silva coming in from Paris. Well known for his work in pioneer creative music ensembles such as the New York Art Quartet and the New York Contemporary Five and on John Coltrane’s Ascention, Tchicai was the Paul Desmond of free jazz, with a softer, more subtle phraseology than many of his peers. These international figures joined pianist Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink – whose ICP co-founder Willem Breuker had broken off to form what would be come his long-time working band, the Kollektief – and their outrageous, hyper-inventive big band. Michel Waiswicz, who invented the crackle box, a user-friendly, portable electronic instrument, is a defining presence on Mengelberg’s multipart “Tetterettet,” and along with the heavyweight outta towners the band includes composer, oboist, and saxophonist Gilius Van Bergeyk, whose sequence of compositions nestle perfectly into Misha’s, Han’s gifted brother Peter Bennink on saxes, trombonist Bert Koppelaar, and cellist Tristan Honsinger, who has continued to work with the ensemble even after Misha’s death in 2017. One of the landmark records of Mengelberg tunes, with classics like “Rumboon” and “Alexander’s Marschbefehel,” Tetterettet presents a program full of musical surprises, intelligence, and ICP’s own brand of uproarious humor. A shaggy masterpiece. ) 24.00
INSTANT COMPOSERS POOL - Groupcomposing LP (our swimmer - Comprised of a one-time international free music supergroup, originally released as the sixth production on pianist Misha Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink's ICP label, Groupcomposing has been largely absent from the history books. This is the case because the record has been so unavailable,certainly not as a comment on the magnitude and magnificence of the music. With its Bennink cover – take that Andy Warhol! – and its two side-long tracks, it is an improvised music aficionado's treasure. Mengelberg and Bennink are joined by Bennink's brother, Peter Bennink, on alto saxophone and bagpipes (!), with an incredible reed section of Evan Parker and Peter Brötzmann, Paul Rutherford on trombone, and Derek Bailey on guitar. Moving from peaks of intensity to droning deescalation, totally improvised live in concert in 1970, Groupcomposing should be heard in the company of related records like Brötzmann's Machine Gun and Nipples, the early London Jazz Composer's Orchestra and Globe Unity Orchestra, and Manfred Schoof's European Echoes.) 24.00
ISOLATIONSGEMEINSCHAFT - s/t LP (phantom - Berlin-based Synth / Postpunk / EBM duo. Peeps of Hyäne, Cold Leather,… "Was hab ich dieses Tape in der Küche kaputt gehört?! Neosynthwave, 80iger, Gruftipop, was weiß ich! Aber g.a.n.z. weit vorne! Gibt noch zwei andere Bands auf Phantom, die so schnell im Presswerk waren - beide ebenfalls spontanverliebt. Hammer Platte und merkt Euch: nach dem Lockdown ist vor dem Lockdown!“) 17.00
JERRY DAVID DECICCA - The Unlikely Optimist & His Domestic Adventures LP (worried songs -
As soon as we heard the opening line of the near-11 minute cosmic-country road epic, ‘West Texas Trilogy’, “I can smell gasoline and tacos….” we knew we had to release this one…Jerry David DeCicca's fourth solo album, ‘The Unlikely Optimist and His Domestic Adventures’, is an anti-Hallmark ode to positivity set in the Texas Hill Country where he lives. Dark gray in one corner, silly in another, humorous but always human, it features Augie Meyers (Sir Douglas Quintet) on Vox Continental & squeezebox, Ralph White (Bad Livers) on violin and kalimaba, Frank 'The Wild Jalapeno' Rodarte (Doug Sahm) on tenor sax, and JDD's buddies, electric guitarist Don Cento (Sarah Jaffee), bassist Canaan Faulkner (Black Swans, Will Beeley), drummer Jovan Karcic (Scrawl), and his partner, Eve Searls, on backing and duet vocals. Some of the songs: “I See Horizons” is a mediation that peaks over the next ledge; “Coffee Black” is a wake-up call to mellowing out; “Texas Toad” finds joy in the little creatures among us; “West Texas Trilogy” is a road song that trances and traces poverty, nature, memory & music along the border to Big Bend; “Quiet Life” just sits on the front porch.) 25.00
LUKE SLATER - Dialogue (With Anthony Child, KMRU, Lady Starlight, Speedy J & Tom Moth) DLP (a-ton - DIALOGUE was conceived as a series of musical letters written back and forth between Luke Slater, Anthony Child (aka Surgeon), KMRU, Lady Starlight, Speedy J and harpist Tom Moth (of Florence + the Machine) at the height of the pandemic between 2020 and early 2021. Using the common language of rhythmic ambient electronics, each DIALOGUE features three actors in a sonic conversation of longform improvisation between 15 and 25 minutes in length, with Luke Slater the common denominator. The results are a brooding, psychedelic exchange of melody, texture, bass, oscillation, key changes and volume swells, which organically merge into complete compositions. It’s music that both reflects and transcends the artists' common reality of isolation – a meditative, consciousness-expanding conversion of musical ideas born from necessity. Cosmic but not escapist. And very much of its time.) 26.00
MARJA AHTI – Still Lives LP (students of decay - “Still Lives” is the third solo full length by the Finnish composer Marja Ahti, following a pair of releases on the Hallow Ground imprint. As a collection, it may be seen as a series of studies on the liminality of the listening act and an investigation into the physicality of sound. Ahti forges vivid electroacoustic environments from field recordings, analog synthesizers, acoustic feedback, magnetic tape and digital processing, resulting in a set of articulate, prickly, and surprising compositions. In the artist’s words, “These pieces could be conceived of as vanitas paintings of a kind – selections of mundane or archetypal objects, sounds that have their own distinct qualities, but exist only by virtue of being temporary events. From another angle, one could think of them as shrines – objects assembled and set in a particular relationship to each other, charging each other in their given constellations.” Marja Ahti (b. 1981) is a musician and composer based in Turku, Finland. Originally from Sweden, Ahti has been a part of the Finnish experimental music scene for more than ten years in different constellations. She is currently active in the duo Ahti & Ahti with her partner and as a member of the Himera artist/organizer collective.) 22.00
MASSAGE - Still Life LP (The kind of music Massage makes — sunny, bittersweet, tender — is less a proper genre than a minor zip code nested within guitar pop. Take a little "There She Goes" by the La's, some "If You Need Someone" by the Field Mice; the honey-drizzled guitars from The Cure's "Friday I'm In Love", a Jesus & Mary Chain backbeat, and you're almost all the way there. Indie pop, jangle pop, power pop—whatever you call it, pushing too hard scares the spirit right out of this sweet, diffident music, and Massage have a touch so light the songs seem to form spontaneously, like wry smiles. Still, on their sophomore effort, Still Life, they manage to take a quantum leap forward in songwriting, production, and depth, all somehow without seeming to try. These 12 deft songs are full of late-summer sunlight and deep shadows, pained grins and shared jokes, shy declarations of love and quietly nursed heartbreak. Still Life resurrects a brief, romantic moment in the late-'80s, right after post-punk and immediately before alt-rock, when it seemed like any scrappy indie band might stumble across a hit. While the songs on Oh Boy were often written on the spot, in practice rooms, Still Life was more deliberate. Romano, Naidus, and Ferrer split the songwriting duties, sending each other demos by email, an arrangement that grew permanent when quarantine hit. The songs brought out competition, even if Romano teases Naidus for denying it. "I own it. I love it," he says. "When Alex sent me 'Made of Moods,' I was blown away. I thought it was the best thing he'd ever written. I got jealous, so I immediately wrote 'In Gray & Blue.’" ) 27.00
MATT SWEENEY & BONNIE PRINCE BILLY - superwolves LP (Drag City - US PRESS - Matt Sweeney & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy have reawakened their 2005 project 'Superwolf' under the name ‘Superwolves’. Matt Sweeny, known as leader of US band Chavez, wrote guitar parts and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, AKA Will Oldham, wrote lyrics. The pair then met up to craft the songs. ‘Superwolves’ is a more uptempo affair than its predecessor with inspiration being taken from the world of African rock music.) 28.00
MYRKUR - Mareridt LP (relapse - black & silver - Mareridt is the title of the new, hotly anticipated second album from Danish multi-instrumentalist and composer MYRKUR. Richly gothic folk and feminine Metal merge on an album whose title translates back as 'Nightmare'. It's a sound that is in fact equal parts dreamlike, horrific and mysterious. Vinyl LP on Relapse.) 26.00
NEON CHRIST - 1984 LP (southern lord - 1984" is a crucial, '80s hardcore document that has been painstakingly remastered from the original tapes using an all-analog process; Neon Christ guitarist William DuVall made multiple trips to Nashville to one of the few remaining studios maintaining the vintage technology to play and process the audio. Side one of "1984" features the original Neon Christ 7" EP, and side two contains four songs recorded on labor day 1984 including "Ashes To Ashes," which was included on the International Peace/War compilation released by MDC's R Radical Records. The package includes a full-color, Stooughton, gatefold sleeve and a 12" x 12", twelve-page, oral-history booklet featuring dozens of never-before-seen photographs.) 28.00
NIKA SON - To Eeyore LP (Nika Son, a musician, artist and film sound designer, living in Hamburg. Infuenced by Musique Concrète and the outer space of electronic music, her compositions are built from deformed and fragmented fieldrecordings, interweaving with analogue synth lines, broken rhythms, rare voice scraps and filtered tape layers.) 20.00
PASCAL BABARE - Cave Without A Name LP (Oscarson - Influenced by the Italian popular music of the Forties and Fifties and a reconnection with his ancestral roots, Australian-based artist Pascal Babare deliberately brought a classic, timeless chamber-folk-pop sound to ‘Cave Without A Name’. Babare’s long-time creative foil Lucy Roleff is present throughout the album.) 22.00
PONYS AUF PUMP - Wirt Schon Wieder LP (Phantom - Punk Punk Punk from Berlin! "Die Platte war extralang im Ofen, evtl. sogar schon vor'm Locki 1 aufgenommen. Ich weiß es nicht mehr, Zeit ist mittlerweile so was von egal geworden. Aber! - ist ja gerade die Zeit zwischen dritter und vierter Welle und deshalb raus damit! Bitte bitte tanzt Euch dazu die Seele aus dem Leib, denn wirklich jeder Song ist purer, alkoholgetränkter Zucker. Auch wenn die Lyrics durchaus dystopisch sind, im Vordergrund stehen positive vibrations. Werdet ihr sicherlich bei der ein oder anderen Brückenshow diesen Sommer auch so bestätigt bekommen. Apropos Brückenshows: immer Schatten! Anspieltipps sind für Loser!“) 17.00
RAZEN - Blue Rot LP (Razen are back with a second album on HITD, follow up to last year's release 'Robot Brujo'. On 'Blue Rot', the band introduces a softer palette and a new quartet, as the core duo of multi-instrumentalists Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour is augmented with new band member Berlinde Deman on Serpent and guest Thomas Bloch on Glassharmonica and crystal Baschet. Drawing inspiration from late 19th-Century Symbolist art, 'Blue Rot' summons heartbreak and the perils of isolation in languid, hypnotic modes, laying bare the beauty of stillness, the solitary gaze at drifting clouds. Notwithstanding its hushed and melancholy tone colours, the album provides the listener with the customary disorientation, instrument clashes and tension between stasis and slow-moving development so firmly entrenched in the sound world of Razen.) 24.00
RICHARD YOUNGS - CXXI LP (black truffle - Comprised of two side-long pieces, CXXI carried on the experiments with chance operations used to generate material on many of Youngs’ recent releases. On ‘Tokyo Photograph’, a slowly changing, randomly generated sequence of 121 minor chords played by sine waves and accented with a brushed snare hit on every change provides the harmonic foundation for Youngs’ fragile yet impassioned vocal performance, shards of field recordings and electronics and Sophie Cooper’s long, tape-echoed trombone notes. While the melancholic drift of the chords calls up prime Robert Wyatt sides like Old Rottenhat or Dondestan, only the most vestigial sense of song remains here, as Youngs arranges his minimal ingredients over a spacious fifteen-minute expanse that often drops to nothing more than the rich hum of sine waves. ) 25.00
RUTH MASCELLI - A Night At The Baths LP (Disciples - Debut solo album by Ruth Mascelli of New Orleans no wave/glam/industrial group Special Interest. A Night At The Baths is a progression from their previous work under the Psychic Hotline moniker, as well as the electronic rhythms they supply as part of Special Interest, drawing on techno, acid house and ambient music. An album as journey in the best sense, starting with the late night pulse-racing dancefloor menace of “Sauna” and ending with the melancholy dawn chorus of “Missing Men”, with a strong narrative arc in between, told through a deft use of instrumental textures. Ruth Mascelli comments: “This album is an audio diary of adventures had at various bathhouses, dark rooms, and gay clubs while on tour with Special Interest and traveling on my own. It was a way of wrapping my head around my own experiences in those very specific surroundings but also an attempt to connect to the current of queer history flowing through those spaces. Cruising dystopia, libidinal contact, anonymity & risk - rites of passage with a potent lineage. )
SCHIACH - 2 LP (phantom -German punk band from Schkeuditz. "Info vom letzten mal: Das erste Album, ganz klar: unerreicht vorgelegt! Das zweite Album, logisch: unerreicht nachgelegt! Würde ich es nicht grandios finden, würde ich es doch nicht veröffentlichen, oder? Also braucht's eigentlich diese ganzen Texte eh nicht. Anspieltipp: alle.“) 17.00
SHORA / MERZBOW - Switching Rhetorics LP (head records - Following the release of their acclaimed first record Shaping The Random in June 2000, Shora spent the next year touring and gigging around Europe, eventually reconvening in the studio in the summer of 2001 to record four tracks for a collaborative project with Japanese noise-meister Merzbow, a pairing initiated by Bisect Bleep Industries. The band’s sound had by that point coalesced into a tighter and arguably even more hard-hitting affair, however no less puzzling. The blistering first three tracks exude formidable confidence, embracing Dazzling Killmen-styled noise-rock and apocalyptic black metal alike, while maintaining all of Shora’s eloquent singularity. The drumming particularly shines throughout, with its multidirectional eruptions of seemingly pure kinetic energy. As its title suggests, the record’s grandiose and repetitive closing piece “To Further Confines” is a clear indication of the Swiss band’s desire to keep challenging itself and looking ahead. Completed with Merzbow’s extended psychedelic digital noise études, Switching Rhetorics is an era-defining record of genuinely great artistry.) 25.00
TANGLED SHOELACES - Turn My Dial - The M Squared Recordings and more, 1981-84 LP (col. vinyl) (chapter - back in stock - Tangled Shoelaces were aged 10-14 when they first started in a leafy suburb of Brisbane in 1980. The band centred around three baby-faced siblings Stephen, Lucy and Martin Mackerras, with neighbour Leigh Nelson on drums. Lucy and Martin were musical prodigies and Stephen a precociously talented songwriter. They opened for wildly inappropriate acts like Dead Kennedys and John Cooper Clarke before they were old enough to drink in Australian pubs. By the time they broke up in 1984, with just one 7 inch single to their name, the oldest members were still only 18. Chapter sifts through an archive of recordings made at the legendary studios of Sydney label M Squared, home to fabled Australian post-punk artists like Systematics, Scattered Order and Ya Ya Choral. ) 24.00
V/A - Eccentric Funk LP (numero - Twelve unstoppable deep funk burners from across the Numerosphere. A smorgasbord of sounds from R&B’s dapper younger cousin. Loose guitars and chunky drums lie in wait for discerning break-makers to finely chop and flip. The only funk record you’ll ever need to own.) 23.00
CD
ELIANE RADIGUE - Opus 17 DCD (important - Opus 17, a major turning-point in the sonic oeuvre of Eliane Radigue. Finished in 1970, it was the last work composed with feedback materials. From that experimental period, Opus 17 preserves a plastic character: a music made of rough sonic phenomena, at once harsh and granular, possessing a quality of materiality and tactility. Its vibrations structure the air surrounding the listener with densities, thicknesses, indeed with palpable movement. Her compositions are frames which let us hear these phenomena, open frameworks from the sonic installations of her Endless Musics and here reinserted in the five scenes making up Opus 17. In 1970, in her studio of very rudimentary means, she developed a completely unique body of work centered on sounds produced by feedback. Opus 17 has the quality of showing off the sum of the achieved techniques and methods. Eliane Radigue's music has never been rooted in ideas but in practice, the intimate experience of things in the wild which she has known how to tame. This dialog both intense and poetic which she keeps up with the solid matter of sound finds a remarkable concretization in Opus 17. It is to be underlined that with Opus 17 Eliane Radigue inaugurates a technique of composition which will be her footprint, her trademark: imperceptible transformations. For that she has developed a technique of meticulous mixings, based on the slow passage from one section to the next. Imperceptible all during the piece, we pass, ceaselessly and without noticing the changes, from one frequency flux to another. Time is suspended, smoothed out, stretched. It is this technique which Eliane Radigue will be essentially using for all the electronic works to come and which she will never cease to refine and render always more subtle.) 20.00
TAPES
EVEREST MAGMA - Nuova Abduzione TAPE (maple death - How can knowledge be increased? Probably with small leaps into the void, starting from our own certainties but throwing ourselves headlong into the probabilities. The leap into the probable is an abduction: an extraordinary gesture that has been carried out for millennia, but abduction is nothing without empirical verification and this is done only by looking closely, bridging unimaginable distances, analysing samples, sending probes, projecting rays, contacting minds and flooding them with information aimed at transforming their probable into certain, their ordinary into extraordinary. This is ‘Nuova Abduzione’, Everest Magma’s new release on Maple Death, an outlandish escapade through crystal lighting, meditative ambient, ethereal synthesis and electrified awakening. Anyone paying attention to Rella The Woodcutter aka Everest Magma’s career over the past 10 years knows that you’re always in for a special ride, slowly chipping away at one of the most ecstatic and singular paths of the Italian underground scene. His dense and beautiful three albums on esteemed label Boring Machines are not afraid to cross boundaries with a mix of hypnotic tape beats, digital wonk, psych folk tropicalia and kinetic dub. This new offering once again sees him in uncharted territories, recorded solely on his trusty Sp-404, an album of repetitive minimalism, alien tonal ambience and blissful abyss that fits nicely beside the work of contemporary artist and labels like Luís Fernandes, Music From Memory and new age kosmische greats like J.D. Emmanuel and Peter Michael Hamel. Music that seeks connection and warmth. The season of Knowledge has returned, the Earth is ready for a New Abduction. ) 8.00
MAGAZINES
WORRIED SONGS - they sang upon that shore #1 MAGAZINE (worried songs - so, this thing is around 10 months late and roughly four times the size I thought it would be, but, damn, here it is….. 88 A4 pages of weirdness and wonderment: - Eli winter talks touring West-Texas - Huge joint interview between Yasmin Williams and Gwenifer Raymond that spans several months of communication. - Jerry David DeCicca ruminates on how he became the unlikely optimist. - Lovely chat with Rosali, who spoke to me at length about her incredible new record, ‘No Medium’ on Spinster Sounds. - Powers/Rolin Duo offer up the best records you should have self-isolated to… - Reports from the front line of the great American license plate open invitational of 2019. - Jeffrey Silverstein took some time to talk to me about the Ted Lucas tribute project on perpetual doom - Jess Yocum offers up some personal, perfect and plaintive prose, polaroids and poetry from a post-pandemic picture postcard (!!!!) road trip, taking in Townes van Zandt’s grave and Death Valley… - David from the incredible Morning Trip records talks us through their first 8 incredible archival reissue releases - only the finest lost gems of 70s and 80s solo guitar and new age… - and a whole tonne of record and book reviews…) 10.00
MERCHANDISE
WORRIED SONGS - ...Corporate Music’ Westford Mill TOTE BAG (worried songs - Westford Mill Earth Aware Navy Blue Tote Bag. Design by Squalor Illustrations from Portland, Oregon. Screen-printed by Vino Sangre.) 16.00
