Bis Aufs Messer Weekly News 02 July 2023
Hi. Welcome to another newsletter for July. A bunch of cool stuff arrived like the re issue of CINDYS s/t debut LP, the latest CINDY LP incl. a ltd 7“, the amazing ANDRIUS ARUTIUNIAN - Seven Common Ways of Disappearing LP on Hallow Ground, the new LÄUTEN DER SEELE - Ertrunken im seichtesten Gewässer LP, PJ HARVEY restock, lots of CODEINE Represses, some SLINT restocks, FACS restocks, INDIAN SUMMER restocks (black and colored vinyl), Rival Schools restocks, Mort Garson restocks, MICHAEL HURLEY - Sweetkorn LP, JIM O'ROURKE - Hands That Bind OST LP, CHARLIE MEGIRA - Tomorrow's Gone DLP restock on black and colored vinyl, INDIAN SUMMER - Giving Birth To Thunder LP restock on black and col. Vinyl, V/A - Klar!80 LP re issue, CODEINE - Barely Real LP restock, CODEINE - Frigid Stars LP restock, CODEINE - The White Birch LP and much more
We also started taking pre orders for the upcoming VICEPREZ LP
https://bisaufsmesser.com/collections/music/products/viceprez-tropical-connexion-lp-pre-order
And we added / keep adding some sweet second hand titles here
https://www.discogs.com/seller/XMESSERX
Thank you as usual
Til then thank you for all your orders & support.
Robert & Norman
mailorder@bisaufmesser.com
www.adagio830-records.bandcamp.com
7“
CHALK HANDS - Burrows & Other Hideouts 7“ (Post-Hardcore / Screamo / Emo from Brighton, UK. Their debut tape from 2017 finally on vinyl.) 8.00
NO ACTION / AMID THE OLD WOUNDS - split 7“ (time is a color - According to idioteq.com new action’s song ‘III’ is “a haunting symphony from Adelaide’s emo realm, summons the ethereal specters of The Hated, Evergreen, Hüsker Dü, and Comet Gain. With a relentless, pulsating rhythm, this emotional punk rock jam accelerates through the depths of human sentiment. Veiled in a mist of slightly distorted vocals, the organic essence of its sound resonates with the raw, untamed spirit of a truly honest offering. This ephemeral, simply crafted, yet hearty and genuine, “III” unfolds its poignant narrative in a mere two minutes, leaving listeners wanting more.” of course their second song ‘monument to taste’ is just as much of a banger.) 7.00
LP
ANDRIUS ARUTIUNIAN - Seven Common Ways of Disappearing LP (hallow ground - Andrius Arutiunian’s debut album »Seven Common Ways of Disappearing« was first conceived as an installation for the Armenia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022. The Armenian-Lithuanian artist and composer uses hybrid forms of music, focusing on sonic vernaculars, hypnotic musical forms, and aural cosmologies. Arutiunian is known to work with installations, sound objects, and time-based collaborations with ensembles and performers. The piece on this record was written for two musicians, a retuned piano and analogue electronics, and it borrows an enneagram as its score—the world-ordering model introduced by the controversial Armenian-Greek mystic and composer G.I. Gurdjieff. The result is an album that is both aesthetically and spiritually intoxicating—music of the spheres, at once reminiscent of the masterpieces of minimal music and improvised, if not stochastic music.) 27.00
CHARIF MERGABANE - Marzipan LP (habibi - Habibi Funk is excited to share “Marzipan” — our first full length contemporary release courtesy of Beirut’s multi-instrumental producer phenomenon Charif Megarbane. The LP is a journey into Charif’s styling, one he terms “Lebrary”: a vision of Lebanon and the Mediterranean expressed via the prismatic sonics of library music. Drawing influence from artists that encapsulates the Habibi Funk sound such as Ziad Rahbani, Ahmed Malek and Issam Hajali, Charif translates these influences into an LP that is equally at home in ’23.) 28.00
CHARLIE MEGIRA - Tomorrow's Gone DLP (numero - Back in Stock in Black, White or green vinyl - Even in this age of near-total Internet accessibility, Charlie Megira is a modern mystery. A casual search turns up little aside from a few cryptic articles. His brief career unfolded during a changing of the guard in the music industry, opening on the death of the compact disc and ending just prior to Spotify’s IPO. For an artist like Megira, living far away from a major music outpost, there was more chaos than structure for his recordings to exist and find an audience. This collection is the first attempt at putting the pieces together, compiling a life’s work of an artist whose spark almost shined unto the world.) 32.00
CINDY - s/t LP (tough love - Limited edition of 500 vinyl - Cindy don't do many things loudly, but their seemingly sudden emergence a few years back was quite the jolt, their Free Advice LP doing for the current San Fran scene what the Big Supermarket record did for Melbourne a year or two back - ie a totemic outta-nowhere DIY statement of rare vision. As it turns out, though, it's not quite without precedent, since there was actually a self-released debut record from 2018, first pressed in tiny number and initially not moving much further than their immediate locale . A few years on and now trading for inflated prices on the second hand market, Tough Love are re-issuing in order to shine a little light on the band's first steps. These ten tracks display the ruminative formation of the minimal indiepop sound perfected on Free Advice, skeletons of the same ideas with a little less flesh on dem bones, nonetheless struck with a naive wonder, like you're afforded the opportunity to hear the band stumbling upon their own charms in real time. And that is 100% the appropriate word here - charm, a quality perfectly captured in that front cover, too. It's not possible to overstate how endearing this music is, so independent is it of outside influence and free of self-consciousness. Is this the birth of the new Paisley Underground? Or maybe something better...) 28.00
CINDY - Why Not Now? LP + 7“ (tough love - Limited edition of 300 grey vinyl with bonus 7“ “Everyone’s hoping that nobody sees/all our little efforts at dignity” This last line of the title track from Cindy’s fourth LP Why Not Now? works as a slogan for Karina Gill's evolving musical vision. Her music is simple out of necessity and introverted in delivery, but the songs contain vivid worlds and are quietly ambitious. With this latest batch, Gill pulled the process of making Cindy music even more inward. “Some of these songs were first recorded as demos alone in my basement. I think that process set the tone for the record…Maybe it set up a kind of starkness,” she says.) 32.00
CODEINE - The White Birch LP (numero - A white ship sailing in a sea of blackness, Codeine’s swan song arrived in 1994 amid grunge’s ascension to alt radio’s godhead status. John Engle’s guitar alternates between crystalline and sludge, and Stephen Immerwhar’s distorted bass floats on top of punishing drums from newcomer Doug Scharin (Rex, June of 44), resulting in nine perfect meditations on the loneliness and uncertainty of early adulthood. “Codeine’s unyielding numbness creates its own kind of warmth — the feeling of cold water running for so long that it suddenly feels hot.” —Spin) 27.00
CODEINE - Dessau LP (numero - Codeine were an American slowcore band featuring Chris Brokaw who also formed Come. ‘Dessau’ was supposed to be the follow-up to their debut album ‘Frigid Stars’ but was never released. Recorded in 1992, technical problems in the studio led to the album being shelved and saw Brokaw leave the band. Some of the songs were reworked for the band’s ‘The White Birch’ album. For the album’s thirtieth anniversary, the album is being released as originally intended for the first time.) 30.00
CODEINE - Frigid Stars LP (numero - The drowsiest and earliest inklings of the slowcore movement can be traced to Codeine’s 1991 debut. Combining the Louisville scene’s relaxed tempo with doom metal’s distorted slurry, the album is a depressing masterpiece of hushed vocals, noisy guitar, and punishing drums. Remastered from the original analog tapes and recreated in painstaking detail, Frigid Stars LP is the NYC trio’s fuzziest and most affecting work. “A deft musical approximation of the sound of water turning to ice, the guitars are so weighed down with distortion that they struggle to march from one chord to the next.” — Pitchfork
) 27.00
CODEINE - Barely Real LP (numero -After the scrapped Dessau sessions in 1992, Codeine returned with an EP of icy and effervescent tracks. Clocking in at a brisk 25 minutes, the six-song 12" features drummer Chris Brokaw’s final recordings with the group, plus noisy guitar from Bitch Magnet’s Jon Fine and a solo piano arrangement from Bastro’s David Grubbs. Remastered from the original analog tapes and recreated in painstaking detail, Barely Real is the slowcore classic your therapist warned you about. “As far away from traditional rock & roll heat as a post-stellar universe is to the Big Bang.” — The Quietus) 27.00
INDIAN SUMMER - Giving Birth To Thunder LP (numero - The fourth leg on the early emo table of Rites of Spring, Moss Icon, and Cap’n Jazz, Indian Summer’s Giving Birth To Thunder compiles their complete discography. Emo’s second wave crashed into the Bay Area in the summer of 1994 in a rage-filled capsule of quiet and loud, octave chords, angry sons, Spock haircuts, and screaming. At the eye of this pissed-for-the-hell-of-it storm were Indian Summer. In the quartet’s 12-month existence they wrote ten songs, appeared on half a dozen singles and comps, and played over 100 gigs across the U.S. and Canada before burning out, passing out, and moving out of their Blue House in Oakland. Their hand-screened aesthetic is replicated in alarming detail in the accompanying by 28-page book with detailed liner notes, flyers, and miscellaneous propaganda) 27.00
JIM O'ROURKE - Hands That Bind OST LP (Evoking the American primitive ambience of Bruce Langhorne's influential 'The Hired Hand', Jim O'Rourke's latest is a gorgeous, quietly resonant and slow-moving snapshot of the wide North American landscape, or “prairie gothic”. Rendered thru simmering jazz keys, microtonal drone, double bass, piano and skittering percussion, it’s just completely unmissable gear that comes highly recommended to anyone with a Jim obsession, or for those of you who love those Tindersticks scores for Claire Denis as much as we do. Jim O'Rourke's flirtation with cinema has been one of the reliable constants in his lengthy, prolific career. His best-known trilogy of albums 'Bad Timing', 'Eureka' and 'Insignificance' were named after Nicolas Roeg films, and even 'The Visitor' was a reference to Roeg's Bowie vehicle 'The Man Who Fell to Earth'. He's made his own short films, got involved with Werner Herzog's 'Grizzly Man' and scored a handful of independent features, most notably Todd Louiso's odd, underrated 'Love Liza’, as well as contributing to Eiko Ishibashi acclaimed ‘Drive My Car' soundtrack.) 30.00
LARY 7 - Larynx DLP (blank forms - Recorded in Lary 7’s legendary apartment studio Plastikville over nearly a decade, Larynx is the first full-length retrospective of the East Village icon’s hybrid music and engineering practice. The record mobilizes 7’s array of homemade instruments, which he ‘frankensteins’ together from offcast and outmoded bits of technology. An ode to the long-lost Canal Street junk shops he frequented in the 1970s and ’80s, Larynx brings together numerous thrift finds and sonic inventions used in his theatrical performances and installations.) 36.00
LAURE BOER - Les Cités Englouties LP (Kashual plastic - restock - Comes like every Kashual Plastik release in a weird packaging. Laure Boer is Kashual again. And not so Plastik. Zoning dark-ish into her inner realms of journey music. Poetic, psychic, reflective, ejective. She sings. Weeps. Speaks. Intimate looping narratives, celebrating personal glories and all those worries. Stylistically alternating from electroacoustic dimensions to drone guitar amp personas, from folk melodiousness to witchy avant-notes. Ten drifters for the Lomaxed creatures, earthbound, and always up there in the luminaries. Music that rubs off on the now, that loses itself in itself, always remaining welcoming. Contemporary folk for folks without country. Echoing endlessly scenic. Longing for roots minus rooting. The voice is the home. In every noise. In every chord, loop, reverberation. A humming along record. Shredded. Edgy. With a sense for radical pain. Noisy anthems in the sky. Traditional, freshly packaged, and forward-thinking folkloric. A true album of soul. Composed. Improvised. Realized. A poem without ink. Dim times. The sun shines. We hum along to “Les Cités Englouties”, transporting echoes from sunken cities and their legends. Archaic ballads, dialoging with raconteurs from centuries past, broadcasting archetypal tales, and airy mythology of the living that fall into life. All transmitted in a meaningful sphere - even if neither the sender nor the receiver can articulate, what that meaning might be.) 26.00
LÄUTEN DER SEELE - Ertrunken im seichtesten Gewässer LP (World of Echo - The third album by Christian Schoppik of Brannten Schnüre features two longform tracks, both clocking in at 20 minutes. Somewhere in the Lower-Franconian vineyards lies a hidden and mostly unknown canyon, a place that often returns to the thoughts and dreams of Läuten der Seele’s Christian Schoppik. Though a much rarer occurrence now as a consequence of environmental change, chance encounters upon the area in the past would sometimes reveal small ponds amongst the reeds, teeming with life and populated by colonies of newts and the now endangered yellow bellied toad. The transience of the water and the wildlife it hosts, dependent on season or climate, lends the area an almost fantastical, dream-like quality. Was it ever even there at all? A secret place that may or may not be present holds vast appeal to some enquiring minds… Ertrunken Im Seichtesten Gewässer, the third Läuten der Seele album in two years, is inspired directly by these experiences. Translating as ‘drowned in the shallowest stretch of water’, a title as pregnant with dread as it is wonder, the themes present speak both to personal memories and a wider understanding of place and time, and how we might interpret our own position within an ever-changing, sometimes disappearing world. The record is presented as two long-form pieces divided into four separate movements, each titled so as to reflect this natural environment and its intersection with imagination, relying on processes of collage that draw from myriad indeterminable samples, field recordings and various recorded instruments. Those familiar with Schoppik’s work, both as Läuten der Seele and with Brannten Schnüre, will find present many of his signature tropes - the way deeply layered collages render abstracted visions of the past alive in the present - though what is always significant about his approach is not so much aesthetic as the wider concepts it attempts to express and emote. Indeed, emotional response is key to the Läuten der Seele sound, how overlapping notions of nostalgia, memory and identity calibrate experience and understanding of who we are and the world around us, whether it’s a world that’s gone or another imagined into being. If you observe the artwork closely enough, you may find a clue as to the canyon’s location, though such specifics are besides the point. The music itself infers a wider sense of the impermanence that characterises hidden worlds, wherever they might be or whoever they might belong to.) 29.00
MICHAEL HURLEY - Sweetkorn LP (mississippi - A reimagined version of Michael Hurley's 2002 masterpiece! Some of the most beautiful recordings of his catalog available on vinyl for the first time. Sweetkorn was originally released on CD only. This version has been remixed to bring Michael's voice and guitar to the forefront. We've also omitted a couple songs from the O.G version and added a completely unheard tune from the session. A masterpiece featuring all time Hurley hits like 'Oh My Stars', 'The Rue Of Ruby Whores', 'The End Of The Road' and 'Got Over It.“) 27.00
MICHAEL HURLEY - blue hills LP (restock - "Reissue of the classic from 2010! One of our favorite MICHAEL HURLEY LPs ever. On this LP we find Hurley stretching out on six longer than usual compositions that are as heartbreaking and beautiful as anything he's ever done. Side one features Hurley on a creaky pump organ and a hammond organ. Side two starts out with two newer compositions—just Michael on guitar & vocals. The record ends with a stunning version of “Tea Song” (which Michael originally wrote & recorded way back in 1963) We rarely resort to hyperbole on these descriptions, but we have to say that this LP is one of the more moving things we've ever heard. A sustained feeling of loss & need for redemption haunts this record. It ain't easy listening, but then what worth a damn is?”—Mississippi) 26.00
PJ HARVEY - I Inside the Old Year Dying LP (partisan - PJ Harvey’s tenth studio album I Inside the Old Year Dying marks her first release in seven years, following UK number 1 album The Hope Six Demolition Project. On this album, which was recorded with long-time creative collaborators John Parish and Flood, PJ Harvey builds a sonic universe somehow located in a space between life’s opposites, and between recent history and the ancient past. Scattered with biblical imagery and references to Shakespeare, all of these distinctions ultimately dissolve into something profoundly uplifting and redemptive. I Inside the Old Year Dying is released on Partisan Records. ) 28.00
V/A - Klar!80 LP (This compilation represents an initial – and long overdue – foray into the years 1980 - 82, when KLAR! 80 was a cassette label, paired with a shop of the same name in Düsseldorf. Founded by Rainer Rabowski, KLAR!80 released 18 cassettes of varying length and a box set containing three 12” vinyl Eps which fetch handsome prices among collectors nowadays. The KLAR!80 - Ein Kassettenlabel aus Düsseldorf 1980-1982 collection reaches even further back in time than the SAMMLUNG - Düsseldorfer Kassettenmusik 1982-1989 (BB236/2017) collection, similarly curated by Stefan Schneider, which focused on the mid-1980s Düsseldorf cassette scene. It captures the brief period between the end of punk and the looming capitalisation and digitalisation of so many aspects of life.) 29.00
MAGAZINES / BOOKS
THE WIRE - #473 July 2023 MAG (Inside our brand new issue: Eugene S Robinson: The vocalist, author, actor and martial artist talks writing, performance and lazy journalism. By Laina Dawes. Michael Allen Z Prime: The ecologist and bioelectrical composer unveils a new collection. By Julian Cowley; Plants on disc: Carlo Patrão’s user’s guide to music made with flora O YAMA O: Cafe Oto’s house band attempt to liberate the modern song. By Ilia Rogatchevski; Cafe Oto on disc: Stewart Smith surveys the most dynamic live albums from the venue Invisible Jukebox: Nappy Nina:Will The Wire’s mystery record selection leave the Brooklyn rapper in Dumb Doubt or will she prove Extra Ordinary? Tested by Olivia Bradley-Skill. Garrett Saracho: The Los Angeles keyboardist rematerialises after years in the wilderness. By Daniel Spicer Unlimited Editions: Trost Records Unofficial Channels: Metal Music Theory Lauren Bousfield: US artist pits maximalism against consumerism. By Claire Biddles Magnus Granberg: Into the twilight zone with the Swedish composer. By Nick Storring Me Lost Me: The Newcastle avant balladeer is game for folk. By Abi Bliss Lary 7: Explosive junk from the New York based polymath. By Jo Hutton Global Ear: Lviv: Tale of the Oleksandr Yurchenko tape. By Olena Pohonchenkova The Inner Sleeve: Ale Hop on Popol Vuh’s Einsjäger Und Siebenjäger Epiphanies: Kyle Gann’s musical world is shattered by Morton Feldman) 8.00
