Bis Aufs Messer Weekly News 03 / 2022
Hi. Welcome to another newsletter. A couple restocks and new titles arrived. The three KARATE LPSs and the BOXSET are back in, the CHISEL - Set You Free DLP re issue on black and colored vinyl arrived, a new ENVY - Seimei 10“, the BIG BRAVE - nature morte LP on pink vinyl, JOHN BENCE - Archangels LP on red vinyl, both MODECENTER LPs, a couple new and old jams on Altin Village records, FIDDLEHEAD - Springtime And Blind LP restock, MOLCHAT DOMA - Etazhi LP restock, BEATRIZ FERREYRA - Senderos De Luz y Sombras LP restock, BLUES LAWYER - All In Good Time LP and more …
Thank you as usual
Til then thank you for all your orders & support.
Robert & Norman
mailorder@bisaufmesser.com
www.adagio830-records.bandcamp.com
10“
ENVY - Seimei 10“ (pelagic - Nearly 3 years after their hugely acclaimed last album, The Fallen Crimson, Envy will release their new EP, Seimei. Seimei contains 3 songs: "Seimei", "Zanshin" and "Yamayura". It is a title that entrusts the word "Seimei" to the usual way of life that awaits us, finding a small hope in the dark passage of time. Recording and mixing for Seimei was handled by Takaaki Mino – of the Japanese band, toe – creating a natural yet intense sound. The artwork is by Cris Crude – of beloved American screamo band, pg.99 – who also made the art for envy’s "Alnair In August" single (2018). ) 21.00
LP
ADELA MEDE – Szabadság LP (night school - Slovak-Hungarian musician Adela Mede explores the interplay between voice and technology with field recordings. She sings in three languages (Slovak, Hungarian and English). Intimate ambient utterances with themes of spiritual growth accompanied by experimental electronics with a wide scope of influences; from minimalism to folklore. Initially released in early 2022 to universal acclaim on digital and cassette, Night School is extremely excited to share Szabadság on vinyl. Mastered by Rupert Clervaux for vinyl, the clearer format teases out new nuances in the music, revealing a physicality and permanence to Mede’s first masterwork.) 25.00
ALLAN WACHS - Mountain Roads and City Streets LP (numero - Cosmic American Music from the far flung reaches of rural Oregon. Issued in 1979 on Allan Wachs' own True Vine imprint, Mountain Roads and City Streets gathers a decade of songs written while hitchhiking up and down the west coast. Screeching pedal steel, lilting flute, and tingly dulcimer are peppered throughout Wachs' tales of brief affairs, invisible dogs, and getting lost in a changing America.) 27.00
THE ACTOR – Exploded View + Demos 1981-1984 DLP (mannequin - Mannequin presents an expanded double-LP of 'Exploded View' from Dutch minimal synth pioneers The Actor. Originally released in 1982 by Trumpett Tapes, the album was repressed for the first time by Mannequin Records in 2014, and is now coming back to life again in 2022, enriched by an extra full-length of demos from a 1981-1984 period. Singing both in English and German, The Actor songs are often related to modernism, fashion and dancing, like a sort of early incarnation of Depeche Mode but totally devoted to home taping and diy recordings, where Trumpett was definitely the perfect home for it, having releasing such amazing cassettes from Doxa Sinistra, Ende Shneafliet, Dr C.Stein, and many more. A must have for the dusty/rusty analog synthesizers lovers.) 28.00
ARNAUD REBOTINI – I Drive East LP (mannequin - Edition of 500 copies / Orange Vinyl After his acclaimed EP "Shiny Black Leather" and a dream collaboration with Dario Argento for the soundtrack of his new film "Occhiali Neri", Maestro Arnaud Rebotini is back on Mannequin Records with a new 4-tracks EP "I Drive East“. For this new EP, Arnaud started working more on a song form, deeply inspired by his rock'n'roll roots. Having heroes like Suicide or Alien Sex Fiend in mind, he was able to create the perfect link between EBM and Industrial Rock. The final production was orchestrated diving deep into percussive drums and digital synthesizers, a mega hybrid of analog and digital, recalling back our favourite mid-80's productions.) 22.00
AUTECHRE - Draft 7.30 DLP (warp - Autechre are the benchmark by which other electronic musicians are judged. For over 20 years they have pushed the boundaries of music. This is their 7th album and is filled with stuttering percussion, abrasive distorto funk, ghostly melodies and crunchy hip hop beats. More immense work from the masters.) 34.00
AUTECHRE - Confield DLP (warp - Reissue. Confield is the sixth album by Autechre, originally released 30 April 2001 by Warp Records. Its some of Autechre's best work, cold, complex, alien, and as cutting edge as ever.) 34.00
BIG BRAVE - nature morte LP (thrill jockey - The title, nature morte, is the French term for still life paintings whose literal translation is “dead nature.” Big | Brave colour the songs of nature morte with unease, creating an air of beauty in decay, chords suspended in contemplative stillness. Robin Wattie’s experiences structuring lyrics and song forms on The Body and Big | Brave’s Leaving None But Small Birds informed her work on nature morte, creating stories that, like many folk tales, are at once specific and universal. Wattie’s voice manages to be commanding and vulnerable with impressive range and intimacy. Even her gasps carve their way through the tidal crash of Mathieu Ball’s distortion wail and the pummel of Tasy Hudson’s drums. The momentum of nature morte conjures the image of a beast collapsing beneath its own weight before resiliently staggering upright to thunder onward. Big | Brave convey heft from silence as deftly as they do from swaths of feedback and distortion to cathartic ends. “Distortion is key,” notes Ball. The three members recorded primarily live over the course of a week at Machines with Magnets with Seth Manchester, pushing the potential of their instruments beyond expectations. For each song, the trio’s songwriting and attention to detail deliver its simple but devastating emotional power.) 28.00
BLUES LAWYER - All In Good Time LP (dark entires - Oakland band Blues Lawyer joins Dark Entries for their third full-length, All in Good Time, a record of pop-rock songs about living in a world that wants to put your existence on the clock. Blues Lawyer was formed in 2017 as an outlet for guitarist/vocalist Rob I. Miller and drummer Elyse Schrock to write pop songs outside of the strictures of their other groups. Following 2018’s Guess Work and 2019’s Something Different, Blues Lawyer had “graduated from being a side project band, a sort of throwaway project, to actually being a legitimate band,” according to Miller. Under the backdrop of global pandemic and existential crisis, they set about recording their new record. Says Miller, “I have always been really attracted to the way we measure time, especially in relationship to our concepts of what we are supposed to have achieved. There’s a lot of different moments on the record where we’re interrogating this whole value system that comes along with it—determining my worth because of where I’m at in my life in relation to my age, in my love life, in my career.”) 25.00
CHISEL - Set You Free DLP (numero - In late 1996 Chisel decamped from their native D.C. to Brooklyn’s Rare Book Room. The power trio of Ted Leo, Chris Norborg, and John Dugan teamed with engineer Nicolas Vernhes and came away with Set You Free, a remarkable, but largely overlooked, classic of the era. Originally issued on the venerable Gern Blandsten imprint, the album presaged the turn of the century ’60s rock revival, providing a counterpoint to second-wave emo. This deluxe 25th anniversary remastered edition supplements the original’s 17-song track list with five period alternates and rarities, plus a booklet of lyrics, photos, and an essay by Jes Skolnik. Get ready for the invasion.) 32.00
CLOUD MANAGEMENT - s/t LP (altin village . The debut of Hamburg trio Cloud Management stages the meeting of three proven exceptional figures: Thomas Korf and Sebastian Kokus have been responsible for some stunning leftfield neo-kraut releases with their band Love-Songs in recent years; Ulf Schütte has been one of the most productive, and innovative protagonists of experimental electronic music in Germany for many years (see Datashock, Phantom Horse, or his most recent collaboration with G. Steenkiste/Hellvete on Umor Rex, for example). Following Love-Songs’ highly acclaimed collaboration with Schütte, »[Spannende Musik]«, released in 2021, the formation of Cloud Management as a group in its own right marks a new beginning, which is celebrated with the long player on Altin Village & Mine. ) 23.00
FHUNYUE GAO & SVEN KACIREK - Hoya LP (altin village - »Hoya«, the first collaborative record from Fhunyue Gao and Sven Kacirek, is a site of encounters. There’s the encounter between two different media and artistic conceptions: Gao, on the one hand, a stage director | performer | musician based in Switzerland, a frequent collaborator of Annalena Fröhlich’s, Thom Luz’s and many others, who works for a most colourful variety of venues all over Europe and is a member of the music association Bongo Joe. Kacirek, on the other, an established musician living between Hamburg and Kenya, with several releases on labels such as Honest Jon’s and Bureau B under his belt and an equally illustrious and diverse list of collaborators, among them Shabaka Hutchings, Ogoya Nengo, Marc Ribot, John McEntire, Hauschka and Nils Frahm. ) 23.00
JOHN BENCE - Archangels LP (thrill rocky - RED VINYL - John Bence can be described as a Savant in the world of Avant-Garde classical composition, and puts his mastery on full display in his newest release with Thrill Jockey. Archangels is a deep dive into the world and soundscape that Bence carefully crafts to offer a glimpse of the divine. Raised in Bristol’s burgeoning underground electronic music scene and a graduate of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, John Bence manages to employ compositional complexity to manifest potent emotions. Bence’s acclaimed early works focused on the human experience, charting the composer’s own experiences with addiction and alcoholism in both stark minimalism and caustic noise eruptions. Having written Archangels two years into his recovery, Bence deftly threads together gauzy electronic atmospheres, brooding orchestral passages, and minimalist piano meditations. Throughout his work, he manages to finely sew together Gregorian chant, orchestral arrangements, rippling synthesizers, and field recordings to reveal new surprises at every turn. Archangels is a compelling addition to contemporary composition by an artist unbound by classical traditions.) 28.00
JONESTOWN KIDS - s/t LP (shove - n your face power violence from Italy. 12 songs) 16.00
KILN - Holo LP (Keplar - Rehberg had embarked on this mission together with Kevin Hayes and Kirk Marrison in 1993. They had first worked together under the name Fibreforms as a live trio that used treated guitars, kit drums, and tapes of found sound to explore the balance between band composition and recording experiments, while Marrison made heavy use of the Akai S612 sampler as a fabricating strategy with the project Waterwheel. »Kiln seemed to encapsulate the evolution and melding of those previous approaches to one that insisted on the continual opening up of the compositional process, allowing more of the mystery that can be discovered through studio experiments—and accidents—to become important elements of creating our music,« says Rehberg of the trio that is still going strong after three decades. »The word Kiln implies heat and transformation, an attitude that we apply to every sound we use—we begin with notes and performance and then mosaic with shape and colour.«) 27.00
KALME - Neue Sprache LP (Altin village - The artistic oeuvre of Berlin-based Sonja Deffner is as extensive and diverse as its contexts are high-profile: If the classically trained musician could in recent years be heard as a member of the groups Jason & Theodor, Die Heiterkeit, Globus and Pttrns, as part of Christiane Rösinger’s touring band, or as a recording musician on Andreas Spechtl’s (Ja, Panik) albums, she has at the same time produced an acclaimed graphic work, video works and made her theater debut. Under the name Kalme, Deffner now presents her solo debut »Neue Sprache«, which feels like a culmination: Deffner doesn’t need much space to present an artistic position of spectacular incisiveness and maturity. ) 23.00
KARATE - Bed Is In the Ocean LP (numero - On their third album, 1998’s ‘The Bed Is In The Ocean’, Karate allowed further influences of jazz to bleed into their already complex fusion of emo, post-hardcore, indie and post-rock. With the departure of guitarist Eamonn Vitt the year before, the group’s punky twin-guitar attack was naturally toned down this time out, bringing out even more nuance in their sound.) 30.00
KARATE - Time Expired 5xLP BOXSET (numero - At the turn of the century and after three albums, Karate’s tenure within the insular east coast indie rock scene had expired, but the band was just getting started. Collected here is the band’s spacious, adventurous, and sometimes difficult second half presented in fastidious detail. This five LP box includes the trio’s Unsolved, Some Boots, and Pockets albums, a first time vinyl pressing of their Cancel/Sing EP, and recently unearthed rehearsal recordings of two unreleased tracks, all annotated by Geoff Farina’s account of Karate’s adulthood and Andy Hong’s insights into the trio’s recording process.) 145.00
KARATE - in place of real insight LP (numero - The Great Alternative Boom of the early '90s had begun to wither on corporate FM barely halfway through the decade, but the ever-changing underground had almost entirely regenerated after two major-label thrifting trips. In the ever-in-flux city of Boston, Karate positioned themselves as a crucial tendril in a sprawling nationwide community. They did so largely by refusing to stick to any single formula from the myriad of styles at their root_slowcore, post-hardcore, and jazz. As if to make a point, Karate's lineup went through its own shift too. In the lead up to 1997's In Place of Real Insight, Eamonn Vitt took up the guitar, and Karate compatriot Jeff Goddard entered the fold to become the band's bassist. Armed with two guitarists, the band got significantly louder, and they smeared punk fury all over their second LP. At its most intense moments, In Place of Real Insight bestows the kind of rowdiness that elevated hardcore base buried deep within the unconscious of their music_it comes out most vividly when Geoff Farina and Vitt trade throat-searing shouts and bite-sized barks on "New Martini." So many lesser bands with two guitarists and a copy of In on the Kill Taker at their disposal felt the need to try their hand at being Fugazi, Karate evaded such pratfalls, though Goddard's compact, quicksilver basswork and Gavin McCarthy's fractured drumming on the bridge for "New New" contain the same rhythmic electricity that the D.C. legends wielded so well) 27.00
KARATE - s/t LP (numero - Underground rock festered and splintered as it spread through the U.S. in the mid-’90s, the alternative boom giving rise to microcosmic regional scenes singularly focused on feral powerviolence or screamo songs about breakfast. Boston’s Karate emerged as a force that could grip a national youth movement whose disparate tastes still commingled in the inky pages of fanzines overflowing with florid prose and on concert calendars for volunteer-run DIY spaces, community centers, and bowling alleys. In this world, Karate’s music was an enigma, one equally inviting to sneering punks and highfalutin indie-rock aficionados. Their 1996 self-titled debut, issued on Southern Records, set the standard. Lasooing together white-knuckle posthardcore tension, sharply focused slowcore serenity, and resplendent jazz complexity, Karate eschewed settling in any one definiable style. But they certainly used the language of punk to get their point across; occasionally, guitarist Geoff Farina abandons his warm, hushed cadences for a hoarse shout that made him sound ragged, intensifying an aggression that burst out with every snaggletoothed guitar riff or drum snap that went off like canonfire. Few followed their path—but who could keep up? Karate could make pensive moods blossom into feverish rollicking (“What Is Sleep?”), gracefully tip-toe around aggressive punk explosions without getting bent out of shape (“Bodies”), and stretch out slowcore’s quietest reveries till their reflective notes sound ripped from an improvisational jazz session (“Caffeine or Me?”). Karate formally introduced the trio as a vital part of an independent U.S. punk scene stubbornly flowering in the face of the major labels’ ’90s harvest.) 28.00
KARATE - Bed Is In the Ocean LP (numero - On their third album, 1998’s ‘The Bed Is In The Ocean’, Karate allowed further influences of jazz to bleed into their already complex fusion of emo, post-hardcore, indie and post-rock. With the departure of guitarist Eamonn Vitt the year before, the group’s punky twin-guitar attack was naturally toned down this time out, bringing out even more nuance in their sound.) 30.00
KATE NV - WOW LP (rvng - Kate NV’s WOW offers listeners a prismatic shift in perspective and scale, a parallel dimension in which the mundane becomes funny, unfamiliar, and altogether sensational. Turning the contents of her 2020 album Room for the Moon upside down and spilling it across a floor checkered with intrigue and surprise, Kate places sound, object, and ritual under the microscope to magnify the delight hidden in plain sight of everyday life. ) 26.00
MEMORY PEARL - Music for 7 Paintings LP (altin village - For Memory Pearl’s Music for 7 Paintings Moshe Fisher-Rozenberg traveled to art galleries throughout North America searching for paintings which would enrapture him. Like the experience of being drawn into the worlds of those paintings, these seven tracks – each one directly referencing a single work by Joan Mitchell, Robert Ryman, Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, Franz Kline, or Jackson Pollock – are love letters to the sympathetic vibration of one creative mind encountering another. They trace the way art inspires and generates art. Each resonates with the reconstructive energy that comes from translating the visual to the auditory. ) 23.00
MODECENTER- s/t LP (a Lo - One of the biggest and best surprises of 2021! There's hundreds or thousands of bands being labelled as "Post-Punk" these days. Banal rehashers, and really creative ones. MODECENTER from Vienna definitely belong to the latter ones, taking cues from KILLING JOKE over the WIPERS to even FLIPPER, and creating a sound of their own. And I felt like it sounds as if the style of SOULSIDE/GvsB was put into a thundering KARP sound. Respect! Formidable!) 21.00
MODECENTER - Peace LP (rock is hell - MODECENTER had suprised and graced the world in 2021 with one of the most excellent original Post-Punk records. Here's now 5 more new tracks from them in the same vein! Released on a one-sided 12" pressed on clear vinyl with green screenprinting on B-side. Packed into an excellently screenprinted and handnumbered slip-in cover, with screenprinted inlay and download-code included. Limited to 270 copies!) 21.00
MUELLIE MESSIAH & PUNK NOT PUNK – Exq I LP (faitiche - Faitiche presents the album Exq I by Berlin underground techno legends Muellie Messiah & Punk not Punk, mainly known under their 100Records moniker. Weighing in at 36 minutes, the track was recorded in 2010, effortlessly intermingling dub, drone and collage, a blend achieved thanks to the duo’s jazz-inspired approach to improvisation.100records is one of the last undiscovered treasures of the Berlin underground of the 1990s and 2000s. Like Elektro Music Department, 100records is unthinkable without techno and the club scene, but with a few exceptions the duo’s tracks are not aimed at the dancefloor. With a claim to universality and a broader frame of reference, 100records developed a more extensive understanding of sound that rests on three pillars: the understated analogue drums of the Roland TR-808, a blurred, dubby sound, and improvisation.) 26.00
THE SENSORY ILLUSIONS – Sensory Illusions II LP (karaoke - Scottish composer and multi-instrumentalist Bill Wells and virtuoso tuba player Danielle Price once more team up for Karaoke Kalk under the name The Sensory Illusions. The two further explore the affinities between their idiosyncratic musical approaches across a variety of styles and genres while also expanding their sound palette. After its predecessor saw Wells working strictly with his electric guitar, on the »Sensory Illusions II« the piano enters the mix on two of the eleven pieces. Much like his brass-heavy collaboration album »Osaka Bridge« with Japanese collective Maher Shalal Hash Baz—made available again on vinyl by the German label Karaoke Kalk in February 2023—this album injects melancholic atmospheres with a sense of playfulness. Picking up on elements from jazz, pop, blues, and classic songwriting while acknowledging their debt to techniques from the worlds of avant-garde and improv music, The Sensory Illusions weave together disparate elements into a colourful, imaginative suite of songs.) 32.00
SUBURBAN NOISE - somewhere between now and forever LP (overdrive - "Sometimes there are certain friendship bonds that overcome the limits of time and space”, this could be a way to describe the long story of Suburban Noise. Born in the 90’s, the melodic-core band is back again with a full length this time!) 18.00
TIGERS JAW - s/t LP (run for cover - Tigers Jaw is the second full-length by American emo band Tigers Jaw. It was released 2008. Five young friends from Scranton, PA known as Tigers Jaw play their brand of upbeat yet melancholy indie-rock. The subtle yet massively clever lyrics combine with music that moves with such youthful exuberance even the most jaded listener will look back to their more careless days. The debut from Tigers Jaw may wear is influences on its sleeve, but instead of a repetitive list of sound-alike bands, themes such as death, friendship, and growing up are tackled from an endearing and hopeful perspective that is almost impossible not to relate to.) 26.00
CD
BERNARD PARMEGIANI – L’œuvre musicale en 12xCD BOX (A 2023 repress of a classic Parmegiani box set, originally released in 2008. The 12 discs of the box contain more than 30 works, composed and recorded over four decades by one of the most iconic concrète composers, including famous works like »De natura sonorum« (1975) and »Sonare« (1996). Accompanied by a 92page-booklet with texts in English and French, »L'Œuvre Musicale En 12 CD« marks the perfect starting point for anyone willing to take a deep dive into Bernard Parmegiani’s body of work.) 65.00
LUC FERRARI - L’œuvre Électronique 10xCD BOX (The decision to assemble a boxed set titled »Luc Ferrari, l’œuvre électronique«, defining the word electronic in the widest sense possible, meant bringing together an essential part of the composer’s work: tape music without any classical instruments. From »Étude aux accidents« (1958) to »Arythmiques« (2003), the 31 works in this compilation will help the listener to discover all the facets of his art based on »captured« sounds. Ferrari tried and tested all the different techniques of studio work: brilliantly elaborated electroacoustic works, radiophonic story-telling or Hörspiele, which he particularly relished, or other semi-improvised works.) 65.00
