Bis Aufs Messer Weekly News 03 July 2022
Hi. Welcome to another newsletter for July. We hope you all had a cooling time at a lake with some good music and a good read. If you need some more good music or reading material - we got you covered. Superior Viaduct re issued the killer CONTORTIONS - Buy LP, CRIME - San Francisco’s Doomed LP, we also got the new amazing FÉLICIA ATKINSON – Image Langage DLP and restock of the FÉLICIA ATKINSON & JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA – Un Hiver En Plein Été LP, a new RAZEN - Regression LP, LIARS - They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top LP re issue, Yussef Kamaal restock, SHABAKA AND THE ANCESTORS - Wisdom Of Elders DLP
Til then thank you for all your orders & support.
Robert & Norman
mailorder@bisaufmesser.com
www.adagio830-records.bandcamp.com
LP
ALEXANDER HACKE - Borsigwerke (The Complete Recordings Of Alexander Von Borsig) DLP (lived as an only child of a divorced marriage with his mother in Berlin - Neukölln. From an early age he was fascinated by science fiction and horror films, which he was allowed to see on television and whose sounds he tried to imitate with a microphone and a cassette recorder. It was only later that he fell in love with, preferably very strange, electronic music and upon intensive begging was given a semi-modular Korg MS-20 analogue synthesizer for Christmas in 1978 and a Roland CR-78 rhythm machine for his fourteenth birthday in October of the following year. Inspired by groups like Throbbing Gristle, Suicide or Chrome, he not only began to produce his own music with these instruments, but also to invent the myth of his persona. Since his father worked as a mechanical engineer for the renowned Borsig company and provided him with advertising stickers, which Alexander used to decorate the walls of the relevant Berlin nightclubs, his pseudonym quickly established itself, which he embellished with the story of a noble child prodigy stemming from the long-lost von Borsig family.) 65.00
BHLEG - Fäghring LP (nordvif - After the blackest night comes the most radiant dawn; the spark of life illuminates all that which was swallowed by shadows. “Fäghring” (Florescence) bears the gift of rebirth - both in nature and for Swedish folk metal band Bhleg. The fourth and closing part of the album tetralogy “Ár” is the most ambitious Bhleg recording to date. Its metal parts are saturated with both primal ferocity and majestic atmosphere. The ambient interludes from their early works are still here, but now conveyed mostly through analogue recordings.) 28.00
BOB LIND - Since There Were Circles LP (Antarctica - Singer-songwriter Bob Lind will forever be immortalized by his 1965 hit, »Elusive Butterfly«, but his career is so much more interesting than the fading wonder of that one hit. Once a hard-partying buddy of Charles Bukowski, Lind was the inspiration for the character »Dinky Summers«, a down-on-his-luck folk singer in Bukowski's 1978 novel Women. Lind also doubled as a writer, penning a number of novels and plays as well as serving as a long-time staff writer at the lowbrow tabloid Weekly World News. If that wasn't enough, Lind is also responsible for one of the greatest major-label 'loner' albums of all time, 1971's Since There Were Circles. After several years languishing without a second hit for the World Pacific label, Lind signed to Capitol and went into the studio with some of the biggest names in the LA country-rock scene including Doug Dillard, Gene Clark, Bernie Leadon and legendary session bassist Carol Kaye. While the record was well-received critically, it sold poorly and marked Lind's bitter departure from the music business for several decades.) 27.00
CONTORTIONS - Buy LP (Superior - Soon after their 1978 debut on the Brian Eno-produced »No New York«, a compilation that defined the No Wave scene, James Chance's group Contortions had already evolved – getting sharper, tighter and just plain faster. Despite the loss of keyboardist Adele Bertei and bassist Geoge Scott (who refused to sign a new contract demanded by Chance and his then partner, band manager Anya Phillips) Contortions were firing on all cylinders, and their first full-length album, 1979's »Buy«, is a marvel of hot-wired energy.) 27.00
CRIME - San Francisco’s Doomed LP (superior - The legend of Crime looms large among punk aficionados the world over. Formed in the mid-1970s, the band's dual-guitar sound, confrontational image and sleazed methodology still serve as inspiration decades later. With only a handful of singles released during their active lifespan, Crime's legacy grew significantly as archival recordings began to trickle out in the early 1990s. Of all these excavations, San Francisco's Doomed was one of the first and certainly one of the most powerful. Culled from 1978-79 studio demos and rehearsal tapes, »San Francisco's Doomed« captures the frenzy of Crime's sound in a fittingly loose, devil-may-care framework. Side one is a gloriously unpolished assault of classic, gutter-level punk with vicious live set staples like »Feel The Beat« and »Piss On Your Dog« taking marquee placement over the more well-known singles tracks. Side two finds Crime taking aim at the so-called New Wave, augmenting their attack with ripped odes that bear the direct influence of science fiction and rockabilly on the group. Few recordings from US punk's first wave match the raw intensity heard on »San Francisco's Doomed«.) 27.00
FÉLICIA ATKINSON & JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA – Un Hiver En Plein Été LP (shelter - From its earliest utterances, experimental music has been particularly disposed to transnational and cross-cultural collaboration. Seeking the answer for a fundamental problem - how to transcend the boundaries of difference, distance, and time - it presents a means to find common ground and communicate through the elemental form of sound. Over the last 5 years, this precisely what the duo of Félicia Atkinson & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma has achieved, intertwining sublime sonorities across the geographic expanses between their respective homes in France and the United States. Their third album for Shelter Press, ‘Un hiver en plein été’ (‘A winter in the middle of summer’) - the first to have been largely recorded by Atkinson and Cantu-Ledesma together in the same space - distills a mesmerizing pallet of acoustic and electronic sources into an open discourse of radically poetic forms, offering glimpses of warmth and intimacy waiting in the post-covid world to come.) 28.00
FÉLICIA ATKINSON – Image Langage DLP (shelter press - Felicia Atkinson’s music always puts the listener somewhere in particular. There are two categories of place that are important to »Image Langage«: the house and the landscape. Inside and outside, different ways of orienting a body towards the world. They are in dialogue, insofar as in the places Atkinson made this record—Leman Lake, during a residency at La Becque in Switzerland, and at her home on the wild coast of Normandy—the landscape is what is waiting for you when you leave the house, and vice-versa. Each threatens—or is it offers, kindly, even promises? —to dissolve the other. Recognizing the normalization of home studios these days, she revisited twentieth-century women artists who variously chose, and were chosen by, their homes as a place to work: the desert retreats of Agnes Martin and Georgia O’Keefe, the life and death of Sylvia Plath. Building a record is like building a house: a structure in which one can encounter oneself, each room a song with its own function in the project of everyday life.) 34.00
FITZ GORE - Soundmusication LP (sonorama - “Soundmusication” is the third and final album by Jamaican born tenorist Fitz Gore, another rare and beautiful spiritual jazz LP from the late 1970s. “Fitz had a very deeputopian faith in the right music, which could change the world and develop a real condition of peace, because it was supposed to move people`s feelings and actions to spiritual truth. He was convinced that music owned the healing power of the world” (Ulrich Kurth). Other players include Lukoki Mampasi on electric piano, Obama Ngomo on bass, Emmanuel Dipanda on drums or Gil Nguema on guitar. They really open the door to let the leader do such amazing things on his horn. First reissue remastered in 2022, comes with original artworks and the bonus track “Gisela (Lion Rock)”. ) 27.00
KI – Tearful face of my cute love [is begging to me] LP (an archives - Edition of 285 copies, silkscreened sleeve w/ obi, inserts & postcard - The latest entry in An’archives’ »Free Wind Mood« series, Ki is a trio that pits long-time collaborators Tamio Shiraishi (saxophone, voice) and Takahashi Michiko aka Mico (drums, voice, vocoder, melodica, piano, percussion) against drummer, percussionist and vocalist Fritz Welch. They each bring a wealth of experience, from Shiraishi’s early moves in the Japanese underground of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s – he was a founding member of Fushitsusha, and played with Taco and Machinegun Tango – to his legendary, late-night solo New York subway performances; he and Mico also spent some time playing with No Neck Blues Band, while Welch, currently based in Glasgow, has a long history taking in stints with Peeesseye, Lambs Gamble and FvRTvR.) 30.00
LIARS - They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top LP (mute - Liars are one of those bands (ok, pretty much an Angus Andrew solo project these days) where it is hard to predict what they might do next. It all started with this lengthily-titled masterpiece which originally hit the stores in 2001. It's full of a brand of madcap angular punk and post-punk that while not particularly paving a way for what they did after, introduced them as a unique driving force. It's all part of a new re-issue series so we can reassess what the hell it was they were up to over the years. ) 28.00
RAZEN - Regression LP (Razen is the collective consciousness of core members Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour, who since 2010 have realized themselves through virtuoistic and highly expressive improvisations with lesser-heard instruments. Experimenting with repetition of tones through controlled breathing and phrasing, Razen arrive at a synesthetic playground of auditory textures and colorful imagery. The ensemble is carefully orchestrated for every occasion with the intent and desire to escape to environments unbeknownst to them, taking shelter in the fleeting ego-dissolving moments that arise, whether divine or disturbing. While the formula of instrumentation and like-minded peers may appear mundane on paper, it’s Brecht and Kim’s outlook and imagination beyond musical references that’s the immeasurable catalyst to their peculiar pursuits. Conversations about paintings, books, or films ultimately manifest themselves into live performances or album recordings - with the philosophy of embracing playfulness and exploration through the lens of a child’s eye.) 25.00
SAVAGE NECROMANCY –Feathers Fall To Flames LP (20 buck spin - Black and Death Metal are uniquely positioned entities as both grounds for vast experimentation and unyielding pillars of tradition. Both directions have merit and appreciation within the underground, both keep the genre weltering in new blood. Savage Necromancy are firmly in the latter camp, preserving and strengthening the heritage of the most unholy and barbaric blasphemies in ways immediately recognizable and deeply worshipped, yet putting their distinctive mark on the style. The cruel sound and influences displayed on the Savage Necromancy debut LP ‘Feathers Fall To Flames’ are instantly familiar, and when done with such magisterial fervor and conquering fire becomes not occasion for admonishment but cause for debauched blood-soaked celebration. Tried and true bestial ferocity, profane mockery and spike-fisted black metal victory that leaves no cross unturned. ) 28.00
SHABAKA AND THE ANCESTORS - Wisdom Of Elders DLP (Brownwood - Wisdom of the Elders was recorded in Johannesburg in 2015 on one of many trips Shabaka Hutchings took there to immerse himself in the country’s rich musical heritage. The album is a psalm in nine parts. An episodic unfurling of a sonic journey across the Atlantic. “The grand scheme of this album is to present the musical language that I normally associate with my UK bands in the context of SA musicians and musical sensibilities,” explains Shabaka Hutchings. 8 men in a studio in Johannesburg; one tenor sax, one alto sax, one trumpet. One on vocals, one on ivory, one bass, one on percussion and one the drums. 800 million voices. 700 years. Millions of bones cracking under the weight of 22 false free years. Innumerable tiny sparks. One uncontrollable blaze.) 30.00
TZOMPANTLI - Tlazcaltiliztli LP (20 buck spin - A Tzompantli, in bygone days, was a rack used to display human skulls, often of enemies or sacrifices, in several Mesoamerican civilizations. In 2022, Tzompantli is a beyond crushing Death Doom war march built on a bedrock of Native / Indigenous themes, rituals and history, illuminating the splendor, brutality and despair within. Nearly three years after the band’s self-released EP, Tzompantli’s debut full length presents the first smoke-conjured specter to manifest materially. ‘Tlazcaltiliztli’, a ritual ceremony that translates to; ‘nourishing the fire and sun with blood’, is imbued with the spirit of Native inspiration that dwells deep within the heart and soul of the project and is skillfully weaved into a traditional bludgeoning framework of spine-severing savagery and melancholic anguish. On the ritualistic ‘Eltequi’ (to cut the chest open and extract the heart as an offering) the band’s unification of native / folk instrumentation and heaviness becomes one in the same, opening vast new horizons for where this sound can go. ) 28.00
THE WAVE PICTURES - When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings DLP (The Wave Pictures bring to an end a four year hiatus with a double LP ‘When The Emperor Spreads His Purple Wings’. Lead single ‘This Heart Of Mine’ is a beautifully gentle, autumnal tune, inspired by Neil Young’s country-tinged output and features lyrics about memories, space and time travel. The band are known for playing a variety of styles from garage rock to jazz and blues. ) 30.00
TAPES
MERZBOW - Peace For Animals TAPE (Edition of 200 copies, red & white color body cassette Music by Masami Akita. Recorded and mixed at Bedroom in Tokyo, August 2007. Originally this album was released by Quasi Pop Records in 2007 in Ukraine.) 13.00
CD
MERZBOW - Peace For Animals CD (Music by Masami Akita. Recorded and mixed at Bedroom in Tokyo, August 2007. Originally this album was released by Quasi Pop Records in 2007 in Ukraine.) 12.00
MAGAZINES
WIRE - #462 I AUGUST 2022 MAG (The August 2022 issue of The Wire features poet and vocalist Saul Williams, instrumentalist Laura Cannell, tenor saxophonist Alan Skidmore, guitarist and songwriter Bob Mould, and much more. Plus, The Wire Tapper 59 CD) 8.00
