Bis Aufs Messer Weekly News 03 October 2023
Hi. Welcome to another newsletter for October - a bunch of cool stuff from Sweden arrived like the new BLOD LP, ANDRE - Gymnasieåren LP, JJ BAND - LIVE I KUNGSTEN 12“, new LEDA LP, also the new GIRLS IN SYNTHESIS - Die Leere LP, COSEY MÜLLER - Irrational Habits LP, THE JESUS AND THE MARY CHAIN - Munki LP, INDEX FOR WORKING MUSIK - Indexe’e LP, CHARLIE MEGIRA & THE MODERN DANCE CLUB - Love Police DLP, LYNC - These Are Not Fall Colors DLP, ROPE - Higher Violence LP, SARAH DAVACHI - Selected Works I & II LP restocks, V/A - Habibi Funk 007: An eclectic selection of music from the Arab world DLP, SARAH DAVACHI restocks, NATIVE NOD restocks, Unwound restocks …
And after almost 1 year delay we finally got the BRAK - dopamine TAPES - wow :)
We also got a few Merch restocks like DEATH Longsleeves, Hüsker Dü & Sonic Youth Shirts etc
And then we have a few of the ZORN Discography DLPs left - if they are gone they are gone. Black or colored vinyl
And we also added ( adding) a few more second hand LPs and 7“s to our discogs
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
5“
LA QUIETE / PHOENIX BODIES - split 5“ (holiday - Warehouse find! Screamo / Grind / Emo power violence in beautiful package. 1 song of both bands. Killer!) 8.00
LP
ANDRE - Gymnasieåren LP (discreet - Debut album from 18-year old Discreet Music hangaround Andre. Home recorded brilliance mainly based on guitar and occasional synthesizers with a sparse use of environmental recordings. The A-side was recorded in September and October 2022 and is a majestic collage of introspective bummed out music with gloomy drones and almost sacral-sounding segments, in atmosphere close to some of the more melancholic chunks of the past FFFM discography. Recorded in December the same year, the flipside is somewhat more abrasive and loud with its blown-out downer ambient that at times resembles a youngster Ashtray Navigations or something akin to Secret Abuse or late-era Yellow Swans but with its own weird identity. A stellar debut and another new name from Gothenburg to keep track of. Edition of 300 copies, white sleeves with paste-on front and back artwork.) 26.00
BLOD - Ondskans Frö LP (discreet - New self-released Blod LP, distributed by Discreet Music The seed of evil has been sown and all the trees have been infected. The trees infect the water, the animals, the air and the children. The fragmentation is becoming more and more apparent. Have the one you trusted the most turned its back on you? All of a sudden you are all alone. Can you drink the water? Dead fish float to the surface. The sky is slowly fading away. What do you do when the last day is here? Ondskans Frö ('The Seed Of Evil') is an album about the last day of the earth, when the evil forces finally has taken over both the people and the nature. The album starts in the morning and takes the listener through a 24 hour journey towards a new dawn where everything is gone. Recorded during April and May 2023, all music and instruments by Gustaf Dicksson. Paste-on artwork on re-used old record jackets. Edition of 500 copies.) 27.00
CHARLIE MEGIRA & THE MODERN DANCE CLUB - Love Police DLP (numero - Provocative post-punk from Israel's undercover goth prince. Megira's lone album with the Modern Dance Club showcased a grimier, more driving vision of his brand of trashy no wave. Spread across 31 tracks and two LPs, Love Police schizophrenically mixes industrial soundscapes, surf ditties, hardcore, swamp pop, bubble grunge, screaming, ecstasy, and enough fuzz to warrant a needle check.) 34.00
COSEY MÜLLER - Irrational Habits LP (static age - Cosey steps right out of the screen of a crackly old vhs to deliver her second release of heels and leather groovers, lifted straight from the sticky dancefloors of smoke stained clubs of the 1981 you wish you partied so hard in you forgot to remember. Driving, crunching and grinding through eight sassy tracks, the conveyor belt of analog tunes is constructed on a foundation of vintage synths and sequencers. Vocals, ice cold like a frozen strawberry daiquiri, guide you through the club to the jukebox next to the cigarette machine so you can pick out that track you like, the one with the spontaneous uplifting guitar hook that comes out of nowhere and kicks like that pill you forgot you took back in 1981. ( Daryl Sulfate, Diät )) 20.00
FANTASY SEX - s/t LP (discreet - Utmarken was a combined venue, record shop and recording space in Gothenburg that existed between 2008 and 2011. A short-lived under the radar hub for outsider art and fringe music, the place quickly became an oasis for an wide variety of local misfits and a hotbed for interesting sounds. The creative, multifaceted atmosphere spawned acts like Ättestupa, Lust For Youth, Street Drinkers and Arv & Miljö but also became a temporarily home for then already established names like Sewer Election and Poppets. Fantasy Sex consisted of Dan Johansson (Sewer Election) and David Eng (Ättestupa) and existed on and off during those three years and the few recordings the duo left behind them captures the true spirit of the time and place better than most. It's still hard to try define exactly what Fantasy Sex really was all about. They almost became a house band, albeit one that necessarily didn't perform in front of an audience. The two major recordings sounds very different to each other and they almost did as many sound installations as they did proper live shows. Very fittingly, the duo pretty much stopped their activities at the same time as Utmarken closed in 2011.) 26.00
GIRLS IN SYNTHESIS - Die Leere LP (Howd - Black vinyl! Following on from their second LP The Rest Is Distraction, on Die Leere the band has stripped back some of the atonal, noisy elements of their sound and replaced them with an intense sparseness, glassy clarity and an added melodic touch. The band's trademark tribal drums and driving bass are still present, along with distorted, death rock-influenced modulated guitar figures, all a refreshing update to their truly experimental post-punk. "The Void" was produced and mixed by Girls In Synthesis. It was recorded in London at the Gun Factory and the S.I.C.K. Studio. The line-up consists of John Linger (lead vocals and bass), James Cubit (vocals and guitar) and Nicole Pinto (drums).) 24.00
INCIPIENTIUM - Undergång LP (happiest place - "The second coming of Incipientium. After his LP debut 'Belastning' on Förlag För Fri Musik (FFFM) last year, Gustav Danielsbacka has not rested. With a handful releases on CD & cassette, his alias Incipientium has proven one of the most productive outlets from the modern Gothenburg scene at the moment. Finally back with the follow-up full-length 'Undergång', Danielsbacka has once again proven to be a bearer of new sounds & guide to new paths in the continuous communications from the greatest place on Earth. Acoustic instruments, voice & radio for magnetic tape, sampler & effects. Recorded spring 2022 on Foster xR8 at Harmful Sound.) 27.00
INDEX FOR WORKING MUSIK - Indexe’e LP (tough love - The 12" is pressed in a one-time edition of 250, with hand-stamped sleeves. …aka A Bunker Intimation Vol. 1. And what have they built down there? A remodel in 40 minutes at half-time, the group temporarily slimmed and tuned to a different gait, a shifting of pulses, delay, moving air; the sound of the room and the body, of the body in the room; a room fogged as emphysemic lungs where indistinct translucent ooze lines its walls, possibly of paranormal origin, possibly of nocturnal transgression alone. The reality - as it ought - is occluded from view. Not necessarily the IFWM unit you might assume, but most certainly one of the many versions they've always been. And not so much a new beginning as an alternative diversion through the abyss. Indexe'e: aka Index For Working Musik. Onwards, inwards. RIYL: the Dead C, Birchville Cat Motel, Skullflower, heat exhaustion, feelings of confusion and self-recrimination et al.) 30.00
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN - Munki DLP (To celebrate the album"s 25-year anniversary, The Jesus And Mary Chain are reissuing their long-sold-out sixth studio album "Munki". Out on Fuzz Club, the reissue arrives on CD and gatefold double LP. The vinyl has been remastered by Pete Maher (The Rolling Stones, Jack White, Liam Gallagher). Originally released June 2nd 1998 on Sub Pop / Creation Records, "Munki" was - up until the Mary Chain"s reformation in 2007 - an experimental rock"n"roll masterclass turned swan song for the Reid brothers, whose fractious in-fighting culminated in the band"s break-up less than a year after its release. It was perhaps fitting, then, that "Munki" is argued by some as the definitive Mary Chain record in the way it seemed to chart the full array of musical directions the band had ploughed over the five records that came before.
JJ BAND - LIVE I KUNGSTEN 12“ (discreet - While working on his solo albums, JJulius put together a live band consisting of Clara Flygare (Standard) on drums and vocals, Gustav Danielsbacka (Incipientium) on guitar and Mattias Rörström (Happiest Place Records) on bass. The all star incarnation debuted in Gothenburg in October 2021 and the following year the group recorded a couple of songs in Kungsten. The heavy ballad opener '500 spänn' sort of evokes the spirit of prime time Felt while the angular UKDIY bizarro blast of 'Sorg I Göteborg' and the late era Skiftande Enheter noddings of 'U2" shows a more energetic side. The galloping, life-affirming instrumental closer 'Vargen' is one of those epics you could easily see the band expand and just doing longer and longer versions of live until it finally takes over the whole set. 45rpm white label 12" with risograph paste-on sleeves and insert. Edition of 490 copies. Mastered by Lasse Marhaug.) 20.00
LEDA - Neuter LP (discreet - Sofie Herner (Enhet För Fri Musik, Neutral) returns with Neuter, the first proper album since the Gitarrmusik III-X LP released on Förlag För Fri Musik back in 2017. Neuter was recorded between 2018 and 2021 and is the culmination of a very distinctive and unmistakable sound Sofie has developed and refined during close to 10 years now. The music of Leda is based on primitive guitar loops of various lenghts, loops that intervenes and creates peculiar rhythms and subtle harmonies. Slow-burning proto-industrial basement buzz with occasional vocals buried in the mix. The connection to the sullen soundscapes of Neutral is of course there, but the skeletal, monotonous compositions and austere nature of things sets this apart widely. Years has passed and Neuter is ultimately more Malmö than Gothenburg. Hints has been thrown out on a handful of limited in-between releases on labels like Knotwilg and Kashual Plastik during the last few years, but Neuter is the pinnacle of Herner's body of solo work. Nine tracks, 37 minutes. Mastered by Linus at Elementstudio and comes packaged in a cover jacket with full colour printed inside. Edition of 750 copies.) 27.00
LISE BARKAS & LISA KÄUFFERT - Lo Becat LP (morc - Buckle up for an extraordinary sonic journey that begins the moment you drop the needle. 'Lo Becat is one long compostion, spread over two sides, and brings you drones, soft melodies and untamed rhythms, often all at once. t's simultaneously warm, heavy, and soothing. Drawing from their backgrounds in both traditional and experimental music, Lise & Lisa bring the best of these two kinds of music together in Lo Becat. The composition commences with a hushed and droning overture, exploring the harmonies that unites their two bagpipes. What follows is a sprawling reinterpretation of ‘la belle va au jardin des amours’ - a French traditional that’s usually sung, but here it gets an equally beautiful yet totally different version. All the while, Lise and Lisa converge the sounds of their bagpipes together into a sonic whirlwind. Towards the end of the composition, a small portion of a French traditional dance a ‘bourrée’, is intertwined, creating a bridge between the ecstatic trance-inducing parts in both drone and folkloric dance music. Totally unheard, and mind boggling. ‘Lo Becat’ offers a unique auditory experience that fearlessly transcends conventional musical boundaries, wandering around through sonic depths, simultaneously sounding really old and very new.) 25.00
LYNC - These Are Not Fall Colors DLP (suicide squeeze COLORED VINYL As the early '90s grunge explosion propelled Seattle's flannel-clad misfits from the seedy downtown clubs into the mainstream, a new generation of restless artists filled the void left in the Pacific Northwest's underground music scene. Many of the under-21s who made music in the wake of "Nevermind" seemed even less enthusiastic about the slick production values, classic rock references and testosterone-fueled mosh culture that accompanied the zeitgeist. They preferred their own brand of Revolution Summer, moving away from the popular sounds of the era and towards a more emotionally nuanced, melodic and inclusive style of punk. Washington's Puget Sound trio Lync perfectly captured the spirit of the era, fusing the passionate chaos of the DC and San Diego scenes with the raw DIY pop sensibilities of Olympia's thriving indie community into a unified sound. Although they were only a band for two years, they helped define the next era of the Northwest Underground, inspiring countless other artists and sparking the creation of popular records from the region. After being out of print for over a decade, the band's only LP, "These Are Not Fall Colors", has now been remastered and expanded into a 2xLP, which includes "Can't Tie Yet" - a compilation track from the recording session of the album - was added. Originally released on K Records in the summer of '94, just months before the band called it quits, "These Are Not Fall Colors" is a boisterous collection of rowdy anthems played on taped-together machines. Led by the quirky melodies of the late singer and guitarist Sam Jayne and driven by the driving bass of James Bertram and the drums of David Schneider, the album's eleven songs channel that indefinable sound of the early '90s, before descriptors like "post-hardcore" and “Emo” became pejorative terms. Sure, on songs like "B" and "Silverspoon Glasses" you get a feel for the more sophisticated mid-tempo punk approach, and on "Pennies to Save" and "Cue Cards" you might catch a hint of wistful songwriting, but Lync seem to absorb their ideas from whatever inspiration they could find in the gray gloom and geographical isolation of western Washington and combine them into a style all their own. Despite Lync's short existence, its modest ambitions, and its DIY approach, its work has had a major impact. From then on, Jayne made music under the name Love As Laughter. Built to Spill's Doug Martsch loved the album so much that he hired Bertram and Schneider as the rhythm section for the "There's Nothing Wrong with Love" tour. Phil Ek, the sound engineer for These Are Not Fall Colors, was later involved in the recording and production of Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses and The Shins. Former bassist Isaac Brock and "These Are Not Fall Colors" artwork designer Jeremiah Green later founded Modest Mouse. Bertram and Green also later founded the respected indie rock group Red Stars Theory. Sometimes it feels like you could pick any Northwest indie rock group from the '90s and '00s and trace their DNA back to Lync. The deluxe edition of These Are Not Fall Colors is pressed on 180g color-in-color vinyl and packaged in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves and expanded artwork by Jesse LeDoux. The 2xLP also includes an 18x24 poster with detailed liner notes by Brian Cook) 37.00
MARIA BC - Spike Field LP (sacred bones - RED VINYL In the early 1990s, a team of linguists, engineers, anthropologists, and archaeologists were tasked with constructing a type of communication that could transcend time. How might we converse with future civilizations when language may evolve or dissolve entirely? The result yielded the design of spike fields; a strange construction of granite thorns bursting from the earth to alert its viewers to the deadly uninhabitability of nuclear waste disposal sites. For Maria BC (they/them), this state of temporal focus molds the wanderings on their second full length album Spike Field. How do we connect with the weathered shadow of our experience, while envisioning the self a few steps ahead of us? While their debut album Hyaline (2022, Father/Daughter) explored grief and anxiety through a series of character-led accounts, Spike Field recognizes that the past will continue to lurk below the surface until we decide to break through the soil. Spike Field was recorded in the home of a family friend. The home featured an out-of-tune baby Steinway piano, complete with squeaky hammers and strange, sporadic sounds. The piano is sprinkled throughout the album, and features extensively on opener "Amber," showcasing Maria BC's looser, more extensive arrangements. The song flickers with electronic wonder, like a wave seeking out its station, before crashing into the angelic choral introduction of "Watcher". Strings, plucked guitar and buzzing swells accompany their classically-trained mezzo-soprano voice on "Return to Sender," a song that focuses on the frustrations and turmoil of being unable to reach a loved one--both physically and emotionally. Spike Field reminds us that despite our best efforts to bury certain aspects of ourselves, they will always lurk beneath the surface. Instead of ignoring the seeds striving to break through, we can point to these places with a curious grace, concocting a language that transcends words to converse with our previous selves. Maria BC pieces together juxtaposing sonic landscapes and oscillating vocals to represent the thread of miscommunication, or the failure of words, that weaves throughout the album, transforming it into a distinct and ever-evolving sonic tongue. If we listen, we might find something new within ourselves.) 28.00
ROPE - Higher Violence LP (beth shalom - LTD TO 100 copies - This album was recorded at Impression Recordings, Berlin by Liam Blomqvist. Additional vocals were recorded at Funkhaus, Berlin by Vasileios Karachalios. It was mixed and mastered by Tom Hill at the Bookhouse Studio, London.The aptly titled ‘Higher Violence’ serves as a metaphorical weather vane, encapsulating the band’s navigation through the turbulence of unforeseen and unstoppable forces, an adaptation of the German term ‘Höhere Gewalt’. This album, much like its creators, has been shaped by the tumultuous events of its inception – from the loss of band members to the grip of addiction and the relentless setbacks brought about by the global pandemic. The making of the album itself is an ode to the band’s perseverance and resilience. It has emerged as a beacon of catharsis and expression, an emblem of the resilient spirit that has marked Rope’s journey so far. Despite the inevitable chaos that ensued in its creation, the resulting work is a testament to the band’s ability to channel their struggles into something with a potency that resonates far beyond the confines of their music. (IDIOTEQ)) 27.00
ROXANE METAYER - Éclipse des ocelles LP (morc - Repress on red Vinyl - Born in France and currently residing in Brussels, Roxane Métayer is truly a multidisciplinary artist. Learning the violin at a young age, she also developed herself as a visual artist, creating drawings, sculptures in uncommon materials as soap, and in recent years video. Her work as a musician is of an equally spontaneous nature. Though Éclipse des Ocelles is her debut album, she’s been quite active the past couple of years, in the duo’s Gebogen Ogen and Sage Alyte (with whom she released an lp on Vlek early in 2021) On her first solo lp, Roxane Métayer fully explores the sonic possibilities of the violin, field recordings and folk oriented orchestration and melodies. The violin is often taking the melodic lead, but at the same time serves a drone background, but just as much a percussion instrument. In any case: the focus is definitely on the sound itself. She’s not afraid to use effects, minimal percussion, whistles and the occasional hushed vocal to expand the sonic palette to a maximum effect, resulting in multilayered, semi-improvised and subtle meanderings, gently evolving around a tight core.) 25.00
SARAH DAVACHI - Selected Works I LP (Late - The retrospective is an ideal way to mark 10 years of releases by composer Sarah Davachi, whose blessed run of recordings of rare, quiet intensity hold among the past decade’s definitive lowkey works. As her legion followers will surely attest, Davachi’s music is possessed of a deeply uncanny potential to mesmerise and transport the mind to other places, following extended lines of melodic and harmonic thought, rooted in early music, chamber classical, and C.20th American minimalism, to the gauziest, most seductive new horizons of timbre and psychoacoustics.As with her live shows, Davachi’s recorded music operates at, or just below, the speed of resting thought, with a life-affirming ability to sync one’s senses to hers, prompting the imagination to follow its own nose to wherever it goes. To attentively listen to her work can result in genuine, unfettered zen-like or immanent experience, untroubled by the musical clutter that can distract or more plainly signpost emotions, and give listeners a thruline to the sublime.) 25.00
SARAH DAVACHI - Selected Works II LP (Late - The retrospective is an ideal way to mark 10 years of releases by composer Sarah Davachi, whose blessed run of recordings of rare, quiet intensity hold among the past decade’s definitive lowkey works. As her legion followers will surely attest, Davachi’s music is possessed of a deeply uncanny potential to mesmerise and transport the mind to other places, following extended lines of melodic and harmonic thought, rooted in early music, chamber classical, and C.20th American minimalism, to the gauziest, most seductive new horizons of timbre and psychoacoustics. As with her live shows, Davachi’s recorded music operates at, or just below, the speed of resting thought, with a life-affirming ability to sync one’s senses to hers, prompting the imagination to follow its own nose to wherever it goes. To attentively listen to her work can result in genuine, unfettered zen-like or immanent experience, untroubled by the musical clutter that can distract or more plainly signpost emotions, and give listeners a thruline to the sublime.) 25.00
SOCCER COMMITTEE - ♥/Lamb LP (morc - soccer Committee has always been an consistent exercise in restraint, and offering space. And on ‘♥/Lamb’, this approach has been taken to perfection. The arrangements are still minimal, with plenty of time for the tones and melodies to resonate with maximum impact. Mariska Baars still carefully selects each note, and lets the sound evolve with precise care. Her songs are definitely rooted in the folktradition, but at the same time very ‘ambient’, in the true sense of the word. And still: there’s a bit of a different approach here, compared with her earlier work: some subtle overdubs, acapella pieces and a guest appearance by dutch tapeloopwizard Wouter van Veldhoven.) 25.00
V/A - Habibi Funk 007: An eclectic selection of music from the Arab world DLP (habibi - Habibi Funk is dedicated to re-releasing a style of music that historically never existed as a musical genre. We use the term to describe a certain sound that we like from the countries of the Arab world. The songs we chose were created in places quite far from another and under very different circumstances. Some were written and recorded during war times, others in exile. Despite the differences we think there is a musical connection between them. Essentially, we are interested in the musical endeavors, in which artists from the Arab world mixed local and regional influences with musical interests that came from outside of the region. Even though the name suggests it’s all about funk music, our focus is more than just that. Often these influences might be inspired from Western popular music such as soul, pop and rock but it’s not limited to that either. Some of our favorite records are best described as Arabic zouk (a genre originating from the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe) like Mallek Mohamed’s music, Algerian coladera (a popular musical style from the Cape Verdean islands) or Lebanese AOR, which means the process of musical influences displayed on this compilation was much more versatile than just taking Western music as a blueprint and translating it with a local accent. The compilation features 15 different artists. Some you might already know thru Habibi Funk’s releases like Fadoul, Ahmed Malek, Dalton or Al Massrieen, while others are meant as an introduction to artists like Kamal Keila, Sharhabeel Ahmed, Attarazat Addahabia & Mallek Mohamed who will all release full length albums on Habibi Funk in 2018.) 30.00
TAPES
BRAK - Dopamine TAPE (ADAGIO830 - Brak is a new Band from Berlin feat. peeps of Urin and other bands - 5 songs of blistering noisy no-wavy punk.. (plus 1 bonus track on Tape)) 7.00
