AIDAN BAKER - 'I Fall Into You' CD (Basses Frequencies)
(2008) Reissue of the limited 2002 release from Canadian artist Aidan Baker (Nadja, Arc), originally issued on US label Public Eyesore. "Mixing drone with post rock and experimental electronics, this 5 track, 50-minute release takes inspiration from tons of different sources and stirs them together into one drifting mass of sound... heaving layers shift over one another like a Stars Of The Lid track, but instead of letting the washes go wherever they want, he introduces a very subtle beat behind it all... Combined, the first three tracks on the release are some of the best work in the area of drone and ambient that I've heard this year... if you're a fan of drone and ambient music, definitely seek out this release, as Baker is definitely doing some great things (Almost Cool). Ltd x 500 with new artwork including lyrics.
UK 10.50£
Europe 11.50£
World 12.50£
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AMBER ASYLUM - 'Still Point' CD (Profound Lore Records)
(2007) One of the most inspiring Neoclassical chamber music acts around. Along with “Still Point” being the most polarizing observation within the Amber Asylum repertoire, the journey that the listener will undertake in such a pilgrimage will be one where sombre and lush cinematic orchestrations parallel with voices of darkly angelic wonder. Through an incredible dark mood-shifting sound journey, where the lines between despair and hope become blurred through an elegant cascading blanket of dense rich comforting fog, “Still Point” is an unforgettable jaunt that will offer that haunting embrace that we cannot help but simply welcome. Digisleeve with sticker.
ANTIGEN SHIFT - 'The Way Of The North' CD (Ad Noiseam)
(2006) Antigen Shift (aka Nick Thériault) presents his second album, in which the raw noisy beats have left room to deeper bass, syncopated rhythms and rich melodies. Harmonious and irresistible, “The Way Of The North” is the coming of age for this essential act of the hard electronic scene. Antigen Shift does a lot more than fulfilling his fans's expectations here, bring a fresh look at his music and signing a massive, efficient and terribly seducing album. Digipak.
(2007) The first part of the Aural Holograms series incorporates various call and response patterns manifesting vibrating, subtle energies, all of which have been accurately divided into separate rhythmic dimensions and time-shifting aural tapestries. The overall experience is transmitted by the intensity of syncopated rhythms, lingering reed organ, self-transforming vocal work, accompanied with carefully chosen oscillating tunes and a variety of percussive patterns utilising artefacts crafted according to the methods of traditional metallurgy, as well as real-time tape operations. Six-panel hand finished foldout sleeve, in an edition of 1000 copies.
BLINDHAED - 'Whether That Will Make People Want To Become Archaeologists, We'll Have To See' 12" (Ini.Itu)
(2008) The first release on this Belgian label is a single-sided , 20-minute 12" from Blindhæd. Abstract, musique concrete and experimental sounds, citing their influences as Lull, Asmus Tietchens, Phill Niblock etc. "The slight metallic rumble, the same subaquatic sound processing, the debris of contact microphone rumble. It seems to be dealing less with field recordings, and more with the electronic layering of various concrete actions and sounds, which shift along each other in quite an intelligent way. One can sense that there is quite some time and effort in this piece, since it flows subtle and moves into various different textures" (Vital Weekly). Ltd x 250 hand-numbered copies in a full colour sleeve.
(2006) Dialing In is the ecstatic roaring psychedelic drone project of Seattle based sound artist Reita Piecuch. Utilising the natural acoustics of a series of reverberant spaces she weaves together super saturated soundscapes by recording in one environment, playing back in another, and then re-recording this recording playing back in yet another environment. On 'Cows in Lye' the original sound sources range from loops of field recordings from a trip to India, piano, and the shifting drones of a "Shruti Box" (electronic Tamboura). One track also features a long stream of consciousness vocal performance from avant-crooner 'Herb Diamante'. 6-panel digifile.
UK 10.50£
Europe 11.50£
World 12.50£
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EIDVLON - 'Idolatriae' CD (Malignant Records)
(2007) The debut CD from Eidvlon (Italy) contains 7 tracks of ultra bleak, abstract atmospheres, with sounds and textures that seem to seep from catacomb walls and come slithering out of subterranean chambers. Certainly, this can be classified as a dark ambient record, but at it’s core, it’s more than just that simple classification. There’s a gritty, more jagged edge here, with tetonic shifts, deep rumblings, and crackling, climatic squalls buried under a bed of ghostly reverb and haunting tonal resonance. Fits in nicely with past Malignant releases such as R-A-A-N's 'The Nacrasti', Heid's 'Arktogaa', and even Caul's 'Crucible' CD. In elegant 6 panel digipak, with stark black and white, carefully arranged illustrations inspired by Taschism and Spatial art.
(2006) Singular work from this Dutch-born Belgian composer who isolates elements from The Conet Project’s macabre collection of secret shortwave "number stations" and assembles them in massively brooding late night dronescapes, repeat tone clusters and flashes of phantom electricity. Something supremely disconcerting about the mechanised voices and occult number calls and put in this context the whole piece takes on a bizarre / surreal almost Nurse With Wound air. 'Shift Coordinate Points' refers to an excerpt from William Burrough's novel 'Nova Express. Edition of 300 copies.
UK 12£
Europe 14£
World 16£
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FABIO ORSI & MAMUTHONES - 'The First Born' CD (A Silent Place)
(2008) "The First Born" the first collaboration between Fabio Orsi and Mamuthones (Alessio Gastaldello, ex-Jennifer Gentle). After six years with the Jennifers, Alessio split amicably in late 2006 and reinvented himself as Mamuthones. Built around a series of percussion-cum-keyboard sonic landscapes performed by Mamuthones and enriched by deep, droney electronic layers later added by Orsi, "The First Born" contains four long tracks of dark, brooding modern psychedelia. The whole album feels like an ancient sea ebbing and flowing on some distant alien shore, making for a curiously disjointed listening experience, at the same time peaceful and menacing. The ever-shifting sonic textures evoke both the starchildren krautrockers of old and more recent outer-world explorers but always keep a strong personal identity, firmly rooted in the current weird Italian take on space rock. Digifile.
UK 10.50£
Europe 11.50£
World 12.50£
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FIRE IN THE HEAD / HUM OF THE DRUID - 'Split' 12" (Cipher Productions)
(2008) For the track titled "The Coming Silence", F/I/T/H (Mike page) creates a constantly shifting soundscape of electronics, field recordings, pulsing analogue synths, samples and vocals, culminating in a near-melodic, rhythmic assault of industrial bombast. HOTD gives a side long track created in late 2005 / early 2006. Heavy electronic cracking and midrange noise textures meld with electro-acoustic placement and the occasional obscure vocal to establish a diverse landscape of sound. Sound that is decidedly dark, but true-to-life in the perspective it offers. Presented with hand assembled paste-on covers, featuring original, exclusive artwork by Nick Blinko (Rudimentary Peni) and Eric Stonefelt (Hum Of The Druid). Ltd x 300!
(2007) Half Makeshift is the solo project of Pennsylvania's Nathan Michael. L'anse Amort contains four tracks that expand on the density of his debut "Aphotic Leech", creating more space and reflection, more peaks and valleys. The monumental 17 minute opener "Whale Heart" builds from a simple melody and crackling electro-static to eventually collapse under its own weight in a huge Nadja-esque wall of drone riffery, while other tracks are comparable to Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore. "L'anse Amort" is epic in a way most "post-rock" bands can only aspire to. Comes specially packaged in a vertical gatefold with four photographic postcards.
HALF MAKESHIFT - 'Omen' CD (Profound Lore Records)
(2008) “Omen” is a devastating observation of formidable experimental ambient drone-like subtle mastery. With moments that remind of Nadja, Sunn O))), Godspeed! You Black Emperor and A Silver Mount Zion, “Omen” is an opus of dense and flowing sonic terrain where cinematic sound visions create vast, desperate, and devastating scenarios, almost serving its purpose like a desperate doomsday soundtrack. Working as a 50+ minute track, but separated into four parts, “Omen” subtly shifts through different emotions and moods; soothing and comforting, yet at the same time virulent and uneasy, and ultimately eerie and chilling. The incredible use of melody via light guitar strums and guitar ambience, melded with waves of static bursts and ivory key tappings, create the build-up that will inevitably come in the form of massive drone rumblings. This is the final work of Half Makeshift. Mastered by James Plotkin (Old, Khanate). 6-panel digipak.
JOHN WATERMANN - 'Warmth Is The Fifth Room' LP (Nightshift Records)
(1988) Now this is a rare title! The first ever release from this late Brisbane noise artist - and the original Australian pressing from 1988! Dancy electronica / cheesy synth, not particularly experimental! Very reminiscent of the 80's Severed Heads sound. All LPs are in mint and unplayed condition. Very few in stock.
UK 12£
Europe 14£
World 16£
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M. KOURIE - 'The Dreams Of M. Kourie' CD (Chrome Peeler)
Solo debut by Californian Nathan Berlinguette of 5/5/2000, The Human Quena Orchestra, and Creation Is Crucifixion. 'The Dreams Of...' sets a course for the heart of a black hole, and takes the scenic sonic route getting there. This is the sound of stargazing, a blackened landscape of warm shimmer that imperceptibly shifts and contorts, each new shape even more abstract and more black than the shape before, tracing a minimal path that simultaneously drifts beneath the sea, through subterranean caverns, amidst the vacuum of space and through the impossibility of alternate universes. Soft rumbles, warm chordal swells, glistening abstract melodies, drifting gauzy shimmer, all falling into one another and making the journey special. Packaged in a simple folded black sleeve, printed with gold foil. Features guest appearances by Tim Green (The Fucking Champs) and Ryan Unks (Creation Is Crucifixion, Circadia).
Debut 'EP' from this French duo containing the two title tracks and two remix tracks. 'Psychoide' is a "gorgeous soft cacophony of epic post rock drift", while 'Participation Shift' has "deep soft swells of shimmering warmth and distant bits of industrial clatter, a slow burning ambient drift that is eventually joined by a simple motorik rhythm". The two remix tracks are: 'Psychoide' remixed by SCANNER (Robin Rimbaud) and Participation Mystic remixed by JESU (Justin Broadrick of Final, Techno Animal, Godflesh). The result is a very cinematic, mesmerising warm piece of music, spanning 43 minutes. Limited to 1000 copies in a nice digipak with sticker.
UK 9£
Europe 10£
World 11£
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MARK O'LEARY / GUNTER MULLER - 'Skyshifter' CD (Creative Sources)
"...the duo weave a shimmering tapestry of alien drone, scattering bits of harddrive flotsam across squalls of ringing jetsam. "Improvisational" this recording might be, but aesthetically more than a few chronologically cultural links are forged with pioneer soundscapers of yesteryear (Xenakis, Stockhausen, Babbitt, Subotnick) more so than any straightforward diagrammatical connection with post-jazz avant-gardists... the duo delight in erecting a quakebasket quiverfest of extraordinarily well-articulated electronic music: gently warbling pulses course and murmur as they feint between preening tone clusters and software backwash, a bubbling cauldron of intense sonic energy that is factory resistant to pigeonholing." (The Squid's Ear).
UK 9£
Europe 10£
World 11£
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MICHAEL MANTRA - 'D#m / Gm' CD (Purple Soil)
"D#m / Gm" is an album of extended ambient listening of sonic icebergs, slowly shifting over time. The album is based in ultra minimal atmospheric dronecore - an exploration into the dark unknown of sombre sonic states, of the mysterious unknown, leveraging changes in states of feeling and states of consciousness. Presented in a stunning 6-panel digisleeve with images courtesy of NASA. Recommended!
UK 10.50£
Europe 11.50£
World 12.50£
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NECROPHORUS - 'Drifting In Motion' CD (Old Europa Cafe)
Reissue of the 2000 release (Crowd Control Activities) from the project of Peter Andersson (Raison D'Etre). "Arctic ambience, melting with imagination, leads the listener to the frozen tundra at the top of the world. This rarely explored land, resonant with a shimmering radiance that is bleak, barren and mysterious, is distinguished by slivers of fantastical nuances that twinkle like crystals under the midnight sun.” The entire album has been carefully remixed and has been spiced with 3 more nuances. For this reissue, Maria Gullqvist and Eva Verholen were asked to contribute with their own impressions of experiencing ’Drifting in Motion’. Their amazing works are presented on the completely new designed CD artwork in a six-panel digipak.
NOISEGATE - 'Suspended Animation Ambient Vol. I' CD (Tumult)
For their second full length album, this East Bay ambient act abandon the violent, corrosive noise that peppered their first full length and instead have created a dark and barren dronescape of ominous, almost imperceptibly shifting, deep, resonant rumbles. Shimmering luminescent shards of low end flow effortlessly through the glistening darkness while hazy tonal reverberations reflect microscopic textures, grey and austere. Breath-taking arrangements of hum and buzz, chime and soothe. Reminiscent of the isolationist experiments and drone investigations of Lustmord, Organum, Zoviet France, Andrew Chalk and Jonathan Coleclough.
2nd edition of this 1995 album. Pain Jerk (Kohei Gomi) has been one of Japan's most lethal figures in the harsh noise underground throughout the 1990's, and this 4-track, hour-long exercise in extreme electronic blast cut-up and constantly shifting, dynamic textures is one of his all-time finest works. A hyperspeed collage of spastic feedback, detailed distortion, and seizure-inducing rhythms. Absolutely essential for all acolytes of the Japanese noise movement and fans of fellow psychedelic junk-destruction units Incapacitants, Monde Bruits and Merzbow. On the RRR Pure imprint with cut & paste artwork in a PVC sleeve.
UK 8£
Europe 9£
World 10£
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R.Y.N. - 'Astral Death' CD (Unrest Productions)
RYN is the project of UK drone duo Pete Burn (Marzuraan) and Dean Glaister (Romance). With one previous 7" on Drone Records, this is their first full-length album. "6 long tracks of waving and slowly shifting massive drones, based on guitar, bass, metal and effects. The sounds here are just flooding immensely, there's nothing 'concrete' you can hold onto; the mind and body seem to be washed out slowly by these rustling feedbacking and deeply reverberating overtune-waves. "Astral Death" is a journey into the pulsating, meandering heart of disintegration" (Drone Records).
One of the predicted changes in the weather due to global warming is paradoxically a new ice age which could envelope Europe. "Time Frost" is music based upon this concept and uses tiny fragments / lock grooves of music from an iconic European composition, Johann Strauss's 'Blue Danube'. Imagine that tiny pieces of former cultures survived locked in the ice, waiting for future archaeologists to discover and interpret them. "Time Frost" is an imaginary recording of the mutational process of sound locked into ice and transformed over millennia. Like ghosts of music trapped in an ever-shifting permafrost. A stunning, haunting and hypnotic release. Highly recommended! Limited to 750 copies in a beautiful matt digipak.
Following 'Faßt' and 'Ballt', 'Passt' completes Peter Rehberg and Ramon Bauer's trilogy for Touch. Full of effects, glitches, pulses and interruptions, this music puts you in surprising places as it constantly shifts its gears. Rehberg and Bauer subject their sounds to all manner of effects and run them through the cogs on their laptops, which slice and dice them into multitudes of abstract and often harsh electronic elements. All tracks were recorded live at three venues in Sydney and Melbourne in 2000.
UK 10.50£
Europe 11.50£
World 12.50£
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SHIFT - 'Creation & Space' LP (At War With False Noise)
The second album from Swedish artist Shift builds on his much-applauded debut, "Unable To Abide The Silence Of The World". Inhabiting a dark world between noise, dark post industrial and power electronics, it's futile to try and pin down Shift - this record is just utter bleak, heavy-as-fuck, fist-in-your-face concentrated Power Electronics. Four varied tracks ranging from sub-bass grinding drone to moments of near-silent lull, to all-out viscreal static jihad, this is one of the most accomplished, expertly composed and executed albums of the genre. Features Lee Stokoe (Skullflower, Culver, Marzuraan) on bass. Ltd x 300.
First release from Swedish Noise artist Shift. The title track initiates proceedings with dark ambient soundscapes and strong industrial rhythms, developing into heavy electronics. Flipping over, 'Jag Var I Kulverten' opens into a vast industrial soundscape, carried by a subtle repetitive melody. Heavily distorted low and mid frequency textures dominate the early moments, giving way to confrontational high-pitched abrasions. Heavyweight, clear vinyl presented in a stunning sleeve with artwork by Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))), Khanate etc). Ltd x 500.
UK 6£
Europe 7£
World 8£
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SHIFT - 'Unable To Abide The Silence Of The World' CD (Unrest Productions)
First full-length release by this Swedish (UK-based) Noise unit. Opening with smothering, churning, rhythmic, Death Industrial soundscapes (not far off our own Deadwood or Goatvargr), "Unable To Abide..." moves ever-threateningly into heavier Industrial sounds and continues into a deafening Power Electronics crescendo. Limited to 300 hand-numbered copies, finished off with a very nice slipcase.
UK 10£
Europe 11£
World 12£
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SHIFT / OPERATIV PERMANENT - 'Battle Ahead / You Won't Always Have Your Friends' 7" (Heidenlarm Sounds)
Two noisy acts collaborate in their battle against “everyday indolence and mass mentality”. Shift is a Swedish Noise artist based in Hampshire, UK and presents grinding and distorted Death Industrial and rhythmic Power Electronics. Operative Permanent is another project of Lirim Cajani (Institut), whose track (mastered by Peter Andersson of Raison D'Etre) is filled with militant vocals and aggressive Power Electronics in the way of Genocide Organ, Whitehouse etc. Limited to 300 hand-numbered copies in a foldout sleeve.
UK 5£
Europe 6£
World 7£
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SHIFTS - 'Trees / Leaves' LP (Entr'Acte)
After a decade, this record is Shifts’ probable farewell. Initiated by Frans de Waard (Kapotte Muziek, Freiband, Goem etc and label boss of Korm Plastics) for a ‘soft guitar’ record on Fourth Dimension label in 1995, the project has evolved to include many releases, all distinguished by their singular instrumentation (including two deviations from the guitar - Sonates and Interlude uses the piano, while One Piece for Cymbal has a single cymbal). 'Trees / Leaves' was made with a four-string Spanish guitar de Waard bought for 1 Euro on Koninginnedag (Dutch Queen’s Day) in 2004. Ltd x 200 copies in a heat-sealed sleeve.
UK 13£
Europe 15£
World 17£
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STEN OVE TOFT / UTARM / JON ERIKSEN - 'Penumbra Booming' CD (Roggbif)
An amazing triple split release between three underground Norwegian artists. Jon Eriksen opens and closes this full length with harsh noise in the vein of Merzbow. Sten Ove Toft offers a long, shifting drone piece, while Utarm continues with a dark ambient and orchestral piece. "Looks harmless, but don't be fooled - be doomed". Presented in a standard PVC sleeve. Ltd x 500 copies.
UK 5£
Europe 6£
World 7£
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STEVE ROACH - 'Immersion: Two' CD (Projekt)
The second in an ongoing series of atmospheric zones by master sound painter Steve Roach, Immersion: Two presents a subtle shift from the luminous steady state harmonic current of Immersion: One. On this 73-minute longform soundscape, a sinuous weblike mist seems to emanate from the speakers. Mysterious yet calm, this is the perfect sound environment for the deeper hours after midnight or anytime a quiet, engulfing audio landscape is desired. If Nag Champa or Sandalwood incense has a sound this might be it. Digipak.
While sharing some of the same trademark characteristics of shifting unease and resonating darkness as YEN POX, Hall's solitary sonic visions contain elements of an almost organic, atavistic nature. Elicits the sensations of an unnaturally suspended sunset - a lingering dusk of dying, burnt orange heat and light washing over one's face, while a cold, encroaching dimness chills the back of the neck.
UK 9£
Europe 10£
World 11£
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WRAITHS - 'Plaguebearer' CD (Paradigms Recordings)
Harrowing death-ambient and blast-furnace power drone music from this Scottish duo (who include a member of ritual dark ambient acts Leviathan / Sigillum Dei). The searing soundtrack to desolate, nihilistic electronics through undulating sheets of ice cold atmosphere and claustrophobic dread. Haunting ritual evokation of all consuming, shape-shifting blackness. Electronic ritual in spectral tongue. Five tracks over fifty five minutes of music in a DVD package with insert. Ltd x 500 copies.
ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI - 'Intensifier' CD (Walnut + Locust)
Zbigniew Karkowski is a Polish-Swedish composer and musician presently living and working in Tokyo, Japan. Psychedelic white noise shifting between Power Electronics and prolonged bursts of harsh feedback and high oscillating frequencies. With a single, ferocious track at just over 40 minutes, "Intensifier" is sure to appeal to fans of Merzbow! Recorded live at a concert at the Kafé Myzik, Lyon, France. Limited to 500 copies.
UK 9£
Europe 10£
World 11£
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ZILVERHILL - 'Eotvos' CD (Adeptsound / Blind Shouter)
Zilverhill is an integration of Schuster and Present Day Buna - two longstanding experimental collaborators, whose work emerges from a shared understanding. Both first appeared in the early 1980's as IBF. Incorporating elemental contrasting themes of inertia and movement, the shifting sounds presented here encompass a many-layered evocation of somewhere else. A third period... the 11th house... the day's end. Ltd x 500 copies in a digipak. Australian import.
An amazing triple split release between three underground Norwegian artists. Jon Eriksen opens and closes this full length with harsh noise in the vein of Merzbow. Sten Ove Toft offers a long, shifting drone piece, while Utarm continues with a dark ambient and orchestral piece. "Looks harmless, but don't be fooled - be doomed". Presented in a standard PVC sleeve. Ltd x 500 copies.
