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LUSSURIA - American Babylon (Gatefold Vinyl Edition)

2013-05-23T16:30:00+01:00

LUSSURIA
American Babylon (Gatefold Vinyl Edition)
HOSPITAL PRODUCTIONS
ELECTRONIC
2LP

*One of the most crucial despatches from the mighty Hospital Productions yet - deluxe gatefold 2LP, initial copies pressed on clear wax with a master and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy* Hospital Productions present a very necessary vinyl edition for one of the most affective industrial/ambient collections in their catalogue, and one of the label's most sought-after. Over the course of three cassettes (limited to just 99 copies) issued in 2012, Lussuria ("Lust" in Italian) drip fed these eight tracks of opiated, phantasmic SM atmospheres into the musical bloodstream, duly hailed by many as one of the most crucial set of tracks released last year. Reflecting the ritualistic appeal of late '70s and early '80s Italian industrial à la Cicciolina Holocaust, Sermonizer or MB, crossed with the epic claustrophobia of early material from The Cure and the decadent, voyeuristic compulsion of Pasolini flicks so enamoured by Coil, the enigmatic Lussuria has conceived nothing short of a dark ambient masterpiece for our times. It's a De Quincey or De Sade-like meditation on a perceived American condition that percolates far beyond its borders, matching the militant oppression of Vatican Shadow with martial pomp of opener 'Keys To Unlock Paradise (Roman Showers)' and the cold-sweating tension of 'Queen Of Swords Reversed', while ambient interzones such as 'Viper Room Vigil' and 'Mondo Narcotico' relieve the suppression effectively as a loosened tourniquet. In his role as the Dark Interpreter, Lussuria acts as informant from the netherworld relaying the eschatological drone vision of 'Under' and the backmasked Bacchanalia of 'Coiled Serpent Shedding' to fanged ears on the other side, culminating with two furtive dispatches in the coruscating half-light of 'Nicotine Incense Trepan Redux', and the uncannily poignant video-diary entry set to numbed pads and raging black metal noise inferno that closes 'American Babylon'. So many attempt this sound, yet it's putative pleasures remain just out of grasp to most. Not so with Lussuria.

UPWARD ARROWS (^^^^) - The Sad Truth

2013-05-23T16:00:00+01:00

UPWARD ARROWS (^^^^)
The Sad Truth
Cotton Goods
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
CD

**Hand-numbered edition of 100 copies heralding a new series of releases for Cottong goods. CD packaged in a bespoke oversized fold-over jacket with art insert inside a string-fastened outer** Cotton Goods' new Folio series just rolled in from the hills. Featuring new work from John McCaffrey, aka Part Timer, aka Upward Arrows, it's a perfectly understated yet gorgeous marriage of music and presentation. 'The Sad Truth' revolves four pieces sounding like broken machinery and attempted EVP recordings rubbed to tape and left to dry rot in a Lancashire cottage. 'The Sad Truth About Good Intentions' surveys a sweeping panoramic mirage of Basic Channel or Gas-like ambient romance, and 'Why The Eyes Don't See' recedes into itself with the time-dilating elegance of a Basinski piece. 'My Hands Stopped…, My Mind Let Go' is pure woolly drift; washes of almost-melody perfuse cyclic fuzz and faded string colours, spectral bass presence resonates the close, small space. 'The Dim Realisation That We Got Nowhere' sustains a glowing phrase before its heartbreakingly short life is extinguished by an errant wind. Grab one while you can…

éL-G - La Chimie

2013-05-23T13:00:00+01:00

éL-G
La Chimie
SDZ Records
ELECTRONIC
LP

**Includes download code redeemable from the label** 'La Chimie' sees the return of the mighty él-g, collecting nine avant oddities from rare releases and a radio show . Equal parts rhythmic electronics, vocal lunacy, field recordings, pop and (inner)space music, the logic behind these pieces remains brilliantly elusive and yet instinctually in-touch. Proceeding last year's wonderfully beguiling 'Mil Pluton' LP for Lorenzo Senni's Hundebiss Records, 'La Chimie' collates four tracks from Èl-G's cassette for Newcastle's NO=FI Recordings including the warped, para-dimensional collage 'Good Service', alongside some droning, mind-trekking rhythmelodic weirdness in 'Der Prediger' and the 'De Salem' from his Young Girls Records release in 2011, plus an excerpt from an episode of The Amiral Prose radio serial aired on Radio Libertine in 2010 and the skittish post-punk/industrial injunction 'Tatoo De Walt' taken from a composition for Resonance FM's Glossolalia show aired in 2010. While chronologically diffracted and scattered, this is possibly the best way to absorb the acquired taste of Èl-G's unique brand of operatic post-industrial tangents. Imagine Ghedalia Tazartes vs Conrad Schnitzler and you're in the right headspace. So so good.

JFM - JFM

2013-05-23T13:00:00+01:00

JFM
JFM
Divorce Records
ELECTRONIC
LP

*Killer album of fractured, lo-fi mutations, from submerged House to tape dub and beyond...* JFM is the work of Toronto-based sound and visual artist Jesse Matthews aka JFM. Armed with a trusty sampler and spangled mind, JFM hole-punches chunks of reality into busted and surreal loop grooves recalling the work of everyone from Muslimgauze to Bugskull and Nate Young, rubbing frictional layers of location recordings from contrasting alien environments with a thick soup of FX creating charmingly awkward interzones of mutant disco, house and avant oddness where his mind and sampler run unimpeded. There's a lot of this kind of mongrel/hybrid/lo-fi stuff around at the moment, but this is a keeper...

GEIR JENSSEN (BIOSPHERE) - Stromboli

2013-05-23T12:00:00+01:00

GEIR JENSSEN (BIOSPHERE)
Stromboli
Touch
ELECTRONIC
LP

Geir Jenssen (aka Biosphere) presents two ultra vivid and dynamic field recordings of the "Lighthouse of the Mediterranean" - an active volcano on the northern coast of Sicily. Made on July 19th 2012 at 9:30pm by the edge of Stromboli's crater, 924m above sea level, both pieces ironically sound as though they were captured underwater, but in fact document the active volcano spitting molten rocks and ash into a night sky against a gentle breeze. This surreal feeling of elemental, geological motion and morphosis is emphasised further in a swirling B-side Dub where the famed sound designer subtly manipulates the core recording's natural features. It's genuinely immersive stuff and makes a great package together with the beautiful cover photography.

SHAMPOO BOY - Licht

2013-05-23T12:00:00+01:00

SHAMPOO BOY
Licht
BLACKEST EVER BLACK
DARK AMBIENT / DRONE / METAL
LP

**Mighty side of electro-acoustic guitar doom featuring Peter Rehberg and housed in jacket designed by Stephen O'Malley** Blackest Ever Black's deep furrow of new releases in 2013 hits a huge rock in the soil courtesy of Viennese trio Shampoo Boy's fearsome 'Licht'. Combining the uncompromising talents of Peterlicker's Christian Schachinger and Peter Rehberg (Pita, boss of Editions Mego) with Christina Nemec (Chra/SV Damenkraft), 'Licht' manifests an excoriating blend of nerve-shredding noise and choking doom atmosphere evoking the intensity of Rehberg's aktions in KTL with Stephen O'Malley, or the gut-wrenching dynamics of Keiji Haino's trios with O'Rourke and Ambarchi or Pan Sonic when they drop the vocals and go quids-in for the most visceral, atonal guitar noise and electronics. Yet, there's also a sense of discipline, or dare we say Viennese manners which come into play across all four tracks, holding it back from freeform freakout or balls-out catharsis: behind the terrifying screech and cloud-of-flailing-knives distortion lie eloquent chord changes and gloaming harmonics. In 'Gift' the incessant hi-end peal is balanced with a bassline that could almost be from an early ambient AFX, and the chiming shimmer of 'Still' recalls a most reserved Fennesz or even Loren Norell's gamelan transformations. It's probably fair to say that this is one of Blackest Ever Black's most impressive releases to date, and if you know what that means…

ARIEL PINK - Thrash & Burn

2013-05-23T12:00:00+01:00

ARIEL PINK
Thrash & Burn
Human Ear Music
ELECTRONIC
2CD

Terrific haul this - a sprawling album of impish electronics, song-sketches and soundscapes home-recorded by Ariel Pink back in the late '90s when he was still plain ol' Ariel Rosenberg. Thrash & Burn was originally released in 2006 as a cassette box set by Human Ear Music, and the same label has remastered the audio for this important 2013 reissue. They make much of billing this album as "musique concrete", which is perhaps overstating their formality; these tracks are simply foreshadowings of the fractured pop experimentalism that blossomed on the early Haunted Graffiti albums. Hiss-laden post-punk miniatures, homespun industrial experiments, minimal synth doodles, anarchic vocal cut-ups - they're all here and they all sound remarkably fresh. Check the ersatz Joy Div vibe of 'White Rain Reprise' and the Call Back The Giants-style keyboard primitivism of 'Foul Play', or the agoraphobic cold wave drone-pop of 'Pleasure Spot 3' and more ambitious, longer sound-collages like the NWW-style 'Cry Yourself To Sleep'. The whole thing exudes that real-deal, basement-mildewed DIY quality we all crave; prone to flights of great imagination, weighed down by paranoia. And seriously, if this record came out today, everyone - not least us - would be falling over themselves to lavish it with praise; that it's some 15 years old reminds you of the extent to which Pink's arrival flipped the script in underground music, and how much catching up everyone else still has to do. Or, as the man himself says: "Thrash and Burn survives for me less as a finished piece of music in/itself or even a moment captured in time; more a catalog of lifetimes, each piece unique and unnamed, together they recall glimpses of forgotten future-pasts…The secret of our coming of age shall be preserved revealed and discovered yet once again…."

RABIH BEAINI (MORPHOSIS) - Albidaya

2013-05-23T12:00:00+01:00

RABIH BEAINI (MORPHOSIS)
Albidaya
ANNIHAYA
ELECTRONIC
LP

**A killer set from Morphosis, a must for fans of Sun Ra, Dariush Dolat-Shahi, Alice Coltrane** Exploratory Lebanese imprint Annihaya presents a stunning debut album opus by Rabih Beaini (aka Morphosis) under his birth name. As Rabih was born in Lebanon (but now based in Berlin and with strong ties to Venice, Italy) it is fitting he shares 'Albidaya' - meaning "The Beginning" in Arabic - with a label from his home country, who provide acute context for its mixture of electronics, psych rock, folk and jazz with their previous releases from Raed Yassin and noted Arab-o-philes, Sun City Girls. Impressively it was mostly recorded over the course of one day in 2012, wrangling myriad rhythms, tones and shapes from Rabih's famous collection of vintage analog synthesizers and sequencers meshed with Eko Tiger Duo organ and guitar, and some assistance from Tommaso Cappellato on drums and Piero Bittolo Bon on woodwind and electronics (with additional credits to both Mike Huckaby and Donato Dozzy), and post-production done in Berlin and Rome. And most importantly, it's a resounding success, articulating a worldly vision of electronic and instrumental musics thru the prism of his oft-quoted Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane inspirations, whilst comparable with the para-dimensional, modular microtones of Dariush Dolat-Shahi's incredible Smithsonian Folkways issue or even the mystic practice of Gurdjieff. For techno heads familiar with Rabih's Ra.H or Morphosis material but unsure what to expect, we urge you to dive in head-first and dry off later; for the jazz, world and electronic connoisseurs, it's a total peach. Strongly recommended!

RABIH BEAINI (MORPHOSIS) - Albidaya

2013-05-23T12:00:00+01:00

RABIH BEAINI (MORPHOSIS)
Albidaya
ANNIHAYA
ELECTRONIC
CD

**Edition of 500 copies housed in hand-numbered fold-out poster - a killer set from Morphosis, a must for fans of Sun Ra, Dariush Dolat-Shahi, Alice Coltrane** Exploratory Lebanese imprint Annihaya presents a stunning debut album opus by Rabih Beaini (aka Morphosis) under his birth name. As Rabih was born in Lebanon (but now based in Berlin and with strong ties to Venice, Italy) it is fitting he shares 'Albidaya' - meaning "The Beginning" in Arabic - with a label from his home country, who provide acute context for its mixture of electronics, psych rock, folk and jazz with their previous releases from Raed Yassin and noted Arab-o-philes, Sun City Girls. Impressively it was mostly recorded over the course of one day in 2012, wrangling myriad rhythms, tones and shapes from Rabih's famous collection of vintage analog synthesizers and sequencers meshed with Eko Tiger Duo organ and guitar, and some assistance from Tommaso Cappellato on drums and Piero Bittolo Bon on woodwind and electronics (with additional credits to both Mike Huckaby and Donato Dozzy), and post-production done in Berlin and Rome. And most importantly, it's a resounding success, articulating a worldly vision of electronic and instrumental musics thru the prism of his oft-quoted Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane inspirations, whilst comparable with the para-dimensional, modular microtones of Dariush Dolat-Shahi's incredible Smithsonian Folkways issue or even the mystic practice of Gurdjieff. For techno heads familiar with Rabih's Ra.H or Morphosis material but unsure what to expect, we urge you to dive in head-first and dry off later; for the jazz, world and electronic connoisseurs, it's a total peach. Strongly recommended!

IKE YARD - Remix EP 2 (Tropic Of Cancer)

2013-05-23T12:00:00+01:00

IKE YARD
Remix EP 2 (Tropic Of Cancer)
Desire Records
SYNTHWAVE / ELECTRO
12"

Following last year's one-off hook-up with Blackest Ever Black, which showcased storming versions from Regis and Monoton, Desire Records go it alone on their second volume of Ike Yard remixes. Tropic of Cancer get top billing with their take on the NY post-punk minimalists' 'Half A God': they offer up a cold-to-the-touch, marbled slab of sepulchral, introspective dub, Camella Lobo's phantasmal vocal presence and reverbed guitar beckoning you into a colour-bled zwischenwelt; deadly sparse and unforgiving, at times it sounds like it could be a lost instrumental sketch from Hannett and Joy Division's Closer sessions. Ike Yard's own Fred Szymanski adopts the name Recombinant for his remix of the same track, a glitchy electro-breakbeat number, before Black Strobe's Arnaud Rebotini moulds another track from Ike's eponymous '82 debut, 'Cherish 8', into a big-room electro-house thumper of dubious quality.