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20 Guilders - Wrong Songs for Patricia cassette (Sloow) 5

Excellent collaboration between Tabata Mitsuru (Zeni Geva) and Suzuki Junzo (Miminokoto, Astral Travelling Unit). Perhaps surprisingly this is rather gentler than you might suppose - dreamy psych-folk songs with (rather less surprisingly) some great fuzz guitar solos.

50 hertz - Hemligheten ar att lagga beslag pa rubbet cdr (Popkonst) 0.50

prankster pop from Sweden with a touch of Bonzo Dog ... and a bit of Eurotrash ... where's Wally?!

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A Wake - s/t cassette (Digitalis) 1.50

"let's just admit this first off: we all want to fucken rock sometimes.  ok, maybe a lot of the time.  well, live vicariously my friends through the psychedelic sprawl that is the UK's a wake.  rising from the ashes of one of my favorite bands of the last few years, beach fuzz, this trio of barry dean, nick mitchell, & fliss horrocks.  dueling guitars blow smoke through heavy wattage while ramshackle drums offer a grenade path to nowhere.  these four long pieces just freaking howl.  moon shots be damned, this is how us regular folk get high. " (Digitalis)

Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso UFO - Dark Side of the Black Moon: What Planet Are We On? cd (Important) 4

"Brand new full length recording from The Acid Mothers Temple And The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. Proggy psych sounds mixing Pink Floyd with fuzzy wah guitars and cosmic sounds. Focused riffing, super fidelity recording and packaging designed by Seldon Hunt. Get ready for the mellow side of heavy psych." (Important)

Acolytes Action Squad - Winkle Time cd (Early Winter) 0.50

A quick look at the AAS lp I have reminds me that it's from 1998 and I know this new cd is their first outing in several years. While there's still the odd looped beat here, Winkle Time seems much freer than that earlier record, with moments evoking the primal hoedown of Dr John's Danse Kalinda Ba Doom, multi layered vocal tracks with post-punk edginess about them and a piece that suggested distant trains passing in a desert night. Acolytes Action Squad's return sounds fresh and distinctive, for which they deserve our salute. (JC)

Aditi Tahiti - With the Antithetical Self cdr (Ikuisuus) 3.25

A sequence of four improvised pieces, the catalyst to each was a period of intense listening in an empty room to what might otherwise have been regarded as "silence". Aditi Tahiti uses plucked & droning strings, plus wind organ, but the main focus here is her voice. At the outset, one might think of Fursaxa, but the vocal ululations and harmonies rise like devotional music to quite a fever pitch, possibly a sort of trance state. This intense and engrossing record comes in a case with birds on the cover and an insert booklet showing 12 of AT's paintings. Looks and sounds like a winner to me! (JC) 

Aethenor - Faking Gold & Murder LP (VHF) 6

The black triptych card sleeve, replete with gold magick symbols provides an overture in itself for the contents of the album inside. Spoken word texts run through this dark music with vivid stereo percussion and the notes inside inform us that "All ÆtherTexts [are] by Anok Pe David Tibet". I'm unable to find when Mr T. adopted this prefix to his name, but his contributions here veer more towards the Great Beast than the Peter Hammill-esque end of his style. Alexander Tucker, Nicolas Field and Alex Babel also guest, along with Stephen O'Malley, aka one half of Sunn0)), Vincent De Roguin of Shora, and Guapo's Daniel O'Sullivan. The recording sounds suitably expansive to compliment the concept. (JC)

Afterlife - Bodies in Motion cassette (Digitalis) 5.25

Duo featuring Franklin Teagle (Meditations) and Ryan McGill (Cliffsides). Side 1 consists of monolithic synth light refracting off colossal chordal skyscrapers. Side 2 opts for beams of synth light over a minimal motorik beat that eventually disintegrates into a video game laser shoot out.

Age of Wire & String - Wolves on Fire (Deluge & Guitary) cdr 5

I know there's a school of thought which would have us believe that improvisers playing together shouldn't listen to one another. Personally, I don't subscribe to it and think that the best improv happens when people are as attentive in listening to others as they are to their own instrument. Fortunately Age of Wire and String seem to share this belief, as the trio often display a "less is more" feeling in their shifting textures, allowing Peter Nicholson's 'cello, Neil Davidson's guitar and the electronics of Jamie Allen to shine individually. They all go for it together at times, but always as complimentary forces and not to overplay one another. All round, qualities to make this a warmly welcomed album. (JC)

Agitated Radio Pilot  

  • The Rural Arcane 2cd (Deep Water) 8.50

A double helping of Boa HQ's favourite Irishman Dave Colohan. There's a beautiful picture of a rook on the cover which sets the tone echoing the elemental mystery of the landscape and the autumnal chill Colohan's melancholic music creates. It makes a good companion set to the other double in this week by Xenis Emputae Travelling Band, particularly on the more mood-setting pieces. Colohan's guitar wraps itself around drifting layers of drone like smoke. The songs are gloriously melancholic with shades of David Ackles in Colohan's world-weary tones but in a more folky context.

  • A Field Day EP 3" cdr (Rusted Rail) 5

This new release from Dave Colohan's Agitated Radio Pilot contains 6 new songs that are amongst his finest. Dave's music is a perfect accompaniment to autumn - minor key and melancholic - although some of the songs on here sound more upbeat than normal with a full band arrangement including double bass, mandolin, guitar, banjo, melodica, piano and some unexpected wah-wah guitar. Wrap up warm, have a single malt and enjoy - this is a treat and a half.

Ajilsvga  - From the Muddy Banks of the Arkansas LP (Near Passerine Devotionals) 8

On this vinyl release Brad Rose and Nathan Young use synthesizers instead of the their usual guitars to delve into the Ajilvsga black hole. Bass notes shift like tectonic plates and nauseous synth clouds whirl and woosh round them like poisonous gases. Eden Hemming Rose (Wax Ghost) contributes ghostly almost-not-there vocals to the side-long bleakfest that is side B. Sleeve designed by Evan Caminiti.

Alberorovesciato - Tigers on Acid in the Hell of the Brushwoods cd (Singing Knives) 5.50

Italian duo, now based in Berlin, who play the kind of percussion-based clutter and clatter we've come to know and love from Singing Knives. With some deranged free blowing on clarinet added to the mayhem, this sounds somewhere between Chora dn the crazed japes of Lauhkeat Lampaat. 

All in the Merry Month of May - At Home cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50  

A lovely cdr by Joelle Premo of home-recorded traditional folk learnt from Bertrand Bronson's "Traditional Texts and Tunes of the Child Ballads" and John Jacob Niles. Joelle accompanies herself on banjo, fiddle, autoharp, bodhran and Appalachian dulcimer.  The cover depicts a gold-sprayed bird silhouette (jackdaw I think) and is very nice indeed.

Alphabets - Alphabox 4 cassette boxset (Digitalis) 13.25

A mammoth collection of messed-up analogue video-game electro from Colin Ward. The 1st tape is a new duo project called Phonebooks, the other 3 collections of recent Alphabets stuff.

A.M. 

  • Rag Red Reverie cd (Pseudoarcana) 3.50

The latest from Antony Milton (also in Black Boned Angel & Nether Dawn) opens with a whiteout blitz of feedback-drenched psych guitar and heart-racing beats engulfed in fuzz. It's an blast of ecstatic raved-up psych-out that fits in somewhere between Astral Social Club and Ashtray Navigations. The high octane headrush continues with only a couple of let-ups, one being the very fine "Somewhere Between Sky and Night" - a shimmering come-down that is perhaps the best I've heard from Milton.

  • Tour Disk 2006 cdr (Pseudoarcana) 3.50

This is a mesmerizing release full of fuzzy vocal and organ drones and primeval garage chug, like all Milton 's releases heard through a heavy fug of hiss and distortion. Gorgeous

Annapurna Illusion - Matins of the 12 Passion cdr (Reverb Worship) 2.50

Throbbing electronics and fuzzed-up black synth drones, not dissimilar to recent North Sea releases.

Anubis - Scattered Ashes cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.75

Side project of Sand Snowman with Demian Castellanos. Field recordings and ambient drone create a mystical atmosphere interspersed with more melodic moments, which have a heavy prog-folk leaning. An Egyptian theme runs throughout and the clarinet / zither meanderings of "Lady of the Crows" certainly has a Middle-Eastern influence. Excellent.

Anvil Salute - This is the Voice of Doom Calling cdr (Deep Water) 5

One of Anvil Salute's loveliest releases that opens with 7 tracks of gazing-at-the-skies pastoral guitar, bass, glockenspiel, melodica and drums weavings. Things get more communal later on when a real free campfire vibe gets going.

Apalusa - Obadiah cd (Low Point) 4

Three lengthy pieces of drone-based music by Dan Layton recorded in Nottingham. The first two parts give the title to the album and offer a beautiful ocean of subtle layers, synths and sustained vocal tones. Whether they're produced by voices I cannot say, but they have great warmth anyway. The third track ventures into darker territory, appropriately, it seems, as the title is How Do You like Your Blue Eyed Boy, Mr Death? Recommended music inside a neat card package. (JC)

Arc - Glassine 1 cd (A Silent Place) 2.50

"Glassine I was recorded live at the Ambient Ping in Toronto on 03/07/2006; and can be easily described as an organic space ambient, with very strong references to Pink Floyd (Ummagumma), Popol Vuh, Ashra Temple , Jackie-O Motherfucker, O Yuki Conjugate, AMP and Flying Saucer Attack or " Fourth World " ambient music! Four tracks of pure vibrant multi-layered psychedelic drone music! Now, close your eyes, listening to "Glassine I" and start for your trip even without the intake of any substances…" (A Silent Place)

Archers by the Sea - Eagle Kiss cassette (Blackest Rainbow) 3.50

Excellent new project from Vincent of "V" and The Pistol Cosmos. Distortion-drenched guitar haze wallowing in a sea of hiss and fuzz of cosmic proportions.

Marc-Henri Arfeux - Blossom cdr (Rural Faune) 5.25

A very carefully considered and structured set of pieces, using quite an array of synths past and present. Arfeux takes the listener on a tour of the melodic, the abstract, the dense and the sparse and seems to know the route exactly. There's are some female voice along the way - and some points of peak overload - and the journey is most enlightening. (JC)

Aritomo - Fearful Sunshine Filtering Through Foliages LP (Blackest Rainbow) 13

Reissue of the debut album by this Japanese artist, originally issued on his own Hakanairo back in 2005, then on cd by Beta-Lactum records. Fragile, out-there songwriting that habits the crepuscular hours. Acoustic and some electric guitar drifts in the air, embellished by a little flute and subtle percussion, and Aritomo's delicate vocals. Gentle melancholy.

Arklight - Nolo Contendere Rakkasans  3" cdr (Rural Faune) 0.50

Blasted beatbox beats and damaged electronics that sounds a bit like a really mangled Suicide.

Ashtray Navigations 

  • Four More Raga Moods cd (Ikuisuus) 4

Mmmm my mouth is watering at the prospect of listening to this with one look at the various underground luminaries involved: Ben Reynolds, Pete Nolan, Andy Jarvis, Alex Neilson, Chris Hladowski (Nalle / Scatter), Mel Delaney and of course Phil Todd. Do I really need to write anymore?! The album opens with its only raga, an acoustic duet from Reynolds and Jarvis, heavily warped by analogue delay. "Hey Sunflower Motherfucker" has Todd's sun-seeking guitar working its way through thick waves of wow. "The Pete Nolan Effect" is a deep pool of drone (once the microphone returns from its wind-blasted trip outside!) as is the immensely atmospheric final track which sounds like the inners of a dank, dark cave.

  • Those Are Pearls That Were His Eyes cdr (Revival) 3

3rd edition - originally issued on Solipsism in 1998, then Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers in 2000. Cymbal bowings and birdsong find themselves buried beneath layers of guitar fire and a ghostly synth carousel. I have to admit I missed these earlier Ash Nav recordings first time round so it's great to see them getting reissued. More please!

  • Four Raga Moods cdr (Revival) 3

Another reissue from Phil Todd's Revival label. This was the first Ash Nav cd, originally issued in 1997 on Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers. This has the disorientating feeling of turning the dial repeatedly on a shortwave radio complete with acres of hiss. There are ear-cleansing blasts of fogged noise, haunting drones echoing down rain-soaked streets and collaged field recordings and primitive electronic whistles.

  • Hands Under Water Reaching For Nothing 1995 - 1997 cdr (Revival) 3

Vintage Ashtray Navigations sounds from the mid-'90s. These tracks were intended for the first (unissued) Ash Nav LP and one for "Four More Raga Moods" (which never made the final cut). 

  • Snakestrings / Hollywood Taught You to Kiss 2cdr (self-released) 5

Double cdr from Ashtray Navigations. "Snakestrings" revels in a cosmic languidity with decaying metal clangs ringing into oblivion opening the disc. Phil Todd plays esraj, kemence, electric sitar and guitars on this, and the long piece ends on pulsing synth drones and electronic hover & hum. "Hollywood" features the trio line-up of Phil Todd, Melanie Delaney & Phil Legard. Still pretty cosmic but of a more malevolent hue with fuzzed psych guitar and electronics whirring and bubbling manically. 

  • In Liquid Bravado cdr (Self-released) 3

Two tracks from Ashtray Navigations - the first one is "a rendition of a very obscure Spanish folk tune to start things off (so obscure nobody else in history has ever heard it!)". The second is a live set recorded at London's Second Layer records and is murky  slow-seeping nausea with guitar and gaseous electronics fizzling away.

  • Red Culture LP (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 5

Vinyl reissue of an earlier AN cdr. Another blast of over-loaded psych raga from the trio line-up of Phil Todd, Melanie Delaney and Phil Legard (Xenis Emputae Travelling Band). Red vinyl of course.

  • Running on Autokinetic LP (Qbico) 10

Reissue of a tour cdr that originally came out on Memoirs of an Aesthete.4 tracks in total -  a couple of harsh electric fizz and a couple of truly dream-like blissfulness, particularly the closer, a gloriously psych-ey array of synth textures and great fuzz guitar spirals. Green vinyl.

  • Monocycle American one-sided LP (Qbico) 10

Reissue of a cdr which was originally issued in an edition of 50 copies. Sulphurous electronic drone with heavy bass oscillations. Red vinyl.

  • Blood Mummies and Dirty Amps cassette (Gold Soundz) 4

Companion release to the "Blood Mummies and Dirty Amps" LP from a year or so ago. Starts with head-messing guitar / synth swirls with all the neon nausea of an acid-soaked waltzers ride. Flip the tape over and you get the sound of machinery clanking in a reverb-to-the-max fog.

  • Caeduceus & Black Sal LP (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 9

Vinyl reissue of the final Ashtray Navigations release on Memoirs of an Aesthete before it went into hibernation last year. This is as good as it gets with the Ashtray Navigation sound at its full-on-est psych guitar spiralling upwards fizz. One track live from ATP. Red vinyl.

  • Sgt Pepper's Mystery Four Twenty Hex Aurora Toilet cdr (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 5.50

Intended to be " the inverse, the reverse and converse" of the recent "Johnny Fuckoff Minotaur" cdr, this features a wonderful sounding '70s Technics synth, emitting huge sun flare pulses, massively distorted harmonica and strobing shudders of sound. It also has an incredibly silly title which is always a good thing. Excellent as always.

  • Sea II cdr (Revival) 4

Reissue of a cdr on Ignivomous, which was originally limited to a mere 7 copies. There are some embryonic versions of those Ashtray Navigations guitar feedback downpours you just want to immerse yourself in, weird assemblies of stop / start malfunctioning guitar and tape recorded room noise and primitive radiophonics.

  • Dirt Mummies and Bloody Amps cd (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 8

Reissue of an LP from 2006 (issued on Freenoise). 4 joyous blasts of psych noise from Phil Todd, joined by Melanie Delaney and Phil Legard on some of these tracks. These sides are as vibrant and dizzying as having a couple of kaleidoscopes clapped to both eyes for 24 hours. 

Astral Social Club 

  • #11 cdr (self-released) 3.50
  • #12 cdr (self-released) 3.50

The latest two blasts of electro-bliss rush / primitive kosmische techno from Neil Campbell. Both recommended.

  • Monster Mittens / Flaming Ramoon 7" (Dirty Knobby) 2.50

This new 7" from Neil Campbell finds him in collaboration with Karl Bauer of Axolotl in a joyous sensory onslaught where techno meets blissout.

  • Plug Music Ramoon LP (Dancing Wayang) 7

Recorded in October 2007 as a three-piece featuring Stewart Keith (keyboards and toys), John Clyde Evans (laptop) and of course Neil Campbell (guitar). the threesome create the densest textures I've heard on an ASC release. Layer upon layer of ecstatic electro-gloop with some excellent kraut-punk drumming on one track and jungle rhythms on another that give the track a Monopoly child goes techno feel. Hand-printed silk-screened sleeves.

  • Octuplex cd (VHF) 5

New Neil Campbell release with a collaborative cast list that includes Richard Youngs, Spencer Grady (Rameses III), John Clyde-Evans, Stewart Keith and Spider Stacy of the Pogues! From hi-octane electronic / techno strobe-outs to almost pastoral drone-floats like the reverbed out acoustic guitar / reeds of "Radial Hermaphrodite", this is ASC at its blissed-out finest.

  • Psychic Smog LP (Qbico) 10

This time around ASC is a duo featuring Neil Campbell and Mel Delaney (of Ashtray Navigations / Ocelocelot). Outer-space electronics and astral techno galore. Coloured vinyl.

  • #18 cdr (self-released) 3.50

Twelve tracks, fifty minutes - and the longest of these is still under seven minutes long, so there are no slow building epics here. Instead, things start with a quick whirl in a techno-turbine and although there are abstract electronics here, there's a real pop feel to some of these pieces... you could dance to this! File under ASC's Greatest Hits and put them on your daytime A-list! (JC)

  • #19 cdr (self-released) 3.50

6 tracks from live recordings in London in 2008 and Leeds, 2009. The former feature a line-up comprising Neil Campbell, Spider Stacy & Stewart Keith and the first couple of tracks lean towards his unique silver spiralling techno assault. In Leeds Neil is joined by Spider Stacy and John Clyde-Evans. The first track treads a fractious line between atonal wails of distortion and bliss-out drone and 2nd is a lean, mean burst of pared-down techno. The final track features a 10 strong chorus of wordless wail.

  • #21 cdr (self-released) 5

Another great selection from Neil Campbell: manic electronica infested with computer-generated chirping, like Monopoly Child goes techno, strobbing bliss-out drones and mangled beats.

Astral Social Club / Glockenspiel split 7" (Krayon) 3

A fine split 7". ASC take us on a flight through s swirling vortex of sound after which Glockenspiel's side stars in a deceptively subdued way. Their track builds to quite a tumult and both are rather splendid! (JC)

ASTRO / Hiroshi Hasegawa - The Echo From the Purple Dawn cd (Important) 5

"The Echo From The Purple Dawn is a brand new full length from C.C.C.C. member Hiroshi Hasegawa's solo project Astro. Using a battery of oscillators, ring modulators and field recordings Hasegawa has created an engaging and versitile album that masterfully drifts between spaced out analog dream drone and a more extreme form of harsher droning. As Astro Hasegawa is able to combine some of the harsher influence of C.C.C.C. into the world of analog space music to create the signature sounds of Astro. Included is a live track recorded at a festival at the Tokyo Keizai niversity organized by Tetsuo Kogawa. Cover art designed by Important." (Important)

Aswara - s/t LP (Azriel) 10

Fascinating vinyl LP from Paul and Rafi, ex-Death Chants, on their own label. Alchemical oscillations, enchanted flute and wavering organ / electronics create a sparse and spooked aura of strange chemical experiments and lost-in-the-forest magic. "Housed in custom stoughton gatefold jackets lovingly adorned with screen printing, color photo and hand drawing." Edition of 320.

Automat - Happy Trials cdep (Ravenna) 0.50

Automat is Mike Appelstein, formerly of the Poconos and the wonderful and sadly missed Caught in Flux fanzine: strummy bedroom pop with understated percussion (tambourine / maracas) that is charming in the same way as By Coastal Cafe 

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Jean Bach - Sans le Playback 7" (555) 0.50

crazy fun-time electronica with plenty of melody, twists and turns and a delight in pummelling europop to pieces

Aidan Baker - Thoughtspan LP (Blackest Rainbow) 7

New LP from Aidan Baker, who also plays in Nadja. This is a reissue of a cdr release which is long sold-out and was on the Tosom label. Amorphous drone / post-rock with Baker's loose drum clatter peppering both sides. One side sounds like a submerged brass band (much in the vein of Gavin Bryars' Titanic) and the other veers into breathed vocal meditations towards the end. Excellent.

Bambikill - Arachne 3" (Striate Cortex) 3.50

Solo cdr from Christelle Rox. Her voice swirls in the depths of never-ending pools of reverb, yawning e-bow moans and echoing guitar. This lies midway between early Fursaxa and early Amp and that is a very fine place to be. Gorgeous packaging.

Steffen Basho-Junghans - Is LP (Architects of Harmonic Rooms & Records) 10

First release in 3 years from the German guitarist and his first ever UK release. To mark the occasion, Architects of Harmonic Rooms have issued this on deluxe heavy vinyl. Beautiful acoustic ragas and zoned intensity on 12- and 6-string guitar.

Basillica - The Correct Ritual cassette (Bells Hill) 2

More creepy stoner mantras from Mike Vest (Bong / Master Slave). The sound of a guitar wah-wahing endlessly at the bottom of the ocean.

Bastion - s/t cd (Interregnum) 2

Bastion are a duo featuring Valerio Cosi and Jukka Reverberi (Giardino di Miro). Together they create charged pulsing synth drones that sound like the buzzing and humming of a massed choir of pylons. Heavy and bleak.

Tom Baxendale - Her Ghost 7" (Great pop Supplement) 2.50

Two good country-infused songs in lovely packaging. Her Ghost is quite a fast romp, with mandolin and guitar speeding along a tow lane blacktop, whilst I Think About Tomorrow is more reflective. I preferred this side, possibly because the influence of Gene Clark and Mickey Newbury seemed to be casting a shadow and I liked the chiming xylophone or glockenspiel at the end. While you're enjoying the songs, you can take in the inserts, including a very nice drawing of a swan. (JC)

Beach Fuzz 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 3.75

A look at the Beach Fuzz yields the description "psychedelic jam band", which actually pins their sound down rather well. These pieces are sliced from longer performances as guitars wail in wah-wah overload - sometimes voices do too - and drums pound. Packaged in a very neat folded textured card sleeve. (JC)

Beat Poets / Interceptors - The Superior Surf Sounds of ... 7" (Boa) 1.50

super surf instros featuring theremin on the Slampt-affiliated Interceptors’ side & a cover (featuring full horn section) of the "Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)" theme from former 53rd & 3rd recording artists

Beggin' Your Pardon Miss Joan - Edges cd (Blackest Rainbow) 6

First full-length "proper" cd release for Lex & Vanessa Panayi's Beggin' Your Pardon Miss Joan project). This collects a few tracks from previous (now sold-out) releases and adds 5 new songs. This is more song-based than Lex's other project Guanaco, with his  world-weary tones lending an air of melancholy over hypnotic finger-picking. The instrumental tracks tend towards meandering (in a good way). A very fine release.

Believers 

  • Brontoursaurus cdr (Apostasy) 2

raw primeval rock with lurching riffs, pounding drums and fantastic female vocals. Comes in an over-sized stamped card sleeve.

  • Forgotten Tracks cdr (Blueberry Honey) 2

If you can imagine a voice like Pat from Melody Dog or Anne Bacheley (well, a voice like those, but with an American accent - not Scots or French) being backed by a fairly full-on guitar band for three songs which turn into extended freaky garage jams, you're getting some idea of what's going on here. "Looks like we had a good time", she sings, and I suspect they probably did. (JC)

Best Coast - Where the Boys Are cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 4.50

CD reissue of earlier BR cassette. Bethany Cosentino, half of Pocahuanted, with 5 bedroom-recorded lo-fi pop songs that fizz with distortion and a disorientating feel. Bethany 's vocals sound distant and are completely overloaded with distortion which adds to the feeling of being at the centre of a mass of kaleidoscopic swirls. 

Big Blood - Night Terrors on the Isle of Louis Hardin cassette (Cabin Floor Esoterica) 6.50

Excellent tape release from Colleen Kinsella & Caleb Mulkerin of Cerberus Shoal / Fire on Fire. Percussion-fuelled exotica that reminds me very much of Moondog. Excellent stuff. Sold out at source. LP / cd coming very soon on Time Lag.

Birchville Cat Motel 

  • Bird Sister Blasphemy cd (Battlecruiser) 4

"Birds Call Home Their Dead"'s dark twin. Squealing guitars and eviscerating metal noise - like thrash metal imploding.

  • Seventh Ruined Hex cd (Important) 4

Another fantastic album from Campbell Kneale, this time in collaboration with Matthew Bower (Skullflower / Sunroof!). Layers of super-fuzzy drone with Bower's endless spirals of guitar as luminous as thousands of beams of light. Less metal-orientated than recent BCM releases and more of a heavy fuzz drone bliss-krieg thrill. 

Sindre Bjerga - Electrical Centrifuge cdr (Striate Cortex) 4.25

2 track live disc on a new UK label. This features tracks recorded in Oct 2009 from Sheffield and Hull, and the input of Terje Paulsen's "gas cloud sounds". Gas cloud sounds is a pretty accurate description of what ensues, insidious creeping ambient drone. 

Sindre Bjerga & Robert Horton - Can't Go Fast Enough to Get There Early cd (Blackest Rainbow) 7.50

Collaboration between Norwegian drone / noise artist Sindre Bjerga and Robert Horton. Mesmerising haunted oscillations, tribal hallucinations that recall Skaters / Vodka Soap, the spectral shimmer and repeated hypnosis from Horton's Boot-guitar, Bjerga's haunted drones reaching into the depths. Other contributors include fiddle player Hal Hughes, Bjerga's usual collaborator Jan Iversen and Lisa Graves on bagpipes.

Bjerga / Iversen 

  • Empire of Dirt cassette (Abandon Ship) 1

Recorded live in April 2007 in Amsterdam - pulsing electrical currents, rumbling bass drones and plenty of atmospheric hiss and hum.

  • Amplified Spectral Delay cdr (Reverb Worship) 3.50

Sindre Bjerga & Jan Iversen recorded live at Sound of mu, Oslo in June 2008. Shape shifting ambient fuzz and drone. Lovely hand-decorated sleeves as usual.

  • (Go With The Flow) Like a Twig on the Shoulders of a Mighty Stream cd (Tibrod / Gold Soundz / Phantom Limb / Carbon / Ambolthue) 4

A kind of multi-label released "best of" album of Sindre Bjerga and Jan Iversen. 12 tracks in total, taken from releases on First Person, Phantom Limb, Rural Faune, Heilskabaal, Root Don lonie for Cash, Ystebrod Plater, Time Lag, Kabukikore, Nervous Nurse, Utech and one unreleased track. A great introduction to thei shape-shifting ambient fug.

  • Amplified Crystal Rust cdr (Striate Cortex) 4.25

Another limited disc on new UK label Striate Cortex, this time from Norwegian duo Bjerga / Iversen, with one long live track recorded in Norway in Jan 2009. Ambient drone that reeks of decaying machinery, cruel undertows and creeping sea fog.

  • Intersecting Parallel Lines 2cdr (Striate Cortex) 6

This double disc set has drones which suggest somewhere out in deep space. They're more linear on disc one, with swirling eddies of loops and drones on disc two. Sindre Bjerga mentions Euclidian geometry regarding this title, going on to suggest a way of listening to the set which could result in multiple possibilities of different versions. First, you start disc one, then run disc two a second later. Next time, start disc two after two seconds of disc one have played. You see? Endless adventures in drone from only two cds in an edition of 100 copies. (JC)

Bjerga / Iversen / Paulsen - River of Ashes cdr (Striate Cortex) 6

Another live disc from Bjerga / Iversen, this time with Terje Paulsen on contact-mics, bowed metal and strings. This was recorded in Kristiansand, Norway in March 2009. Ambient drone with an unsettling undertow. Tones see-sawing like being in the hull of a listing ship.

Bjerga / Iversen / ThrouRoof - Unsettling Starbursts cdr (Striate Cortex) 4

A lovingly hand-made package houses a split cdr featuring Italian sound-artist ThrouRoof who buries a beautiful repeated melodic phrase amongst reverberant drones, gentle distortion and field recordings of birdsong. Also on the disc is a piece made up of field recordings from an airport by Bjerga / Iversen.

Black Flowers - I Grew From a Stone to a Statue cd (Bo'Weavil recordings) 5

Black Flowers is another Alex Neilson project, this time featuring regular collaborator in Trembling Bells / Directing Hand Lavinia Blackwell, Alisdair Roberts and Vibracathedral Orchestra's Mick Flower. Like Trembling Bells, the focus is on folk, featuring two takes on traditionals and a cover of Richard & Linda Thompson's "Calvery Cross". The sound however is heavier and more improvised than Trembling Bells. The album opens with the Thompson composition given a rabid grungey working with Lavinia's vocals spitting fire. Traditional "Polly on the Shore" features a duet between Alisdair and Lavinia and a blisteringly ragged guitar break from Mick, which makes me wonder if this is what the song would have sounded like had Jefferson Airplane got their hands on it instead of the Trees. "...And the Words Fell Like Malting Blossom" is an incredible psyched-out chorale. Things mellow out on the last track, a folk ballad sung by Lavinia who also plays harp on this one. A perfect comedown. Highly recommended.

Black Forest / Black Sea - Forcefields & Constellations cd (Blue Sanct) 5

"From the ashes of The Iditarod rises this remarkable new musical vehicle; free improvisation, field recordings, chamber music, ghostly atmospherics, early Brian Eno, ancient Euro folk roots, and much more" (BS)

Black Guys - Some of My Best Friends Are ... cassette (Digitalis Limited) 2

Duo from New Mexico who make me think of rusting submarine hulks in the Arctic and obsolete communication devices, with their huge ebbing and flowing electro-drones, submerged electronic chatter and distant creak of distorted guitar. A bit like Bjerga / Iversen on cacophonous overload. 

Black Joker - Watch Out! cdr (Pacific City Sound Visions) 5.50

The new project from Spencer Clark (Skaters / Monopoly Child / Vodka Soap). Not dissimilar to Monopoly Child, this combines tribal beats and endlessly repeating casio melodies into trance bubbles.

Black Twig Pickers - Hobo Handshake cd (VHF) 4

"4th full length from the Black Twigs finds a slightly reshuffled lineup and a renewed emphasis on kicking out raw, percussive takes on both Appalachian traditional and original material. With Ralph Berrier Jr.’s retirement from the group, Mike Gangloff has added fiddle to his already considerable arsenal, and along with stalwart guitarist Isak Howell, brought in Nathan Bowles (Spiral Joy Band) on percussion and several guests who make substantial contributions to the party. The Twigs work the fine line between the Friday night old-time dance party and the wellspring of grim and evocative tragedy that runs through the tradition, delivering these laments, travelogues, and wild whoops with sawing, rocking joy. This is a sprawling collection, with visceral group takes on “Crossing the James,” “Cherry River Line,” and “Old Joe Clark.” Charlie Parr and Lane Prekker join the crew on “Last Kind Word Blues,” “Train 45” and “Twin Sisters” (first essayed by Pelt way back in 98) with Parr’s amazing, ragged voice leading the charge over Bowles and Prekker’s driving percussion. Along with the full group material, the Twigs throw in other welcome oddities such as Howell’s Fahey-like “At the head of Every Creek,” “P.E.A. Vine Blues,” an arrangement of a tune from Portuguese Africa, and a book ending solo version of “Crossing the James,” with Gangloff on baritone banjo." (VHF)

Black Window - Gunwales cdr (Transient) 3

Gunwales is a 22 minute piece recorded in Wellington, New Zealand, by guitarists Andrew weeks and Ben Spiers. This is an industrial grade onslaught of dueling squall, feedback and no holds barred improv which can probably strip paint from your walls at the right level... no lower than 11. (JC)

James Blackshaw - Sunshrine cd (Tompkins Square) 5

Originally issued on Digitalis: a stunningly gorgeous piece of Basho-esque 12-string raga exploration, also featuring harmonium, glockenspiel and bells - highly recommended.

Blobs - Hey Hello cassette (Taped Sounds) 5.50

Reissue of a very limited cassette that came out on Goaty Tapes. Blobs is a collaboration between Dolphins into the Future and Orphan Fairytale. Weird and wonderful oceanic alchemy.

Blue Sabbath Black Fiji / Ajilvsga split cassette (Digitalis) 2

"it's 4 am, it's time to sober up and there's no black coffee to be found.  cold shower?  not an option either.  so what's left?  blue sabbath, black fiji and their mind-warp shotgun electronics and percussive blasts.  your girlfriend might be passed out on some other dude's house, but don't worry about it, this mix of raging electronics, sludge guitars and soft, sweet crooning will make it all okay. ajilvsga?  we'll keep drinking blackened mud until the cows come home.  limited to 85 copies, handstamped zoo-in-suits theme. " (Digitalis)

The Blue Tree - s/t cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 3

The Blue Tree is a collaboration between Andrew Paine and Matthew Shaw. It opens with treated vocals and electronics that sound like the weird call of the calfbird, and sounds like a half-remembered dream of the Amazonian jungle. The rest of the album has a similarly dream-like quality - subaquatic drones, spectral chorales and 4am piano lullabies -  and is quite simply gorgeous.

Boduf Songs - Inviolate Projection Blood From Rome (Blankets) 10" (Blue Sanct) 8

Excellent one-sided release with screen-printed B-side featuring one long track that ventures into English prog / psych territory, reminiscent of Richard Young's Ilk project (without becoming an overt progathon).

  • lathe cut 7" (5MA) 15

Body Morph - Travel Keys cassette (Digitalis) 2

Body Murph is Dan Dlugosielski and he is another conspirator in the Digitalis plot to obliterate the world with bleak synths and wired electronics. This cassette is at the fried end of wired! The electronics hiss, pop and burble and Dan also contributes some damaged sax playing to the mayhem.

Body of John The Baptist - Apperceptionist cd (Blue Sanct) 6

Intimate country-inflected songs from Nathanael Markham. Sung in a quivering high voice and sparsely accompanied on the first part of the album on acoustic guitar and later by dream-like synth washes (very Angela Badalmenti), this feels like it could collapse under its own fragility. 

Tore Honore Boe - Knekk 7" (Killer Records) 0.50

one of the chaps from Origami Arktika with two excursions into glitch and static buzz: titles are 'opus for flute / harmonika and 12 year old glitch tape'

Bonecloud - Chrysalis 1951 - 1926 cassette (Twonicorn) 1.50

"This Irish duo weave ambient bliss with an organic slant. Gorgeous drones and aqua hum flow forth from green dungeons. While they have moved on, I am honored to be releasing one of their final artifacts." (Twonicorn)

Book of Shadows - Cosmic Sovereignty cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.75

Texan band with previous releases on Reverb Worship. Dark psychedelic guitar textures and Sharon Crutcher's ethereal vocal float.

Mark Bradley 

  • Dreamstate cdr (Reverb Worship) 4

From the start, I've considered Reverb Worship to be a very good name for a label. Mark Bradley has taken things a step further by naming his opening track Reverb Worship too! I'd been watching Ken Russell's film Altered States shortly before my first listen to this album and the music seemed to sit well with images of flotation tanks I'd just seen, without the unpleasant outcome which occurs in the film!. This is a very aquatic, hypnotic soundworld, a Dreamscape I'll happily drift into. (JC)

  • Eternal cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 3

Another excellent release from Mark Bradley. Chilling spaced-out electronics that sounds like a really minimal take on Tangerine Dream. Electronic starbursts that cut out unexpectedly (but could happily pulsate on for hours), deep bass explorations and long lunar notes. Very '70s and very unsettling, this would be a perfect soundtrack for a bleak outer-space horror film.

  • Sanctity cdr (Striate Cortex) 6

More minimal synthscapes from Mark Bradley. Eerie ambience like distant subway clanking at midnight, sub-aquatic tone-drift and subdued industrial wastelands.

  • Godspeed cdr (Rural Faune) 5.25

The opening of this album put me in mind of Tangerine Dream's Tangram and, whilst pretty electronic melodies run through the pieces here, there's also a more outre experimental edge to proceedings: perhaps even a touch of Ron Geesin's Electrosound, I thought. Mark Bradley proves to be a consistently interesting player and often a lot more than that. (JC)

Mark Bradley & Jacob Price - Absolute Infinite cd (Striate Cortex) 4

Split release featuring Mark Bradley alongside Jacob Price of  White Armed Divinity. 6 tracks of blissful minimal synthscapes from Bradley and 3 darker, more experimental bursts of electronics from Price. Handmade sleeve.

Mark Bradley / The Big Drum in the Sky Religion / Noz Diloar - Chronological cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Three way split on which each artist aurally represents an era in time. The Big Drum ... open up in the Stone Age with a long piece consisting mainly of field recordings - low rumblings, rain / water, bird song. Noz Diloar, French electronic musician, traces the Bronze Age with 7 tracks of starry-eyed synth instrumentals. Mark Bradley's 5 tracks form The Iron Age and are minimal synthscapes full of lunar woosh and pulsar plants.

Brethren of the Free Spirit - The Wolf Also Shall Dwell With the Lamb cd (Important) 3.50

2nd album from James Blackshaw on 12 string guitar and Josef van Wissem on 13 course Baroque lute. It's a breathtaking tapestry of string magic: Blackshaw's stately melody line weaves an elegant track round Van Wissem's harmonic plucks.

A Broken Consort - Box of Birch cd (Tompkins Square) 8

A truly beautiful album by Richard Skelton who also runs the Sustain-Release label which originally issued this as a boxed edition which featured, among other items, birch twigs collected from the West Pennine Moors. This time it comes packaged in a gatefold sleeve with a 12 page booklet of artwork. Bowed strings, guitar, piano, mandolin and accordian merge into sonorous melancholy that exists somewhere between drone and modern composition. The elegiac strings remind me of Arvo Part. Highly recommended.

Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood - Grass Openings cd (Ikuisuus / Pacific Soma) 3

This co-release on Finnish label Ikuisuus and Michael Donnelly's own label Pacific Soma finds the Brothers back in fine freeform sprawl mode with oodles of percussion and strangeness oozing from every pore. 

Brotzmann / Wilkinson Quartet - One Night in Burmantofts cd (Boweavil) 5

A live recording from Leeds featuring Peter Brotzmann (clarinet, tarogato, tenor sax), Alan Wilkinson (alto & baritone sax), Willi Kellers (drums) and Simon H Fell (double bass). This is freely improvised jazz at its most vibrant which always manages to engage whether whipping up a freefalling storm or in quiet moments  creating a mood of tension  and unease.

Brume 

  • Zona Ventille cd (Elsie and Jack) 9.50

Fascinating musique concrete soundscapes like a soundtrack for a Luis Bunuel film - final release from this French chap.

  • The Sun / The Moon 2cd (Elsie and Jack) 18

Super-stylish return from Elsie and Jack with an excellent double from one of their regulars, Brume / Christian Renou. "The Moon" commemorates 40 years since the Apollo Moon Landings and features contributions from James & Phil Rodriguez (Monera). Haunting textural drone that sounds like a radio telescope transmission from unknown galaxies. Thin wire vibrations, deep ominous rumblings and long-lost voices travelling from far far away.  The first cd, "The Sun", is a long-awaited remastered reissue of a cassette that appeared on Old Europa Cafe. An exhilarating Middle Eastern influenced electro-acoustic sun worship ritual featuring bone-horn, tribal percussion, cheap synths and spliced field recordings. Despite being recorded in 1990 / 1991 it sounsd very current. Two individual releases all wrapped up in a beautifully designed package: a card folder which has been offset printed, embossed, laser cut, hand-numbered and assembled by our four hands. Inserts aplenty are to be found alongside the two separately packaged cds.

Karl Brummer - Magali 3" cdr (Bunkland) 4

I've had this for review for some time but being a little 3" it got lost in a box somewhere. Which is a damn shame as this is excellent. Karl has played with Chora amongst other bands and this certainly fits in with their primal free psych-rituals as well as recalling Harappian Night Recordings. On this Karl plays sax, junkyard gamelan percussion & guitar and the ritualistic vibe is very very strong particularly in his speaking-in-tongues vocalizing. 

Adam Bugaj - Wave of Tears cdr (Dark Water) 5

This album is a bit like a spinning carousel of sounds in an echo chamber: it flys round and some fragments are thrown off while others leap on to ride the next circuit. Rhythms jump-cut around amidst the echo and tracks end/begin very abruptly, as though we're dipping into something and then the channel switches. Some neat ideas here with percussion (I think there's a marimba or a large xylophone, which sounds very good through all the delay) and guitars. Nothing outstays its welcome either. (JC)

The Bummer Road -   Deep Space Circuit 2cdr (Child of Microtones / Time Lag) 6

Fabulous double cdr set put together for the recent Bummer Road European tour of live recordings (two from Terrastock, the rest from around the US). Line-up is Matt Valentine, Erika Elder, Nemo Bidstrup, Samara Lubelski, Mo' Jiggs, Sparrow Wildchild and Willie Moonflower Lane. Stoned free-folk, cosmic slide blues and a wonderfully charged, out-there atmosphere. Add to that some devastating versions of "Cold Rain" from "Mother of Thousands" and Mississippi John Hurt's "Payday", and the usual lovely packaging from Time Lag and it really is an essential addition to your collection.

Joshua Burkett - Owleavesrustling LP (Spirit of Orr) 8

Reissue of Joshua's first release from back in 1995 and only issued in an edition of 200 on his Feather One's Nest label. Primitive and lo-fi in comparison to the later "Life Less Lost" and "Gold Cosmos", this is a fragmentary glimpse into the weird and wonderful world of Joshua where bedroom folk rubs up against pulses of homemade electronics and blasted goner blues. Certainly not as immediate as his other releases but this is a fascinating document that repays multiple listens. Coloured vinyl, with a booklet with pasted-on art from Joshua and sleevenotes from the likes of John Olson, Chris Corsano, Thurston Moore etc.

Burt / Macdonald - Constant Weave cdr (Iorram) 5

5 pieces of sax & guitar improv which find Messrs Burt & MacDonald firing on all cylinders. George alternates between nylon string acoustic and electric guitar, playing some lovely sustains on the latter, whilst Raymond plays alto and soprano, running from breathy minimalism to a full tone which sounds as though he's playing through some sort of harmonic doubler. He's not: this is all natural sound. (JC)

George Burt / Raymond MacDonald Quartet 

  • with Lol Coxhill - Coxhill Street cd (FMR) 7.50

Lol Coxhill's long history of visits to Scotland has grown into something of an annual social event/series of collaborations since he met up with the George Burt/Raymond MacDonald quartet in Glasgow a few years ago. Coxhill Street (yes, there is such a place: just north of Glasgow city centre!) is a series of free pieces, ranging from 1 minute long to over 14 minutes, which show why this partnership keeps making more music. Ranging from solo improvisations to full band pieces, it also confirms that however freely Coxhill plays, he always does it with soul. (JC)

  • featuring Lol Coxhill & Future Pilot AKA - Hotel Dilettante cd (Textile) 9

Lol Coxhill's regular visits to Glasgow have yielded a series of albums with George Burt and Raymond MacDonald and, in 2005, their quintet was augmented by Future Pilot AKA Sushil Dade. The resultant album proves once more that each time Lol comes to Scotland, something completely fresh occurs. This is a set of warm playful pieces and might well be a good starting point for those who would like to investigate this essential figure, but feel that full-on improv could be a bit heavy for their tastes. There's some lovely vocal & melodica from Nicola MacDonald, at time a slightly dubby feel, without any direct references to Jamaican music and, overall, a warmth to this record which makes it highly enjoyable. (JC)

The George Burt / Raymond MacDonald Sextet - Boohoo Fever cd (Leo) 8

The second album from this winning combination and one which finds the balance tilted towards the abstract in comparison to 2005's Day For A Reason. Where song and straightforward melody occur, they do so in very lovely ways. Nicola MacDonald's vocal on the slow and sultry The Gallery finds Keith Tippett throwing in a reference to a Bach fugue, but the remarkable thing is that he makes it fit, rather than just being some piece of technical flash. Most of the album, however, is about the freer side of these players, exploring texture and space, catching fire in so many ways. If you've enjoyed anything by these musicians before, this is a surefire winner. If not, this might be a good place to begin. (JC)

Burt / MacDonald Quartet with Lol Coxhill - Tsunami cd (FMR) 7.50

Maybe it had something to do with the weather? George Burt's sleevenotes recall a show where a Scottish downpour cascaded through a marquee over the drumkit, not to mention the electrics. Whatever caused it, Tsumani has a mood of its own and distinct from other Lol collaborations with Burt, MacDonald and friends. Yes, there are some salvos of straight ahead free improv, but the overall mood is more reflective, at times almost bluesy. Coxhill excels in this area, his sound unique, but the style a little reminiscent of Steve Lacy on this album. If Scottish rain set the tone for these pieces, maybe we shouldn't complain about it so much! A very satisfying listen. (JC)

The George Burt / Raymond MacDonald Quartet - One Bloke cd (Textile) 8

Originally recorded in tribute to Steve Lacey, recalling a cd Lacey recorded with Lol Coxhill and Evan Parker entitled "3 Blokes", the title took on an extra poignancy after the tragic death of Textile founder Benoit Sonnette earlier this year. The quartet of MacDonald on soprano & alto sax, Burt on guitar, Lol Coxhill on soprano sax and George Lyle on double bass are joined on this release by Bill Wells on piano, Daniel Padden (One Ensemble / Volcano the Bear) on clarinet, vocals and percussion and Nicola MacDonald on vocals and melodica. The album has a reflective melancholic feel with Coxhill's playing throwing some gorgeous melodic shapes and Bill Wells' compositional contribution "Copper in the Can" coming across very Ennio Morricone at his most laid-back which is a very good thing indeed. Excellent stuff.

George Burt / Raymond MacDonald Sextet featuring Keith Tippett - A Day for a Reason cd (Tob Records) 7.50

Isobella and Henrietta Bird were remarkable women who lived on Scotland's west coast Isle of Mull. This album was commissioned to mark the centenary of a clock tower in Tobermory which traveller Isobella paid for as a memorial to her home loving sister. The Burt MacDonald Sextet were joined by Keith Tippett, that legenday British jazz pianist and one time King Crimson player. Rather than dominating proceedings, Tippett sounds really integrated with the band, playing exquisite runs behind Nicola MacDonald's vocals or sparsely beautiful shards of sound on the more abstract end of the set. A delightful album, at times wistful; at others free and even including field recordings of the clock and the man who maintains it. (JC)

George Burt / Raymond MacDonald Septet Featuring Lol Coxhill 

  • Popcorn cd (FMR) 7.50

Aileen Campbell turned up to photograph the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. They discovered her work as a conceptual artist and her interest in harmonising with drones from household appliances. Ideas developed quickly and, next thing you know, she was in the studio with a hairdryer, a popcorn machine… oh, and the Burt/MacDonald Octet plus Lol Coxhill! Once again, these forces deliver an album that isn't just "more of the same" - the addition of Aileen Campbell - a sort of Yma Sumac let loose in the Argos showroom - makes sure of this! (JC)

  • Shark Hunt cd (FMR) 7.50

The series of collaborations between Lol Coxhill and Messrs. Burt and MacDonald continued with this 2005 release. This time the septet included Bill Wells and Daniel Padden in four extended pieces which are as much about exploring space as sound: the seven players create a mood where what's between the notes matters as much as the notes themselves and nobody overplays their hand. The album's title - and that of three of the tracks - is a homage to Hunter S. Thompson. The other track, G.O.K, is an improvisation sparked by "hazy fragments" of the Beach Boys God Only Knows and is a lovely thing indeed! (JC)

c

Camillia - 23'39 cdr (Reverb Worship) 2

Japanese 3 piece Camillia start this cdr in fine style sounding very Temporary Residence friendly with a guitar / bass / drums post-rock workout. Next up is a slow-burning ballad, reminiscent of the more song-based end of '90s shoegaze but with more interesting rhythms. Lastly they don capes and go all out prog (which will keep some Boa colleagues very happy!)

Evan Caminiti - West Winds LP (Three Lobed) 14.50

Follow-up to the wonderful "Psychic Mud Shrine" on Digitalis from half of Barn Owl. Hypnotic solo guitar devotionals - quiet storms, heavy black clouds of distortion, horizontal drones and unsettling space. Excellent stuff, heavy sounds on heavy vinyl.

Can't - Understand Music LP ( Weird Forest ) 4

"For me this is the ultimate Can't LP. Its a sound cornucopia of everything Jessica Rylan does so beautifully... amazing scraped and destroyed analog synth-laden vocals, lovely singer/songwriter stylings with acoustic guitar, and Shaggs-style garage gusto! This record features Jessica's own homemade synthesizers including the Little Boy Blue! One of my favorite Weird Forest releases to date! Beautiful color covers by Abide Visuals and a fabulous inner sleeve with artwork by Jessica." ( Weird Forest )

Eric Carbonara - Exodus Bull cd (Locust) 3

I saw Eric Carbonara playing when I had the good fortune to spend some time in Philadelphia's wonderful Fishtown area in 2004. Based on what I already knew of his music, Exodus Bulldornadius came as quite a surprise as it's an album of solo guitar where the influence of the flamenco tradition is a strong component, melded with many other things. These seven pieces make a highly absorbing sequence offering light and shade and one which reveals more with each listen. (JC)

Eugene Carchesio 

  • Garden of Souls 3" cdr (Kindling) 4

dinky cdr release from sometime Leighton Craig collaborator: minimal Radiophonic-style electronica and sparing percussion

  • Trances cdr (Rhizome) 5.50

Tranced electronic meditations not dissimilar to Raymond Scott's "Soothing Sounds for Babies" from Carchesio, perhaps best known for his collaborations with Leighton Craig. Minimal repetitions that have a real early electronics feel. 

Eugene Carchesio & Leighton Craig - Leaves cd (Nature Strip) 5

A much-appreciated reissue of a cdr that came out on Kindling a couple of years back in an edition of 30. Recorded in a backyard amidst the sound of cicadas, birds and breeze, Craig and Carchesio at times improvise in response to the sounds around them, using toy xylophones, flute and chimes. Other tracks are mournful instrumentals played on clarinet, organ and acoustic guitar, with the chirrups and hisses a disquieting layer in the sound. Highly recommended

Castaway Stones - Rose In The Devil's Garden 7" (Boa) 2.50

It's no secret that here at Boa HQ the merest hint of Pam Berry's velveteen vocal talents are enough to make us weak at the knees and in need of the smelling salts. Gloworm, the Shapiros, Belmondo and her other projects have made our hearts flutter in the past but none have had quite the same effect on us as her new band.

Cathedrals - Demo cdr (Fictitious Sighs) 6.50

Cathedrals is Tim Coster (who runs the Fictitious Sighs label) and Nigel Wright; an appropriate name for the cavernous sounds contained within. This starts out sounding like listening to a foghorn from the depths of the ocean and finishes with synth drones distantly heard in a disused warehouse.

Celer 

  • Mane Blooms 7" (Low Point) 4

"‘Mane Blooms’ is the very first vinyl release by Celer, the husband and wife duo Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long. Seen by Celer as an 'outdoor' companion piece to ‘Brittle’, the duo’s album recently released on Low Point, the music on ‘Mane Blooms’ was created by multiple layers of cello and piano, which were then processed and played back at differing speeds. Also contained within the tracks are field recordings taken whilst Dani rode horses along the Californian coastline, a weekly pursuit that acted as a form of self-therapy and enjoyment. With the music composed specifically with the vinyl medium in mind, the two sides of the record act as a mirror image. For the B side, Celer approached the music of the first track in reverse, inverting the structure and musical motifs established within the first piece. Altering the playback speed of the vinyl brings previously hidden textures to the fore, providing each of the tracks with a new identity and a different reflection of memory." (Low Point)

  • Brittle cd (Low Point) 5.75

Another beautiful release from husband and wife duo Celer. Constructed from piano, violin, cello, tingsha bells, harpsichord, whistle and field recordings of room noise, these recordings were arranged into 19 different tracks and then restructured into one long mesmerizing track of tones and drones that merge and fade. The tones sound like echoes and memories of their former sound sources and the result is soporific, melancholic and utterly gorgeous.

  • Dwell in Possibility LP (Blackest Rainbow) 10.75

First full length vinyl release from husband and wife duo Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long. Beautifully degraded source sounds (voice, violin, cello, piano, organ, field recordings, cassettes etc) ebb and float in a ambient drift that oscillates between hope and melancholy. Like echoes of long-lost sounds in a long-locked room. Highly recommended.

  • Dying Star cd (Dragon's Eye) 7

Full-length album of distant memories and ambient drift to ease you through the night from Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long. More gorgeous sounds.

Century Plants / The Coast split cdr (Deep Water) 5.50

2 tracks of damaged guitar improv from Century Plants. Track 3 comes from The Coast which features Florian Tositti (Ghost Brames / The Reggae) and is a fuzzed guitar / gently thudding drums meditation with bells spilling over the throb and slivers of silvery feedback.

Hans Chew - New Cypress Grove Boogie 7" (Three Lobed) 5.50

Hans Chew plays boogie woogie piano in a hard-hitting, straight down the line, Meade Lux Lewis/Albert Ammons style. He sings too and New Cypress Grove Boogie sounds like a solo number until the band star whooping it up with him about half way through. Pass the bourbon, this is a good session and is that the throaty grunt of a fuzzed up synth I hear on the opposite side of the mix from the bass? Nothing too trad about this band, then! Chew has also played with D. Charles Speer & The Helix and the late Jack Rose and the flipside of this picture disc reflects the range of his songs. Forever Again is a country tinged ballad of the sort which might fall under the heading of "Americana", although I'm shaky ground when it comes to applying such definitions. (JC)

Chora 

  • Slates LP (Sergent Massacre) 12

The debut vinyl from Chora compiles a bunch of out-of-print cdrs from the last couple of years. Clouds of meditative circuitry drone and some great freaked psych clutter / clatter.

  • Baptist Grip cdr (Singing Knives) 5.50

"Just under an hour of sublime post noise gamelan blues"

  • From the Shape and Contents of a Sheeps Stomach cdr (Chocolate Monk) 5

"Unveil the long pipes, shrouded in cloud comes this monster of a disarranging dripper. I am truly all over the shop with this fucker, hear a totally different disk everytime I spin it. So from my yellowed note book I give you ...gamelan in the spit ward.. an unearthed organist... tape loops chiseled from stone... an ale soaked amulet... the warm howling of the deaf... radio broadcast of early torture devices made from seashell... the hydrophonic tongue. But forget my rambling, dear reader, just come smell the warm confusion of these amazing young South Yorkshire cavemen for yrself." (CM)

  • Ruined Parabola LP (Chironex) 12.25

Excellent psyched clatter, drone and wail from quartet of Ben Morris, Ben Nash, Rob Lye and Karl Brummer. Tortured string drone, percussion pummel, spectral vocalising and gamelan-like metal. Along similar lines to recent Hunter Gracchus releases, the sound of zoned ritual and one I for one want to stay tuned in to.

The Circle and the Point 

  • And So On Forever cdr (House of Alchemy) 1.50

House of Alchemy is Adam Richards' label and we find him here with VxPxC's Grant Capes. There's an intimate feel to these pieces, with the wheeze of accordion, spacious guitar, distant voices and a twirly tube - always welcome to my ears! The way things start and finish gives the feeling of eavesdropping on the players and the attractive handmade packaging sits well with the music. (JC)

  • Then the Trembling Set In cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 1.50

Grant Capes (of (VxPxC)) and Adam Richards (House of Alchemy). This opens with rumbling gloom punctuated by electronic squeals and squiggles and the melancholic thrum of guitar. Second track is a sampled piano, a baby's cries and some other instrumental ephemera creating an unsettling lullaby. Last track sounds like a set of musical bed springs afloat on a sea of dark drone.

Circle Bros - You'll Be Missed 3" cdr (Blue Sanct / Morc) 3.25

5 track prelude to the full-length due later this on Morc. Dream-like acoustic manipulations - shimmering flicker drones constructed from delayed guitar, accordian, bells and vocals.

Clear Spots

  • Mountain Rock cdr (Deep Water) 4.50

A few seconds to make contact with the first track and then they erupt with the kind of full on, fuzzed out riff overload that even the mighty High Rise could be proud of. Based on the opener, you could expect ten pieces of ear-piercing riffola, but there's more to Clear Spots than that. These tracks are all live jams to a four track recorder and they're filled with melody, invention, much light and shade and even a spot of backwards tape, which is always a fine thing. (JC)

  • / Niagara Falls split cdr (Deep Water) 4.50

A split release and a good contrast. Niagara Falls have sparse bass, lots of shimmery bells and percussion and washes of guitar. This would all go rather nicely as the soundtrack to some undersea exploration, flowing through blue depths to hidden labyrinths. The Clear Spots are much more outward bound, with a four part piece, which seems to be a composite of extended psychedelic jams. Very hot music, very garage-y recording. (JC)

  • Princetown Air cdr (Rural Faune) 6

Another fascinating recording from Pennsylvania's Clear Spots, recorded as a radio session. A free-floating improvised jam of weaving guitars, percussion flourishes and some occasional synth. Not as riff-heavy or garagey as previous recordings, this finds Clear Spots getting spaced out and mellow. 

Daniel Clough - Stories cdr (Reverb Worship) 2

Daniel was formerly known as BricksKILL and is an electroacoustic musician. This deals in echoes of sounds, like hearing distant melancholic tones at the end of a subterranean chamber. Disturbed and mysterious ambience. Stencilled paper sleeves.

Coal Hook

  • Subsistance Compulstion cdr (Blueberry Honey) 2

"This is the the second official release by this self-driven mind mash featuring Danish experimentalist / composer / inventor Jorgen Teller and Ron Schneidermann. Originally devised as a long lost collaboration after an impromptu concert at Byens Lys in Copenhagen's Christiana section in 2006. These all new recordings from Tyte Studio  recorded in May of 2009 show that the fuel is still burning. No rules, no plans, simple pure expression & explosion is what is offered. A dance between light & dark, noise & calm, beyond language" (Spirit of Orr)

  • Who's Distracted? cdr (Blueberry Honey) 2

"The second set of recordings from this past May, and like the Subsistance Compulsion album this one is also edited by Teller, with artwork by Schneidermann. This disc is perhaps a little more abrasive, though that is of course a matter of personal taste." (Spirit of Orr)

Coldstream - South Island cdr (Under the Spire) 5.50

Ambient drone sculpted from guitar and electronics by Daniel Mumford. Partly dark and mysterious and partly fuzzed and warm with hints of buried melodic treasures deep within. Lovely and endlessly revealing.

Andrew Coltrane 

  • Synth tapes 5 cassette (Digitalis) 2

Imagine a bank of oscillators sweeping, swooping and droning, playing inside the cone of a volcano about to erupt. That was the image I conjoured up whilst listening to side one of this tape. Side 2 is a less wild, but still evocative: recordings of sun spot activity, perhaps. A nice release, with cassette and case in different shades of blue. (JC)

  • DMT Shadow cassette (Digitalis) 2

More erupting oscillator magic from Andrew Coltrane, using the Arp Axxe. This starts out with as an interplanetary morse code using different tone frequencies but soon gets into more destructive terrain as he ups the ante on the ring modulators and delay to produce some seriously blasted bass. The other side is seriously hypnotic with undulating fuzz tone mantras.

  • Conflict cassette (Digitalis) 5

Synth-generated overload. Coltrane's past releases have certainly gone into the red on occasion but this an all-out blast Seriously distorted, demonic synth mayhem.

Cone - II cdr (Reverb Worship) 2.50

Cone is Hermann Blaupunkt of the Netherlands. The album starts with a psych-dirge which recalls Loop but this is a diversionary tactic it would seem as the rest of the release is constructed from hypnotic acoustic guitar picking, expansive drone and field recordings. "Vaderdag" is particularly fine - a bottomless well of ambient drone echoing with exotic birdsong. Edition of 50 copies with a PVC coated cotton fabric
insert with a grass design.

Sophie Cooper & Ben Nash - Alchemy cd (Blackest Rainbow / Recollections of Knulp) 4

Fantastic collaboration from Ben Nash and Sophie Cooper (CooperJones). Two tracks: the first a highly-charged duet of shimmering metal strings, similar to Charlambides at their most meditative. Hypnotic pulsing and mournful brass open the second piece before it morphs into a wonderful electric / acoustic guitar duet.

Lula Cortes

  • Rose de Sangue LP (Time Lag) 16
  • Rose de Sangue cd (Time Lag)  10

Time-Lag have unearthed a couple of rare albums from Brazil which have been highlights of the past few years. I speak of the Marconi Notario album and Satwa, the latter from 1975 and featuring Lula Cortes. Now the label has come up with another gem by Cortes from five years later. The listener would be hard pressed to guess this year, as Rosa Da Sangue bears no hallmarks of its era. Instead, there's a mix of pop-psych, a rocking riff with the unlikely name Calming Ballad, a female vocal track which sounds like something wafting in from Radio India on shortwave and a couple of numbers which would make for merry stompers in a late night bar session. Well worth your attention and if you haven't heard the Satwa and Notario records, the same goes for them. (JC)

Cosmic Nanou - Songs About Lies (& Half Truths) cdr (Cosmic Tones) 5

Psych pop gems galore pour forth from the Cosmic Nanou. This set starts with a guitar instrumental, played whilst Patrick Moore & Chris Lintott are heard on a tv in the background. These songs were, says the cover, "recorded on barbara's tape recorder june - september 2000, mullingar, ireland". The sound quality is a bit like something taped from the radio around - oh - 1971 or that album of Roky Erickson demos (All That May Do My Rhyme). These songs have lain unreleased for a long time and I'm very pleased they're with us now. (JC)

Tim Coster - Star Mill cdr (CLaudia) 6

Another cdr of slowly-uncoiling laptop drone from Tim Coster, this time made with bass guitar, ocarina, accordian, bells, harmonica, mbira, cloves, bottles, bowls, alarm clock, wood, string and field recordings. The sounds have a real winds-whistling-through-pines sense of unease to them.

Tim Coster & Mark Sadgrove 

  • untitled cdr (CLaudia 04) 6.50

Tim on computer and mixer feedback, Mark on computer and guitar: lots of short tracks of hiss, distant feedback and crackles that seem to form a more cohesive whole - some of the feedback drone is really lovely, like the tiniest breath of wind

  • Untitled cdr (Transient) 6.75

The final recordings from this duo before Sadgrove headed for Tokyo. Both are also members of Plains. Tim on computer and mixer feedback, Mark on computer and guitar. Slowly unfolding feedback harmonies inducing a state of sun-sizzled stupor.

  • untitled cdr (CLaudia 022) 6.50

There's a heartbeat pulse through quite a lot of the music here and, allied to the oscillations which have a soft, slightly distant sound, this suggests what one might hear in a pre-birth state. Recorded in a place called the Wine Cellar in Auckland, New Zealand, you'll hear Mark on guitar and dictaphone, with Tim playing oscillator, keyboard samples, walkman and looping things too. (JC)

Leighton Craig - 11 Easy Pieces cd (Room 40) 6

I've been a fan of Leighton Craig's since a 3" cd of organ pieces became a record I would often play in the early hours of the morning. This one is a set of short pieces which, in a few cases, could easily pass as lost gems from vintage library music lps. A charming record and packaged so well in a fold-out sleeve. (JC)

Leighton Craig / Eugene Carchesio - Community of Opposites 3" cdr (Kindling) 5 

I've been very impressed by past releases from Leighton Craig, both aurally and visually: this is just as gorgeous - a warm, liquid, slowly bubbling drone that's like watching porridge cooking on a low heat on a cold morning

Culver - Can You Read My Mind cassette (Bells Hill) 2

Black tape-wow rituals from Lee Stokoe.

Culver and Karst - Quarter Mile Volcano cdr (Striate Cortex) 5.50

The latest from Lee Stokoe is a collaboration with George Proctor of Mutant Ape and sounds like a degraded cassette copy of the raging roar of an inferno.

Current Amnesia / The North Sea split cassette (Digitalis Ltd) 2.50

Current Amnesia is David Sutton of Car Commercials and his side of the cassette is one long track of mesmerising tone drone that drifts from mysterious undertow to high wire whine. The other side finds Brad Rose with a ton of synth-generated drone but in mellower mood than recent releases have suggested. Nice handmade sleeve.

Currer Bells - s/t 3" cdr (CLaudia) 4.50

Another Tim Coster collaboration, this time with Jane Austen. Loops assembled from a range of instruments (bass, cymbals, acoustic guitar, keyboard, drums, glasses, shaker and glockenspiel) and improvised live sounds. The looped percussion on the opener makes me think of a weaver's loom and it's rhythmic thrum is shrouded in computer-generated drone. "Six Feelings" has a loop that sounds like the intense twitter of a flock of goldfinches with live drums. The final track is unexpected - a fragile song constructed from incessantly repeated sparse guitar notes and layered female vocals and unsettling feedback drones. Another excellent collaborative effort.

Cursillistas 

  • Joint Chiefs LP & cassette (Digitalis) 12.75

Cursillistas is now a duo: Matt Lajoie has been joined by Dawn Russell. The sound is still pretty psyched but a move away from loosely-structured songs to something looser still. At times it reminds me of the freer side of MV / EE's cosmic folk, at other times slow, reverbed guitars form a heavy fog and the duo's voices waver like distant lights. All my copies come with cassette and badge. Beautiful poster-style silk-screened sleeve too. Highly recommended.

  • Les Biches LP & cd (Time Lag / L'Animaux Tryst) 16

A reissue of Matt Lejoie's first release on his own L'Animaux Tryst label with 4 extra tracks recorded at the same session that produced the tracks on the original 3". All tracks have been newly mixed and remastered. Loosely structured songs, the feel of a campfire jam deep in the woods, heavy use of reverb and some hypnotic pieces centred on percussion that remind me of Moondog come together to create a very special dream-time psych-folk album. Gorgeous and highly recommended. Comes in equally gorgeous packaging of course - "a totally deluxe letter press printed tri-fold art paper cover with metallic screen printed interior, photo-mounted vellum insert, and all sealed up with a hand-sewn button enclosure." This comes with a free cd version of the LP.

Cursillistas / Love Cult split cassette (Blackest Rainbow) 3

A split release of strong contrasts, which flow in a most complimentary way. Cursillistas hail from Portland, Maine, in the U.S. and deliver a very lovely, spiritual landscape of melodic drones and singing bowls. On the flipside, it's Love Cult from Petrozavodsk, Russia, who build a mighty barrage of sound across two pieces which climbs to quite a frenzy in the end. All wrapped in parchment and limited to 100 copies. (JC)

d

D Charles Speer & the Helix - Distillation LP & bonus cd (Three Lobed) 10

D. Charles Speer is, apparently, the countrified monicker of No Neck Blues Band's Dave Shuford. 'Tis country music for sure, reminding me in places of an album by Gene Parson called Kindling which oft tempts its way onto my turntable. Where the lyrics become a little stranger, I reflect on the strange twists that jumped out to catch us unawares in songs like Knoxville Girl from the Louvin Brothers: yes, strangeness was all part f the country tradition too. Mr Shuford's careworn voice sits just right for both the mellower moments and the harder edged stuff on the live cd which is included. Special not must be made of the gatefold paste-on sleeve wherein this is all contained, as artefacts of this standard have seldom been seen this side of about 1970! (JC)

Jon Dale 

  • Rotten Sun cdr (Rhizome) 2

steel string drone and cymbal breath that seems to hang suspended with minimum effort

  • Son d'Or cdr (Rhizome) 2

steel string drone and cymbal breath that seems to hang suspended with minimum effort

Jon Dale & Kynan Lawlor  - I've Got a Tiger in my Tank cdr (Fucken Stoner) 1.50

5 loose improvisations on guitar and drums from Jon Dale (of Rhizome records) and Kynan Lawlor: some of a growling raw punk nature, others fragile and bruised and one of near silence

Nick Dan - Love Songs pt 3 cdr (Black Petal) 5.75

Nick Dan plays drums with xNoBBQx but on this release he focuses his unswerving attention on a detuned guitar. The result is not dissimilar to fellow XNoBBQx-er Matt Earle's solo releases or to Heather Leigh Murray's early "Cuatro Songs" release  - sparse, intense minimal blues.

Neil Davidson - Grain cd (Creative Sources) 7.50

A couple of winters ago AMM's Keith Rowe held a series of workshops and a concert with the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. Rowe's provocative statements caused some divisions of opinion, to say the least (for example, to a saxophonist: "The saxophone is an instrument in crisis"!). For some GIO members, a meeting with Rowe was ideal and Neil Davidson was certainly one of those. Neil's ideas of sound generation from the guitar challenge perceptions of what that instrument is and what it can do. For a good deal of the time, you'd be hard pressed to identify a guitar as the instrument being played on Grain, yet Davidson pulls off what could descend into an academic exercise in a highly involving, perhaps enveloping, way. Oh - and although his approach shares something with Rowe's, Neil does not sound like a copyist, so that's another plus for this album. (JC)

Gareth Davis & Steven R Smith 

  • Westering LP (Important) 11.25

"In May of 2008, Amsterdam-based clarinetist Gareth Davis and American guitarist Steven R. Smith convened at Worstward Studios, in Los Angeles to collaborate and create music together, the results of which have been titled Westering. Gareth Davis is a dedicated performer of contemporary music while at the same time works with improvising musicians such as Jon Balke and Terje Rypdal as well as electronic artists including Machinefabriek and Ryan Teague (Type Records) and has recently completed the Rabbit at the Airport series of LPs with Martin Stig Andersen and Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner). Steven R. Smith has been releasing a steady stream of solo records for over the last decade as well as playing in various improvisational groups including Thuja, Hala Strana, and most recently Ulaan Khol." (Important) A beautiful textured record of melancholic layered clarinet dirges and more abstract pieces of broken guitar feedback and guttural bass clarinet which evokes the winter wind in a forest. Screen-printed sleeve.

  • The Line Across LP (Alt Vinyl) 16.50

Second collaborative album between guitarist Steven R Smith (Mizra, Thuja, Hala Strana etc) and clarinettist Gareth Davis with one long track per side. Crepuscular drones and post-midnight ambient abstractions. On side 1 Smith's guitar burns holes in the dense clarinet smog; later in the piece the distortion gives way to gentle strumming which has a meditative effect with Davis' clarinet key clatter sounding quite alchemical. The mysterious side resurfaces towards the end and I'm particularly keen on the creaking blasts of bass clarinet that sound like eruptions of magma. The second side is much moodier with the guitar / clarinet sounding dulled behind a creeping fog. Heavy vinyl.

D/Compute - IwillpushmyselfintotheforestandIwillbedeadthere cdr (Mouthmoth) 0.50

DIY electronicness from Mouthmoth, industrial pounding beats interspersed with a more laid-back, sometimes exotic, and more interesting approach to the genre

Ddamage / TTC - Trop Singe 12" (Active Suspension) 0.50

edgy electro from Ddamage meets French rappers TTC

Matthew De Gennaro - A Guide for the Perplexed cd (Epigonic) 2

Dead Black Arms - Caretaker Cherry Bird cdr (Reverb Worship) 4

Dead Black Arms is another project from Claus Haxholme, who is also behind The Doom
Riot, Kanada Brothers, Satanism Around Hollywood, Tanko Oroshi and My Love We Found The Skies. The first 3 tracks on here utilize low-end overloaded synth to create a doomy bass throb. The 4th changes tack completely and finds Claus ringing gorgeous muffled tones from his guitar. 

Dead Wood - Slow Threat cdr (Striate Cortex) 5.50

Yet another lovely handmade package from Striate Cortex, this one being an eco-pak digipak with a little wood insert. Dead Wood is Adem Baker and there are 6 tracks on here of manipulated field recordings: fast flicker electro, horizontal drones, meditative pulsations that sound like gongs.

Deadnotes - Orange Trumpet LP (Soft Abuse) 10

Great LP featuring early recordings from the Deadnotes: Leighton Craig, Stuart Busby and Eugene Carchesio. Fabulously jerky bursts of jagged guitar, drums and trumpet - imagine if Maher Shalal Hash Baz tried to make mariachi music with only half their band members. Other tracks recall Morricone in miniature. Rough and utterly great - actually, post-punk mariachi ain't a bad idea! 

Dean & Britta - I'll Keep It With Mine / It Don't Rain in Beverly Hills 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 5

Dean Wareham (ex-Galaxie 500 / Luna) and Britta Phillips (Luna) were asked to soundtrack 13 films of Warhol's legendary screentest at the behest of the Warhol Museum last year and these are 2 of the tracks they chose: Dylan's "I'll Keep It With Mine" (as covered by Nico) to soundtrack Nico of course. This side is a beautifully orchestrated version that owes more to Andrew Loog Oldham's Nico productions than John Cale. On the other side is "It Don't Rain in Beverly Hills" which soundtracked Edie Sedgewick. 

Cam Deas 

  • My Guitar Is Alive and It's Singing cdr (self-released) 6

Cdr reissue of sold-out debut vinyl release from acoustic guitarist Cam Deas. The A side is one long track and is reminiscent of James Blackshaw, albeit in a more aggressive mode. There are 2 tracks on side B: the opening one starts with a quiet but unsettling undercurrent of drone and the tension continues with flurried assaults on the strings. Back to more 12 string mastery on the last track. An excellent release.

  • Untitled Blues Part I & II 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 3.50

I seem to have lost my adapter for 7"s so I've been unable to review this. GPS says "Stunning 45 from Sheffield based Cam Deas- a debut 45 on wax. 2 heavy  strummed blues across 2 sides of vinyl- best approached as 1 long  piece. Sure, the names of Fahey, Basho, Blackshaw, Rose etc spring to mind, but this has a raw, slow building presence and an expressive approach all of it’s own. A potent brew- perhaps a departure from recent work on labels like Blackest Rainbow and Dead Pilot, released  as a pressing of 300 numbered, date stamped copies in linen card, fine art sleeves with sticker."

  • Blind Chance LP (Blackest Rainbow) 13

Blind Chance is 2 sides of powerhouse 12 string improv. The sparse and abstract dimensions of Deas's playing inhabit a place where the notes resonate and space is of paramount importance. These are offset by the other extreme, when the fast'n'furious runs are as though Dick Dale had taken up the 12 string acoustic instead of the surf-twang of the Stratocaster. The recording and vinyl pressing are of a quality which is upsides with the standard of playing - and that is very high. (JC)

Deas & Denton - s/t cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 5

Last time I heard Cam Deas he was pulling a remarkable range of sounds out of a 12 string acoustic guitar. This time he's joined Adam Denton for an amped up 32 minute sonic storm of electric guitar improv. Check that any loose items in your room are in secure positions, turn it up to eleven and stand the hell back! (JC)

Cam Deas / Spoono split LP (Blackest Rainbow) 10.25

Split LP featuring some excellent acoustic guitar picking from Cam Deas on one side and Spoono (Jack from Towering Breaker) on the other. Now sold out at source.

Del - Grim Ace cassette (Gold Soundz) 3

Death rock crunch from Lasse Marhaug and crew. Overload, distortion, monolithic riffs and a woman with a big syringe on the cover.

Delia Derbyshire / Electrosonic cd (Glo-Spot) 10

Stunningly presented reissue of an extremely rare Delia Derbyshire release on Melody Bar reviewer John Cavanagh 's new label. This initially came out in 1972 as a KPM Library disc and features Delia, fellow Radiophonic Workshop employee (and creator of the Tardis noise in Doctor Who) Brian Hodgson and Australian mood music composer Don Harper. Electronic music that still sounds as futuristic and strange as it must have on release. The LP has now sold out hence the reissue on cd. Wonderful stuff. Beautiful gatefold digipak sleeve design by Iker Spozio  ... one listen to this and you'll be tickled pink! 

Dialing In - The Islamic Bomb LP (Music Fellowship) 5

Dialing In is Seattle-based sound artist Reita Piecuch. On this album, she transforms field recordings from Pakistan and old records into wowing drones and swarms of over-saturated sound.  Reita adds synth and guitar to the swirling surges and the end result is not unlike the Skaters.

Diamondhead - Corrective Action cassette (Digitalis ltd) 2

This tape starts with a flute-led track straight of out Brit-horror library music territory. I'm expecting Peter Cushing to peep through the curtains at any minute! Instead, after an abrupt cut, we have a spoken word piece awash with wah-wah guitar. That maps out the variety on offer here: from eerie piano to full-on fuzzed-out guitar angularity, all delivered at full intensity. Edition of 70 tapes. (JC)"

Dinmuck#F - Metamorphin 3" cdr (MYMWLY) 0.50

rhythmic distorted electronic scribble

Disguises - Aeolian Hookers cassette (Digitalis Industries) 2.50

"let the insanity begin!  these beasts from toronto follow-up their mind-melting LP from last year, "post-mortem depression," with absolute avalanche of hell.  jagged guitar swirls get the beat down from a pommel horse of drum bombs.  screams escape from the abyss only to be sucked back under by crawling basslines.  and then the guitars come at you again and again and again.  there's no avoiding this minefield - you're gonna lose a leg.  this is clusterfuck city folks and disguises are your tour guides. these jagged excursions will cut your face open and make you want to apologize for bleeding all over the brand new carpet.  edition of 80, pro-dubbed with broken golden fairy art and smeared labels." (Digitalis)

DJ White Pimpernell - s/t cdr (Black Petal) 3.50

This is Adam Sussman, Muura's partner-in-crime, and like that release, Adam plays everything simultaneously in a super-distorted, feedback squealing frenzy. Buried somewhere beneath the brutal onslaught you may hear warped drum machine beats, primal roars and later when the noise subsides, there are some eerie drones to unsettle instead.

Dolphins Into the Future - The Music of Belief cd (Release the Bats) 11.75

Two long tracks of cosmic synth float, electronic bubbles and tropical bird-song from Lieven Martens. This lies somewhere between Monopoly Child and Joe Meek's "I Heard A New World" and it's a very soothing place to be.

The Doozer - Error Engerumong cassette (Sloow) 4

This opens with a track that sounds like a loop of a long-lost Hood track and then veers off into exotic percussion hypnosis, inspired by Balinese gamelan music.

Jack Dove & Maquisard Acoustique - Le Ciel Ouvert cdr (Rural Faune) 6

This is a meeting of field recordings with assorted piping, strumming and vocalising. The birds and cicadas which appear here aren't just background sounds: they're at a level which makes them an integral part of the tracks, rather like pulling the focus between different dimensions and perspectives. A pleasantly beguiling mix it is too. (JC)

The Dovetail Consort - East & West EP 3" cdr (Rusted Rail) 4.75

There's something rewarding about a record which is open about reference points and inspirations without sounding like any of those catalysts. Bristol-based Tim Newman's titles refer, variously to David Crosby's boat (Mainsail), the original full name of "much maligned goth pioneers" - his words - Bauhaus (1919), Indian classical music (Devotional) and Ian Carr's Nucleus (Elastic Folk) and all of these points of his musical compass make me warm to the record before the laser hits the pits. The music created by Mr. Newman is a charming world of guitar melodies with mandolin, 'cello, thumb piano and percussion, all wrapped up in Rusted Rails hard-to-resist 3" format, delightful on both ear and eye. (JC)

Jeremy Dower - Music for Retirement Villages, Circa 2050 cd (Chapter Music) 0.50

laid-back electronic instrumentals that remind me a little of Plone 

Dream Safari - Journey to Sky Beach cdr (Gold Soundz) 5.75

An ominous choir of layered and treated vocals, woozy and indistinct as if you're listening underwater. 

Dream Safari / Ophibre split cdr (Rural Faune) 6

Black hole layered vocals from Dream Safari. Monolithic synth pulse / buzz from Ophibre.

Drekka 

  • Take Care to Fall cd (Blue Sanct) 5

An excellent (long-awaited) debut that exceeds my expectations - fractured in-the-depths-of-your-head folk / lo-fi experimental pop - earlier singles and tapes were always full of intrigue and atmosphere but this is a dark, hazy beauty of an album.

  • Extractioning cd (Blue Sanct) 5

This is a breathtaking album of inner-ear experimental folk-pop from the chap behind Blue Sanct - fuzzed-up recording, spookily toyed-with religious singing, copious amounts of delay and reverb and at the heart of each track a gorgeously delicate melody that threatens to fragment at any moment. 

  • Ancestral Cave Sequence cassette (Digitalis) 5

Great to be reacquainted with Michael Anderson's Drekka. Mysterious drone-scapes that seem to emanate from deep within a pine forest at night. Clanging metal, spectral voices, a distant violin dirge, throbbing electronics and fragments of melancholic folk all add to the haunted ambience.

  • Collected Works Vol 1 (1996) 2cd (Morc) 9

Double disc collection of all Drekka's earliest recordings from 1996. Features Grieve, Windowframe and Hermitage One EPs plus bonus tracks. Fuzzy folk fragments, creepy hissed-out tape collages and lo-fi ambient. Comes with a little booklet.

Drifts - Future Light Cone 3" cdr (Rural Faune) 4

Spiralling synth communications to outer-space.

The Driftwood Manor - Holy Ghost 3" cdr (Rusted Rail) 5

Driftwood Manor are based around the songwriting talents of Eddie Keenan and backed on this release by Neil Fitzgibbon on fiddle, Anne Marie Hynes on additional vocals, Bean Dolan on double bass and Steve Fanagan on accordion and percussion. The influence of Appalachian folk is clear but Eddie's treatment of the form is similar to Alasdair Robert's response to Scottish traditional folk forms. Lovely.

Drunjus - Street Trader cdr (Striate Cortex) 5.50

Collaborative cd between Dan Woodman, Tony Endless (Earjerk) and Max Elliott, recorded in January 2010. One long drone piece featuring analog synth, field recordings and wordless vocals. Limited edition 83 , hand numbered disc card with stickered photo . printed discs and insert. All housed in a handmade cloth bag with hand printed cover , in grip seal poly bag with green skeleton leaf .

Dugoutcanoe - Demonstration cdr (Reverb Worship) 2.50

Dugoutcanoe is Jacob Isaacs from Denver, Colorado, and this release features 9 of his frenetic home recordings. Multi-tracked guitar that sometimes veers into jerky Captain Beefheartian rhythms mixed with a '90s quirky US lo-fi feel. The sleeve is fab - hand-stitched Indian fabric.

e

Eagle Altar / Bugskull split cassette (Digitalis) 5.25

Eagle Altar are Brad and Eden Hemming Rose (aka Altar Eagle). This is the instrumental alter-ego to the latter project. The analogue synths are still set to maximum fuzz and fizz. The Bugskull tracks were recorded at the same time as those on the "Communication" LP. Sweet electronics to lull you into dreamsleep.

Matt Earle - Golden Guitar cdr (Black Petal) 4

3 raw solo outings from the guy who also records as Muura. Sparse and repetitive abstract blues with acres of tense space and the tense rattle of loose guitar strings. Gorgeously packaged in thick card tied up with rough thread.

Early Hominids - Metatarsal cdr (Music Mundane) 2

Neil Campbell and Paul Walsh ascend quickly from sparse bleeps at the start to a full-scale, at times incendiary, analogue synth-off! Of the ten tracks, two are less than a minute long and the longest (by far) is still under seven minutes. There's clearly a lot of fun being had here and it translates into an enjoyable sonic rollercoaster ride of sweeps'n'swoops. (JC)

Early Tunnels - Aerial Caves cassette (Digitalis Industries) 3.50

Ohio-based duo of Pete Fosco (who has released some solo guitar stuff on Reverb Worship and Digitalis previously) and Jon Lorenz. Some of this sounds like the kind of damaged circuitry that evokes images of industrial wasteland, other parts jittery malfunctioning electronics and burning feedback maelstroms.

Earsugar 7" 0.25

lush and summery half-electronic / half-acoustic pop with the least cheesy vocoder vocals ever

Easy Rider - Eternia Beach cdr (Rural Faune) 5.25

Hyper-active synth figures and tapew-wowing experiments. 

John Edwards & Chris Corsano - Tsktsking LP (Dancing Wayang) 10.75

If you're already familiar with John Edwards and Chris Corsano, you might well be ready to snap up this lp without reading any further. Their melodic invention as a duo on bass and drums really flies throughout four pieces. There are a couple of winning aspects to this album which deserve a mention. First, it's good to hear something with a wide dynamic range, instead of everything being LOUD because - oh, that's the way we use plug-ins these days. Edwards and Corsano start so quietly and build like an approaching storm and the record captures that rising tension well. Another thing missing from most albums these days is a proper sleeve note and here we have one by Evan Parker, no less. (JC)

El-G & Duncan - s/t cdr (Rural Faune) 2.50

Primitive synth minimalism and spooked-out vocals conjure up a real satanic vibe helped on their way by the psyched-out might of Phil Todd's skyward-spiralling guitar and more black synth / electronics from Steven Warwick of Birds of Delay.

Electric Omen - Abandon All Hope cassette (Blackest Rainbow) 2

"Electric Omen is possibly some of my favorite work of Sindre Bjerga, rumbling darkness, like an earthquake at night, this is unexpected and terrifying. Bleak black and white covers. Pro dubbed cassettes. Limited to 60." (BR)

Electroscope

  • Homemade Electroscope cd (Wurlitzer Jukebox) 4.50

the first Electroscope album full of hushed minimalism, spacey wonder, subdued melodies and songs about 1000 year old swans, crumbling villages and Joe Meek.

  • Follow The Rainbow / Chapter 24 7" (Tinseltones) 2 

pop backwards on the A side and a Syd Barrett cover on the flip

  • Out on the Edge of Time / Glycerine Gold 7" (Boa) 2

Baroque pop psych with harpsichord, flute, clarinet and heavenly female vocal harmonies on one side, a swirling zoetrope of sound on the other, in tribute to Syd Barrett.

  • Journey To The Centre of Electroscope LP / CD (Boa) 7

A 19 song flight of psych-folk fancy encompassing minimal hush and murmur, melancholic folk-tinged half-tones and a lusher side of dark, bedroom-escapist psych. Instrumentation includes guitar, analogue synths, harp, vibraphone, gong, percussion, clarinet, flute, cello and violin. "Experimental music, something close to the form of songs: for dreamers only" said a recent review. 

  • / Warser Gate split 7" (Octane Grammophon) 2

This Finnish release is a concept single (!) based on the four elements.

Elephant Micah - Equine Emblem 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 2

Post-midnight lonesome country blues from Joe McConnell, aka Elephant Micah. This finds his songs more stripped down than before to just his vocals and guitar (with just occasional piano, brushed drums and 'cello) and even more captivating than usual.  Highly recommended.

The End Springs - There Lies the Electric Reasons cdr (Reverb Worship) 2.50

Guitar-based psychedelic reveries - apparently End Springs are usually all acoustic but on this release there's wah-wah and plenty of overdrive so the needle hits the red pretty much all the way throughout. Hand-made covers.

Enfer Boreal 

  • Sea of Tranquility / Sea of Darkness cassette (Digitalis) 2

Maxime Primault's finest release to date. Alchemical bubbles echoing from the back of a long dark cavern on "Tranquility"; on "Darkness" the sound is indeed darker with deep bass underpinning the cosmic sparkle.

  • / Tuscarora Borealis / the.bricoleur split cdr (Deep Water) 4

3 tracks from Enfer Boreal, 2 from TB and one from the.bricoleur. Enfer Boreal's contributions favour the dronier side of his work: huge gas clouds of distantly raging distortion and an undertow of calm synth hymnals. Tuscarora Borealis is a member of Evening Fires who builds repetitions into a magical stream of hypnosis. the.bricoleur has worked with Current 93 and contributes a shadowy soundscape.

  • Break the Illusion cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 3

3 new tracks from Maxime Primault. The first 2 remind me of the mellower end of Ashtray Navigations, but spiked with barbiturates - synth bliss-outs with meandering delayed guitar. The closing track is a voyage to the depths of the ocean - a dark fog of synth drones with wistful guitar lurking in the deep.

Ian Epps - Finds the4yearoldchild: Courtside, Volume 1 cd (Softl Music) 1

part of a series by the New Yorker based on the child's memory of sounds pertaining to a certain activity (in this case a game of tennis) - there's a similarity in sound (warm, organic sound manipulation) and the excellent handmade feel to the design to the 'sparkling composer' series on Lucky Kitchen

Ester Poland - Hippi, Kanuuna Ja Kiinan Torni cassette (Digitalis) 2

"guitar freakouts worm there way into cavernous squalls, stretching from here to forever.  even when they pull things back and break out the acoustic strum, there's so much cacaphony happening under the surface that you'll never escape the chaos.  these blasts are psychedelic as fuck and will strip you down to the absolute core. " (Digitalis)

Ester Poland / Kospel Zeithron cdr (267 Lattajjaa) 2

A split featuring two Finnish bands. Ester Poland are a two man group who create noise / metal squalls. Kospel Zeithorn on the other hand create a hypnotic blend of acoustic instrument / field recordings / electronica.

Eternal Tapestry - Palace of the Night Skies LP & cd (Three Lobed) 10

Full length LP / cd of trio featuring Dewey Mahood on guitar, Nick Bindeman (JOMF) on guitar and occasional vocals and Jed Bindeman (Heavy Winged) on drums. A fuzzed-up ton of psyched-out sprawl, like a slightly mellower Heavy Winged or similar to the endless psych riffing and wah wah wanderings of Bardo Pond. The cd comes with the LP and features the same tracks.

John Clyde Evans 

  • Apetal Thunderfall cd (Digitalis) 3.50

Recorded during a year spent in India and the first proper cd since the Tirath Singh Nirmala release, also on Digitalis last year. This releases splices found software and audio sources into something rather different for JCE although it is still a sound that is recognisably his. The result is a semi-electronic / semi-organic array of cut-ups and fleeting sounds (pastoral flutes, glockenspiel, Indian horns, scratched strings) merged into a wonderfully intoxicating merging of ethnic drone and abrasive cut-ups.

  • Delight in the Streams LP (Amen Absen) 5

Following on to his cd on Digitalis (and one under the name Tirath Singh Nirmala) and a string of self-released cdrs, comes this album, an enthralling and bewildering collage of manipulated sounds recorded in India in 2006. Warm tones of glockenspiel mixed with screeching drones to set your teeth on edge, whacked out vocal manipulations and gentle flute pipings. 

Evening Fires 

  • s/t cdr (Deep Water) 5

Another lovely release on Deep Water. This one features members of Clear Spots and Peacefeather. Evening Fires is an appropriate name as this has a really soporific backwoods feel to it: hypnotic guitar pickings, weary flute and a hazy bed of drone. Similar to some of the folk / psych on Foxglove.

  • Figures of Earth cdr (Digitalis) 4

I really enjoyed the Evening Fires release on Deep Water so was looking forward to this. Again, it's great, starting with a banjo-led hoedown that sounds like it was played at a campfire beneath the stars: loose and joyous. Other tracks are more mystical with weaving flute and the distant heavily reverbed saxophone on "Zion" sounding like it's been beamed in from afar. Track 5 reminds me of the Clear Spots, with whom they share a few members. 

  • Blue Mountain Water cdr (Deep Water) 5.50

5 tracks of this Pennsylvanian trio at their most blissed out: pastoral strums in the sun, amorphous synth / doom meltdown, smoke-wreathed acoustic flute / guitar / percussion jams. All recorded in subterranean locations and indeed the whole recording has the aura of isolation. Gorgeous stuff.

  • New Worlds for Old 2cdr (Deep Water) 8.50

Sprawling double set from Evening Fires. A mix of psyched-out dirges and pastoral guitar / bass / drums instrumentals on the first disc. The second explores different terrain opening with a loose-limbed blissed-out dub and continuing with an Appalachian banjo-led hoedown, Krautish space-rock and ending on a gorgeous dawn-embracing drone-rock swoon. Another excellent collection.

  • Waves in the Air cdr (Deep Water) 5.50

Synths drone, an eleigaic saxophone wafts through a long piece called "Brother North Wind", crunchy guitars ring out over incisive drums on "From the High Country". The titles themselves suggest the sort of expansive instrumental fayre on offer here and it truly is lovely stuff, with radio samples popping up here and there. (JC) 

  • The Book of Wonders cdr (Deep Water) 5.50

Pennsylvania's Evening Fires sound sublimely mellow on this release. The guitar / bass / drums based tracks are pretty chilled - a kind of pastoral space-rock but the really fine moments on here are the opening track - a rippling pool of amorphous synth and glassy shards of percussion and "Drinking Fire, Wearing Water" with guitars that bubble like molten lava.

Eventless Plot / Mescalinaeden split 7" (Gracetone) 0.25

split 7" on a new Greek label. Eventless Plot: a sombre fog of ethereal doom finally splintered by electronics at the end, kind of similar to Yellow 6's most supernatural moments. Mescalinaeden: a weird collage of primitive repeating rhythms and backwards tape loops.

Eyeballs - The Invisible Castle cd (Blackest Rainbow) 5

An hour-long piece of gorgeous multi-layered drone, similar to Gareth Hardwick. Drift away to distant horizons.

Eyes Like Saucers - Parmalee, Tribute to a Dog cd (Ikuisuus) 5

Love me, love my dog is clearly the axiom of J. Knoch, alias Eyes Like Saucers. The front and back of the album have photos of Parmalee the dog, the latter candlelit and lying underneath a Farfisa Compact Duo organ - a winning image, for sure! Much of the album features the Farfisa, a harmonium and - I think - an old Casio in drones or swirling melodiousness. The last track, For Parmalee, is a reworking of the song which figured as the B-side of Mike Oldfield's festive hit version of In Dulce Jubilo. What started out as On Horseback is now a tribute to a dog. Love the dog; love Eyes Like Saucers... it's quite easy to do! (JC)

f

The Fabulous Nobody

  • Love and the City 7" (Kitchen) 1
  • A Pot of Tea / Where the Girl Gets Blue 7" (Sparticus Stargazer) 1

warm picked guitar meanderings, a croon reminiscent of Edwyn Collins / Vic Godard and the nostalgic feel of a record out of its time

Family Elan   

  • The Stare of Dawn cd (Locust) 8

Possibly the finest album I've heard this year comes via this extraordinary offering from Chris Hladowski of Nalle / Scatter / The One Ensemble. It features lots of those wonderful long-necked stringed instruments Chris has such an incredible talent at playing (bouzouki, gimbri, oud), as well as fiddle, flute (played by Hanna Tuulikki) and an array of percussion (bongos, scrapers, cymbals) and is rooted in the folk music of the Middle East, Eastern Europe and North Africa. The sound is dense and exquisitely textured (recorded by Melody Bar reviewer John Cavanagh no less!). "Monumental" is a spinning folk dervish that it's impossible to listen to without wanting to twist and whirl and clap. Slower songs like "Wide Eyed Fox" and "The Bells of Earthly Wonder" have the air of mystical madrigals. The sleeve art is by fellow Nalle member Hanna Tuulikki and the back depicts a dreaming figure being transported away by winged maidens which I think is a fine depiction of how beautifully hypnotic this album is. Highly recommended.

  • Bow Low Bright Glow LP (Alt Vinyl) 16.50

A very very fine follow-up to the wonderful "Stare of Dawn" from Chris Hladowski ( Nalle / Scatter / The One Ensemble). The music is again very much influenced by Eurasian / Eastern European folk music and based around Chris playing bazouki, saz, sitar among other things I've never heard of no doubt. He is joined by fellow Nalle member Hanna Tuulikki on a variety of recorders / flutes and vocals and Patrick Farmer on percussion. The album opens with the stunning "Thousands of Patterns of You" which morphs from traditional folk song to multi-layered string devotional to joyful folk-dance that makes you want to dance. This could sum up the rest of the album which is divided between interpretations of traditional tunes and Chris' own compositions. It's extraordinary: from the quality of musicianship - Chris is truly a god of long-necked lutes and Hanna's flute-playing exquisitely avian. Another fantastic track is "The Black Planets of Her Eyes" which starts out as an Azeri folk tune and then becomes a dark mystical devotional with Chris chanting like a chorus of monks on a mountaintop, like an unholy meeting of A Hawk and A Hacksaw and Vibracathedral Orchestra somewhere in the Urals. As I said, extraordinary stuff. Beautifully recorded by John Cavanagh at Glo-Spot. Gatefold sleeve with Hanna Tuulikki's expressive artwork. Heavy vinyl.

  • Bow Low Bright Glow cd (Alt Vinyl) 10

A very very fine follow-up to the wonderful "Stare of Dawn" from Chris Hladowski ( Nalle / Scatter / The One Ensemble). The music is again very much influenced by Eurasian / Eastern European folk music and based around Chris playing bazouki, saz, sitar among other things I've never heard of no doubt. He is joined by fellow Nalle member Hanna Tuulikki on a variety of recorders / flutes and vocals and Patrick Farmer on percussion. The album opens with the stunning "Thousands of Patterns of You" which morphs from traditional folk song to multi-layered string devotional to joyful folk-dance that makes you want to dance. This could sum up the rest of the album which is divided between interpretations of traditional tunes and Chris' own compositions. It's extraordinary: from the quality of musicianship - Chris is truly a god of long-necked lutes and Hanna's flute-playing exquisitely avian. Another fantastic track is "The Black Planets of Her Eyes" which starts out as an Azeri folk tune and then becomes a dark mystical devotional with Chris chanting like a chorus of monks on a mountaintop, like an unholy meeting of A Hawk and A Hacksaw and Vibracathedral Orchestra somewhere in the Urals. As I said, extraordinary stuff. Beautifully recorded by John Cavanagh at Glo-Spot. Gatefold sleeve with Hanna Tuulikki's expressive artwork. 

Feathered Totem / The Big Drum in the Sky Religion split cdr (Reverb Worship) 2.50

2 tracks from Feathered Totem of heavily-reverbed drone, like hearing Gregorian chant down a well. Big Drum ... are influenced by shamanic rituals and their track is a ritual-esque clatter of percussion, acoustic / electric guitar and synth oscillations. Handmade sleeve.

Fern Knight - s/t cd (VHF) 2.50

"Third CD of beautiful music from Fern Knight, led by the crystal voice, guitar, and strings of Margie Wienk. Drawing from diverse influences such as Krautrock, UK folk and early baroque and renaissance music, Fern Knight’s eponymous recording juxtaposes the calm surface of harp, cello, and violin against the perfectly-timed distorted squalls of Jim Ayre’s Flying V and a dark undercurrent of lyrical and vocal mystery. The overall effect is a lush, pastoral and warm ode to all things green and living, a running theme that winds through the songs: “All is lost / and all will run / over graying ground / to the rays of the sun,” sings Wienk in the album’s closing track, “Magpie Suite Part III.” The album’s cohesion rests upon the core quartet’s combination of acoustic and electronic instruments, providing the perfect vehicle for Wienk’s unique song writing and string arrangements. Since the 2006 release of “Music for Witches and Alchemists” (vhf#101), Fern has toured extensively in the US and Europe, as well touring and recording along side contemporaries Greg Weeks and Brooke Sietinsons of Espers and Tara Burke of Fursaxa in Drag City artists The Valarie Project." (VHF)

Flying Sutra 

  • Levitate & Dissolve cdr (Deep Water) 5

Pennsylvanian guitar / drums duo of George Draguns and Bob Cozzolino who merge avant-rock / free jazz stylings - the longer tracks are particularly fine.

  • Glowering and Glowing Red cdr (Deep Water) 5.50

Pennsylvania's guitar / drums duo return with 66 minutes of crunching avant-rock that merges angular art-punk with freeform heavy rock.

Foldhead - Drugs Paint Alcohol cdr (Music Mundane) 1.50

"After many many years in the wilderness (last heard of in the mid-90s), Music Mundane are proud to prise some of the most recent private recordings from the over-protective  hands of Paul "Nonnen" Walsh, original other half of Smell & Quim. Spread over 40 minutes,  these three tracks grow exponentially and repetitively as the disk progresses, smashing raw analogue electronics and digital processing into a huge hallucinatory wall of confusion.   Welcome back!" (Music Mundane)

Fordell Research Experience Presents - An Afternoon of Pianoforte Recitals cdr (Pjorn) 1.50

4 collaborations between Edinburgh's FRU and Culver, Handek, Shareholder and Adverb / John McLean. Drones ranging from soporific Stars Of The Lid-type drift to abrasive burn-outs to fizz-heavy hum.

Pete Fosco 

  • Petals to the Sun cdr (Reverb Worship) 2.50

I previously stocked a cassette by Pete on Digitalis Ltd which sold out within a few days. Solo guitar meditations with the distortion turned all the way up on the first 2 tracks. The final one utilizes e-bow to create some gorgeous singing, ringing tones. Hand-sprayed covers.

  • Byzantium cdr (Reverb Worship) 2.50

Solo distorted guitar howl. The final track is particularly fine, a fuzzball of notes howling into the night. Hand sprayed sleeves.

  • Live cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.75

Two improvisations recorded in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. The first is incredible, a righteous howl of shredded notes.The volume is reduced considerably for the second track which smoulders with warm distortion rather than ripping the room apart. Gorgeous.

Fossils From the Sun 

  • Associate of Mercy cd (Reverb Worship) 2.50

Fossils From the Sun is Raymond Hare of Century Plants. Unsettlingly repetitive ambience of industrial chug, throbbing electricity, almost inaudible vocals murmurs and the nervy jangling of ghostlike guitar. Edition of 55 hand numbered copies with flourescent orange card sleeves with a design featuring namibian face masks.

  • Somebody's Gotta Lose 3" cdr (Abandon Ship) 2

Solo recordings from Raymond Hare (Century Plants / Burnt Hills). One long track which opens with the kind of fuzzed-out solo guitar you might expect from Phil Todd and then breaks down into bass-heavy electro-rumbling and delayed vocalising.

Fougou - Reversed Dreams of this Nature cdr (Ikuisuus) 5

Excellent new project from Brian Lavelle and Matthew Shaw, named after the mysterious subterranean chambers found in Cornwall. Fittingly field recordings were made at Cerne Abbas, Cairnpapple Hill, Zeist and Stonehenge for this release, and intermingle with analogue synths, guitar, electronics and vocals. Mysterious drones with tons of otherworldly atmosphere.

Fractions - Barometer 3" cdr (Kindling) 3

Another fascinating release on the excellent Kindling records: this is Leighton Craig on keyboard, Stuart Busby on effect-laden trumpet. Deep gurgling sound explorations reminiscent of This Heat at times amid sunbursts of gentle repetitive instrumentals.

Rob Funkhauser - Singularity cdr (Blue Sanct / Morc) 3.25

An infinite ocean of gaseous drone with sparse percussion clutter, like a slowly disintegrating ship beneath the waves.

Future Pilot AKA - Darshan 7" (Geographic) 0.50

Sushil Dade, the principal Future Pilot, bridges the enticing divide between traditional Indian sounds and experimental pop. A veritable melting pop of sounds to calm your soul one minute and uplift it the next. Assisted on 'Tiny Waves' by a crew assembled from various Scotpop luminaries including Teenage Fanclub, Pastels, Superstar, Bill Wells, Delgados, Eugene Kelly, Mount Vernon Arts Lab etc. Vic Godard guests on vocals on 'salute'.