ordering info

new additions

catalogue a - f

catalogue g - l

catalogue m - r

catalogue s - z

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Prices are all in pounds / sterling. THEY DO NOT INCLUDE POSTAGE SO PLEASE EMAIL FIRST FOR A TOTAL AND I WILL PACKAGE UP AND WEIGH YOUR ORDER. PLEASE ALSO SPECIFY WHETHER YOU WANT FIRST OR SECOND CLASS POSTAGE. 

There is a winter sale on just now, loads of prices are reduced throughout the catalogue.

Updated 20th July 2008

NEW ADDRESS

20A The Cross, Beith, KA15 1BS, UK

6majik9 - The Space Between cdr (Cut Hands) 6

Stoner improv of primitive electronic gloop, interplanetary echo, harsh undercurrents of rusted drone and the occasional disjointed guitar / wrenched vocal howl you'd expect from 6majik9 breaking cover. 

500mg - Another Order of Existence cd (Archive CD) 7

Bardo Pond's Michael Gibbons's solo project 500mg recorded live at Philadelphia's Big Jar. Effects-laden (I'm counting 13 on the cover photograh) over-loaded acoustic guitar jams. Comes in a stiff over-sized sleeve with 2 colour silk screen by Alan Sherry.

Ajilsvga 

• Winter Hunt cassette (Abandon Ship) 3.50
• White Path - Red Path cassette (Peasant Majik) 3.25

Amigo Result cdr (267 Lattajjaa) 5

Described on the label website as a "psychedelic collage", this piece melds vintage keyboards, guitars (going forwards and backwards), field recordings, percussion, gliding whistles and more into a verdant swamp of sound. (JC)

Area C - Sea of Rains cd (self-released) 7

"In April of 2008, AREA C was commissioned by the NASA RI Space Grant Consortium and the Museum of Natural History in Providence, RI to compose an original score for their "Mission Moon: past, present, future" exhibit at the Museum of Natural History." Gorgeous Eno-esque elongated tones and languid drones with some samples from Apollo missions 11 & 14.

Ashtray Navigations 

• In Liquid Bravado cdr (Self-released) 5.50

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.

• Snakestrings / Hollywood Taught You to Kiss 2 cdr (self-released) 7

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. 

• Brittle Licks 666 3" cdr (First Person) 2.25

Last release on First Person comes in the form of this 3"  from Phil Todd. Already sold out on its first run, this is the second edition. "Fuzz Socket" is a fuzzed-up static-buried psych blissout and  "Wrong Microphone Love" a helium fix of fuzzed riffing and spiralling guitar. Highly recommended.

Astral Social Club - Monster Mittens / Flaming Ramoon 7" (Dirty Knobby) 4

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

Black Window - Gunwales cdr (Transient) 4.50

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)

Bonecloud - Chrysalis 1951 - 1926 cassette (Twonicorn) 3.50

I have two copies of this limited release on Twonicorn from Dublin duo Bonecloud.

Diaphragm & Migrations in Rust - Framed in Remission cdr (Peasant Majik) 3.25

Dolphins of the Future - Voyage Series cassette (Taped Sounds) 5

"Another chapter in the series of VOYAGE (part one will be released on Skulls Of Heaven, part two on Pacific City). several languages are spoken on the VOYAGE albums. based on the inspiration of DAY 3: THE GIFT, this album combines tape collages, new gamelan music, synthesizer music, more ambient ocean modes and percussion music." (label)

Dreamer's Cloth - Total Descent to Mind Beach cassette (Sloow) 4

This starts out as dreamy mind-float but descends into wails of feedback-soaked guitar webs and doleful lurching trumpet with dirge-paced crashing drums. Bleak and black mournful blues from hell.

Enfer Boreal - Les Plumes Noires 3" cdr (First Person) 2.25

"Tapping into his French heritage through the work of the musique concrete pioneers, Maxime Primault uses the world around him as his source material.  The results are  first rate exercises in electro/ acoustic manipulation in  which tones are shaped and matched to produce attenuated and considered drone studies."

Eno's Slaughter - Beisbol 2LP & cd (3 Lobed) 14.50

"béisbol is a three sided LP by enos slaughter. the brainchild of david shuford (no neck blues band, d. charles speer and the helix), marc orleans (sunburned hand of the man, d. charles speer and the helix) and carter thornton (izititiz, zashiki warashi), béisbol is a full-fledged continuation of the musical ideals that the band has previously set forth within on sunday, saloth sar and on the shores of jupiter." Heavy vinyl, the cd features the same material as on the LPs.

Donato Epiro - Men Have Always Eaten Their Gods cassette (Beyond Repair) 4

Endlessly evolving electro-acoustic drone that eschews the blissful in favour of vibrant and pulsating from this Italian sound artist.

Fordell Research Unit - The Shape of Rage 3" cdr (First Person) 2.25

Sonorous drones from Fraser Burnett that overlap into fizzing blocks of unease as on "What We Hear When We Die" or the foggy elongated tone throb of "Another Common Dunwich Scandal". 

Fossils - Empty & Marvelous cassette (Housecraft) 3.25

"tape cuts chew themselves to cerebral fuzz and mush, hacked and hazy"

Josephine Foster - This Coming Gladness cd (Boweavil) 9

GazHeart LP (Locust) 10

A quick search for Rita Ackermann's name turns up a vast number of striking images from this Budapest born artist, now operating in New York. With this single-sided lp, she has created another artwork, with a beautiful etching on one side and insert drawings for the cover. She sings on 5 of the 6 tracks here, accompanied by Dave Nuss of the No Neck Blues Band playing found percussion. If you're a fan of Anna Kallio, Lau Nau, Kuupuu... or even Lucia Pamela, I think you'll be pleased to have this on your turntable. The sixth track features a child singing. This one is credited to another visual artist, Marike Thunder, so I suspect it's an early tape of her with added percussion from Mr Nuss. All round, joy to behold indeed. (JC)

Ron Geesin - Electrosound LP (Glo Spot) 12

From one giant of electronic sound to another. Glospot launched itself in spectacular style last year with a reissue of a KPM library disc by Delia Derbyshire. This is another reissue of a KPM release, this time by tape splicer extraordinaire, Pink Floyd collaborator and the best thing to come out (the only good thing?) of Stevenston, Ron Geesin. This was originally issued in 1972 and it must have sounded pretty wild then; it sounds pretty wild now. A crazed mix of musique concrete, avant-electronics and wired oscillations given liberal helpings of "RonDelay" and adding up to some seriously surreal sci-fi nursery rhymes. The LP is on heavy blue and white marbled vinyl (meant to be lightning on a blue sky!) and comes in a superb gatefold sleeve with an illustration of Ron in the studio by his son, a photograph of Ron levitating in front of a tape machine and some wonderful sleeve notes from the man himself. I'll leave the final words to him: "pleasantly hysterical". Highest recommendation!

Ghost Brames cdr (Housecraft) 4

If you like the sound of really severe compression and limiting, this will sing to your ears! The sound of the space it was recorded in is almost as much a feature of this 35 minute piece as the instruments themselves, with lively percussion group improv widening to include harmonium and strings along the way. Nice numbered packaging too. (JC)

Goodwillies - Greenmachines for all the Childrens cassette (Digitalis Ltd) 4

Solo release from Tim Goodwillie, one half of (VxPxC). It has the same air of disorientation to that band - overloaded, echoing, underwater sounds that slow down and speed up like an overworked tape deck sound like a severely bad trip. A hallucinatory fairground ride. Sold out at source.

Dominique Grimaud - Les Quatre cd (Locust) 7.25

I’m one of those people fortunate enough to have heard Dominique Grimaud’s music via his recordings with Monique Alba and various friends as Video Aventures. I was immediately struck by the freshness of their three-decade old recordings, my attention was caught by their cover of Joe Meek’s Telstar and I was made aware of Grimaud’s involvement in another innovative French band called Camizole, dating back as far as 1970. It’s only thanks to a French friend playing Video Aventures 10” album to me that I had heard of Dominique at all. For all his talent and longevity, it is perhaps his unassuming character which has given him something of a best kept secret status anywhere outside his own country. This also makes the release of Les Quatre Directions a laudably brave one on the part of Locust Records. It is a challenging work which makes demands on the listener, not least because it runs for a few seconds short of one hour and has no track markers, so the implicit requirement is to play it as a whole. Grimaud took nearly a year and a half to record it and inside the cd insert there is a circular map – a sort of clock of the hour – giving some outline of how the arrangement was devised and which instruments were employed at different points. These include a colourful range of percussion, a Fender Stratocaster used in a variety of ways and analogue synths by the likes of EMS and Moog. Amidst an electronic maelstrom around 27’36” a trombone takes a lead role for a while and this is one of the textural surprises which gives the piece form, ensuring that it does not drag. At times this music is quite minimal and open in texture, but the last quarter builds an orchestration of ominous contrapuntal melodies to a rather staggering intensity before the piece winds down, reminding me at one point of an old spring driven gramophone loosening out its coils near the end of a 78 record side. The work then closes with sparse percussion. This is a very carefully thought out and rewarding piece of modern music and one which, I hope, might bring some wider currency to Dominique Grimaud’s name and his other achievements. I’m not sure how often he performs live, although I know he has shared a stage with Colleen. (it was she who played me the Video Aventures record in the first place, said he, name-dropping) However I suspect it would be impossible to recreate this album live and I rather doubt that a tour will ensue to promote it. In saying this, I hope it does not just slip through the cracks for that reason, as Dominique Grimaud most certainly deserves your attention. (JC)

Arek Gulbenkoglu / Adam Sussman cdr (Rhizome) 5.50

Steve Gunn - Sundowner special edition cd & cdr (Digitalis) 9.25

Solo album from the third member of GHQ alongside Marcia Bassett and Pete Nolan. Finger-picking goodness and a few sung songs too including a cover of John Martyn's "Over the Hill". Some of the instrumentals have a North African flavour, in particular the opener and the Martyn song fits in well with Gunn's own songs. The special edition set comes with a cdr featuring duets with Marc Orleans (Sunburned Hand of the Man / Ozone layer), Heidi Diehl (Vanishing Voice) and Marcia Bassett / Tom Carter. 

Hairmaiden of the Totem Robe - Boomerangs from the Eastern Room of Rebirth cassette (Housecraft) 2.75

"conjured bones and drones ebb and flow in intricate networks of glowing undergrowth and seamless stereo mirage, under continual excavation of guided clatter and strung mystery. mist crawls over stone benches. chants fall from branches. this is dreaming geometry, sunk in soot, bright with leaves." (Housecraft)

Sam Hamilton - The Borders of the Garden Paths are Overgrown cdr (Transient) 6

Hands of Sun - Clay Dreams cdr (Nothing Out There) 5.50

This is the second instalment of the Odomez Series; the first being that fine cdr from Robert Horton from last year. "Odomez... it's a small town up north in France, inside which is located a huge and beautiful land of strangeness. Before 1965, it was a chemical-textile factory. After that, no one really knew. Like a quiet jungle of metal and plants. The Odomez Serie aims at keeping the memory of that place alive, now that it is doomed to demolition, and to call for musical and visual collaborations. Every artist contributing will be sent an artwork related to the place as an inspiration." Hands of Sun is English sound artist Mark Peter Wright and his contribution is an evocative mixture of musique concrete and field recordings, adrift in a huge haze of wind tunnel drone. The cdr comes in an outsize envelope with a postcard / photograph featuring the work of Constantin Dubois who runs the label.

Heavy Winged - Alive in my Mouth LP & cd (3 Lobed) 11.75

"comprised of two of the band's dirtiest and, quite simply, heaviest tracks, it is music for tearing down physical walls. in a small departure from some of our recent vinyl titles, there will not be a bonus cd for pre-ordering the record. instead, every copy of the album will come complete with a cd that features both of the album tracks in addition to a "bonus" 17 minute track. everyone wins! alive in my mouth is be from an edition of 647 copies pressed on 180g RTI vinyl. the record is housed within heavy art sleeves bearing new artwork by michael canich" (3Lobed)

Helm - Illuminated Factory cassette (Peasant Majik) 3.25

Hevoset - s/t LP (Dekorder) 9.25

"Hevoset is the duo of two of the most enigmatic individuals of  the Finnish Underground, namely Jan Anderzen and Jani Hirvonen, both hailing from Tampere. Anderzen is ringleader of a mysterious multitudinous beast known as Kemialliset Ystävät  (Fonal Records), a part-time member of Avarus and Islaja and records solo as Tomutonttu (Ultra Exzema, Beta-Lactam Ring Records) with a new album coming out on Dekorder this year (hopefully). Hirvonen is best-known under his Uton monicker with two LP's on Dekorder and a stream of releases on Last Visible Dog, Digitalis, Ruralfauna, Jewelled Antler, Pseudo Arcana and his own Ikuisuus label.  While most one-off meetings between so-called experimental and improvising musicians often sound like bad excuses for  a few beers and endless jams this is quite the opposite - a heavy weight championship finale of two like-minded whizkids cross-fertilizing each other with idea after idea, leading to some of the weirdest and quixotic recordings you will have heard of the two. Everything you loved about Kemialliset Ystävät, Uton and  Tomutonttu is contained in Hevoset.....and more. Rural psychedelia, out-of-tune plucked and strummed strings, overloaded organs and effect pedals, Jani Hirvonen's sweet wordless vocals, ecstatic improvised drone collages, bells, backward loops, jungle percussion and tons of unidentifiable sounds and noises shaped into tight 4 - 6 minute tracks."

Hush Arbors / Jerusalem & the Starbaskets split 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 4

One track apiece from these two on green and orange vinyl. The Hush Arbors track "Mr Bones" is gently fried country-psych with some great McGuinn-esque 12 string playing. The Jerusalem & the Starbaskets track is rather different to their Foxglove cdr from a couple of years back - dirge-like garagey pop in a Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers vein.

Indoor Park - The Neutral Mile cd (Deep Water) 6.50

An album of mainly instrumental electric guitar and drum pieces which confounds any thoughts of beard-strokey post rock. Instead, there are hints of krautrock, nods to instro rock'n'roll and really fine melodic sounds and fuzzed soloing. Sampled spoken word interjections are used to great effect, especially on The Long Boy and the Fat Boy, which I just can't stop playing. A welcome surprise find and one I'd recommend to you. (JC)

Isengrind / Twinsistermoon / Natural Snow Buildings - The Snowbringer Cult 2cd (Students of Decay) 11.25

A stunning double cd release featuring music from Natural Snow Buildings and two associated solo recordings. First up is a split disc with Isengrind (Solange Gularti) taking up the first half. Thick plumes of Eastern-leaning drone-smoke and ethereal folk. Solange uses sitar and other stringed instruments, flutes and whistles and a plethora of hand percussion, filtered through a ton of reverb to create something utterly otherworldly. Twinsistermoon (Mehdi Ameziane) starts his half of the disc by occupying similar hazed-out drone-folk terrain. These are interspersed with sparsely accompanied folk ballads with Mehdi's impossibly high and pure vocals recalling Vashti Bunyan. Disc two features the two recording together as Natural Snow Buildings. Some tracks, like "Bear Hunting", are wistful and wide-eyed post-midnight balladry. Others are dense and opulent dirges with a much darker, almost ritualistic side than either solo project, as if magicking up the spirits of the forest. This comes in a gatefold sleeve featuring artowrk by Solange and needless to say, comes highly recommended.

A Jarvis - She is Also Phasing cassette (Peasant Majik) 3.25

Jazzfinger / Culver & Fordell Research Unit LP (Blackest Rainbow) 9

"Brand new split LP featuring heavy hitting UK bleak dudes... A-Side is Jazzfinger's 'Killed In A Clear Sky', one solid slab of fucked up tapped guitar drone and distant errie whir... like a storm of electric feedback, slashes and cuts. Far out, and a real killer 20 odd minutes to make you lull out. B-Side is a collaboration between Culver and Fordell Research Unit, another side long piece, that starts off with some bassed up doom chugs and slogs that sound like fucking something that could lay down by some Southern Lord brutality, but then it punches you in the face with its distorted churning hell. Limited to 275 white label LPs."

Jerusalem & the Starbaskets / Bengal Traitors split 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 4

Two earthy and refreshing rockin' tunes with, at times, flavours of Bo Diddley (the guitar at the end of the Jerusalem song especially) and Medicine Head about them. This is a highly attractive 7" on opalescent vinyl with a spiral pattern printed on the sleeve and fronted by a separate print of the spiral on clear plastic: if you move this against the background, you can simulate the opening sequence of Jon Pertwee-era Doctor Who shows in the comfort of your own home... fab! (JC)

Ryan Jewell cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 3.25

"Short (12minutes) new piece from this Ohio based experimental percussionist who's collaborated with Fossils, Burning Star Core, Graveyards dudes, and Patrick Farmer to name a few. In Ryans words 'it's all acoustic. Supersonic acoustic sine waves interfering with one another making audible sweeps, etc. It's all just a floor tom. Secret fuckin' ninja jedi mind moves and shit'... really minimal and bleak, with an insane climax that'll blow your speakers away! All in hand sprayed, hand inked, hand stamped or stickered sleeves... all entirely individual." (BR)

Ryan Jewell / C Spencer Yeh / Wasteland Jazz Unit cdr (Dreamsheep) 6.75

"Sounding like Laddio Bolocko playing Aufgehoben's songs, this amazing quartet shares a seriously mindblowing connection with the huge  underground noise scenery in the United States.  This half-an-hour free-form session between these Ohio-based dudes  is a long electroshock torture which features Yeh (experimental violinist/electronic musician with a highly growing reputation around the world) playing bass here, Jewell (experimental drummer/electronic musician also involved in Pink Reason and Psychedelic  Horseshit) on drums/electronic junk and John Rich/Jon Lorenz  (Wasteland Jazz Unit) totally immersed in a hyper-amplified and nihilistic sax playing. File under sparkling brutality." (Dreamsheep)

Keijo - Carry On With Us cd (Pseudoarcana) 7.75

Another of those lovely cd / book packages from Pseudoarcana with the book featuring photos and collages by Keijo. Loose and sparse jams featuring guitar, organ and percussion - free-flowing late-night pastoral psychedelia that could only be Keijo. Some of the other tracks are super minimal meditations on jaw harp and percussion.

Jeremy Kelly cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

6 track album of guitar music in a wide range of textures: from manipulated feedback and swoops and swishes like a 'plane taking off to the tremolo twang of the (particularly fine) "Radiate" and a piece which sounds like wild radio tuning sounds. Numbered edition of only 50 copies. (JC)

Klangmutationen - Liturgie cdr (Dreamsheep) 6.75

An incredible blast of free jazz wipeout from a collective from Malaysia. This set was recorded live at the Annexe Central Market, Kuala Lumpur - two tenor sax, electric bass and guitar, bamboo whistles, vocals and drums. Feedback hums and sears and the saxophones provide a wall of malevolent energy.

Felix Kubin & das Mineralorchester - Music for Theatre & Radio Play LP (Dekorder) 9.25

Stefan Kushima - Don't Touch the Walls cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 5

Kushima is an experimental visual and audio artist from Linz, Austria. On this release he conjures up enormous snowstorms of sound that all but obscure his original source sound. Huge fuzzed up and blissed out drones.

Kuupuu - Tinakenkalurtta cassette (Scumbag Tapes) 5.75

Brand new tape featuring two long-form live recordings from Jonna Karanka. The first was recorded at home and is full of spectral vocal loops and distant chimes. Later in the piece things get seriously degraded, the vocals keep on a-swirling but the mood goes from ethereal to menacing with tape squeals and squeaks. Side 2 I heard when it was first broadcast on John Cavanagh's Soundwave radio programme and it is seriously spooked. Dusty hesitant piano, swarming vocal loops, eerily echoing whistle, squeaks and chimes evoking backwoods mystery. Great stuff.

Latralmagog - Bootis cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Full value here: this is a close-on 72 minute piece, spliced into 6 sections and Reverb Worship continue their numbered editions of 50 copies by packing this in an especially striking cover, using spray paint and tinfoil to suggest volcanic lava in flow. The music is by the Philadelphia improv duo Ethan Tripp and Al Berheimer, who use lots of percussion and keyboards. Their full-on sonic assaults are balanced by subtler dynamics; for me the shining example is the fourth section, a beguiling chiming percussion piece. The album is named after a star - Bootis is a yellow dwarf in the constellation Bootes. (JC)

Lau Nau 

• Nukkuu LP (Locust) 9.50
• Nukkuu cd (Locust) 7.25

Long-awaited new album from Laura Naukkarinen. Laura has also played in Paivansade, Anaksimandros, Kiilla and Hertta Lussu Assa but her solo songs are a world apart, lysergic reveries evoking the sound of a child-like spirit enthralled by the wonder of the natural world around her. Her vocals weave in multi-layered lullabies amid the gentle pluck of kantele & guitar, hymnal chords on organ and the distant buzz of field recordings. Antti Tolvi (Lauhkeat Lampaat) and Pekko Kappi play on a few tracks. Highly recommended.

Antonia Leukers - Hasenlove pic disc plus zine (Dekorder) 13.25

Here's a highly unusual release - actually, I'd go as far as calling it unique. The label on the clear sleeve containing this picture disc dubs it "An oddly disturbing & humorous Rabbit Love Story". However, as the songs are in German I can't really comment on this, except to say that Ain't She Sweet, that 1927 hit revived by the Beatles in Hamburg and I Don't Want To Talk About It are among them, sung by Leukers in what could be the style of a cartoon rabbit. One side of the disc has a couple of rabbits coiled up with their tongues out - soixante-neuf indeed! - whilst the other is heavily etched and also illustrated by A.L, who is best known as a visual artist. Listening to this made me think of Fred von Jupiter, but I suspect this dips into darker terrain... translations are welcome! Comes with a free magazine (JC)

Lost Domain - The Mystery of the Lost Domain cdr (Cook an Egg) 6.50

Degraded blues as bare bones as sun-baked desert dirt: slide guitar shivering towards the bowels of hell, strung-out drumming and parched hollering.

Joshua McAbee & the (7/13) Moon - Accidentally Transcending cassette (Housecraft) 3.25

This comes sweeping in like a melodic fog off the sea: oscillations turn into a radio dial tuning in strings on the shortwave, a voice squelches up and down in pitch like scratching vinyl and there's a very hopeful sounding end too. All on a neatly packaged tape with 5 screw fixing on the cassette shell, just so you know it's good quality. (JC)

Sean McCann - Shore Net cassette (Housecraft) 3.25

One side of this starts quite serene and droney, building to something wild and droney. The overload of the lo-est-fi sound makes it all pretty intense. The other side starts with bongos (I think) and drones, but soon escalates like a fairground ride flaying at top speed with no brakes on it. More fun than the waltzer any day! (JC)

Paul Metzger 

• Gedanken Splitter LP (Roaratorio) 9

A hair-raising set of banjo instrumentals. Metzger flays the strings the way that Chris Corsano assaults a drumkit. Atonal abstracts meet frenetic speed-ragas. Amazing.

• Canticle of Ignat cd (Archive CD) 7

Mok Nok cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Mok Nok is "best friends" in Innuit and this duo from Copenhagen are clearly united in a love of overloaded lacerating guitars, vintage synth tones and pounding beatboxes in a sound quality which is more fuzz-fi than lo-fi. Every splatter-painted cover has a paste on witch with red eyes, just to keep things friendly, like... (JC)

Thurston Moore - Built for Lovin pic disc LP (Lost Treasures of the Underworld) 15.25

" A scabrous grab bag of weirdo recordings assembled by Thurston Moore: hardcore basement slam jammer with Mark Ibold (bass) and John Moloney of Sunburned (drums), a rough demo cue made for an HSBC TV ad (w/ Steve Shelley-drums
– uncredited – sorry Steve!),  a few noise b-sides from various lost releases and a couple of long psycho-bead kosmi-killersz. And some subterranean acoustic luv — all wrapped up n a pic disc with art by T Moore extracted from his Street Mouth series of collages....... " (label)

"n.213 is the godchild of the inimitable nic hughes. most are probably more familiar with the band he plays guitar & sings for: shearing pinx. but his solo digs never disappoint. jolting bursts of electronic mayhem laced with pcp-inflected vocal incantations make "vexaction" a hypnotic & catchy carnival ride. blitzkrieged pop elements even make an appearance, but these short & noisy bones are nothing but the sweetest candy for the noiseniks in all of us. the weapons used range from drum machines, keyboards, reel-to-reels, & guitars to shakers, bells, trumpets, pedals, and more. it's a virtuoso circus of all that is juicy." Sold out at source.

An exquisite album of experimental folk from the stunning gatefold sleeve to the extraordinary music within. Glasgow-based trio Nalle are artist Hanna Tuulikki, Chris Hladowski (One Ensemble, Family Elan) and Aby Vulliamy (One Ensemble, National Jazz Trio of Scotland). Side one opens with an adaptation of a poem by Robert Frost: a warm cocooning drone of singing bowls and harmonium, delicate improvisatory fingers of oud playing and Hanna's voice and Aby's viola swooping and swooning round each other. The album mixes Eastern European and English folk forms with modal drones and madrigals with Japanese Gagaku and throughout Hanna's vocals are in stunning shamanic form almost as if she's trying to birth a new emotional language. The Japanese influence can be heard most strongly on "Alice's Ladder" with vocal, bowed bouzouki & flute carrying the melody / harmony lines amid the otherworldly pluckings of kantele and also on "Young Light" which features some great hammer dulcimer playing from Chris. "Voi Ruusani" is a reinterpretation of a Finnish gypsy song as atonal funereal dirge, and at 10 minutes long it forms the backbone of the album along with joyful episodic "Seven Sirens" which comes over like Family Elan playing "A Very Cellular Song" with a hand-clapping, bells-a-jingling Hanna defying you to resist a jig around your bedroom. The album ends austerely with the avant-madrigal "First Eden Sank to Grief". This is an album that slowly uncoils its secrets and magic and although the influences are often obvious, it's woven together by 3 very talented individuals into something completely unique. The music is beautifully recorded by our reviewer John Cavanagh at Glo-spot and I've been a big Nalle fan for some time so I may be biased, but this is an utterly magical album I can't recommend highly enough. 

5 tracks from Nirmala aka John Clyde Evans. Streams of electronic / casio light converge like thousands of beams of sunlight alongside massed hand percussion shake and clatter and frenetically fluttering flutes. A midway spot between Moondog and the jungle ecstasies of some of the recent Skaters' extracurricular projects

Pumice - Quo cd (Soft Abuse) 8

Sea Zombies - It Died in Africa cassette (Digitalis Ltd) 4.25

New Brad Rose project, a duo between him and Xela - this is one of his best. Two side-long voyages into darkness. Three notes repeated descending into an increasing infernal gloom of bleak gaseous electronics and shuddering feedback fog. Side two sounds like a downpour of fuzz pouring over a shimmering Eno-esque synth bubble. Comes in an over-sized black envelope with an African tarot card inside - this is the first (now sold out) edition.

Shanyio - I - X cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Water gently swooshes by, percussion shakes and chimes lightly, there are touches of backwards looping, a bit of funkiness and glockenspiel lending a musical box quality too. All of this around charming acoustic guitar melodies. This is the world of duo Alexandru Hegyesi and Thomas Almadi and it is a very fine place to visit. (JC)

Slow Listener 

• Son of the Man of the Year cassette (Housecraft) 3.25

"spiraling smoke glows, dense with reverberations from the innermost"

• Bad Coffee Day cassette (Peasant Majik) 3.25

Ben Spiers 

• Artwork Temporarily Removed 3" cdr (Transient) 4.50

Degraded guitar buzz and wail from New Zealander Ben Spiers. Breathes of feedback harmonise mournfully like the death gasps of a mangled guitar & amp. Individually block-printed manila sleeves.

• And Then cdr (Transient) 6.75

Empty Mirror / Seen Through / Glory Fckn Sun member Ben Spiers turns in an impressive full-length of degraded guitar / amp meditations. There's a warm buzz to the sound at odds with the emptiness and ill-ease of the sounds which have an "end of the universe" feel to them, mournful feedback tones and burrowing oscillations and intensely focussed meditations on single notes.

Spoono - The Divers Private Revelations of cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 3.50

Mike Tamburo & Matt McDowell - At Bohemian Grove cdr (Rural Faune) 5.50

Chimes and twangs lead off here with a pretty yet ominous quality: all doll's house darkness, old perfume (thanks to the late Syd for that line!). Across the 32 minute piece, things get much more full on, with chanting voice, organ, fuzzy guitar and electronics. It's like a big fairground of sound with a sacrificial rite being conducted somewhere just behind the waltzer! 66 copies with twigs inside the packaging. How can you resist? (JC)

Temples - Serpentine cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Denver's Kevin Richards has already had one cdr out on Pseudoarcana, the appropriately titled "Murk". The source sounds on this release continue to dwell in the shadows and the background sounds become the almost oppressive foreground through which the source can seem like a distant light in a thick fog. An absorbing listen.

Terracid cd (Digitalis Arroyo) 6

I have a small number of copies of this Terracid release, part of the subscription only Digitalis Arroyo series

ThrouRoof - Emerald Tablet of Hermes 3" cdr (Housecraft) 3.25

Thuja - s/t LP (Important) 9.50

"Improvisational Bay Area quartet Thuja create aural landscapes that capture the reverberations of wood and wire, the sounds of breaking sticks and scraping stones, and the ambience of their surroundings into a shifting, dynamic musical framework. The members of Thuja play off each other and the space they inhabit with a natural instinct, succeeding in conjuring spectral compositions which are at once abstract yet inviting. For this self-titled release, their sixth full-length and first for Important Records, Thuja have assembled recordings from various live performance spaces (the Hemlock, the Oaklandish Gallery, Pehr Space, Kains Greenhouse) and have welcomed a variety of guests into the fold to help assist and expand their microscopic psychedelia toward a new plateau. After eight years, the semi-annual gathering of the members of Thuja is almost traditional, but new clearings are still to be discovered in its thickets of sound." (Important website)

Hanna Tuulikki - Black & White Drawings book 9

I saw this at Nalle's Glasgow gig the other night sitting on the merchandise table all on its own and pounced on it, thinking it was the last one. Luckily Hanna had a few more lurking underneath and I have a handful of a small edition of 50. This compiles some of Hanna's wonderful folk art from covers for Nalle, Family Elan, Ben Reynolds and the "Garden of Forking Paths" albums to tour posters and plenty of other drawings. Birds, bears, animals, trees, boats, the sun, the moon, the sea and the stars. Highly recommended.

Uton

• Pearls and Glory 3cdr (Taped Sounds) 14

Three disc set that comes with a booklet of drawings by Jani Hirvonen of Uton. The first disc features 3 live sets recorded in 2006 and featuring Bridget Hayden on two tracks. Disc 2 was originally released in a limited edition on Sloow Tapes. Disc 3 contains 5 tracks recorded in Finland, the first performed with Kulkija.

• Straightedge XXS LP (Dekorder) 9.25

""Straight Edge XXS" is the 2nd vinyl album by  Finland's Uton released in a strictly limited edition of 500 copies on the Dekorder label. It comes in a gorgeous full-colour  collage sleeve assembled by Hirvonen himself.  While Uton's last Dekorder album "Alitaju  Ylimina" (and most of his other recorded works respectively) are hazy lo-fi drone masterpieces for the most part, this is a completely diffferent affair. Recorded straight to  tape within one month, right after returning from a 6-month trip  to India, these songs (if you could call them songs) are completely out-of-this-world; very short and crazed sketch-like pieces sounding like a Nonesuch Explorer LP of long lost field  recordings from an as yet unexplored continent. Or is it World Music from an unknown planet recorded by those Sublime  Frequencies guys from mysterious short wave transmissions? Well, it is all that and more. It is pure ecstatic expression channelized through Psychedelia, Free Jazz, Noise and rural ancient Folk Music from all over the world in a completely naked,  predominantly acoustic setting. One of the purest forms of music you could imagine; while all the  familiar Uton elements remain evident in a hazy backcloth."

V 

• We Are Crossing Fences Through Rocky Fields cassette (Housecraft) 3.50
• The Chanting Path cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 4.75

MV & EE 

• Meet Snake Pass & Other Human Conditions LP (Singing Knives) 10.75

Live recording from 2006 at the Heeley Institute (which looks like a great venue from the cover of the LP - if only more gigs were held at places like this rather than at some dismal pub basement ... more style please!). Just Matt Valentine and Erika Elder and a wonderfully laid-back set that starts with "Cold Rain" and ends with their version of "Freight Train". Great sleeve notes from Matt and Erika too. Highly recommended.

• The Best It Ever Was 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 4

Also featuring The Golden Road (Asa Irons, Doc Dunn and Samara Lubelski on this occasion). The A side has a real retreat to the country '68 feel to it and could have fitted in on their "Green Blues" album. The B side is laid-back in the sun slide guitar and harmonica. Good-time pastoral psychedelia at its best.

• Ragas of the Culvert LP & cd (3 Lobed) 12.25

Completing a triple bill of MV / EE releases this week comes this fantastic reissue of a previous self-released cdr and cassette on Fuck It Tapes (both very limited). It's a return to the days of cosmic ragas, heavily meditative and utterly out-there. All my copies come with a cd version of the LP plus "Total Loss Songs", new material recorded with the Golden Road.

MV & EE with Willie Lane - Pray for Less cassette (Blackest Rainbow) 5

2nd in the series of live recordings, this one comes from Oklahoma City 11th Feb 2007, and features some excellent strung-out versions of "Death Don't Have No Mercy", "I Got Caves in There", "The Burden", Hammer", "Summer Magic" and "Environments".

Volcano the Bear - The Mountains Among Us cd (Beta Lactum) 11

A beautifully packaged re-issue of an album which first appeared in 2002. Although it came out in 3 different editions then, the total number of copies was still only something like 190, so this music will come to many listeners (me included) fresh and previously unheard. The two pieces, Supreme and Sublime & Dragon or Emperor, have clearly been devised with lp sides in mind, as shorter episodes flow together into each longer track - and what fine long works they are: soundtracks to unseen movies of glacial labyrinths, exotic dancers replete with snakes, the electronic and (mainly) acoustic sounds conjuring many images and colours. Although we are not treated to a free plastic insect, as with one of the original lp runs, the hard bound cd case is quite a piece of art in itself. Recommended. (JC)

Cameron Wood - Three Thoughts on C Tuning cdr (Winter) 4.75

Self-released follow-up to his release a while back on Rhizome and as the title suggests 3 guitar meditations on C tuning. The first couple of tracks are spacious hum-ridden and distorted blues, similar to Anthony Guerra's solo work. The last track is more akin to his last cdr: a ton of over-saturated guitar howl and wail. Great stuff.

Wooden Spoon - 3 cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.75

The 4th Wooden Spoon release is rather more akin to his piano pieces from the previous cdrs than his guitar picking. It's more drone-orientated than before as well with the 2nd track being the focus here - a harmonium's slow exhalations creating a soporific fogged drone. The piano pieces are cyclical and lulling. Lovely.

Wounded Knee 

• Die Berliner Luft cdr (Shazzblat) 4

New cdr from Edinburgh's Drew Wright on his new label, recorded in Berlin. As distinctive and fascinating as ever this is minimally recorded using one mic, a radio and looping pedals, much like his live sets. The vocal tracks range from the suitably soporific thrum and almost Aboriginal drone of "The Big Sleep" to the protest round-singing of "Iran" to the a cappella renditions of "I See a Darkness" and the traditional "When the Whale Gets Strike". Add to this some wonderfully fuzzed-up drones, kazoo crooned melancholy and shortwave hauntings, and you have a mighty fine disc.

• Mystic Mixtape cdr (Shazzblat) 4

Another helping of loop-magic from Drew Wright. This is one long (38 minute) track which builds a chorus of murmurs into a blurry drone cloud. Drew recorded this late at night and it has the sound of being for his ears alone; his vocals are soft and weary, layered into a crepuscular hymnal. Deep in those layers magic lies and this is a most peaceful listen.

v/a - Breakdancing the Dawn cdr (Rhizome) 5.50