ordering info

new additions

catalogue a - f

catalogue g - l

catalogue m - r

catalogue s - z

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

Updated 15th November 2008

NEW ADDRESS

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

Aethenor - Betimes Black Cloudmasses cd / LP (VHF) 9

"Highly-anticipated second album from the trio of Vincent De Roguin (Shora), Stephen O'Malley (Sunn0))), KTL) and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo). Like their genre and audience-confounding debut “Deep In Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light,” “Betimes” is an atmospheric, constantly changing piece that encompasses a mind-boggling array of different performance and processing techniques. The deeply psychedelic and affecting results present a soundstage that is continually evolving, with new elements entering and leaving the fray every couple of seconds. Betimes includes significant contributions from free percussionists Nicolas Field and Alex Babel, who sprinkle the sound field with an almost FMP-style rush of splattering drum sound, raising the intensity of the music (without resorting to bashing)." (VHF)

Ajilvsga - Last of the White Buffalo cassette (Abandon Ship) 5.50

"Sometimes it's primitive and baked in the clay-infested dirt that sucks most of the life out of the dust bowl that is Western Oklahoma. Sometimes it's drenched in caustic rain in Green Country, out near the foothills of the Ozarks. But the obscured rhythms, the sludge, and the decaying bits of black magic wisdom that suckle the young ones dying on the vine? Fuck 'em. They never were of this world anyway." (AS)

Ajilvsga / Mass Ornament / Alms / The North Sea 2 cassette box (Digitalis Ltd) 9.50

4 way split that comes in a dvd sized box. Now sold out at source.

Apalusa - Obadiah cd (Low Point) 5.75

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)

Arklight - Nolo Contendere Rakkasans  3" cdr (Rural Faune) 4

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

Ashtray Navigations 

• Animalinterior cdr (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 5.50

This time around, Phil Todd solo. Feedback-soaked amp-overload and hypnotic tones drifting overhead. Excellent.

• Red Culture LP (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 8.25

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.

• The Cream Wheel cdr (self-released) 5.50

Limited edition reissue of a long gone Ash Nav (solo Phil Todd in this instance) release. This finds Phil Todd at his most spectral and introspective - a mix of the abstract end of the Radiophonic Workshop and kosmische synth / guitar drones.

• Pussy Noise cdr (Smokers Gifts) 5.50

Duo recording featuring Phil Todd / Melanie Crowley. Fantastic stuff -Todd's psyched-out guitar spirals higher and higher as the distortion quotient increases on the first track. The second is an all-out energy-zapping fuzz-dronefest. 

ASTRO / Hiroshi Hasegawa 

• The Echo From the Purple Dawn cd (Important) 9.25

"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)

• Live at Muyoko Muzenb Temple LP (Important) 10.75

"Live At Muryoku Muzen Temple is limited to 500 This is the companion release to the Astro CD titled The Echo At The Purple Dawn being released at the same time on Important Records. Astro, of course, is the analog/space project of Hiroshi Hasegawa of the legendary Japanese group C.C.C.C. This limited vinyl only release was created using ring modulator and vocals which are rare these days in Astro recordings. Cover art designed by Important." (Important)

Aidan Baker - I Wish Too, To be Absorbed cd (Important) 9.50

"Aidan Baker's I Wish Too, To Be Absorbed is a 2 disc compilation of tracks from various out-of-print, limited edition releases spanning the last 10 years of Baker's output, ranging from his very first release to material that was featured on the soundtrack to a book of his poetry. Toronto based composer Aidan Baker works under his own name, under the name Nadja along with bassist Leah Buckareff and also with the trio ARC. Hailing from the Great White North, Baker incorporates guitar, drums, bass, voice and tape loops into his myriad work hauling down a long iceberg of frigid doom, bliss and sound collage. He has also composed work for the The Penderecki String Quartet & The Uxbridge Chamber Choir and he is also a published poet. The first disc in the set features shorter, perhaps more accessible tunes with a wide range of instrumentation and songs ranging from minimal drone to delicate post-rock to ambient trip-hop. The second disc features longer, more drone/experimental-oriented pieces, primarly using the guitar (with the odd tapeloops and vocals) as the primary sound source. Adventures in ambience. Sonic immersion. Introspective dronescapes." (Important)

Barn Owl / Tom Carter split LP (Blackest Rainbow) 9.50

"Newest Blackest Rainbow hot on the heels of some truly killer releases from the artists involved, both who seem to have really pushed there sounds and vibes to new levels this year... Barn Owl's side has been mastered by local jammer Ben Nash, and its three tracks of sparse drone layered with bleak guitar epic-ness, tingling chimes and dark mountainous whispers. The guitars here sound delicate and beautiful, but it remains bleak and empty, if you enjoyed their LP on Not Not Fun then this is a real treat. Tom Carter's 16 minute 'Train Kept' follows pretty damn nicely from his recent 'Shots At Infinity' releases on Important, a far cry from his more psychedelic folk experimentations, here he slashes and riffs like many a legend, and maybe, just maybe, it's a slight tribute to a certain band too? This is a fully wild piece of work. Black sleeves, pasted stark landscape cover, with a insert of liner notes. Limited to 380 copies." (BR)

Matt Baumann - An Island cd (Reverb Worship) 5.50

An album of spacious solo saxophone - and a very lovely one at that. Matt Baumann's 8 mood pieces begin with An Island (Arriving) and end with An Island (Leaving), so there's an implied journey here, with track titles like Marooned, Ghost Ships and Wraith in between. Much of the time he uses the spaces between his notes almost like a second instrument, playing off huge reverbs. If you were ever into ECM albums by Jan Garbarek, this will definitely appeal, although Baumann's playing is warmer than the admittedly rather glacial JG... actually, this is more akin to John Surman's soulfulness on a wonderful Barre Phillips album called Mountainscapes - another ECM title. Recommended. (JC)

Sindre Bjerga - Crystal Cranium, Diamond Head cassette (Blackest Rainbow) 4.75

"Solo live blurt from 25 June 2008 from Sindre Bjerga, one half of Bjerga/Iversen. Background drones hit in immediatley accompanied with some minimal scrapes and sputtering kinda growth aura from aforementioned drone, there's a real static vibe cruising through this. Occasional clunk and taps blur away as the heavy dense drone consumes the lot like an electric mist, with feedback clots clogging up your lungs, and creepy terror sounds. Limited to 50 hand numbered copies, each with indvidual handmade weird paper and an insert, everyone looking entirely different." (BR)

Tim Coster, Joshua Rutter & Shannon O'Brien - Silent Spring 3" cdr (CLaudia) 4.50

One long track from this New Zealand trio. Long tones (keyboard, vocal and computer-generated) that extend ever outwards, gradually fading into one another, like winter sky into a grey sea. Beautiful melancholy.

Richard Crandell - In The Flower of Our Youth LP (Tompkins Square) 8.50

"Reissue of this classic solo acoustic guitar album. "In The Flower of Our Youth, originally released on the private press label Cutthroat Records in 1980, was Richard Crandell's first LP. His tune 'Rebecca' was famously covered by admirer Leo Kottke on his Chewing Pine album. Crandell has gone on to record several other guitar albums, as well as two mbira recordings for John Zorn's Tzadik label. Crandell's music has recently been featured on Tompkins Square's Imaginational Anthem Vol. 3, as well as the guitar compilation Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli."" label

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 - Expanses Growing cassette (Sloow) 4

Gorgeous late night psyched ambience from Matt Lejoie. Hazy guitar wanderings amidst a woozy fog of percussion / murmurred vocals. 

Dugoutcanoe - Demonstration cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

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.

Elephant Micah - Equine Emblem 7" (Great Pop Supplement) 3.50

Post-midnight lonesome country blues from Joe McConnell, aka Elephant Micah. 

Elwood & Guthrie - s/t cdr (Rural Faune) 5

Great release from this duo. Foot stompin' banjo / drums folk tunes that will appeal to Black Twig Pickers' fans. Comes with a twig, a piece of pot pourri and some beautiful bird portraits.

Enfer Boreal - s/t cdr (Rural Faune) 5

Electro / acoustic manipulations from Maxime Primault that result in electric pulsations and wire-tingling drones.

Eyeballs 

• Sea of William Henry Smyth cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 4.75

Gorgeous multi-layered drone & drift, similar to Gareth Hardwick.

• Europa cdr (Low Point) 3

Another beautiful piece of textured drone from Richard Dawson. See-sawing sea shanty organ drones and pulses and the piece builds into a hypnotic reflection.

Fern Knight - s/t cd (VHF) 9

"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)

Fossils - Gone With the Sun cassette (Digitalis Ltd) 4.75

Cut & paste noise / freeform freakery. Handmade sleeve. Now sold out at source. 

Fossils From the Sun 

• Associate of Mercy cd (Reverb Worship) 5.50

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.

• cassette (Peasant Magik) 4

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)

Ghost Moth - Sealand Fortress cdr (House of Alchemy) 3.50

Saxophonist Daniel Carter, plus Todd Brooks and Robbie McDonald on various synths and oscillators, guitar and tapes play a full-throttle improv which leaves as it arrived: with a dramatic cut! The inspiration for the piece is a throwback to the days of offshore pirate radio in 1960s Britain. Whilst Screaming Lord Sutch ran Radio Sutch on a disused WWII iron fort (which also doubled as the location for an episode of Danger Man, fact fiends!), an ex British army major who ran Radio Essex on another of these platforms declared it an independent principality. The cd liner will direct you to a website where you can read the whole story. (JC)

Glory Fckn Sun - Vision Scorched cd (Pseudoarcana) 5.75

Reissue of this wonderful cd without the book. Features Antony Milton (Nether Dawn, Mrtyu! etc), Ben Spiers & percussionist Simon O'Rorke engaged in ecstatic sun worship. The opening track is a long piece of cosmic improv - the expansive crash of gongs, the deep rumble of guitar, drawn-out drones. Track 2 is an infernal white noise onslaught. The closing track is a ragged electric raga, almost buried beneath layers of intense drone and percussive splash.

Grey Park - A Final Exam For a Agent cdr (267 Latttajjaa) 5

Weird and wired electronics from Finland: buzzing and fuzzing like distant sounds echoing and amplified in a subway tunnel.

Gryn Brvs - Shoop cdr (Rural Faune) 5

Irish duo with previous releases on Digitalis and Chocolate Monk. Spaced-out drone / percussion unease. 

Gryn Brvs / Siblings of Plasma split cassette (Digitalis Ltd) TBC

Steve Gunn - s/t cdr (Abandon Ship) 5.50

A reissue of Steve Gunn's (Magik Markers / GHQ) cdr on Onomato from a year or so ago. Magical zoned ragas on banjo and acoustic guitar, with some psych guitar flights. Heidi Dahl sings on one track.

Gareth Hardwick - Carnations cassette (Peasant Magik) 4

Double sider featuring two ever expanding drones. The first side is based on guitar and is as warm and gorgeous as any Stars of the Lid track. The second is a dense slab of wheezy chord organ drone. Both excellent. 

Gareth Hardwick / Eyeballs split cassette (Blackest Rainbow) 4.75

Nicely matched split featuring one side of Hardwick's glacial drift - tones merge like clouds on the horizon - and the other features Richard Dawson (Eyeballs). On this side I can hear distant melodies beneath the drone haze but it sounds like they've been suppressed beneath layers and layers of fog or buried deep underground and it's an effect that's deeply unsettling (but in a good way!).

Nils Helstrom - Discarding All That Was Before cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.75

Expansive drone-works with an uneasy undertow.

The Human Combustion Engine 

• Amarillo Vivo cdr (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 5.50
• 2 cdr (Smokers Gifts) 5.50

Melanie Crowley & Phil Todd of Ashtray Navigations join forces in creating an entirely different sound. Shades of Joe Meek's "Glob Waterfall" from "I Hear a New World" with silvery beams of synth light sweeping across the night sky and ominous humming undertones. 

The Hunter Gracchus - Sacred Object of the Yiye People LP (Chironex) 14.50

Free folk improvisations from Jon who runs Singing Knives and played with Sharron Kraus in Feather Gatherers, Ross Parfitt (Tirath Singh Nirmala collaborator) and members of Harrapian Night Recordings. Jams based mainly around percussion but also melodica and recorder that have the feel of a cultish ritual. The sleeve photograph is great too.

James Bloodbeard - s/t " cdr (Rural Faune) 4

Four-piece featuring Steven R Smith (Thuja, Hala Strana etc), Jason Honea (Child Readers) and Mark Williams and Brian Lucas, both of Father Beard. Free strumming, the insistent wheeze of melodica and spaced-out vocals.

Ju Sei - Taigun-yuei cdr (Black Petal) 6.50

5 wonderfully off-the-wall pop tunes from this Japanese lass. Sparse instrumentation (piano, recorder, casio-type synth) combined with vocals that sound like a halfway point between Reiko Kudo and Hanna Tuulikki and an approach similar to Maher Shalal Hash Baz. 

Kawabata Makoto 

• We Don't Know Where We Came From LP (Important) 10.75

"Limited edition of 500 copies in a letterpress jacket. 
We Don't Know Where We Came From features Acid Mothers Temple leader Kawabata Makoto on both Electric & Acoustic Guitars. Recorded at Kaccho-Buu Matsuzaka by Takayama Manabu." (Important)

• / Michishita Shinsuke - Basement Echo cd (Important) 9.50

"Basement Echo is the historical meeting point of two generations of the Japanese underground. Kawabata Makoto, leader of The Acid Mothers Temple, and Michishita Shinsuke, leader of LSD March, are together here for the first time in a guitar duo. Though Kawabata and Michishita are from the same scene the fact that they are from different generation means that they bring different energy to the collaborations. This fact is extremely exciting for Kawabata who refers to Michishita as "one of the most promising musicians in the Japanese Underground." Both artists agree that Basement Echo was a step into the unknown with neither really knowing what the resulting sounds would be. For Michishita the collaborations have been a dream come true. He describes Kawabata as having a "soul of rock that never burns out." After the recordings were complete the two friends sat down and raised a triumphant toast. Recorded at Snowflake Sound in Sapporo in October of 2007. Totally improvised with no editing/overdubbing." (Important)

David Kirby - The Scythe cdr (Students of Decay) 4.25

David Kirby is a member of Wire Thicket alongside Taiga Remains' Alex Cobb. This is not as full-on as his debut for the same label - it opens with ephemeral creaks, wheezes and tones like the ghostly imprint of an orchestra tuning up. A heavy haze of electricity buzzes underneath. 

Kitchen Cynics 

• A Tune-a-day the Kitchen Cynics Way cdr (self-released) 5

In 2007 Alan Davidson ran a subscriber series of cdrs featuring as you might guess one tune for every day of the year. This compiles 31 of them. Bewitching and lyrical bedroom psych-folk. Adrian Crowley plays on and co-wrote one track.

• Where Are We Now? cdr (self-released) 5

Kwannon - Anahata cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Didn't Fursaxa have a project with Sharron Kraus called Anahita? This new cdr from Jenne Micale certainly treads in similar footsteps to Tara Burke. The music is rooted in medieval influences with a gothic feel. Some songs borrow lyrics from Shakespeare, Tennyson, Keats & Graves. The instrumentation is more ethereal than Fursaxa with the haunting metallic twang of harp, dulcimer, psaltery and kantele dominating, and Jenne's vocal more classical. Otherworldly and enchanting. Equally beautiful handmade sleeve.

La Otracina - Gardens of Blackness cassette (Digitalis Limited) TBA

Les Beyond - Privacy Act cd (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Les Beyond is the work of Erin Jane Ward - 6 tracks of melancholic delayed guitar repetitions. Shades of a more minimal Yellow 6.

Harvey Lord - I Don't Believe I Exist cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

More delightful guitar picking from Harvey. His two previous releases (one with Dave George) have been excellent and this one follows suit. His guitar playing is gorgeous - sunlit nylon picking and some more folk-blues influenced pieces too. His songs have a gentle warmth that slowly ebb their way into your consciousness. 

Lorsson - Lorioppia cdr (267 Lattajjaa) 5

mind-blistering beatings and primitive howl (musically and vocally) in short sharp bursts from this demented band

Ludo Mich / Blood Stereo - From Tapes & Throats LP (Giant Tank) 9.75

"Glasgow got consumed by the collective throats of Antwerpian weirdo Ludo Mich and Brightonian/ Lothian noise-family farmhands Blood Stereo a couple years back. remember? relive the night terror inducing Nosferatu yap which melted the minds of the Instal '06 festival audience on side A before necking the most truly OUT swallie of post-everything sound poetry and tape-dirt manipulation ye''ll chug all year on Side B." (Giant Tank)

"Following several releases on labels such as Fi-Sci Records, Clinical Archives and tara Records, comes the latest album by Tim Chaplin's electronic / experimental project Luminous. Eight tracks of edited one-man jams, using more traditional instrumentation than previous Luminous recordings." (267)

New Pefkin release that comes with a lovely rural twig and handmade paper sleeve. Short fragments of toybox folk and VCS3 / violin throb. Four longer tracks: mutilated thumb piano and bubbling vocals recorded on Joe Meek's old Ampex tape recorder in its death throes, harp / clarinet / vocal drone / tone meditations, spacious wild wood folk-improv and ending on a hugely reverberant organ and Radford oscillator drone with melancholic melodica offering a requiem to an extinct bird. John Cavanagh (Electroscope / Phosphene) plays clarinet on one track. 

Michael Rodgers - Curtained Moon cdr (Black Petal) 5.75

Reflective guitar meanderings and meditative repetitions to break the stillness of night from Michael Rodgers of Broken Hands. Another great Black Petal package with printed textured card wrapped in newsprint style printed paper.

Jack Rose - I Do Play Rock 'n' Roll LP (Three Lobed) 14

While jack rose's compositional skills are always clear and apparent, observing one of his live performances allows even the most casual of listeners to be exposed to his works in an entirely new light. when played for an audience, rose's compositions are given time to stretch out and display an improvisational punctuation. various live tracks have popped up over the course of rose's discography, but i do play rock and roll is his first complete album of live material. I do play rock and roll's forty-one minutes are comprised of only three tracks meticulously selected from jack's live archives. an epic workout of "calais to dover" (originally appearing on 2005's kensington blues) recorded in 2006 starts the whole affair with a bang. the follow-up is documentation from a 2004 appearance on VPRO-fm in the form of "cathedral et chartres." the disc's closer, "sundogs" is a real treat. previously available only as a studio performance on the seminal by the fruits... triple LP compilation, it takes on a whole other twenty-two minute grinding, droning life live. This disc will be released on vinyl by three lobed recordings in september 2008 from a limited edition of 1000 copies. the LP will be on 180g RTI vinyl and housed within an "old style" high gloss LP cover." (3 Lobed)

Sarah's Charity - Fear of Sound cassette (Digitalis) 4.50

Denmark's Sarah's Charity crank up the fuzz-o-meter and go for the sound of electrical warfare. Hiss and distortion riddled ice blasts.

Scissor Lock - Throwing Voices cdr (Sound & Fury) 5

Marcus Whale, from Sydney, Australia, has made music as Scissor Lock for a while, using looping pedals to build layers of guitar. A listen to what's on his myspace page reveals some very melodic pieces. Throwing Voices, as the title suggests, is vocal based material, indeed the only instrument heard on these three pieces is Whale's multi-layered voice. It's rather along the lines of what Wounded Knee is doing these days and makes a lovely listen. (JC)

Sepviva Bells - Halloween in the Sea cassette (Sloow) 5.50

Duo recordings from former Un-bandmates Tara Burke (Fursaxa) and Grant Acker (Slurp Dogs). Hypnotic riffs, stoned lullabies with Tara's vocals buried deep in the fuzz and a bedroom-recorded feel. Silk-screened fold-out booklet.

Shemboid - A Spaghetti of Wires cdr (Memoirs of an Aesthete) 5.50

Two tracks from Alan Sharples who's been quietly issuing homemade cdrs for the last 9 years. This is the first I've heard of him and good stuff it is too. The first track collages samples, subway static buzz, vocal invocations and all sorts else. The second track is an incredible overloaded sprawl of psych-guitar and heavily zoned out atmosphere.

Shiggajon & Dreamers Cloth cassette (Ikuisuus) 4

A split cassette. Shiggajon feature on the first side with their spirited free jazz. Side 2 is from the guy who runs Beyond Repair tapes Jonas Fredriksen and is a gorgeous billowing blast of shimmering synth drones, midway between Monopoly Child and Tangerine Dream.

Siddhi - Goabdesajigge cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Italian sound artist Siddhi creates a mystical cosmic drift on one long track. Ethereal woodwind, ritualistic bells, melancholic acoustic guitar and gong.

Skaters - Physicalities of the Sensibilities of Ingrediential Strairways LP (Eclipse) 8

After a stack of solo projects from James Ferraro and Spencer Clark, it's great to have another slab of Skaters' sound. This was recorded in Mexico and is a cacophonous brew of synth hypnosis, masses of hand percussion and unearthly vocals - hellish rituals on bad acid, as scarily psychedelic as it gets. Excellent.

Sparkling Wide Pressure - Touching Pasture cdr (Students of Decay) 4.25

Sparkling Wide Pressure is Tennessean Frank Bough and this is a deeply zoned recording of bedroom-experimentalist intimacy. Cheap organ drones, acoustic guitar and lo-fi layers of vocals combine into hypnotic wooziness. Now sold out at source.

Starving Weirdos - Absolute Freedom 7" (Abandon Ship) 4

"These two sides represent some of the earliest of SW material; culled from old 4 track tapes recorded in long lost living rooms, with friends and on the fly. Two kernels given the royal treatment, thanks to our friends at Abandon Ship! One an ontological cry into the abyss, the other a march in dedication to those forgotten souls who call it home." - Starving Weirdos

Joel Stern - Objects. Masks. Props. cd (Nature Strip) 8

I'm familiar with Brisbane-based artist Joel Stern from his excellent duo collaboration with Anthony Guerra. This cd is the result of 6+ years on and off recording and it mixes musique concrete, field recordings (including some recordings from Ethiopia & India) and snatches of distant porch-song melody with a naturalistic "recorded in the open air" feel. It makes me feel like I'm dreaming in fragments with the window open. A fascinating album.

Stumps - Exigene cdr (Seedy R) 5.75

"Previously released on US cassette label Ladygarden this gets a reissue here. Probably my own favourite Stumps release so far Exigence gathers together scorching loud live recordings and weird droney studio pieces to make a devils potion of a dark brew.
Think coffee infused with mescalin. Dayglo vista viewed through a tunnel of reverb. The Stumps are Stephen Clover (seht) on bass and synth, James Kirk (Sandoz Lab Techs/Black Boned Angel) on Drums, and Antony Milton on guitar and electronics. With wonderful art by Yunico Uchiyama." (Seedy R)

Strange Rainbow - Invisible From Land And Sea cd (Mirror-Image) 10

This is a fascinating collaboration between clarsach player (Scottish harp) Catriona McKay (currently a member of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra) and electro-acoustic composer Alistair MacDonald. I saw this pair play a magical live set last week for the first time.  Catriona uses her harp more as an instrument of percussion than the sweet notes you would expect and Alistair manipulates the sounds live using laptop.The result is a haunting ambience with huge sweeps of silvery electric sighs, percussive flurries of notes, notes bent out of shape and scraped metal. It's a sound that would fit nicely on the CLaudia label. Nice fold-out card artwork.

Nicholas Szczepanik - To the Moon and Back Again 3" cdr (Rural Faune) 4

Ambient smoke signals from this Washington DC sound-artist. The kind of dream-drift that sounds like the lingering image of a sound long departed, similar to Andrew Chalk.

Talugung - Distant Flying-Apart cassette (Sloow) 5.50

Exotic ethnic meditations from Canada, played mostly on homemade instruments. Similar to the Henry Kuntz releases. Recommended.

Harry Taussig - Fate is Only Once, and other Blues, Ragtime and Fingerpicking Tunes LP (Tompkins Square) 8.50

"Released as a short-run private press LP in 1965, Fate Is Only Once has long been a coveted collectible among American Primitive guitar enthusiasts. The only other recorded work by Taussig surfaced on the out-of-print Takoma LP Contemporary Guitar Spring '67 alongside John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Max Ochs and Bukka White. "Dorian Sonata" was recently featured on the acclaimed acoustic guitar compilation Imaginational Anthem Vol. 1, and now the album is here, with original liner notes and vintage photos." (label)

TBX - Collider cdr (267 Lattajjaa) 5

Brooding space-rock from Finland.

Thee Doom Riot - Let the Lights Come Down 2 cdr (Rural Faune) 8

These Wonderful Evils - Regine Flory  (Sparrows & Wires) 7

These Wonderful Evils is Zak Boerger and this is a wonderful album of loner psych. The opening track reminds me of Alistair Galbraith: Zak's weary vocals waver in the midst of an incredible ragged guitar and sparse percussion. Other tracks have more of a folk / pastoral feel with heavily reverbed acoustic guitar and vocals, reminiscent of Flying Saucer Attack's less feedback consumed moments. Highly recommended. 

Thomas Tilly - U.N.A. 3" cdr (Cook an Egg) 4.50

Sounds and found objects manipulations recorded on a beach on Re island in France.  Nocturnal music concrete: scratchings in the undergrowth and some occasional blasts of pure noise.

Treetops - In the Everglades cdr (Students of Decay) 4.25

Treetops is Mike Pollard who also runs the Arbor label. The sound of infernal gloom with occasional wordless moans cutting through the heavy atmosphere. The clattering percussion lends it a air of ritual too. Now sold out at source.

Uneven Universe - Cave Speech cassette (Digitalis Ltd) 4.75

Uneven Universe are a electronics / sax duo from Michigan. This is pretty crazed and makes me think of a safari on bad acid - underworld bubbling, devilish circuitry and demonic growls. It's a bit Vodka Soap / Monopoly Child-like without the synth hypnosis.

Uton 

• Shiva Blues cdr (Reverb Worship) 5.50

Heavy minimalism on guitar with harsh bowed strings floating amidst overtones of feedback. The first track reminds me of the hillbilly mantras of Henry Flynt with its frenetic concentration. This is the second edition which is limited to 50 copies with a slightly different napkin (it protects the cd) and insert from the first edition on Om Ha Sva Ha Ksha Ma La Ka La Yam.

• We're Only In It For The Spirit cd & cdr (Digitalis) 8.75

Four tracks from Jani Hirvonen, with J. Koho (Vapaa), originally issued in a tiny quantity as a tour cdr. Luckily it's been made widely available as it's a real gem. Sonorous vocal "oms" resound, strings are scraped and bowed and primitive electronics bubble away creating heavy subterranean mantras and haunted space electronics. This is one of the limited copies and thus comes with a cdr of live recordings.

• Attack of the Aether Sun cassette (Housecraft) 3

Another excellent Uton release. Side A is mostly electronics-based to begin with, exuding a poisonous cloud of drone & hum. Flute and plucked piano strings join forces later for a spooked ritual. On side B Henry Flynt-esque violin squalls away under an ear-shredding wall of high end feedback.

MV & EE - 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.

Van Ginhoven - s/t 3" cdr (Rural Faune) 4

Swedish singer-songwriter with a fondness for purple frilly shirts and a passing resemblance to David Crosby, who lists among his influences Linda Perhacs, COB and Tim Hardin. I'd add Townes Van Zandt to his list. Melancholic and elegant songs with great arrangements of strings and piano.

Vapaa - Se Soi, Soi! cassette (Ikuisuus) 4

5 live performances from Keijo's Free Players, all from 2005. A magical merging of guitar / bass / drums / synth into a psyched out wash of meditative sound.

Vodka Soap 

• Oceansion Island cdr (Pacific City) 5

Cdr reissue of an earlier tape release. Another dream-like treat from one of the never-ending Skaters side-projects, this one Spencer Clark. Tape loops and cheap synths woven into ritualistic meditations.

• Shee Ro Gateway Temples cassette (Pacific City) 4.50

More wonderful tranced explorations with cheap synth mantras layered into a tropical rainforest blitz of insect-like buzz and melodious song.

Peter Walker - Echo of My Soul cd (Tompkins Square) 8

"Peter Walker came up in the Cambridge MA and Greenwich Village folk scenes of the Sixties. He recorded two albums for the Vanguard label in the late Sixties in a style best described as American folk-raga. He studied with Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, and was Dr. Timothy Leary's musical director, organizing music for the LSD advocate’s “celebrations.”" This album of new material reflects his recent interest in flamenco; apparently he has been accepted into flamenco's elite. He plays these Spanish-inspired ragas with an incredible energy that sets the strings ablaze. Recommended.

Yek Koo - Psychic Atonement For Land Deaths cdr (Digitalis Ltd) 4.75 

New solo recording from Helga Fassonaki of Metal Rouge. This is even better than her excellent debut. Spectral lap-steel oscillations and shimmer with the kind of wailing vocals that swim round your head for hours after listening. This follows a similar tangent to Heather Leigh-Murray's more haunting recordings. Excellent sleeve design. 

v/a - Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow Volume 1 cd (Sound & Fury) 6.50

Excellent compilation from Australian label Sound & Fury featuring Gareth Hardwick, Machinefabriek, Part Timer, Pretty Boy Crossover, Morning Stalker, Scissor Lock, Seaworthy, Spartak, Aaron Martin and more.