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Seht.- 'Dead Bees ((the((quiet)earth))suite)'. Campbell Kneale once explained that to describe Wellingtons Seht as drone music is much the same as describing Antarctica as white. Where as many of us utilise the drone as an ingredient, a point of departure, Stephen Clover's Seht project distils drones to craft something very like a fine liquor. ‘One Moment’, the 35 minute first track on ‘Dead Bees’ is Clovers somnambulant ambient drone masterpiece. A famous insomniacs grand fantasy of sleep. Setting sail with the gentle sound of submerged bells one sinks deeper as lush rich tones gradually merge into a swell of dreamscape waves. Deeper still and one finds oneself glowing in a deep warm golden molasses that shimmers and sways until time somehow folds in upon itself and loses all meaning as ones consciousness shifts into angel gear for the lonnnng coast out. But Clover is also agent provocateur- a wry and acerbic wit. To say that there are surprises to follow is an understatement… CD. NZ$17. You can hear a sample from the album here . ORDER. |
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SUNKEN.- 'Eye Electric Organ, Brain Electric Nerve'. Deep in the swirling depths of the ocean a terrible yet wondrous beast stirs slow but sure amidst great forests of sea algae. Taking on the form of a pair of conjoined drown-ed sailors it sets forth upon the currents determined to loose its apocalyptic vision upon the earth via droning sea shanty and great humming hymn. Sunken is the duo of sunken sailors Stefan Neville (Pumice) and Antony Milton (Nether Dawn/A.M etc). Using a range of organs, sonar gear, live tapeloops, vocals and an unhealthy amount of submarine reverb they create a glorious droning pop noise. 'Eye Electric Organ, Brain Electric Nerve' follows on from their acclaimed self titled debut (also on PseudoArcana) and various compilation appearances. You can read reviews and hear a sample from the album here . CD. NZ$17 ORDER. |
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NthNth/SthSth. LP (Release the Bats). NthNth/SthSth is the duo of myself (Antony Milton) and Jani Hirvonen (Uton) from Finland. We had a release out on C-Psi-P a few years back, as 'A.M/Uton' that was titled 'NthNth/SthSth' and have now chosen to use that title as our project name. This new LP is released by Release the Bats out of Sweden. Its a beautiful object- with a front cover by Jani, and the back one by me. It has liner notes by Jon Dale. Musically it sets forth on a bed of weird psychedelic drone that morphs through entranced chanting to become a black metal rattle and then an explosive psyche out hoedown... Or something like that... This is limited to 520 copies of which I have 50. LP NZ$25. ORDER. |
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Claypipe/Temple Defectors.- Split Lathecut 10" (Humbug Records). Limited to 120 copies I have some of the last of these. Originally recorded in 2006 it is wonderful to finally have these available. It was well worth the wait to as Anders at Humbug did a magic job on the covers. Claypipe is of course the duo of Antony Milton and Clayton Noone (CJA). The Temple Defectors is actually The Skaters. The name change is somewhat perplexing as their track is a contemporary of the Ohpa release and sounds like it.. I think this is maybe the perfect lathe- sonically at any rate. 2 sides of rumbling droning psychedelic murk that will only improve with age. Lathe Cut 10". NZ$25. Order. |
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The Nether Dawn.- 'Long Shadow of a Dream'. Once again I'm being a cheeky bugger and listing my own releases for other labels on the PseudoArcana label page. Hope no one minds? Afterall The Nether Dawn was one of the labels original 'bands' right? 'Long Shadow' is released by Students of Decay in Cincinatti USA. Many of the tracks feature James Kirk (Sandoz/Black Boned Angel etc) playing through the late night sessions on various instruments, and are from the same period that produced the 'Outer Dark' CD on C-PSI-P. There are also a couple of more recent pieces with the grand finale being a live track from August 2006. Heres what the label has to say: "The Nether Dawn is arguably the most narcotic, most ethereal of the many guises of the ever-prolific and talented Antony Milton. Running through all of his projects is something of a dreamlike, nostalgic delirium that is concretized and distilled on "Long Shadow of a Dream." The recordings on "Long Shadow of a Dream" date from 2004-2006. Despite this temporal span they seem like they've emerged organically from the same eternal, humming tapestry of sound. The album's final track is, unquestionably, its apex and it contains what are perhaps the most soul-baring, cathartic moments which Milton has committed to tape. Here, Antony's vision becomes nearly visible in its mammoth totality - howling whisps of feedback, billows of keyboard and loops conjoin with voice and throat in ecstatic communion. The aural landscape of Milton's Nether Dawn will utterly entrance and beguile you and, in the end, it will surely devour you whole. " You can read reviews and hear a sample from the album, or even buy it from the actual label here . CD (in slip case packaging). NZ$15 Or order it here from me. |
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Temples. -'Murk'. With the advent of September 11, 2001 the musical underground found itself ripe once more for a rejuvenation of beards and acoustic guitars. And who am I to complain- I have a beard and like a bit of a finger pick myself.. Temples is Kevin Richards . He hails from Denver, Colorado, in the good old USA. 'Murk' is an acoustic guitar album. I'm not sure if Kevin has a beard. What is refreshing to these ears about this record is that its an acoustic guitar album wherein the guitar itself is subsumed within the glorious phenomena of the recording media itself, and in this case one of my personal favourites- TAPE! Building up layer after layer of distant and hissy strummed and picked guitars Temples creates a kaleidoscopic miasma which shifts and drifts through vast caverns and tiny rooms, the various rhythms in and out of phase as patterns collide and repel. There's a deceptive ease and simplicity to the way Murk breathes. I know for a fact that Richards spent many months shaping these pieces into the ramshackle atmospheric drone works they have become. If you were after a comparison I would suggest that Temples does for the guitar what Dialing In does for keyboards and shruti boxes. I'm often worn down by long pieces, and especially long albums. Just because one can fit 70 minutes on a cdr doesn't mean one should. 'Murk' however is an album that benefits from the extended room that the individual tracks are given to roam and evolve. This is a murk I'm more than happy to lose myself in for an hour. CDR. NZ$15 ORDER. |
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AGITATED RADIO PILOT/NETHER DAWN (cdr reissue) After years of preperation the long rumoured split lathe made its its appearence in 2007. Beautiful it was too with individually hand-printed/painted covers by United Fairy Moons Jim Currin. I pressed 2 editions- a total of 130 copies, both of which sold out in days. Anyway, after some pointed reminders I've finally gotten around to re-releasing this on cdr. Irishman Dave Colohan's Agitated Radio Pilot project brings us a suite of sad sweet beautiful folk drones called 'The Ghost of Medb'. Said ghost shimmers and weeps diamond tears over the course of this side. On the other side Antony Milton's Nether Dawn presents 'Under Your Night'. This consists of a song that is gradually enveloped in electronically treated noise violin before departing for hummier and droney aires and a live rock out (accompanied by James Kirk) for the final movement. CDR. NZ$15 ORDER. |
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THE FREE PLAYERS -'Snakes From Space'. Latest missive from Keijo Virtanen and friends captures them getting well and truly "into the zone". With all the insane yet serious intensity of Sun Ra they load up this stellar flying disk with a free range of instruments and head into space to find - um - snakes... (Maybe they don't have snakes in Finland?) With their ears and eyes devoutly focussed on their task their trip is one long sinuous boogie to the sweating solar heart of the icicle mamba. Upon arrival wreaths are laid with solemn prayer before a poignant ecstatic blues heralds the certainty of farewell and is, appropriately enough, cut off in mid stream by a sudden......... CDR. NZ$15 ORDER. |
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AAN. -'Ajaton Vie'. Aan is the latest project from Finnish drone freaks Jani Hirvonen (Uton) and Jari Koho (Kulkija, Vapaa, Free Players). Putting the psilocybin back into psychedelia they produce time perverting pieces constructed from droning violins, flutes, weird barely discernable vocal chants, tablas and huge dark underground caverns of reverb and delay. An album to lose oneself in this is suitable listening for a candle lit drifting off to sleep, or sun dazzled days when you're too stoned to get up off the floor. Packaged in 12 page book of photos from Jani's recent Indian sojourn and Jari's prismatic photography. CDr/Book. NZ$17 ORDER. |
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GLORY FCKN SUN. -'Vision Scorched'. Formed in 2003 as a conduit for intense ritualistic sonic exploration Glory Fckn Sun is the ecstatic psyche-noise trio of Antony Milton (guitar/electronics), Ben Spiers (guitar/violin/electronic) and improv percussionist Simon O'Rorke (gongs/percussion). 'Vision Scorched' collects together one studio track and two live pieces. These range through long form rumbling distorted deep space explorations (complete with supernova and the odd blackhole), intense yet ethereal harsh noise to close with a droning metaphysical raga-esque paean to the great cosmic inevitable of the collapse of the sun, And of light itself. Glory Fckn Sun have been described as having a sound that is like a cross between Flies Inside the Sun and Keiji Haino. Nearly 2 years in the making and continuing in the PseudoArcana tradition of fantastical over-the-top packaging (...) 'Vision Scorched' is presented in a professionally bound 72 page picture book of sun related imagery with hand printed covers. This is a limited numbered edition CD of 200 copies. CD/Book. NZ$22 SOLD OUT. 2nd simpler package edition coming soon. |
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LITTLE SKULL. -'Collected 7"s'. Little Skull is the solo project of New Zealander Dean Brown. Over the last few years he has released a steady stream of small run lathecut 7"s. These have gained notoriety due to the incredible packaging within which they have been presented. Some of you may remember hearing about the legendary 'graveyard with ghosts' diorama package, or the witch themed pop up book? All hand made one at a time with a virtually feverish attention to detail and quality. Limited to 50 or less copies per title due to the time and labour involved it seemed appropriate that there be some kind of reissue of these titles so that the sound world of Little Skull might reach a larger audience. What one gets is a series of short movements/vignettes that are not so dissimilar to the aesthetic of his tactile work. Using a 4 track and acoustic instruments (pump-organs, accordions, blown bottles, bullroarers, strings and percussion etc) 'Collected 7"s' presents is a compendium of small melodic sound poems that sound like they have been recorded onto a wax cylinder in graveyards at midnight by pallid and forlorn lovers. Sometime in the late 1800s... It made sense of course that this release should itself have special artwork. I suggested various ideas that I'd had but eventually Dean came back and said that he would like to do the artwork himself, and that he had a small book in mind. And so it came to be. The collected Little Skull 7"s packaged in a book handmade by the artist. But ultimately my plan of getting Deans music exposed to a greater listening public seems doomed to failure as this reissue is itself limited to 50 copies only. CDR in 9pg artbook. SOLD OUT. Visit Aquarius, Eclipse or Boa Melody Bar. |
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FORMATT.-'Minor Curations'. I first heard Peter Smeekens Formatt project on a 3" CD put out by RoboRecords and was an overnight devotee. In fact I was such a fan that I've been harassing him for a release ever since and I'm excited to be able to say that my dream has come true and that its finally available. Hailing from Belgium, Formatt is resolutely a digital artist. He creates his pieces from heavily processed glitches, chimings, loops and drones, the original sound sources virtually impossible to discern. In an over-crowded genre Smeekens manages to transcend the clichés of his umpteen thousand peers. Somehow simply bathing in the complexity of the not-quite abstract rhythmic patterns of his music makes one feel SMARTER, like one could sit down and pluck radical new mathematical theorem out of the air. The intuitive patterns created are as electrically stimulating as a cluster of synaptic sparks. ‘Minor Curations’ is a single 17.55min piece that hums and rings and glips through 2 short movements. Your room will vibrate with atomic activity and your pictures rearrange themselves on the wall. 3" CDR. NZ$10 ORDER. |
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CJA.- 'Pink Metal'. Clayton Noone should need no introduction here, one half of the jaw-dropping Armpit, one third of the terrifying Wolfskull, and lest we forget that he also adds his essential self in The Futurians, Claypipe and a dozen other bands. As Noone's solo project CJA catches his sublime nonchalant strum and blur in its most distilled form. Sprawling over 2 disks 'Pink Metal' gathers together songs and drones, weird incidents and hard-out noise to present what is perhaps the definitive CJA statement of intent. Packaged in a booklet of macabre full colour sci-fi comics (drawn by brother Richard Noone) 'Pink Metal' is perhaps the most collectable of Noone's releases to date. 2x CDR in 16 page full colour art-book. NZ$20 ORDER. |
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SAM HAMILTON AND CHRIS O'CONNOR- 'Tidal Dee's and Harboured Dum's'. The hyper-energetic Sam Hamilton is almost solely responsible for the currently booming Auckland experimental music scene, organising shows and festivals on what seems an almost daily basis. He is also no slouch in the performing arena himself, playing home made and/or deconstructed electronics and instruments to produce dense drones and evocative arpeggios... Chris O'Connor is for my money the most exciting and inspired drummer in New Zealand. A stalwart of the NZ improv and fire-music scenes he is also the only drummer I have ever witnessed pulling off a convincing drone performance- on drums! I could watch him play all night. 'Tidal Dee's and Harboured Dum's' is a soundtrack Hamilton and O'Connor created for the experimental feature film 'Anguish', by Tim Van Dammen. Featuring Hamilton on psyche guitar and electronics and O'Connor on drums it verges on Haino-esque territory as it takes one on a seat of the pants ride through the purplest realms of ecstatic rock. CDR. NZ$15. ORDER. |
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DIALING IN -'Cows In Lye'. Dialing In is the ecstatic roaring psychedelic drone project of Seattle based sound artist Reita Piecuch. Utilising the natural acoustics of a series of reverberant spaces she weaves together super saturated soundscapes by recording in one environment, playing back in another, and then re-recording this recording playing back in yet another environment (etc..). On 'Cows in Lye' the original sound sources range from loops of field recordings from a trip to India, piano, and the shifting drones of a "Shruti Box" (electronic Tamboura). One track also features a long stream of consciousness vocal performance from avant-crooner 'Herb Diamante'..! After a trek with recording gear through the caves, cathedrals and bunkers of Seattle these ingredients are transformed into huge and sublimely distorted quasi-melodic dreamscapes. The album lifts off with an ecstatic roar and the intensity doesn't let up until one is released exultant in the green flash of a setting sun... CD NZ$17 ORDER. |
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THE LOST DOMAIN -'Palace'.
Brisbane avant-blues practitioners The Lost Domain have been stalwarts of the Australian underground for nearly 20 years. Formed around the core duo of guitarist David MacKinnon and organist/vocalist Simon Ellaby they have released a consistently inspiring but all too rare trickle of cdr's and have only recently begun to get the attention that they deserve (via the "Sailor Home From the Sea" CD (Broken Face/Digitalis 2004 (who incidentally promise a follow up "White Man at the Door" later this year)), and some choice compilation slots and magazine interviews). One of the most intense and engaging live bands I have ever seen their sound is something like a gritty cross between the spacious psychedelic ambient improv noise of New Zealand's Sandoz Lab Technicians, and the weirder swampier blues-stomp of Captain Beefheart. 'Palace' presents a remarkably restrained series of subtle movements and moods that were recorded over a few weekends in the ballroom of 'The Pink Palace', an old and virtually abandoned hall in Brisbane. This is The Lost Domain in full band mode with a line up that includes Leighton Craig, Eugene Carchesio and Rick Neville. Organs and plaintive feedbacking guitars call to each other through the reverberant emptiness. There are dream like peaks and lulls as the dynamic slowly intensifies into a deep deep blues howl before the whole band once more drifts away into the ether. CD. NZ$17. ORDER. |
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BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL.- 'Our Love Will Destroy the World'. Settling in around the 2 epic tracks from the essential 'screamformelongbeach' 3" cdr (PseudoArcana 2003)'Our Love Will Destroy the World' adds 3 new tracks and finds Campbell Kneale engaged in a deeper archaeological sifting of the rock and metal tropes that he has recently been exploring with Black Boned Angel. Whilst remaining resolutely a Birchville album the instrumentation employed has been culled from the heavier end of the rock/metal spectrum to produce what is, in a weird and wonderful way, perhaps Birchvilles most ‘accessible’ album to date. Fluidly shifting but piercing guitar feedback and endlessly heavy riffs are married to grindcore drumming, organ fugues and electronics to create a huge wash of sound that somehow manages to exemplify the ecstatic beauty of so much of the Birchville oeuvre at the same time as being ‘supremely heavy’. This is Birchville's bliss reverie 'ROCK' album... CD. SOLD OUT. Campbell Kneale has copies remaining. Email him via www.cpsip.co.nz |
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ANTONY MILTON. -'The End of This Short Road'. Released on the Deserted Village label in Ireland I thought that I would list this here as well. "This is release number 27 on Deserted Village and it's another CD this time. Many of you will know Antony Milton as the New Zealander behind the mighty PseudoArcana label. This album was recorded 6 years ago on 4-track and differs from Miltons many other solo projects. It's a collection of short songs with insistent violin orbiting stark acoustic guitars. There's more to it than that but we won't spoil the surprise. Antony himself tells us that the music he releases under his own name is the most direct and unadorned". Read liner notes here. CD.NZ$17 ORDER. |
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PETER WRIGHT. 'Yellow Horizon'. New Zealand guitarist and sound-artist Peter Wrights back catalogue stretches to something like 30 releases over the last dozen years. 'Yellow Horizons' is the most recent of these and follows on from 2004's 'Distant Bombs' (Last Visible Dog), and 'Desolation Beauty Violence' (Digitalis). This CD finds him relocated to dirty old London town from where he has written a series of love-drones to the wild South Island of his homeland. Wrights guitar craft opens vistas that are as contemplative as they are emotionally engaging. Periods of preperatory silence awaken into long slow shifting drones; layered 'folk' patterns build to an almost psychotropic intensity before being subsumed once more within the drone... These scenes are as varied as the South Island itself. There are glaciers as well as sunburnt plains. CD. NZ$17. ORDER. |
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VARIOUS ARTISTS.- 'The Tone of the Universe (= The Tone of the Earth)'. This compilation (the debut CD cds for PseudoArcana) arose out of an online discussion about the news that astromoners have discovered a galaxy - far far away - that is resonating in a steady B flat drone. Due to this drones inaudibility (not only is it remote but it is also something like 50 octaves below an audible pitch...) it was decided that a compilation of 'cover versions' was in order. That is not to however imply that the tone b flat is neccesarily present in all of these trks... Featuring: Blithe Sons, Peter Wright, Keijo, Eugene Carhesio & Leighton Craig, CJA, Anla Courtis, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Hands of Satisfaction, A.M/Uton, The Moglass, Neil Campbell, Birchville Cat Motel, The Skaters, seht, Of, 1/3 Octave Band, The Nether Dawn, My Cat is an Alien 2x CD in 3 panel gatefold. NZ$20. VERY LAST COPIES! ORDER. |
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A.M- 'Orla' (Ikuisuus, 2006) 'A.M' is Antony Milton. "One day in early 2004 I arrived home to find the biggest parcel I had ever received sitting on my doorstep, it was crudely wrapped and covered in stamps. I was amazed that anyone would POST something like this through the regular mail system. I brought it inside and cut away the packaging. To my astonishment I found that it contained a large old 'Orla' chord organ and a letter from Marcel Bear (Empirical) saying that he had noted my recent enthusiasm for organ tones (see also With Throats As Fine As Needles and Sunken...). He had found this one at a garage sale and thought that I might like it. My interest in organs had been at least in part inspired by my reading about Charlemagne Palestine and his concept of the "Golden Music". His idea of a stream of sound that may facilitate an ecstatic bliss of religious intensity has been hugely influential to me (in much the same way as Haino's 'sound of the universe'...). I decided pretty much straight away that I would record an album using this organ as the predominant sound source (the only other sound sources are the field recordings of rain on the 1st track and scaffolding pipes on the 2nd). As the recordings progressed from the straight ahead drone of the 1st track I stripped away more and more unnecessary components of the machine until on the last track I was bowing and plucking the spring pegs of the keys. One of my favourite sounds was that of the fan motor itself." CD in gold gatefold. NZ$20. ORDER. |
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THE STUMPS.- 'Split Fleet Dodge'. The Stumps are an improvising psych/noise/rock band from Wellington, New Zealand. They have been described as a NZ underground "super-group" by one writer; a "power-trio" by others. Although no-one is completely sure what these terms actually mean, what is certain is that The Stumps bring a wealth of talent and experience, and a certain heavyweight clout, with them to the table. The core lineup of The Stumps features Antony Milton (A.M., Mrtyu!, Nether Dawn, PseudoArcana label, etc), Stephen Clover (seht), and James Kirk (Sandoz Lab Technicians, Gate, Black Boned Angel, etc). The band also regularly collaborates with other improvising musicians; on Split Fleet Dodge the trio team up on one side of the LP with Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Motel, Black Boned Angel) on keyboards and electronics. The Stumps have played extensively in New Zealand, including support for the Grey Daturas; two brief tours in Australia have been very well received, and plans for tours of Europe and the USA are underway. This LP is the debut release for Stephen Clovers vinyl only Palindrone label. Vinyl LP NZ$25 ORDER. |
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THE GREEN BLOSSOMS.- 'Stones and Ecstasy'. The Green Blossoms is the duo of Anthony Guerra and Aiko Koga playing ukulele, guitar, harmonica, pitch pipes and voice. 'Stones and Ecstasy' is a collection of small sweet improvised pop songs, hypnotic ringing drones and chiming abstract instrumental love talk recorded around the period of their move from Sydney to Tokyo. A compendium of bright, clear and beautifully recorded acoustic dreams. NZ$15 ORDER. |
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SWUNG. -'Voice and Key'. Swung is Aucklands Zoe Drayton. Besides her invaluable role as the chief archivist, promoter and all round lynchpin of the New Zealand 'new music' scene, Drayton is an active musician and composer in her own right. 'Voice and Key' is -as the name suggests- a collection of keyboard and voice works from the period 1996-2006. Each track is an entity unto itself. The 1st features a simple melancholy piano figure that is looped and cut up until it utterly fragments into a stacatto drone, the 2nd sounds almost a found recording of private utterances, sommeone sitting at a piano in a cool summer room. Track 3 is a beautiful short and wordless "pop song", track 4 an abstract organ trajectory and track 5 a radically deconstructed lullaby. 'Voice and Key' is a extraordinarily intimate and beautiful work. It feels a privilege to be invited in to listen. 3"cdr. NZ$10. ORDER. |
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THE WIRE THICKET. -s/t. The Wire Thicket is the swirling shimmering US power-drone duo of Alex Cobb (Taiga Remains/ Students of Decay label) and David Kirby. Processed acoustic(!) guitars and voice etc are layered and sculpted to construct dense spine-tinglingly intense edifaces that soar ecstatically high above the plebian mire. The best of this disk is reminiscent of Simon Wickham Smiths great tearing epic 'Katotohanan' (from Dyro), and the more God-fearing of Birchvilles bliss explosions. CDR NZ$15< ORDER. |
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6MAGICK9. -'Weapons and Maps of Western Despondency'. From out of the twig-clad back-blocks of Queensland and northern New South Wales arrives another ecstatically apocalyptic missive from the musicyourmindwillloveyou collective (home of Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood and Terracid, White Cobra et al...). 6majik9 is obstensibly the 'big band' manifestation of the collectives psychedelic enhanced group mind and features multiple guitrists, flautists, cellists and drummers and an irrepresible (and quite mad...) vocalist cum theremin stroker(!) Ranging from propulsive driving drum reveries to lilting nuanced drones 'Weapons and Maps' catches the whole chaotic enterprise in charmedand glowing flight. CDR NZ$15 ORDER. |
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STUART BUSBY- 'North/South' Originally apprearing in an ultra limited home-pressed edition 'North/South' is the follow up to last years wonderful 'Drift' (Digitalis). Best known as a trumpeter, the Brisbane resident Busby ventures here into a subtle processed exploration of that instrument, but also brings a glockenspiel, ukulele and voice into the mix. The album is split into two discreet movements seperated onto two 3" disks. 'North' is made up of predominantly gestural percussive pieces. Slow chimes and pulses drifting across space. 'South' is a more harmonic enterprise, with layered tones and trumpet passages creating a beautiful eerie melancholia that shifts between an icy chill and a deep warm glow. Packaged in an art card gatefold designed by the artist. Double 3" cdr. NZ$15 ORDER. |
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SEHT.-'Fedearacy Boots'. Sublime glitchy processed organ, clicks and more from the irrepressible and suddenly everywhere seht. (For those who don't already know seht is Wellington local Stephen Clover who besides being incredibly prolific and consistently great under his seht moniker is also member of The Stumps, The Longshoremen and more..). Constructed of ear-bathing loops, drones and electronic renderings 'Federacy Boots' is weird enough to disturb your dreams and gentle enough to beautify your Sunday mornings. Better than berroca! CDR NZ$15. ORDER. |
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MHFS.- 'Driving to Rawene'. Along with Tim Coster (see below) Mark Sadgrove is a key member of a recently very dynamic and productive experimental electronic scene in Auckland. (Indeed he is a member of the brilliant 'Plains' amongst other ensembles). MHFS is Sadgroves solo project. Using home-made electronics, self-authored software, field recordings, guitar and voice MHFS produces austere and abstract soundscapes that through a peculiar personal magic are rendered intimate and human. 'Driving to Rawene' was recorded in Sydney, Dresden and Vienna during 2005, and mixed at home in Auckland. I am deeply concerned that it may in fact be a work of genius... 3"cdr. NZ$10 ORDER. |
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PEFKIN.- 'Pingle Pangle'. Pefkin is the Scotland based solo project of Gayle Brogan (ex Electroscope member and owner/operator of the amazing Boa Melody Bar mailorder). Pingle Pangle is the 2nd album for this project and picks up where the similarly astonishing "Asa Nisi Masa" (Foxglove CDR) left off. Pefkins music flows easily between swirling melodic psychedelic 'almost-pop' songs, tonal electronic experimentation through to eerie whispered ancient forest folk. Melodica, violin, percussion, guitar and voice are built up with a crystal clear use of delay and other effects to produce a fragile beautiful whole. Pefkin has been compared favouably with Nico and Alastair Galbraith. Such comparisons are well deserved. CDR NZ$15 ORDER. |
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A.M -“Yet Marvellous Stasis"/ “Strata". This release brings together the ‘sister albums’ from Antony Miltons 'A.M' project recorded in 2003. Recorded simultaneously (and released on Haamumaa and Humbug records respectively) these 2 disks document a particularly productive year. Ranging from ecstatic tape noise works through gestural instrumental pieces, field recordings, drone worksand live tracks this is a great introduction to the work of A.M. Double CDR. NZ$20. ORDER. |
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PUMICE - 'Spears'. The tracks on Spears were recorded in Vienna in late 2004 and are a companion album to the forthcoming 'Yeahnahvienna' (out now on Soft Abuse). Spears finds Pumice at his clattery and blissed-out-yet-melancholy best. The album is book-ended by 2 different versions of the droning chord organ (w drums) longplayer classic 'Hulkwind' (a major component of live Pumice shows of late). In-between there are pop songs and other fragile rickety constructions. CDR NZ$15 ORDER. |
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ZELIENOPLE.- 'Ghost Ship'. Chicago dronesters Zelienople recorded 'Ghost Ship' during the cities drought of 2005. As such it can perhaps be read as an invocation of rain. With their 'cable guitars' and organs phasing like an oily sea the 'Ghost Ship' weathers both the doldrums and the tempest to be visited by a high-end shower of cymbal play. On the second track 'Mary Celeste' they ride their melancholy ship toward a typhoon to the accompaniment of a beautiful sad lullaby that rises from the deep. Over these 2 long atmospheric tracks the band work with their trademark swells and lulls to evoke the depth of an impossible ocean. CDR NZ$15 ORDER. |
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TIM COSTER.- 'Mornings'. The city of Auckland is rapidly becoming the hub for the more adventurous end of NZs electronic music. It seems as though there's a festival every other week & theres a constant stream of artists and performers hitting the road to share their work. Tim Coster is a significant figure within this community both as the man behind the CLaudia label (which specialises in field recordings) and through his own compositions and performances. 'Mornings' follows on the heels of the recent 7" released by cmr and uses as its main sound source a series of collaborations with various instrumentalists. These raw recordings have been reworked and crafted into a series of drones and discreet expressive moments that encourage one to follow Coster on a warm but sublime cognitive journey. 3" CDR. NZ$10. ORDER. |
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STERN/GUERRA. -'Outdoor Bowers'. Australians Joel Stern (field recordings, manipulated objects and electronics) and Anthony Guerra (guitar and electronics) return with another example of their articulate hum and crackle and drone. Although recorded in London there is something recognisably Australian about the sounds on this disk. With its feral bird calls and dry twiggy rustles it somehow evokes the Aussie bush under an endless blue sky. Guerra's guitar loops and feedback drones craft the endless planes, the tentative human settlements and jagged ridges for the growth of Sterns brittle but miraculous organic life-forms. Occasionally harsh, but always warm, this disk is a majestic place to hang out. CDR NZ$15 ORDER. |
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NOVA SCOTIA. -'Ramses II'. Nova Scotia are the young upstarts of the NZ improvised drone and noise scene. Anyone familiar with their CD on Metonymic will be excited to see this new release. Recorded live in a small Wellington gallery 'Ramses II' catches the band (for the most part...) at their most restrained and subtle. Crystal glasses sing, distant pipes whistle, and beautiful acoustic guitar figures hang in the air. The recurring theme that glues the different movements together is an ancient 78 recording of a freight train played at rumbling volume on an equally ancient gramophone. Odd squalling saxaphone skronks serve as a tibetobuddhist style 'be here now' for those who have been lulled into an ethereal snooze... CDR NZ$15 ORDER. |
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KEIJO AND THE FREE PLAYERS. -'Untitled'. Wonderfully dreamy and spatious recordings by Finnish ambient-mystic Keijo Virtanen, joined on these sessions by members of the band Vapaa. Synth and reed-instrument drones are married to discreet plucked strings, abstract percussion, and Keijos harmonic singing. A 45 minute series of beautiful slow moments. CDR NZ$15 ORDER. |
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BEN REYNOLDS. -'Earth & Space Magics'. Ben Reynolds is a prolific participant in the English distorto-ecstatic drone scene. Of late a lot of the stuff coming out of that sphere marries acoustic folk stylings to a grander holy noise and Reynolds is one of the more adept at generating truely wonderful mutant offspring... The disk starts off with sustained bowings, guitars and keyboards setting up beautifully rich rumbling drones that serve to give flight to the entranced keenings of Reynolds voice. Gradually the drones recede as acoustic guitar movements bring the whole back to terra firma. Like the title suggests this is all about magic, the warmth of Earth and the chill of Space. I swear this album gets 'bigger' with every listen. CDR. NZ$15 ORDER. |
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THE SKATERS. -'Gambling in Ohpa's Shadow'. Does anything more need to be said about The Skaters? They exploded into the consciousness in early 2004 with 'Dark Rye Bread' (an album about to get a vinyl reissue courtesy of Norways Humbug imprint) and blew minds everywhere with their exceptionally 'JOYOUS' music. For those who haven't heard them yet The Skaters are the duo of James Ferraro and Spencer Clark. The main instrument used by these 2 genius's is voice, but not voice as we're used to it. Ecstatic chants are looped live through archaic delay units and played at a monstrous volume through old and broken amplifiers. Occasionally a broken-leaded guitar is strummed, or a very bent tribal sounding percussion looms into the mix, but overall its those crazy gnostic-gnomic voices that dominate. As with James Ferraro's solo 'Wooden Cupboard' project (see below) the immediate comparison that springs to mind is that of Angus MacLises Kathmandu recordings. Not everything is so chaotic on this disk, there are poignant moments of relative calm, but overall it is a remarkably distorted, energising - and joyous - affair. Note that some of the distortion on this disk is 'digital' in nature, a further manifestation of Ohpa's will sings morsecode clicks from out the void... CDR. NZ$15 ORDER. |
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THE ONCE AND FUTURE HERDS. -'lion-colored hills'. The Once and Future Herds are a Jewelled Antler offshoot made up of Glenn Donaldson, Donovon Quinn and Loren Chasse. Lion-coloured Hills documents a journey to said hills as manifested through bowed and plucked strings, drones and utterences. 3"CDR. NZ$10 ORDER. |
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DREAMS OF TALL BUILDINGS. -'Nothing Hurt and Everything Was Beautiful'. Dreams of Tall Buildings craft a lush, almost decadent series of loop-based washes on this disk. The title certainly sets the scene but, although predominantly electronic, acoustic and electric percussion and instruments make occasional and surprising interjections. CDR NZ$15. ORDER. |
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EDWARD RUCHALSKI. '4 Pieces (for acoustic guitar & field recordings)'. Following on the heels of 'Having it Out' comes a new disk from Edward Ruchalski. '4 Pieces' is a much sparser affair, quietly crafted (as the title suggests) from select field recordings, and beautifully spare acoustic guitar movements. Like sunlight through your window on the coldest day in winter, 4 Pieces is steeped in the beautiful and slow yet redemptive shimmer of Ruchalski's other works. 3" CDR. NZ$10. ORDER. |
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???'The Lipton Files!' Gathering together the documentation surrounding a top secret research institute devoted to perception and memory research. The Lipton Files is perhaps the most extravagant folly undertaken by PseudoArcana yet. Packaged in a A5 ringbinder this set contains 3CDRs, 1DVDR and a multitude of supporting images and texts. These documents illuminate the history of the experimental work undertaken by one Dr Lipton and his colleagues (as well as the shadowy affiliated organisation 'The Brotherhood of the Order of the Wing') via research papers, pamphlets, website screenshots, and the xeroxed documents and photos of what is presumably a private investigator. The story unveiled is one of radical science, utopian visionaries, paranoid conservative networks, and ultimately of governmentalcowardice. The 3 CDRS present the audio component of 3 separate experiments undertaken by the Lipton Institute. To the uninitiated these sound not unlike long (60 min+) experiments in minimal electronic music... The DVDR (10 min) re-caps something of the history of the Lipton project through film and image and also presents a short but extraordinarily vivid sequence of video footage of 'memory capture' from Lipton's experiments utilising EEG technology. 3x CDR, 1xDVDR, 50 + pages of documentation in ringbinder: NZ$35. Numbered edition of 30 copies. Sold out here. Try Aquarius/Boa Melody Bar. |
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BILL DIREEN. -'17 Pianos'. Bill Direen (The Bilders etc) was one of the key figures of the Flying Nun era NZ music scene. Resident now in Paris for many years, where he has been focussing upon the writing of novels and plays, he has continued to write music and perform throughout Europe. 17 Pianos' was recorded in 1996- and features 17 piano improvisationsin just under 20 minutes. The recordings are very raw- you can hear the reels of tape graunching around- and the playing a spontaneous reverie of melody and chaos. This is a limited edition of 25 copies with hand made (and painted, and varnished etc etc) quirky "erotic" (..?) covers made by Bill in his Paris flat. 3"cdr. NZ$10.(Sold out. To be reissued in regular (printed) covers someday...) |
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