IMAGINARY PLANES - Into The Great Divide CD $10
Imaginary Planes finally commit their live show of the past two years to tape and mass produce it for us all.
Chiming, ringing guitars layered over a solid rhythm section form the backdrop for the gorgeous and haunting vocals
of singer Christy Daniel. This band really doesn't sound like anyone out there, and yet the music is totally familiar
and invites you in. Captured beautifully by engineer J.M. Cifonie. file under: lovely
IMAGINARY PLANES - Lion's Den / Autumn & Sage 7" picture disc $10
two sonic treats lovingly pressed on vinyl. both songs are exclusive recordings/versions of songs
from the forthcoming "Into the Great Divide" album. Imaginary Planes live, work and perform in Birmingham, AL.
SEAWALKER / THE BROKEN LETTERS - Flower/Anthemn split 7" picture disc $7
Seawalker covers Flower by Sonic Youth, and The Letters cover Anthemn (n added for emphasis)
by Rush. Seawalker turns up the volume and improvises a storm of start and stop guitar/drum damage
while simple speaking the words of the sy song. The Letters turn the prog rock of Rush into
their own dark and moody strum and twang, imagine Burning Kingdom era Smog and you might be close
SEAWALKER - Every Love Unwinds CD $10
Seawalker plays sonic prayers that are to be sung to the universe. twisting, damaged,
full tilt noise and rock meet some gentler more subtle moments. The album starts loud
and gradually gets quieter sort of erasing itself along the way. Textura.Org described
it as a volcanic wail, powerfully loud, a writhing behemoth of guitar roar and drum
tumult.
THE NORTHERN RATTLE - Thousand Sun Broadcast CD $10
welcome this vision of modern psychedelia, hooks, and fragile interludes.
the Northern Rattle's debut long player is a rock and roll gift. this record
just burns with life and imagination. like a lost 60's psyche/pop record updated
with wry lyricism and inverted pop sensibilities.
THE TRUST RIOTS - Dead Heaven LP $10
destroying guitars never sounded so beautiful. for fans of early Dead C, Amps for Christ and Sonic Youth
an enigmatic coupling of guitar skronk and 4 track tapes.
Hand screened LP covers, music pressed on clear vinyl
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ACCELERA DECK - Shadow Land CD $5
A haunting and eerie recording that bears little resemblance to previous or later Accelera Deck outings.
This one drops all beats, and has Jeely picking up an acoustic guitar as an outlet for his personal struggle
with alcoholism. Shadow Land ended up being the blueprint for what would later become Jeely's
Your Favorite Horse project.
ACCELERA DECK - A Landslide of Stars CD $7
a sandblast of experimental rock, with the emphasis firmly on rock and an underlying shoegaze style
metallic ambience. The music is a wall of sound, anchored by a heavy low end guitar, and at times
lead by some propulsive drumming. The lyrics reflect Jeely's talent for wordplay and offer up a
world of metaphors where sex becomes redemption, black eagles are buried, sunrises become landmines,
and some mysterious creature called the wolf-christ puts an end to birth.
this should be played at a ridiculously high volume, the windows shouldn’t break, they have to blow
the fuck out like a jetplane window at 30.000 feet - foxy digitalis.
blistering, uncompromising, there is a strong incendiary and ecstatic dimension, both sonically and
lyrically, the songs are loud, long and scary and, frankly, it's an impressive feat.
ACCELERA DECK - Pop Polling CD $5
it’s beautiful, it’s enthralling, it’s minimal, it’s echoed and tremoloed, it can be as calm and powerful as
the Arctic Sea in summer and it peacefully flows its Aurora Borealis’s colors before your very eyes and
amazed they are. - Burning Emptiness.
Pop Polling is a fine piece of work from a composer who has gone unnoticed even in the underground for
far too long. - Mundane Sounds
ACCELERA DECK - Sunstrings ep CDep $5
30 minute ep of guitar feedback sonorities. In much the same way a split speaker created a fascinating
"new" guitar sound, Jeely's digitally clipped guitar ponderings lend a unique character to his sound.
At times the guitar oscillates freely, notes are bent and shaken, new clusters emerge, loops spiral out of
control, feedback overwhelms...... File Under: Beautiful Noise. Brainwashed called the opening track
15 of the worst minutes of recorded music I have ever had the misfortune of experiencing! while Stylus
Magazine called it a writhing excursion fractures into prickly caterwauls of abrasive splatter,
grinding glissandi, and thorny swarms—the sonic portrait of a machine writhing in pain as it’s torn
to pieces.
CHUCK BETTIS - Sonic Sigils 3"CD $5
Sonic Sigils starts off sounding like an electric tsunami and ends up like a magical spell.
The opening track "Night on Fire" attacks your eardrums with a barrage of electronic noises,
some cloudy some sharp, though it backs off from its initial loudness in a way that suggests
'I'm not as scary as I appear to be'. That sentiment sort of runs through Sonic Sigils, as it
feels both like a wild, freeform attack and like an olive branch, an attempt to make bugged-out
sonic experimental soundfields feel comforting even as they sound wild and hard to pin down.
Sonic Sigils was improvised, recorded live, and does feel like it. Bettis' music inhabits a place
between 'noise attack' and 'atmosphere' - Sonic Sigils is both at once, demonstrating ways that
loud can be gentle, rough can be beautiful, fierce can sound holy, and vice versa. - erasing clouds
EVOL - Punani Shell CDep $5
This is hard-edge chinchilla audio, both beautiful and brutal./ Earshot said the music is almost beautiful
in its technological ferocity and abuse. while textura.org said its blistering shards and blasts, fractured
pinprick clatter, and grinding noise. Cold and merciless, Evol allows merciful moments of silence to sunder
the music's fractal fury. PLAY LOUD!
FREIBAND - {flying} 3"CD $5
Freiband is the latest project by Frans de Waard (also founding member of Kapotte Muziek, & Beequeen).
Freiband was inspired by the tape-scratching of Asmus Tietchens on his CD 'Daseinsverfehlung', but
here applied to an entirely digital context by scratching the harddisc. The result is warm, glitchy
popmusic; that is, music made out of popping sounds. More than appropiate Frans has taken the greatest
pop music group, The Beatles, and given their lone instrumental "Flying" the Freiband treatment. The
effect is an enrapturing collection of songs awash in a metallic sheen, each one minimal in nature,
that distill the essence of psychedelia through modern electronics.
Beautifully packaged in fold over vellum mini sleeve
LATER DAYS - Songs Of The Watchmaker CD $5
Wayne Jackson (aka Later Days) is intrigued by the complexity of emergent systems, both natural
and computational. In the summer, this fascination leads him to create obscure computer music
software. In the winter, it sends him outside to hunt mushrooms. this is his debut full-length,
which follows his 3”CD (Do, 2000) on the esteemed Irish label Fallt. Working with his own custom
built software, Wayne has created a sinister yet playful album of squiggly audio drawings harvested
from his sonic garden. Likely one of the best but little known albums of truly amazing computer
music.
MERZBOW - Rattus rattus CD $10
two words: Merzbow Music!!!!!!
PLAINS - Into Tone CD $5
this recording is just so hard to describe. it hits the right spot for minimal impressionistic
tones and clusters of sound. features; Tim Coster: field recordings, Richard Francis: computer,
Rosy Parlane: guitar, computer, Mark Sadgrove: feedback, linuxCsound, Clinton Watkins: guitar,
Paul Winstanley: electric bass, digital feedback. beautiful, yet desolate. As lonely as a
night in the desert, as peaceful as falling through space........
Super sharp letter pressed cardboard sleeve
PSYCHON - Apocalypse has been dubbed the Weekend Pill CD $5
freejazz electronic cut ups, rock, and funk, and subtle rhythmic fits of static.
a varied and moody piece of work from this Dutch group, ADD-afflicted material not unlike
early Matmos
SKULLLIKE - Eggs On Equators CD $5
some sort of indie rock guitar/song thingy sounding at times like a lost indie record from the mid 90's
pretty charming in its own little way.
VIOLET - The Sun is Shining & the Flowers are Blooming on Violet Street 3"CD $5
Jeff Surak has been kicking around various dark corners of the world's experimental music closet
for more than two decades. Now based in Washington DC, his latest projects are solo works done
under the name Violet. His newest discographical entry is The Sun Is Shining And The Flowers
Blooming On Violet Street (Scarcelight 3" CD). The three pieces here are cobbled together from a
variety of sources. My favorite might well be the modulated snoring that ends the first piece
but the mermaidy epiphanies of "Priznak Aluminum (Holiday For Foil)" is pretty hep as well.
Anyway, the three tracks here are aggressive at times without being harsh, and they hold
together like beautiful rats hugging a sinking ship. Which is a pretty friendly thing to do.
Byron Coley - The Wire February 2006