rst - axes - last visible dog – cd – 10$
"From the vantage of 2007 it is easy to forget the conceptual and aesthetic leap represented by the work of rst. I was amazed when I heard his first lathe-cut LP Event Horizon in early 1995, because there was really nothing like it before.
While clearly responding to the same imperatives as the nearly-contemporary Surface of the Earth, his sound effectively came out of nowhere. Indeed, at that point, one of the few things I’d heard operating in the same area was Earth itself. While now the plague of black metallers and second-rate ‘drone-istas’ have made this seem like a starting-point obvious to the point of being passé, 12 years ago that was far from true.
So it’s easy now to listen to the new rst album, his third in the last decade after releases on Ecstatic Peace! and Corpus Hermeticum, and think – I’ve heard that before. But in fact, all you’ve heard is everyone who copped this shit from the originators. This immaculate blend of scrubbed and polished metallic tones, layered and sculpted like automotive bodywork of the first order, is in fact the real deal. rst had this first, and remains best at doing it, because he’s kept his head down, kept off bad drugs, and continued to refine his work in relative obscurity – not caring whether or not you know about it.
It’s hard not to lose yourself in this because for me it sounds like the operation of the cosmos, amplified to audibility. This is electric guitar sound with all the extraneous ‘music’ stripped out. Electricity in action: natural like electro-magnetism, and devotional like the wind from the sun."
--Bruce Russell, Lyttelton NZ, June 2007
the nether dawn - whiskey mute-down - last visible dog – cd – 10$
Antony Milton's take on NZ free-noise & drone, but like all other things, Milton never imitates but reinterprets. Instead of just another album of low-fi guitar hum (don't we have enough already?), this is a warm, moody drifter that wraps around your head like a short-wave broadcast at 3AM.
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ben reynolds - book of beyond - last visible dog – cd – 10$
Ashtray Navigations collaborator gives us his own solo take on things. Noisy and at times out-right strange (just the way we like it!) Perhaps a somewhat more cosmic sunroof?
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birchville cat motel - curved surface destroyer - last visible dog – 3xcd – 18$
Live retrospective documenting the evolution of BCM's music across 8 years and spanning the globe. All of the selected material has never been heard before and represents the best of the BCM sound.
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fursaxa - amulet - last visible dog – cd – 10$
Dream reissue of 1.5 tour cd-rs as a real cd with all new artwork. All of Amulet, with the later half of Cult of Moon Mountain tagged on to fill out the CD. This is the live Fursaxa sound (with guests from Bardo Pond) that is not well represented on Tara's studio albums.
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hala strana - fielding - last visible dog – 2xcd – 14 $
Steven R. Smith's (Jewelled Antler, Thuja, etc.) reworking of Eastern european folk recordings and sound samples -- the result is a two disc psychedelic tapestry not unlike some Krautrock. - label
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lsd march - suddenly like flames - last visible dog – cd – 10$ sold out
If there was an inheritor to the sound first invented by legendary Le Rallizes Denudes, it must be LSD-march. Their second (and best) release with bonus tracks.
Comparisons could be made to Les Rallizes Denudes, the first PSF Fushitsusha, White Heaven, Shizuka, and perhaps most appropriately Miminokoto. Known mostly because of their tracks on the Night Gallery compilations, LSD-march has become almost as legendary for their unavailability as they have for their incredible music. This is a reissue of their second LP, self-released in an edition of less than 300 that never made it out of Japan. LVD is proud to make 'Suddenly, like flames' available to the Western world for the first time. Includes bonus material, liner notes and lyric translations by Alan Cummings as well as new artwork from Jeffrey Alexander of Black Forest/Black Sea.
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stefano pilia - healing memories - last visible dog – cd – 10 $
Reissue of 'Healing Memories in Present Tension' (part of the LVD cd-r series) with an album's worth of new tracks. Pilia uses guitar and electronics to create a mood that is gentle, warm and inviting.
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tivol - instellar overbike - last visible dog – cd – 10 $
Amon Duul 2 hybridized with Mainliner all-in-the-red stoner rock that hits enough pleasure centers that I don't question why or how, I just turn the volume up!
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tsurubami - kaina - last visible dog – cd – 10 $
"The first of the two tracks here starts on a surprisingly quiet note. Whispering waves of low-key atmospheres and moods drip out of the speakers and seep into your cranial cavity for 25 otherworldly minutes. Despite its static nature it keeps on moving and progressing, but that still doesn't prepare one for the abrupt transformation and tumultuous harsh ending. Five minutes of the rock we've come to expect from fellow countrymen Fushitsusha is always welcome to these ears. The second track, a lot shorter, still stretches out over ten minutes. It's a cataclysmic fireball of unimaginable intensity that feels like it's going to expand forever until it suddenly dissolves into the massive black holes at the centre of the fourth galaxy. How can you resist that?"--Mats Gustafsson, The Broken Face
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various- invisible pyrmaid : elegy box- last visible dog – 6xcd – 40$ sold out
LVD's second compilation and spiritual successor to Drunken Fish's Harmony of the Spheres box (EP length submissions), but instead of 6 artists, there are now 31. The set features all exclusive material, and the total running time clocks in around 7 hours and 36 minutes. This compilation, like the first Invisible Pyramid comp (2003), finds its inspiration in the writings of Loren Eiseley (naturalist, anthropologist, and essayist); for whom an elegy to the first victims of the still-escalating wave of man-made mass extinction seemed appropriate. Each artist has dedicated their track to a recently extinct species (with a short bio), and Jeff Knoch (Urdog) has written a substantial essay to accompany the set.
Disc 1: Black Forest/Black Sea, Birchville Cat Motel, Wolfmangler, Loren Chasse, Bardo Pond
Disc 2: es, Andrea Belfi & Stefano Pilia, Sunken, Kulkija, Tomu Tonttu
Disc 3: UP-TIGHT, Flies Inside the Sun, Uton, mudboy, Steven R. Smith
Disc 4: Keijo, Doktor Kettu, My Cat is an alien, One Inch of Shadow, Fursaxa
Disc 5: Ashtray Navigations, Peter Wright, Geoff Mullen, Urdog, Miminokoto
Disc 6: Area C, Ben Reynolds, Seht, Avarus, Renato Rinaldi, Matt De Gennaro
ashtray navigations - the love that whirs - last visible dog – cd –10$ sold out
Over 70 minutes of the absolute best A. Navigations, with the added help of Ben Reynolds and Alexander Neilson. 'Trash drone' (IE Sunroof, Vibracathedral Orchestra) done in a manner only possible by this amazing trio.
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eastern fox squirrels - s/t - last visible dog – cd –10$ sold out
New formation of Brad and Eden Rose with Robert Horton. Special guest appearances by Tom and Christina Carter, Jason Bill and Dan Plonsey. Experimental but with soft, round edges and nice, nearly ambient dirges that feel welcome but really aren't normal.
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