latest additions to site

 

eric paul - i sleep with their bones - bathetic records - cass - 5$

Eric Paul, infamous frontman of acts Arab On Radar & Chinese Stars, takes his literary audio on his Bathetic cassette and digital release, I Sleep With Their Bones.

I Sleep With Their Bones is the Paul's first forray into recording his dynamic and twisted work into the "spoken word" format. Recorded at Machines With Magnets in Providence, the recording collects some all-time classices from Eric Paul, taken from his well-known and sough after books such as I Offered Myself As The Sea (Heartworm Press).

I Sleep With Their Bones is quite the personal release for Bathetic.

Growing up in the weird tail end of the '90s and into the chaotic '00s involved numerous nights spent with the arcane acrobatics, both musically and lyrically, of Paul's absolutely shocking, outrageous Arab On Radar. I doubt there's an ass in any seat that hasn't at least uttered that name at least once. Maybe you remember them zigzagging across the US with the likes of The Locust and Lightning Bolt. Maybe you remember their all matching uniforms -- they looked like electricians on a bit of a trip. Arab On Radar was a special band that cannot be replaced as the originator of their psycho-jazz-meets-no-wave-ish vibe.

Eric Paul would go on to record and tour extensively with the well known Chinese Stars, a slightly more grooving (and no less perverse) offshoot of the Arab On Radar spunk. He is now in the band Doomsday Student with 3/4 the members of AOR.

Within each of these chaotic brain-numbing bands, we are calling attention to the poetic art of Eric Paul's words. Raw and withholding nothing, you can find more than a glimpse of this in I Sleep With Their Bones' 33 spoken-word tracks

C V L T S - foam daze - beer on the rug - cdr - 6$

CD EP
20 March 2012
Edition of 32

v manuscript - black pageant - gross domestic product - cass - 7$

V MANUSCRIPT (Eli of humanbeast, male submission, our lady..etc) nine songs of Organ for performance. Repetitive, alluring, dark.
Poetic Violence and the Androgynous Mind.
“the cruelty in his luster, the charming fable of her vileness, ‘ENJOY THE CONTAGION!’ i cried…, and fell silent.”
or
“I’m so lost in the human irrelevance, posing for a novel. So unyieldingly natural, so things matter.”

scream mask – basement yuks - gross domestic product - cass - 7$

Scream Mask is a one man band featuring Sack Town Son and now Mayoral candidate of Barf City, Robert Pickle, ex- Sexy Prison, ex- Chastity Wig. If you’re going to choogle through a shuffling malaise, do it with the best! Lots of people nowadays drop echo on a whisper or moan, which makes 100% no sense– Scream Mask drops echoey shouts that really resonate through a literal basement that he pays rent on. Thin white man playing drum machine and guitar, sort of like the audition part of Purple Rain. One time he played and gave out sandwiches between songs. Then: “This is the last song. It’s called ‘I Farted On The Sandwiches’.”. This is what we’re dealing with.
Six songs that are actual songs.
Tape has no cover. Pro-mastered in crystal case.

dariius - s/t - salon - cdr - 6$

edition of 100 copies

This is the debut release of Dariius, the new Acid House moniker of Daren Ho/Driphouse. This should be treated as a document of a transition from older Berlin school forms to raw and Deep House dance music

rene hell - catalina & london - salon - cass - 7$

edition of 100

Pro dubbed tapes, contains minimal piano work-outs with electronic accompaniment, orchestral string pieces & a live set recorded in london

various - rhizomatic st. louis vol 1 - close/far recordings - cass - 7$

C72 Cassette
A compilation of Sound Art, Free Improvisation, Electronic & Electroacoustic music from artists currently living and working in the St. Louis area.

Regicide Bureau: Tom Sutter; prolific 80's tape trader with an electroacoustic infatuation, self-released over 300 cd-r's and tapes
Rich O'Donnell: Director of the Electronic Music Studio at Washington University, St. Louis, was principal percussionist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for 40 years, a percussion and electronic instrument builder, and co-founded HEARding Cats, a 501(c)(3) arts collective in '09
Raglani: Analog synth guru, electronic music history enthusiast, OG of the STL experimental music scene
Tory Starbuck Project: Tory Z. Starbuck; avant-garde art rocker, music instructor, adept player of ethnic drums, saxophone, violin, sitar, koto, and electronics
N.N.N. Cook: Sound artist, improviser, graphic designer, and visual artist, runs the tape side of Close/Far Recordings
Dr. Mabuse: Electronic instrument inventor and builder, I call him the, "Harry Partch of electronics", president and co-founder of HEARding Cats arts collective
Dave Stone: Reeds player par excellence, Free Jazz hero, seasoned improviser
Public Shallows: Integral promoter, writer, and performer in the local music community, Josh Levi's Flood Yr Face blog is the #1 source for underground concert listings in STL
Brain Transplant: Chris Smentkowski's long running solo and collaborative Noise project, laptop data warper, guitar mangler
Kevin Harris: Runs the best experimental venue in the city, The Floating Laboratories, Performs with homemade "wind turbine" signal generators diffused through a multi-channel sound system and modular synthesizers
Dinner Music: Rick Weaver; experimental Renaissance man, restless soul, runs Human Conduct Records

Pro-duplication and imprinting with full color double sided j-cards. Signed and numbered silkscreened posters (edition of 25), signed and numbered digital prints (edition of 75) and cover art by Jeremy "Ghost Ice" Kannapell. Edition of 200 on high bias tape.

orange blossom flyover - museum magazine - i had an accident - cass - 5$

A Raining array of guitar bliss coupled with the steady tempo of a drum beat compliments the softly uttered vocals on Orange Blossom Flyover's Museum Magazine. An album that rolls on smooth and dreamy. The feature full-length marks the first on ihaa and one that is impressive and inspirational. The warmth of the guitar pieces creates an atmospheric snifter of brandy for a late night watching of the sun's setting. Limited edition of 40 on dark blue shells and chrome tape. Free mp3 download with purchase.

clearing - stride - i had an accident - cass - 5$

Stride is the latest by minimalistic texture artist Clearing. Producing more cool sounds that feel like standing in a chilled beach breeze on a spring morning. Refreshing ice clinking in a glass of spring’s elixir as the flowers bloom and the smells trickle into your nostrils and then you realize this is what dreams are made from. The languid motion of rubbing your eyes too long. There is an unspoken poetry in Stride.

cvlts / goodwillies - split - solid melts - cass - 7$

nuojuva - valot kaukaa - preservation - cd -14$

The Preservation label presents Valot Kaukaa, the second album from Finnish producer Olli Aarni. Valot Kaukaa is the first work for Aarni under a new name, Nuojuva, having previously appeared under the name Ous Mal. As Ous Mal, Aarni's 2010 debut album, Nuojuva Halava took the early promise of his CD-R releases into a beautiful realization of a unique sound that evoked both a curious nostalgia and a sense of future pathways, combining classical overtures, narcotic beats and warm atmospherics into blissful song. Aarni's beguiling vision holds sparer focus on Valot Kaukaa (the title roughly translates as "lights from far away") for a more overtly ambient space filled with delicate instrumentation -- including cello, piano, flute and violin -- as well as a new interest in the possibilities of voice. Spacey and intimate with wintry and autumnal shades, its whispered melodies and open drift making for a heightened state still somehow grounded in down-home feeling. The gliding vocal textures of Rachel Evans aka Motion Sickness Of Time Travel as well as one-half of duo Quiet Evenings -- is a recurring highlight, while Sophie Hutchings' dazzling, rolling piano propels Laakso into a wonderful orbit. Honing a special path explored on Nuojuva Halava, Valot Kaukaa feels like one long, suspended, beautiful moment. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.

Sky Stadium/Potions - split - lillerne tapes - cass - 6$

Twenty minutes each from Colonia, NJ's Sky Stadium and Chicago, IL's Potions. Sky Stadium (Jeff Roman), fresh off of great 2011 releases on Monorail Trespassing, Bridgetown, Goldtimers and more, offers six tracks of truly beautiful and warm synth ambience. "Gatefold" and "A Vision So Close" are unique and true space soundscapes with enough texture and depth to mix well with the thick layers of synthesized melody and powerful drones on the rest of the side. Listen to "Right Now" on the sampler below. Potions (Tom Owens) has made a good name for himself on the local Chicago DIY scene with his improvised live performances and ability to cover a lot of ground stylistically with the Potions moniker. "Booby Trap" is a squiggly and rhythmically tight jam that moves into the darker and deeply psychy and mesmerizing "Mars Castle" (listen below). "Lazy River" is a great example of Potions' ability to bring together a beat-oriented song structure, bordering on pop music, into the realm of ambient synth work and more loose improvisations.

new future wanderer - teal view – ruralfaune– cdr - 8$

After the Plaza for Media Conference 92, NFW hacks up fragments of his blue-green synthetic world.
Artwork by FANTASTIC LANDS

earthmasters - dwellings - fabrica - cass - 5$

EarthMaster’s compositions and improvisations produce submerged and cavernous sound environments. Heavily influenced by psych, drone, and slowed down 80′s new wave, EarthMasters taps into zonked out lo-fi psych pop, ritualistic chanting, and lush synth/vocal drones to create an ethereal soundscape.
Sounds 
C-20, pro-dubbed first edition of 50.

drywater -backbone of the nation - time lag - lp & 7"-25$

first ever reissue of this massively cool & hideously rare 1973 rural pennsylvania private press jewel, originally released on the legendary RPC custom label in an edition of only 25 copies. this one might slip right by you on first listen, but there is a subtle brilliance buried in these grooves that’s captured the hearts of the lucky few who’ve had the chance to spend some time with the album… and once you’ve connected, there’s no turning back… like the very best of the upper echelon 60s & 70s private press benchmarks, ‘backbone of the nation’ is a crystal clear snapshot glimpse into a precise time & place, a unique moment captured, a lost reality preserved… small town working class teen ethos expressed with raw precision. zero hippie hangover or arty posturing here… the sound is essentially split between the two dominate modes of polarized male youth psyche : alternating moody, dejected, love scorned melancholy folkrock with wasted, howling, proto-punk garage fuzz brain fry… all together it’s a totally sincere lost in time vibe, delivered with gobs of naive charm & executed with almost zero resources. the album was recorded and mixed direct to tape in just a few hours, without overdubs or even the option to mixdown. you can hear the clearly unprepared recording engineer frantically flipping switches & tweaking knobs in a state of near panic as these kids tear furiously through a rapid fire album worth of original songs, always teetering on the edge of total collapse, yet never quite imploding. while the end results are, to say he least, very crude, the band pulls together a distinct and wonderful sound. underpinned by ken turcic’s dry, low, rubbery bass lines and greg cheplick’s wildly raw & cool drumming (he’s only 15 at the time) dennis cheplick (greg’s older brother) and jack sarvis trade off vocal duties, guitars licks, and writing credit. rhythm guitars chug excitedly, acoustic 12-string adds a sweet, chiming, folky texture, and sarvis switches between a great, slightly surf-tinged ringing reverb tone and frenetic fuzz figures. what really sets this one apart from the crowd, though, is a surprising sophistication lurking deep within. there’s real depth and staying power to the song writing that sneaks up on you with repeated listens, combined with the sort of subtly clever vocal and guitar arrangements that imply a band maturity well beyond their amateur exterior. a grower if ever there was one… and totally essential if the sound of “rural”, “real people”, and “garage” all in the same sentence peaks your interest… pressed on highest quality 180gm virgin vinyl. packaged in an exact reproduction heavy weight reverse tip-on cover, with exact repro label art, a heavy double sided insert with loads of vintage color photos and extensive liner notes, plus a bonus heavy vinyl 45rpm 7inch. the 45 contains two non-lp tracks featuring both cheplick brothers and recorded in nashville, tennessee just months after the ‘backbone’ sessions, and preserved only on a single copy acetate demo disc. while due to the original format the sound quality of the 45 is less then ideal, it’s an awesome pair of songs and a wonderful complement to the lp, clearly hinting at the brooding folkrock masterpiece these guys could have pulled off had drywater ever entered the studio again… one time vinyl only pressing of 500 copies.

rain drinkers - yesodic helices - brave mysteries - lp - 18$

Ltd. 250 on 150G Black Vinyl
Rain Drinkers consists of two long-time Madison folks, but yet none of us have any real contact with either of them and they have never played live. Xavier Kraal (aka Troy Schafer in one of his numerous musical disguises) has moved out to the country, withdrawing into family life and a myriad of solo projects and many collaborations )including Kinit Her, Compass Hour, Wreathes, Spiral Joy Band, Pelt, Burial Hex, Wormsblood, and many more). Joe Taylor musically focuses exclusively on Rain Drinkers and, though he has lived in the Madison area for many years now, none but Kraal have actually met him. Rain Drinkers also consistently credits the Creative Spirit as a third member of their line-up for all of their releases. Regardless of what sounds the Creative Spirit is actually contributing, both Kraal and Taylor are such talented multi-instrumentalists, it is impossible to distinguish which of them is playing what parts and, often the arrangements are so organically entangled, it becomes difficult to determine what the instrumentation might be in any given movement. Much like their amazing 2011 release Urthen Web, Yesodic Helices flows in an out of a wide variety of tone poems. Musically they bring to mind artists who tend to create their own visionary worlds with a classic sense of depth and dynamics, such as Ennio Morricone, Sun Ra, Iasos, Moondog, Popol Vuh or modern characters like Cyclobe, James Ferraro or Ulver. The essence of Rain Drinkers also clearly bears the mark of their own Xavier Kraal, who graces all his projects with an inimitable musical signature. We don't know where these sessions were recorded or how, but the band always features themselves on the cover of their releases, in various stark settings around rural Wisconsin, exposing themselves only to the excellent black and white portraiture of photographer Dani Dahlke. Their oblique gaze and anachronistic looks further plunge the imagination into mania. Luckily the music itself is not so intangible. The Rain Drinkers music is made with a heady passion that keeps them moving forward, continuously expanding their pallet of sounds and stylistic touchstones. Yet, no matter how adventurous or exciting the musical terrain may be, the listener remains safely strapped in and always guided along by a familiar and benevolent presence. This angel journeyman, alive within the music of Rain Drinkers, are surely the results of a special transmutation that occurs between these two intense and sincere old souls, and it is surely what they are acknowledging when crediting The Creative Spirit as a third unique member of their private ensemble

urna - larvae  - brave mysteries - cass - 7$

After fifteen years of carefully scattering a small handful of cryptic but consistently beautiful artifacts (including three releases on solemnly-revered Slaughter Productions), Italian post-industrialist unit, Urna continues to develope his evocative electro-acoustic devotionals. Witness dreamy epics woven from his wealth of folkish prayer implements and ceremonial electronic enhancements.

m. geddes gengras - purity - jugular forest - cass - 6$

m. geddes gengras from los angeles, ca is on a warpath. stepping it up
with an increasing output of recorded material, his recent live sets show an
artist keeping his performances dynamic and unique.
on purity, ged plays melodic sequences darker than his previous efforts.
slowly delayed with overwhelming bass, definitely took the whole 1/8th into
some electronic hell.

monsturo - 522 - jugular forest - cass - 6$

monsturo is david rothbaum, a los angeles musician that creates
recordings that are extremely patient and rewarding with subtle detail.
522 was recorded to cassette on a tascam 688 using a roland SH-3a
synthesizer. said to be the final monsturo release, minimal static tones
ascend together left to resonate. the spaceship is leaving, but hovered
out on a high note.

lazy magnet - modern advantage - self released - cass - 7$

ensemble economique - live in london - nnf - cass - 6$

Brian Pyle’s work under the Ensemble Economique banner has been undergoing heavy shift lately, prompted by both creative restlessness as well as inner life upheavals. He’s quested out on 2 lone wolf UK/Euro tours in the past half-year alone, plus dropped an ace LP on the Dekorder label of ominous soundtrack menace. When rapid transformation takes hold, it’s best to just roll tape and make sense of it later. Thus, in anticipation of his forthcoming 2012 NNF full-length, we present EE: Live In London, an impressively recorded 37-minute performance at The Vortex in August of last year, comprised of all new material. Primitive drum machine rhythms stutter in primal-industrial patterns, cloaked in disquieting drones and oblique tape samples (police sirens, jungle bird calls, Sinead O’Connor vocal raptures), accompanied by pained crooning, ragged squalls of electric guitar, and minor-key synth depressions. More song-based than his voodoo hallucination breakthrough, 2010’s Psychical, but no less unsettling, the new Economique approach has shades of Eyeless In Gaza’s eerie, fatalist drift but the thrust is some sort of goth-psych/beat music hybrid that we’re not aware even really exists yet. A captivating document of an artist at the crossroads. White, imprinted tapes with high-art jazz-splatter J-cards designed by Amanda Brown. Edition of 150.

sand circles - motor city - nnf - cass - 6$

This is Martin Herterich’s second pass around the NNF circuit in his Sand Circles hovercraft (following 2011’s Midnight Crimes EP), and though the general schematics and engine design remain the same – aged drum machines, afterhours analog tape echo, faded synth riffs, derelict metropolis atmospheres – Motor City’s grace and execution place it in a superior division to anything else he’s tracked to date. A cool, loner narrative arc plays out across each side too: “Entering Motor City” across “White Sand” wherein there’s a “Downtown Holdup” in the “Innercity Haze,” before cruising back out of the urban sprawl, “Distant Lights” in the rearview, on through the “Endless Nights,” “Descending Into Space.” As with his last tape, the Sand Circles chemistry of transfusing reverb-refracted electronic horizon melodies with pulsing, primitivist warehouse-party drum machinery really succeeds in evoking this weirdly poignant bedroom/industrial reverie mood-sphere, and the 11 instrumentals of Motor City hit this interzone pressure point better than ever. Silver ink on black shells with torched-factory graphic-design J-cards by B Brown. Edition of 150.

samantha glass - midnight arrival - nnf - cass - 5$

It’s been a full seasonal cycle since Samantha Glass last laid down his Madison anti-magic into NNF’s tape vaults (2011’s Celestial Night Queen) and, judging from the spectral sound of things, the time was uniquely spent. Holed up at his wax-dripping church organ/wolf tapestry shrine-studio, Ms. Glass (aka Beau Devereaux) dug deep into his candle-lit cross pollination of kraut-pop crop circle keys, art-hesher basement Sabbath bass, and golden dawn vocal mantras, emerging with an evocative EP of occultish hibernation mood-grooves – Midnight Arrival. Later this year will see the unveiling of Sam Glass’ debut vinyl long-player, Mysteries Of The Palomino Skyliner; consider this neophyte training for what is to come. Also, FYI: he’s about to embark on a US tour down to Texas for SXSW 2012 with fellow electronic Midwestern misfit Cuticle; def pay a visit if the roadshow lands in your periphery. Black, imprinted tapes in nocturnal-reflection portrait J-cards, designed by BB. Edition of 125.

cruise family - we're in heaven - nnf - 12" - 11$

Cosmic synth music, as a concept, requires regular transfusions of reverse strategies, weird ideas, and bad blood to stay mutating (and thus alive). And while there’s no shortage of global projects actively engaged in this pursuit, the life/art arc of Austria’s Cruise Family cleaves closest to the slipstream we identify with. His early tapes were bubbling fountains of faded trance textures, like a rave reimagining of Monopoly Child Star Searchers’ celestial cassette mysticisms, but We’re In Heaven extrapolates that DNA into a radically more dynamic model. The sidelong A side, “We’re In Heaven,” coasts on a carpet of lush galactic synthesizer bliss and metronomic 909 pulses, like someone cross-mixing the best of Software’s Electronic Universe over a slowed-down Model 500 instrumental loop. The B is split into two pieces, the paranoid warehouse techno skeleton, “Be Part Of It,” and “Gone By Dawn,” which sequences floating new age fractals over a hollowed-out acid handclap beat, like the spectral shell of some classic sunrise anthem. The fidelity and textural craft of these cuts are distinct to anything else in the Cruise Family tree, and the best embodiment of his unique matrix of influences. Black vinyl 12 inches in jackets with insane laser-galactic ‘humanoid tumbling through interstellar space’ artwork by CF’s Stefan Kushima. Edition of 550.

prince rama - utopia = no person - nnf - lp - 12$

We first met the Sisters Larson (aka Prince Rama Of Ayodhya aka Prince Rama) in 2009 in Texas, where they had a brief stop during their inaugural road-warrior bicoastal US tour. They had feathers in their hair and gave us a CDR covered in sequins and fake fur. Since then a lot has happened: they signed to Paw Tracks, someone joined the band and left the band, they toured the US and Europe at least three more times, and – relevant to this release – they got invited to fashion a conceptual art performance for the Manhattan gallery, Issue Project Room. The topic they chose to explore was very P Ramanian: the ritual nature of exercise, body movement as a form of exorcism, trance-inducing physicality, etc. They staged an elaborate song-and-dance with costumes, crystal skulls, prayer aerobics, Krishna statuettes, and astral projections. Thus was born "Utopia = No Person,” a 19-minute shamanistic electro work-out anthem, equal parts apocalypto opera, hippie ecstasy, and new wave cardio dance. It’s a strange vision but one perfectly in keeping with the sisters’ Now Age hypothesizing and enthused psych tribalism. The B side features an otherworldly chopped-and-skrewed dream-syrup reworking by R.E.M. Koolhaas (aka Landon Odle of the Animal Image Search label). Black vinyl LP in jackets with a stylin’ cover portrait (by Corey Towers) of Taraka and Nimai decked out in unitards/leotards, gold lamé leggings, white Reeboks, the works, plus a full-color double-sided insert. LP layout by NNF faves New Feeling Industries. Edition of 600.

euglossine - jewel hunter geomancy - rotifer - cass - 7$

(c20) edition of 100 Long awaited opening album by Gainesville brother Tristan Whitehill (of Orchal & Vir). Glamorous beats and spacious zones, a prolific array of tracks finally unclothed. Artwork by Tristan & Benji Haselhurst.

innercity - another hard new age - rotifer - cass - 7$

Innercity's third appearance on Rotifer. More robust than ever, glistening shattered rapture, a time to take cover? Another hard new age, a soundtrack to play when the earth begins to crack open beneath our feet.

transmuteo - dreamsphere megamix - rotifer - cass - 7$

(c90) edition of 100 Dreams are gateways to other dimensions...in the dream state, we learn how to negotiate the physics of higher spiritual realms. Dreamsphere Megamix, the second cassette from New Orleans-based multimedia artist Transmuteo, is an epic 90-minute journey into the hypnotic, crystalline realms of awakened sleep. Fractured melodies and swirling drones circulate, drift away and reappear with a drowsy logic that will only become clear once you have traversed the Sphere. With Dreamsphere Megamix, Transmuteo offers you the keys and coordinates to activate your knowing regarding the Stargates and Portals that will be your transportation into the Golden Age. Do not refuse.

arbol trancemissions / code suite 104 - split - rotifer - cass - 7$

split (c36) edition of 60 Current tracks from Trinity forester Gabriel Ortiz (head of Elestial Sound) on the A followed by Frank Ouellette's (head of Hobo Cult) new project Code: Suite 104.

Zines A,B & C - tor press - 3 zines - 14$

The first three zines in the series based on letters of the alphabet from Tor Press. In each issue illustrators/ designers were asked to create an image with A B or C as the theme. The zines are A5, grayscale and have screenprinted covers.
Each is limited to 100 copies.

Contributors include:

Stuart Kolakovic
Bjorn Rune Lie
Ben Kirchner
McBess
Simon Peplow
Nous Vous
Jake Blanchard
Frank Chimero
Jeffrey Bowman
Melvin Galapon
Joe Crocker
Chrissie Abbott
Matt Lyon
Ben Jones
Roderick Mills
Owen Gildersleeve
Matthew Green
Holly Wales
David Callow
Marcus Oakley
Nicholas Saunders
& many more

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