skaters

james ferraro - feed me - muscleworks - cdr - 10$

the wooden cupboard - boiling the animal in the sky - pseudo arcana – 3" cdr – 7$

One of the most exciting listens I've had this year was the Skaters and Wooden Cupboard releases that have come out on Nature Tape Limb.
Based around the core pair of James Ferraro and Spencer Clark (The Wooden Cupboard is Ferraro's solo project) they sure manage to make a hell of a joyous and utterly insane ecstatic racket on their disks.
The overall sound they capture is reminiscent of the recordings by Angus MacLise of tripping screaming hippies involved in dodgy rituals in Nepal in the early 70s, with crazy drumming and loops of lo-fi noise,
except that rather than hippies it sounds more the ritual is being conducted by a cult of hyperactive and demonic elves... But its GOOD!
Extraordinarily energising music and one of my all time faves for the label so far.
-pa

the skaters - gambling in ohpa's shadow - pseudo arcana– cdr – 11$

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

the temple defectors / claypipe - split - humbug - 10" lathe cut - 27$

The Temple Defectors is James Ferraro & Spencer Clark, presenting here a fine slab of vintage violence (from around the time they did "Dark Rye Bread" and "Gambling in Ohpa’s Shadow" (as the Skaters)) - essential. On the flip is some fine itinerant heavy lidded psych by Claypipe - that’s Antony Milton and Clayton Noone from New Zealand. Limited lathe cut 10" to 120 copies in proper hand assembled covers, with a poster insert and resealable sleeve.
-humbug

james ferraro - on air - underwater peoples - 2xlp- 25$

"Electrocuted Moon Hair, Cone Headed Space Punks in Fast Forward Neo Tokyo's Virtual Flat Screen Pop Stars, Jetset Tabloids Zebra Print Moon Boats Splattering Ketchup Packets are just some of the themes that pour out of the Musical Imaginarium of James Ferraro's highly anticipated, fully restored and remastered version of the 2009 limited edition CD-R classic On Air, featuring the online hit singles 'Cinderella,' 'On Air,' 'Flashy Kamikaze' and more! Take an electric bite out of the Space Age Glam Sound of Metal Spaz Punks combing their 30 ft Tall Green Mohawks under Saturn's Post-American Desert Skies and find out what happened after MTV lasered their logo into the moon. Made available by Underwater Peoples Records, two LPs fully loaded with Pop Art Mania guaranteed to give all the 21st Century Digital Children a fresh breath of glam rock magic!"

ORDERING