toning - pitch the drone - stunned records - cass - 4$
"Cody Brant is a man of many talents, known best for his involvement with renowned Portland groups Flaspar and Smegma as well as helming the Meandering Recordings label. Most recently, he’s honed his solo game and has apparently pitched the drone in favor of sounds with a decidedly strange bounce. Cody resumes the unpredictable Toning program here on the heels of his Eggy Records debut. With the help of a handful of buds along the way, nine numbers are stacked end-to-end which forms a chain of wheezing analog electronics and disembodied chant. Acetate patterns are diced and dried in the sun, then spliced and reconstituted from their dehydrated state back into gelatinous electro-tribal tape goo. Sound weird? It is.”
rogue cop — you're about as romantic as a pair of handcuffs - stunned records - cass - 4$
This debut cassette from Seattle’s Rogue Cop rips it up from a hundred different directions with electric guitar being the sole cause of all the excitement. Fusing semi-calculated loops of red hot plink-plonk with agitated riffs dipped in booze, an entirely original stance to the six-string is fleshed out in under an hour. It may blindside you as it did us — totally unprepared for its wild methods and funny way of getting us to root for yet another cop gone rogue. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c58 tapes w/ double-sided jcard and insert.
armali lari - ma tu la pasta la vò? - stunned records - cass - 4$
Sicilian duo Armali Lari first introduced their sound to Stunned as “camera music for informal people,” a distinction we found quite the understatement upon actually hearing the stuff. More accurately, this “camera” is a dizzying kaleidoscope that never halts its colored tumble, and we hope the “informal people” mentioned have a penchant for the insane. From moment one, we were proudly counted among the target audience Armali Lari suggests, because a work like ‘Ma tu la pasta la vò?’ is an unhinged paradox worth picking apart over and over again. A fascinating embroidery is woven from the simple array of largely acoustic instruments employed by Armali Lari’s Francisco Calandrino & Nicola Giunta. Their all-inclusive angle results in our whole sensorium being whisked to an environment wildly infused with humor, abandon, and mischief — a place we don’t want to scoot from anytime soon. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c40 tapes w/ double-sided jcard and insert.
-stunned
love cult / tempera - stunned records - cass - 4$
Ivan & Anya of Love Cult have a knack for capturing the sense of tranquility that accompanies moments of deep homeostasis, hovering over the fine line between communal music-making and private meditation. This split finds the Russian duo conducting three-part ceremony, where each passage tumbles naturally – and with an increasingly woozy bliss – into a beautiful stew of storm-tempered organ and female vocals. The accompanying side by Portland Maine’s Tempera absolutely locks in the high vibrations, with the troupe caught up in translucent vocal rhythms and cycles of electronic chimes. It’s one of the more magical moments of documented live performance we’ve heard in quite a while, and its dazzling display provides a listening experience that demands frequent revisiting. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c46 tapes w/ double-sided jcard and insert.
-stunned
torture corpse - stop the mind - stunned records - cass - 4$
After Torture Corpse debuted the gritty ‘Particular Sufferings’ on Stunned last year, we followed closely as his statement of devastation continued unfolding with an excellent EP on Italy’s Radical Matters. Now with a renewed ferocity and focus, this Act II casts an unflinching gaze at the brutal state of the world through Netherlands-zen/apocalyptic-Buddhist lenses. With the schemes of the globes’ shadow elite being exposed daily and the emperors of the world appearing quite unclothed to all who care to notice, Torture Corpse urges on toward the next necessary stage: ‘Stop the Mind’. Bracketed between black noise apparitions are vast stretches of radioactive chant and meditation bowl strikes, cerebral activity cooling to zilch. Circuits open and fully offline, there comes a bracing visit from none other than Manjushri — inevitability we can believe in. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c40 tapes with double-sided color jcard and insert.
-stunned
blood on tape - the terror of solitudes - stunned records - cass - 4$
Following acclaimed releases on Anathema Sound, Reverb Worship, and their own Softland City imprint, Blood on Tape return here with a work of slow-burning beauty and subtle menace. Side A begins with delicate tones of acoustic guitar, harmonium, voice, and percussion traveling an unhurried journey of celebration toward a bit more electric B-Side. Using Borges’ Book of Imaginary Beings as a conceptual launch-point, this tape’s back half is an improvisational surge of six-string quake & purifying feedback. Embodying a briefly-burning comet, ‘The Terror of Solitudes’ concludes without a speck of dust or debris; just the lingering pure energy of a duo in dynamic communion. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c34 tapes w/ double-sided jcard and insert.
-stunned
torture corpse / architeuthis rex - stunned records - cass - 4$
Back for a third time on Stunned, Torture Corpse delivers a fierce and fire-licked side appropriately titled ‘Ignorance’. Like being herded through a geoengineered tweak of the weather, or standing under a sky checkered with persistent trails of aerosol spray, the consequences of exposure to TC’s guitar-crush has been verified to generate psychic mutation. Our hero from Rotterdam thankfully holds nothing back, and signals with his arsenal of pitch-black electronics the final malfunctioning of all civic and political institutions. Pestilence spills through cracks in the merciless wall of noise erected in Torture Corpse’s anarchic defiance, trickling over to the second side of this split. One can practically hear the vermin scampering underfoot in Architeuthis Rex’s haunted churchyard exploration. What begins as a desolate wind-whipped scene of terrestrial tension ends with something akin to encountering the first of four apocalyptic horsemen, turned loose and swinging low its scythe. Hold on tight. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c44 tapes w/ double-s
garrincha & the stolen elk - we were wyoming - stunned records - cass - 4$
"Following up their recent 905 Tapes burner, Garrincha & The Stolen Elk’s members Davy Bui (Weird Forest Records) and Matt Kretzmann uncork a bottle of straight up rock & roll. It’s pretty damn refreshing having a band like this around, ready to rip through four tremendous songs in twenty minutes and still managing to cover all the right bases along the way. G+SE’s chops are unarguably tight and not a second is wasted as fun house blurt and a wicked sax (!!) spice up the group’s own totally original brand of rock madness. It’ll be hard putting the cork back on this one for a long, long while.”
air sign - our galactic covered wagons to the stars - stunned records - cass - 4$
When reminiscing on the unsung champions of Los Angeles’ underground arts community (and trust us – there are many), one of the figures that most consistently springs to our mind is Justin McInteer. Founder of the seminal Echo Curio performance space, accomplished visual artist & gallery installation wiz, urban gardening expert, and heart-wrenching bard of the harmonium: this is a mere sample of the many roles the guy slips into with equal ease. His debut here under the Air Sign name is a relatively new endeavor in McInteer’s extensive home recording lineage, as he turns to multiple keyboards, drum machines, and samples of nature and pop music ephemera. A thing of complexity springs forth as Air Sign’s altered instrumentation helps him braid nostalgia, catharsis, and celebration into a single alluring strand.
parashi - troika - stunned records - cass - 4$
Using guitar, synthesizers, metal objects, pieces of wood, kalimba and contact mics, Parashi summons eerie shadows and drops anchor in the underworld. Here, crumbling circuitry hums alongside lone wolf cries and whispers from subterranean ruins. With masterful focus and deliberation, ‘Troika’ finds New York’s Parashi in top form after an impressive three album run-up on his home label Skell LLC. Few are willing to align their ship straight into the gritty unknown, but Parashi does just that with an array of entropic frequencies as his travel companions. When the hammer comes down during Side B’s 18-minute long apex, watch for the white-hot sparks emitting from your electronics.”
nite lite / waterfinder - marjorie / the good heart - stunned records - cass - 4$
Phil & Myste return as Nite Lite along with backing bros Jeffry and William, and their offering ‘Marjorie’ is a year’s worth of free-jamming and field recording around the mountainside they call home. Migratory birds, frogs, parties in the park, synth & guitar trancin’, and riparian wildlife all coalesce in Nite Lite’s ever-evolving audio mosaic. Nite Lite is proud to partner on this split cassette with long-distance friends & free spirits WaterFinder, who’ve been delighting many recently with awesome releases on Peasant Magik and their own Biological Radio imprint. Members Jackie McDowell (Inez Lightfoot) & Matt McDowell (Sagas, Dire Wolves, etc.) explore a fascinating array of angles to folk, drone, homebuilt instrumentation, and nature-oriented sound in under a half-hour. Light a long stick of incense and likewise let your mind – and good heart – waft upward in a single vapor along with WaterFinder’s ritual songs. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c57 tapes w/ double-sided jcard and insert.
connector — steel / rust - stunned records - cass - 4$
Carnal energy meets primal masculinity meets 360 tons of public-art-installation STEEL. Entering the belly of this beast for two separate midnight sessions, Bryce Loy (Abaddon Records) and Peter Lamons scratch and beat the RUST nearly clean off their instrument of creation/object of destruction. This is Connector — both the name of the experimental percussion project of Bryce & Peter’s, debuting on this cassette, as well as the name of a Richard Serra mega-sculpture erected last year in the belly of yet another beast: Orange County, California. The Connector duo’s pacing and control is tremendous within Serra’s massive acoustical space over both their 25-minute sides. The intimate sounds of crickets, heaving breath, and torqued steel moans are given just as much footing as vocal eruptions & volcanic percussions upon the 66-foot-tall sculpture sides. No electricity. No effects. Just the quickening of sweat, absorption of metallic shock, and shedding of blood in a thrilling attempt to locate one of the deepest ancestral rites — discovery though smashing shit up. Special edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c50 tapes with double-sided jcard and foldout color insert.
-stunned
"Geiger counters, crystal radio sets, sonar consoles, and broken walkie talkies chatter their way through a binary snowdrift on the opening side of ‘Siberia/Hinterland’. Chilly, spooked, and Siberian for sure, but it could just as well be an eerie code transmitted from the dark side of Pluto. Who knows? Brooklyn’s Nat Hawks might begin to answer, as he is the purported brains behind this sprawling enigma. He’s also responsible for running the totally fresh label LittleFuryThings and performing in avant NY outfits like Christian Science Minotaur. Clearly, his solo Padna role is no stranger to wrangling strange cargo such as found at the front of this c56. Side B’s ‘Hinterland’ reciprocates these anti-drone motions with a brightened palate of its own. Seven protean orchestrations run a whole rainbow range of opaque tones. Both sides of Padna’s coin are landed on throughout the trip, flipping from dark atmospheres to warped merrymaking at a whim. Being introduced to these creations has definitely been one of the highlights of Stunned HQ’s listening year, and echoes of the Padna endeavor are bound to be near. Limited edition of 100 pro-dubbed & imprinted c56 tapes with insert card and double-sided color jcard." -stunned
-stunned
torture corpse / architeuthis rex - stunned records - cass - 4$
Back for a third time on Stunned, Torture Corpse delivers a fierce and fire-licked side appropriately titled ‘Ignorance’. Like being herded through a geoengineered tweak of the weather, or standing under a sky checkered with persistent trails of aerosol spray, the consequences of exposure to TC’s guitar-crush has been verified to generate psychic mutation. Our hero from Rotterdam thankfully holds nothing back, and signals with his arsenal of pitch-black electronics the final malfunctioning of all civic and political institutions. Pestilence spills through cracks in the merciless wall of noise erected in Torture Corpse’s anarchic defiance, trickling over to the second side of this split. One can practically hear the vermin scampering underfoot in Architeuthis Rex’s haunted churchyard exploration. What begins as a desolate wind-whipped scene of terrestrial tension ends with something akin to encountering the first of four apocalyptic horsemen, turned loose and swinging low its scythe. Hold on tight. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c44 tapes w/ double-s
minutiae - plane sight - stunned records - cass - 4$
Students of the trickster and servants of the goddess, Minutiae carve a lit path through the nocturnal forest canopy on ‘Plane Sight’. Manifesting a song cycle intending to reflect the harmonious web of plant, animal, and mineral energies, they hypnotize the serpents who guard the gates of celestial imagination. Entering tribemind with vision cleared of physical impurity, the trio simmers until dawn, entranced in resonant tones generated by guitars, percussion, and salvaged electronics. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c42 tapes w/ double-sided jcard and insert.
roped off - blows glass in space / discovers a new angle - stunned records - cass - 4$
Forces to be reckoned with in their own right as farmers of prime Delaware sound crop, Mike Haley (Wether, 905 Tapes) and Dave Doyen (2:00AM Tapes, Vales) tag team a set of bent synthesizers on this c40, bringing their new duo Roped Off into snarling maturity. We presume that blowing glass in space leads one to smoke something especially dank out of that glass in space. Let’s further assume that the discovery of a new angle was not only novel, but an inevitable consequence of these actions. No matter how it’s sliced, or slices through the listener, it’s an entirely unpredictable ride in the opposite direction of a safe synth reality. These boyz mean biz. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c40 tapes w/ double-sided jcard and insert.
-stunned
mortuus auris & the black hand — freiheit ist immer freiheit der andersdenkendenc - stunned records - cass - 4$
The last time we heard from Mortuus Auris & The Black Hand, the London cipher-weaver spun a most quixotic tapestry alluding to a nearby Other (Stunned no. 46). This next chapter raises the tension ever higher, thoroughly exploring ancillary avenues of nocturnal field recording & alien found sound. ‘Freiheit ist immer Freiheit der Andersdenkenden’ is an amalgamation of organic and inorganic energies fused into a beautiful, breathing contradiction. Special recording & editing techniques employed over its hour align the sacred geometries uncovered in spider webs, fishing nets, and tantric sex positions. The luminous sub-dimension revealed by such transgressive use of tech might take some getting used to; its’ presence suggestive of a Contact experience right under our own skins. Hand-numbered edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c60 tapes with double-sided color jcard and insert.
-stunned
hammer of hathor - false teef - stunned records - cass - 4$
Mark E. Kaylor & Heather Vergotis are active members of the burgeoning Portland free music community, having busted their chops around town for years prior to forming the multi-instrumental beast Hammer of Hathor. Some duos in PDX can pull off jazz or punk, and some can pull off scuzz or folk, but HOH venture to ask “why not take it all on?” Their ‘False Teef’ begins at any number of disparate points to launch into super inspired jam mode, as we can testify after 40 such minutes of feedback meditation, string twang trance, surging tape loop, smoked out riffs, and a pair of rattling false teeth perched upon the amplifier. It’s also immediately apparent these partners are synched for optimal 4D pattern-weaving and burnt basement reach-out to the tangential points between the weird and weirder energies. Breathe in a whole new scenery, take on a whole new time — a soundtrack is here to assist the switch. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c40 tapes with double-sided color jcard and insert.
-stunned
donato epiro - sounding the sun - stunned records - cdr - 4$
Over the course of ‘Sounding the Sun’, Italian psych magician Donato Epiro aims his wand in all directions of the acoustical field, doing his best chameleon’s dance with drums, flute, chanting, and strings. An impressive dynamism is in play when Donato takes his bonfire percussion & fluttering raga loops, then swiftly braids them down to stilled passages of minimalist vibration. It’s a blissful abduction of the ear’s attention/perception, harnessed to a pervasive feeling of time running backwards as the album spins forward. A beautiful and unpredictable escape to some far off sunny fields of a magical land long, long ago. Limited edition of 100 hand stamped cdrs with double-sided insert card & color cover in vinyl jacket.
-stunned
padna - metal hurlant / farmer's hearth - stunned records - cdr - 4$
Nat Hawks from Padna reports: “Last winter I went home with no music equipment and when I arrived was invited to play a show the next week. So I went into my closet at my folks' house and found all manner of old, broken sound toys. This is an elaborate recreation of the set I did for that show. Also, at the time, my father was getting heart surgery, which resulted in the conflicting emotions of holiday brightness (Metal Hurlant) and dark contemplations (Farmer's Hearth).” Limited edition of 111 stamped cdrs with color cover and double-sided insert in vinyl jacket.
-stunned