larry 'sunshine' rice - here's sunshine - time lag - lp -25$
top quality official reissue of this wonderful album. this project is a bit different from other time-lag reissues, as the original isn’t exactly a mega-rarity. that’s not to say that they’re easy to find, but our motives for the reissue have more to do with the fact that this great lp has been seriously overlooked by so many, and feels very ripe to reach some new ears. this one’s got a pretty wild backstory too, being a rather undiscussed piece of 60s texas underground history : in 1966 larry ‘sunshine’ rice was feeling burnt by the increasingly superficial hippy scene in san francisco, so headed to dallas, texas, the “center of darkness” and the place he was raised, with a vision to transform minds. a random gig doing psychedelic light shows at a local bar led to a job managing a new “hip” church… and so the ‘satori house’ was founded. through this outlet sunshine held experimental light & sound worship sessions, began hosting underground rock concerts, launched a free press, and just about any & all other activities towards the goal of turning on dallas. it was, of course, a great success while it lasted… which was not long once a federal drug bust (total set-up) went down, and the higher-ups in the parent church organization got wind of just exactly what their cash had been backing. during the extended trial that followed sunshine split the city for tiny justin, texas and founded ‘the church of changes’ texas’ first marijuana church, claiming grass as their sacrament and legal right… it was at this point that a series of truly unlikely synchronicities led to a record deal & recording session, but by the time “here’s sunshine” was released in the summer of 1969, sunshine was back in california living as a fugitive. he never showed up at his meeting with the bigwigs at blue thumb records who were planning to release his follow up album, thus quickly and purposely ending his connection to the music industry…. if that’s got your head turned, you’ll almost certainly dig the music… it’s a mystical and convoluted folk trip, executed with the lonesome single-mindedness of a true searcher. warm intense vocals are delivered in a magically loose, flowing style. tim buckley comparisons pop up, and that’s not totally off the mark if you replaced any avant / jazz leanings with more of a tripping-in-the-desert vibe. lyrically things get truly bent, venturing into some deeply surreal & glassy-eyed zones. there are a few grasps towards religious ponderance, but it’s very far from a “xian” album. stream of consciousness broodings on nature, work, love, god, satan, sex, hallucinations, and so forth. it’s a totally solo recording centered on understated but effective acoustic guitar, and fleshed out via overdub with rather unusual use of electric bass, organ, banjo, mandolin, and harmonica. things get especially psychedelic when the bass comes in, either as an ultra-minimal echo-drenched pulse or a flowing tonal improvisation. the hyper compressed and reverb saturated production somehow suites the material perfectly, and the combination of elements creates quite an immersive, mirage-like and exploratory space. this one is far stronger, more hallucinogenic, and has gobs more personally then most of the over-hyped, mega-bucks coffee house folk strummers passed off as loner / downer / acidfolk these days. this record’s got a real spirit of it’s own, that with repeated listens will sneak right into your mind before you even know it… and i’m sure that’s the way sunshine intended it… beautiful exact reproduction art packaged in a lovely heavy 60s style cover and pressed on 180gm audiophile vinyl. includes an insert with new notes from the artist, as well as a short except from his book ‘morning glory’ which was written in 1968 and tells the story behind the album, but has yet to be published. one time vinyl only edition of 500 copies.
death chants - s/t - red records - lp - 25$
red records release #8. deluxe vinyl version of the long gone time-lag cdr from about 4 years back… this group lasted just long enough to leak out a small but highly rewarding series of under-the-radar cassettes & cdrs over a year or two, with this album standing as a clear peak both in terms of scope & execution. as great as the recent offerings from various members have been (aswara, rafi bookstaber, muntjac, moonpie, etc.), there’s a certain youthful charm here that’s hard to miss… a slow & spacious album full of alternating melancholy/ecstatic vibes with raga-esque acoustic guitars, chiming electric guitars, slippery liquid flute, harmonium, sparse percussion, blissed female/male vocal bits, low level bass drone, kosmic synth tickles and damaged tape warble, plus one beauty of a ‘song’… flickering neon smoke rings of sound dissolving into the atmosphere… totally stoned-out, bedroom cult, eyes to the ceiling, half naive, home-fi psychedelia… pressed on 180gm bright red vinyl & packaged in a deluxe heavy 60s style black art paper gatefold cover with white ink screen printed interior and full color paste-on art front and back, plus stamped & hand numbered spine & printed labels. limited edition of 288 copies.
painting petals on ghost planet - s/t - time lag records - lp - 22$
debut recording from italy 's opalio brothers (my cat is an alien) and ramona ponzini. an esoteric and mesmerizing trip through space, minimalism, and emotion. each track recorded at a different mystical location in the western alps, and centered around ramona 's beautiful vocals, all of which are sung in traditional japanese. maurizio & roberto add sparse accompaniment by means of toy piano, alien keyboard tones, antique accordion, percussion, tape effects, and some particularly evocative acoustic guitar. the whole thing comes off alternately as deeply meditative or chillingly haunted, depending on your attention & mood. silence, space & ritual are hugely important here, with notes & words hovering frozen in time... while the my cat is alien moniker might leave some folks scratching their heads, here the painting petals on plant ghost name nails it : fragile, beautiful, cosmically isolationist, and totally spooked... pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl, and lushly packaged with letterpress printed cover & insert. printed with copper ink on exquisite & massively thick handmade ivory art paper, each sheet cast one at a time & air dried. hand numbered edition of 560 copies.
(time-lag)
ghq - cosmology of eye - time lag
records -cd - 9$
LP sold out at label
cd
digital version. packaged in a miniature tri-fold version of the lp cover, with photo insert and woven japanese inner sleeves. limited edition of 1000 copies.(time-lag)
samara lubelski - did you see? / spectacular of passages - time lag records - 7" -6$
two stunning exclusive tracks finally unleashed after (too many) years on the shelf, just in time to coincide with samara's wonderful new album 'future slip' on thurston moore's ecstatic peace! label. a sweet little dose of hushed & fragile melancholy folk-pop-drone fluttering. samara's unmistakable slow-bliss songforms are at their most stripped down and psychedelically entwined, with thick hovering violin tones, distant reverbed atmospheres & gentle swirls of quivering guitar feedback all lifting things just high enough. totally bleary-eyed & beautiful, hitting that perfect spot just between your heart & gut… to these ears its that golden zone where the sound of her past in bands like HALL OF FAME, TOWER RECORDINGS, METABOLISMUS, etc. merges effortlessly with her sublimely structured solo vision… packaged in silver & black on bright red offset printed art paper covers, with simple hand stamped labels. edition of 400 copies.
prisma - the cosmic coil - time lag records - lp&cd - 23$
the feminine entities of visitations / attar cups step forward, duo style, for their debut longplayer… and what a debut it is… these magical ladies have been oh so subtly wowing locals with their rare live sets for a few years now, and as hard as it is to imagine, this album manages to surpass their live wonder in both intimacy & intensity… a mesmerizing cycle of ultra-hush dreamtime lullabies, ethereal ghost pop, lost folk, and trance-state sonic whirlpools. the songs are hazy shimmerings of dusty splendor, delivered with utter beauty & fragility, yet shrouded in a thick veil of mystery & sadness. the drones seem to be pulled from between the cracks in silence by some woozy late-night ritual, summoning an edgy & ecstatic presence into the very spirit of the sound… recorded to analog tape with minimal equipment and much spontaneity, the rural autumn / winter setting of the process has no doubt penetrated the creation, and suits the cozy / lonely vibe perfectly… packaged in a truly cool & unusual three color screen printed double-sided foldout art paper cover, with a flocked / screen printed fuzzy mini-poster insert. pressed on highest quality 180gm vinyl with full color photo printed labels. each copy also includes a bonus cd version of the album in its own metallic printed cover (different from the standard cd cover) for easy all night repeat-o-play. hand numbered edition of 400 copies.
-timelag
kuupuu - lumen tahden - time lag records - lp - 19$
although finlander jonna karanka has been slowly leaking out little kuupuu jewels for six years now, somehow it’s taken just that long to materialize her first ‘proper’ album. maybe it has something to do with the time she’s devoted to her beautiful artwork, or her time spent in a highly impressive string of other bands, included HERTTA LUSSU ASSA (with ISLAJA and LAU NAU), ANAKSIMANDOS, AVARUS, and many others... but, you know, i always figured kuupuu music didn’t have much to do with ‘time’ anyway. it’s music from another reality, to put it bluntly. a beautiful place no doubt, but somehow totally other. you could call this music a lot of things, all without really saying much... post-everything? pre-birth folk? bedtime acid-art? naive avant-garde loop witchcraft? maybe something like a thousand memories & vague images folded into each other and spooled out infinitely like a sloppy film loop... the sound of tiny bioluminescent insects systematically devouring an urban cityscape in hyper-speed, while just as quickly slithering neon flora entwine the metallic gray remains, only to then be gobbled themselves by a leaderless army of pulsating micro-robots. got that? now play backwards in slow motion... surreal might just be an understatement... packaged in a stunning ultra-heavy laminated full color gatefold cover with full color art labels, all created by jonna. pressed on audiophile 180gm vinyl. limited edition of 750 copies.
-timelag
stephen david heitkotter - heitkotter - time lag - lp - 25$
fully licensed legit deluxe reissue of this completely unique slab of outsider private press psychedelia. long whispered about by the most inner circle of obsessive psych collectors, but up till now heard only by a lucky few. a true legend for sure, and rightfully so, as the bizarre story surrounding the lp is nearly as twisted as the music itself. ex-road runners drummer stephen david heitkotter recorded and pressed the lp in california sometime before 1971 as a demo only edition of no more then two dozen copies in blank white covers, then distributed it only to a handful of local san joaquin radio stations before the pressing plant destroyed the masters due to non-payment. within months of his failed attempt at radio stardom stephen was committed to the state mental ward, and that was that... but what an album he left behind... deeply damaged outsider/real people westcoast basement loner acid-garage-blues from a genuinely insane person, recorded at the very edge of oblivion. the sound of a last gasp at the teetering edge of the darkest void. a murky disjointed trip wobbling between acid-scorched un-reality and pure all-encompasing blankness... full electric band setting, but whether this was a purely solo endeavor or an actual band recording will remain a mystery forever. those close to stephen at the time swear he was already too far gone to assemble even a jam session, so the solo theory seems likely, making the musical deconstruction meltdown that much more disturbing. semi-tight playing disintegrates into meandering sonic smear at every turn, then somehow resolidifies and churns onward while bent deadpan vocals funnel garbled surrealisms from nowhere to nowhere. the scarily hyper-real yet ultra-weird otherworldly presence is as thick as it comes, and only enhanced by the raw/crude/muffled recording fidelity... not recommended for the weak of heart... co-released with earmonger records. mastered from the best possible original copy and pressed on 180gm audiophile vinyl. exact reproduction labels, including some wild hand embellishment from the man himself. heavy blank white 60s style art paper covers with hand stamped title. heavy insert with extensive liner notes. one time vinyl only limited edition of 1000 copies. no cd, no repress.-timelag
visitations - visitations - time lag - red records - 2xlp - 35$
another in our RED RECORDS series. this one is especially close to my heart. a deluxe vinyl version of the band’s mega-limited private press cdr debut from about 5 years back... recorded & self released at the very inception of the band, this was an out-of-nowhere 77 minute mind-blower. elements of their more distilled untitled time-lag lp are present in new-born form, but overall this is a far wider ranging & raw trip... a home recorded mix of roughhewed songs & spontaneous improvisation melding together primitive bedroom acidfolk, fuzzy sci-fi psych-outs, bent occult trance ritual, fake xian folk, loose cosmic jamming, spooked drones, pagan mysteries, and some stuff thats just pretty much beyond words... the whole trip is totally psychedelic, deeply textured, dripping vibes, wide-eyed, and more than anything else wickedly fun. one of those rare documents of a young band unselfconsciously doing their thing, and ‘their thing’ pretty much rules... absolutely zero info as always, but this time you get a few rather amusing band photos for extra charm. pressed on two slabs of 180gm bright red vinyl & packaged in an ultra-minimal heavy art paper gatefold cover with raised plastic ink screen printed cover text, paste-on interior polaroid photo sticker, stamped & hand numbered spine. printed & hand stamped labels. plus each copy is enclosed in a two-tone stitched synthetic felt (made from 100% recycled plastic bottles) envelope pouch in various color combinations, hand assembled one at a time by my mom (thanx mom!) limited & numbered edition of 266 copies.
comes in felt sleeve - brown and yellow or pink and tan
silvercords - divergence eye - time lag records -cdr -11$
sweet danish drone psych degeneration from sara & nicolas of the mighty family underground. im pretty sure these sweeties made this album by burying all their synths, pedals and microphones deep underground in the woods, then recorded everything rusting, rotting, and writhing with insects for hundreds of years while the forest turned into some fucking industrial complex overhead... then they compressed those thousands of hours of tape into 46 minutes and sent it to us with a picture of a dolphin. really. i think... tri-fold heavy black art paper cover with b&w and color paste-on art. hand stamped cover & disc. numbered/limited edition of 123 copies.
-time lag