Browse by Artist: MULLEN, GEOFF

Artist:	MULLEN, GEOFF
Title:	Armory Radio
Label:	BARGE RECORDINGS
Format:	2LP
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	BRG 003LP

"Referencing an old Providence armory in Geoff's neighborhood, Armory Radio is an ode to a specific chunk of time and space. Originally self-released as a double CDR in very small quantity, this limited double LP version features new material combined with reworkings of the original CDR version. Departing from last year's blues-influenced The Air In Pieces, Geoff surprises us once again with his creative diversity and his ongoing search for new sonic territory. At the start of the Armory Radio project in 2004, Geoff found a busted boombox in the trash with a barely-working short wave radio function on it. This roadside treasure was one of many found objects revived for unconventional reuse: handheld radios, cassette players and speakers which all play a role in structuring the album. This physical scavenging, along with other unplanned musical discoveries, led to the process-driven compositions on Armory Radio. Obsolete technology, found objects and a city's architecture are a few of the repeating themes embedded in Armory Radio's guitar-driven drones. Geoff's dramatic use of noise is prevalent as well, building thick fabrics of haze intertwined with fragmented feedback patterns that phase in and out with one another. Comparisons could be drawn to the ethereal short-wave recordings of William Basinski or Phil Niblock's massive drones, but Armory Radio is a more volatile work; no doubt influenced by the fertile noise underground in America (artists like Aaron Dilloway and Prurient come to mind, although not in too literal a way)."

Artist:	MULLEN, GEOFF
Title:	The Air In Pieces
Label:	LAST VISIBLE DOG RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	LVD 096CD

"This second full-length CD shows Mullen working in much the same way he does live, namely, The Air in Pieces is a completely different side of Mullen than the one we hear on his first CD. Comparisons come in two forms: It is easy to think of the Neil Young that wrote the Dead Man soundtrack, just as it is easy to think of Keiji Haino in pure guitar exploration mode (those darker Fushitsusha moments), but it isn't musicians one thinks of when they listen to The Air in Pieces. Instead come vacant worlds, glaciers and the near frozen ecosystems underneath them, endless skylines and silence save the sound of your own breath. If there is a soundtrack to that perfect, beautiful isolation, Mullen's efforts here seem right on the mark."

Artist:	MULLEN, GEOFF
Title:	Accidental Guitars
Label:	REL RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	REL 018LP

"Geoff Mullen presents a new side of his ever-changing and open language, dealing here with his rawest material to date, and in many ways finding himself in a homecoming to the guitar. On Accidental Guitars, Geoff expands his instrumental language with his unique variety of invented, accident-prone technique. Re-contextualized live performances are filtered through an intuitive sense of form and pretexts, leaving us with an intense, jarring, pointed, and textural compositional language. With little more than an electric guitar, he conjures abstract formations and clattering percussive tones that are starkly contrasted with tape hiss and sudden echoplex'd delay. Sustains calm the mood throughout and create a beautiful and oddly soothing atmosphere that seems to move in all directions at once. The music on Accidental Guitars has an ability of creating form out of being lost, and achieves lucidity through this sense. This record is a unique document, finding Geoff between forms and excepted styles, and seeing him off, once again, in another new and exciting direction in his music. Accidental Guitars is pressed on heavy 180 gram vinyl, housed in a matte black inner sleeve, produced in a deluxe edition with multi screened designs on archival heavy stock with a insert and notes by the composer." Limited edition of 350 copies.

Artist:	MULLEN, GEOFF
Title:	Bongo Closet
Label:	TYPE (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	TYPE 079LP

Vinyl-only release, limited edition of 500 copies only. Providence, Rhode Island operative Geoff Mullen has been working beneath the popular music radar for some time now, putting his name to a number of limited cassettes, CD-Rs and vinyl albums. It is hardly surprising that in that time he has developed something of a cult following in the New England scene, with live performances (solo and together with Keith Fullerton Whitman) and his own Rare Youth label garnering him a loyal throng of rabid fans. Using the guitar, synthesizer and a selection of well-developed processes, Mullen has come up with a unique sound difficult to pigeonhole. Throughout the album, the sounds feel so effortlessly unified that one can completely forget the individual instruments themselves. It is hard to believe that the synthesizer used (the legendary Yamaha CS50) is the baby brother of the CS80, heard so distinctively piped into Deckard's electric dreams in Blade Runner. The distant, dusty tones and pulsating rhythms bring to mind instead memories of early Popol Vuh or something altogether more defiant. As a veteran guitarist, writing Bongo Closet was Mullen's search for different ways of playing music, and these weathered, deeply personal songs are the result. Rich with emotion and surprisingly detailed, there is the sense that the technology never informs the creative process. Mullen is using his chosen instruments without a care for what they can and can't do -- they are tools in the creation of his music, never the other way around. Bongo Closet is an intensely human listening experience. Teeming with life and breathing as it coughs and splutters, there is an unavoidable attachment felt almost instantly as a listener. This is music that drags you in and simply refuses to let go. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering.

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