Browse by Label: BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS

Artist:	HARLINGEN, FAT
Title:	Black
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	10"
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	MT 015EP

"An edition of 150 numbered copies on audiophile vinyl. Silkscreened cover and insert. Also included is a bonus enhanced CDR with new music and video made for this release. Black offers 2 sidelong tracks (and one short epilogue) of minimalist aggression that builds towers up and tears playhouses down. Like old Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca with lashings of Justin Broderick and/or Steve Reich and/or those repetitive Michael Gira bits at the ends of Swans songs thrown in, each piece rises and swells, pulse by pulse, until a giant golem of music encases everything in its shadow and is finally sent off to do the bidding of its master."

Artist:	GIRLFRIENDS
Title:	Geert
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	MT 018CD

"Girlfriends recently had their first release on Beequeen's private label Plinkity Plonk. The next release will be a collaboration LP with Girlfriends (drum, guitar, bass, effects) & Beequeen (electronics, cello, turntable, tapes, noises). The instrumentation consists of guitar, drums and noise. How they choose to assemble these elements suggests what old school Can might sound like if Derek Bailey (or Sonny Sharrock) were their guitarist. Lots of open cosmos that gets filtered into noisy but compelling rhythmic excursions which then float back out to the fringes the galaxy. The prognosis is prog gnosis; occasionally beautiful instrumental lyricism which tends to become explosive."

Artist:	STIMULUS
Title:	A Motion Signal
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	10"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	MT 023EP

Third volume in the 10" series. "Stimulus, 3 lads who reside in England are gaining a rather large fan base in both England & Japan combine elements of electronica & experimental electronics to form a new and fresh approach to modern music. Futuristic electronica? Repetitious tonalities (croaking textures, tempered guitars, sparse, resonant bass), into a sand blasted piano denouement, introducing one to the taut, kinesthetic dynamics utilized by Stimulus. Each track is constructed around repetitious cadences upon which disparate textures twitch and spasm. The muffled, steel wool scrubbed, looped rhythmic impetus of the hypnotic 'Transference' is shattered as agitated streaks of fluorescent light hover and screech like flaming electronic pterodactyls. Though they utilize a love of 'Nurse With Wound, '70's Italian Prog, Iron Maiden & field recordings' as inspiration, Stimulus move well beyond, exploring sonic territories uniquely their own."

Artist:	NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES
Title:	Műzoôk
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	10"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	MT 027EP

"Pinging a bit like the audio equivalent of random and drifting thoughts whilst on the subway to work, NMF have an uncanny way of stringing together the disparate sounds of urbanopolis into a surreal narrative. Distant fragments of music blow in and away like a wind which also carries with it incomprehensible voices. A choir of night birds chime at each other over a faraway metallic ringing landscape. An accuracy of recording and a certain quietude are what make this such a brilliant piece which is not merely for the listening but also effective for mental transportation. I guess the crux of the matter is that Műzoôk is like a recorded memory. Several memories, actually, and ever changing ones at that."

Artist:	WHITELODGE
Title:	Stream Of Dreams
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	10"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	MT 031EP

"This 10" EP reveals a band capable of great magick and prodigious evolution. Whitelodge has become adept at marrying atmosphere to song structure without surrendering to a belabored posture, and this even beyond the debut magnum opus. There has been found a solid footing where each sound, each note, is perfectly placed and paced. Beginnings are given to pregnant, breathing intros, allowing the music to develop and resonate before the fully formed images emerge, which ARE songs, but also tone poems. While not sounding at all like them, Whitelodge's methodology is something akin to My Bloody Valentine on 'Loveless', where pieces are sewn together, each ending making a subtle statement towards the birth of the next; textures taking equal place next to structure."

Artist:	CHRISTUS & THE COSMONAUGHTS
Title:	The Four Whore's Men
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$26.00
Catalog #:	MT 036LP

"Christus is one of the few true Gods in a movement whose handful of heroes are being quickly drowned in an ocean of mediocrity. Where others champion and claim to channel the ancient sacrosanct visions of Devo, The Rezillos, Gary Numan, The Buzzcocks et al., Christus manifests much deeper spirits more akin to Polyphonic Size, Snowy Red, Early Fad Gadget, Early Robert Rental and a whole host of other little known minimal synth masterminds. What's even more delicious about these five eucharists (aptly titled Disease, War, Famine, Death and a closing Epilogue) is their ability to transubstantiate into little wandering electronic sub-sects. Such electro-alchemy can only be the work of a divine force: wielding unbelievable and sparkling sounds that may well be hewn from the spheres themselves. Edition of 200 numbered & signed copies on 220 gram audiophile vinyl."

Artist:	NULL/BILL HORIST, KK
Title:	Interstellar Chemistry
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	MT 037CD

"Null provided sonic source material which Horist then organised, manipulated and added on to. So what happened? Scrumptious musical confectionaries with surprise flavour centers! Much of it is like IDM with the boring removed. More deep and less bleep. The drum machinations pound out strains reminiscent of Ikue More (ala Death Praxis) or latter day Bruce Gilbert with a bit of controlled early Nurse With Wound wail thrown in as if this amalgamation were the soundtrack to an old Atari video game (see also Haruomi Hosono)."

Artist:	EARTHMONKEY
Title:	Audiosapien
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	MT 038CD

"The gangly orangutans behind Earthmonkey happen to be Peat Bog and Steven Stapleton. Now, we naked apes live in a world where the term 'psych' is thrown around with such frequency that it seems to mean little more than 'weird guitars,' which is everything nowadays, and could well mean Cher for that matter. So, when we say 'psych' in relation to Earthmonkey, we mean Monks. We mean Bonniwell Music Machine. We mean Wolfgang Dauner. We mean Amon Duul II. We mean Taj Mahal Travelers. We mean a bunch of other stuff that Earthmonkey wishes we mentioned but did not. Earthmonkey DOES have weird guitars, and organs, and percussion. But it also has that unnameable, freely streaming 'other' quality that sets it apart from being a somewhat avant-garde rock record. Stapleton may, in fact, be the missing link between Neander-Kraut and modern day Psych-Sapien-Sapiens. The music is, well, music. It's very outré, but is nonetheless bounded by time signatures and melody (These, however, are not ties that bind, rather, they are ties that will get you high). In other words, this is not just a noise record and throws back to Stapleton's previous Musical Pumpkin Cottage production projects and, to some extent, The LPD Malachai record he produced way back in the 'Before Times.' Earthmonkey is dark, droney, deep and , dare we say, groovy."

Artist:	ROMULUS & REMUS
Title:	'Troth' Part One: Hekate
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	10"
Price:	$25.00
Catalog #:	MT 039.1EP

"Erratic singing syncopations pay a tribute to the ghost of Muslimgauze by expounding on his rhythmic concerns. However, R&R plays Pollack to Bryn's Bacon. Drumming is doled out in broken sentences and often sounds as if played through plasma. Spaciousness is the real greedy star here, subduing any percussive elements with humming timbres, like those heard next to cadres of power lines. Low, patient tones flow and eddy, sometimes alone and sometimes influenced by the distant thrumming. Volume 1 of 3. Edition of 111 numbered & signed copies, each with an original wood cut cover by the artist."

Artist:	NURSE WITH WOUND
Title:	She and Me Fall Together in Free Death, Special Ed.
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$70.00
Catalog #:	MT 040CD-LTD

"A special CD edition of the LP released in May 2003. Each CD is packed in a hand sewn silk bag with silk screened art, original artwork and autograph on each by Steven Stapleton. The CD will contain the original tracks plus several bonus tracks exclusive to this release. Our most beloved resident Nurse has finally worked his way up to a Doctorate Of Madness (DOM). All those years of musical dissection have paid off and have revealed a sonic surgeon skilled at sewing sounds into solid sentience. NWW isn't afraid to bring the pain and play that beat as his krautrock konstruktions kontinue to klimb. NWW also brings the paean as some of his concrete hardens into something of a Homotopy to a Homotopy." This is the limited version, regular priced CD edition is MT 040CD.

Artist:	CIRCUS OF THE SCARS, THE
Title:	Home Is Where The Hurt Is
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	MT 041CD

"This answers the question; what if This Mortal Coil were produced by Hafler Trio? Why, there would be a circus, and in that circus there would be scars. One of the more outright musical projects from the Beta-lactam stable offers a mysterious collection of songs interlaced with unsettling sound collages and tone poems. Piano and keyboard melodies dominate, but are all well dipped in a dark haze (not quite a purple haze, but a dark haze nonetheless). The weave of 'Hiwthi' is tight but the stitch of each track is quite distinctive. Moody, to be sure, but with bursts of beats and other surprises snaking in and out of the shadows. Vocally, there are hints of LDC (Latter Day Coil)."

Artist:	GREEN MILK FROM THE PLANET ORANGE
Title:	He's Crying, Look
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	MT 046CD

"Where Acid Mothers Temple's jammy wanderings sometimes lead them astray, lost in a fog of their own screeching residue, GMFTPO's controlled madness leaves behind a resin that won't give you a headache and will have you feeling fresh in the morning. Their music, while loosely played, is steady and deliberate and its Eastern flavouring early on reminds a lot of Erkin Koray's best moments as well as churning up a little subdued Can of butter (circa Damo, where the bass plays a forward melodic role with whispered vocals, ala 'Mother Sky'). The album curdles, in places, to White Heaven-like outbursts and ferments into a couple extended excursions toward the great space udder."

Artist:	LA STPO
Title:	Le Combat Occulté
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	MT 047CD

"It's strange to think that a score of years ago the world was just emerging from the last of its new wave haze, only to enter a brave new era of over produced, digitally recorded schlock. La STPO was borne into this miasma of mediocrity with knives out. They have remained bastions of outré ever since their bloodied birth. Vive La STPO! To celebrate two decades of one of the finest, most fractured and indefatigable European avant post punk bands, BlRR has nailed together this 11 track retrospective of 7300 days in the life of La STPO. And rather than trying to shape this into some sort of 'best of' or 'greatest hits,' BlRR and La STPO have done the reverse by leaning more heavily in on the group's more exploratory moments. This also makes for a better album that, in its own skewed way, fits together as if all recorded in the same session. As presented here, La STPO are truly Rock In Opposition. Unlike their Zeuhl spewing forbears, however, STPO are not trying to fuse jazz and rock. Their rock is in opposition of all things safely established, including Rock In Opposition. Jagged and bleated arrangements with familiar rock instrumentation clash to form screaming, Dada-pregnant, contorted punk concertos. Oddly timed and full of changes, this is music to fall down escalators to."

Artist:	LA STPO
Title:	Le Combat Occulte
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	MT 047LP

"To celebrate two decades of one of the finest, most fractured and indefatigable European avant post punk bands, BlRR has nailed together this 11 track retrospective of 7300 days in the life of La STPO. As presented here, La STPO are truly Rock In Opposition. Unlike their Zeuhl spewing forbears, however, STPO are not trying to fuse jazz and rock. Their rock is in opposition of all things safely established, including Rock In Opposition. Jagged and bleated arrangements with familiar rock instrumentation clash to form screaming, Dada-pregnant, contorted punk concertos. Oddly timed and full of changes, this is music to fall down escalators to. Sometimes this is music to lay at the bottom of escalators to."

Artist:	WHITELODGE
Title:	Whitelodge
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	MT 067CD

"A great billowy poltergeist, Whitelodge is a musical revelation. The Lodge skirt borderlands between the mysticism of seething 'post rock' and the dark textures of latter day 'apocalyptic folk,' managing in the end to sovereign a musical nation of their own. Somber musical expressions exude surprisingly powerful punch and often carve modest stones into towering columns of sound, which, while not actually loud, seem to IMPLY loud. Constructed somewhat like a This Mortal Coil record, the quietly crafted combination of acoustic guitars, electric piano, bass and electronics effuse scents of Sol Invictus ('Against The Modern World'), Gastr Del Sol, Sea And Cake, Insides, late late period Swans, Roseclouds era Death In June with a little Another Green World style Eno plastering the cracks...but none of these really captures the true essence of the Lodge what is White. Where apocalyptic folk often drowns in its own cheesiness, Whitelodge rise above and avoid trying to force any sort of posturing or false Celticisms into their music. Whispered vocals reincarnate a host of spirits from Red House Painters to Coil, driving the compositions home by inference rather than the obvious. This music is unbelievably tangible in its etherealness. A deep beauty resides within and repeated listens open endless blossoms."

Artist:	WHITELODGE
Title:	Whitelodge
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	MT 067LP

"Like a palpable ghostly presence that phases in and out vision; at once translucent and illusory; simultaneously rattling silverware, sending chills through the flesh. That strange unseen grip in the hand; that vaporous and unexplained cloud of breath in the middle of the hallway. A great billowy poltergeist, Whitelodge is a musical revelation. The Lodge skirt borderlands between the mysticism of seething 'post rock' and the dark textures of latter day 'apocalyptic folk,' managing in the end to sovereign a musical nation of their own. Somber musical expressions exude surprisingly powerful punch and often carve modest stones into towering columns of sound, which, while not actually loud, seem to imply loud. Constructed somewhat like a This Mortal Coil record, the quietly crafted combination of acoustic guitars, electric piano, bass and electronics effuse scents of Sol Invictus ('Against The Modern World'), Gastr Del Sol, Sea And Cake, Insides, late late period Swans, Roseclouds era Death In June with a little Another Green World style Eno plastering the cracks."

Artist:	EARTHMONKEY
Title:	Drum Machine
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	MT 068CD

"Earth 'Scratch' Monkey? Pete Bog's studio may not exactly be a Black Ark, but it is certainly a Grey Henge. Just when we thought we had the guy pegged, he adds a drum machine, eshewing his class of '72 psych ministrations for a more tranced out electro-dub. You all like LSD, right? Well, the first part of Drum Machine is rather like a post script to Coil's Love's Secret Domain album. Thereafter, Monsieur Le Bog retrofits his rockets with Kraut engines and even coughs up a hummus flavoured punker. Even more surprises in store as Earthmonkey really puts the E in EP. You'll hear what we mean, or will you?"

Artist:	FRIDAY GROUP
Title:	Friday Group
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	MT 070LP

LP version. "From out of the Great Republic of Texas, and a new side project from Tom Carter (Charalambides), rises a lone star called Friday Group. In a seemingly appropriate gesture, the opening scherzo of droney solo guitar twang blows dusty debris across the speakers, as if a small sand storm in a remote part of Amarillo. With wind wrestling loose gutters and flat chimes, the first movement is almost a weird paean to Ry Cooder's desolate Paris Texas score. Axe attacks hover thick and dragging in the hazy distance, strings sounding as if played a single wind at a time. Jittery, slithery, prepared warbled tremolos flutter warm in extended notes that drip like old paint. If you've never had the pleasure, the later addition of harmonium and the further devolution of the guitar into howling halos of rusty hinges is virtually the embodiment of a drive through western Texas. Slow motion, spacious landscapes of thirsty air and lazy lizards."

Artist:	LA STPO
Title:	Slices of Thrown Time
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	MT 074CD

"In the midst of the world's fascination with so-called Electroclash, leave it to the old school to really show what post-punk is really about, while simultaneously turning the concept on its fractured head. La Stpo has the finesse and invention and the je ne c'est quoi to massage its victims into a quiet trance, only to pummel them seconds later. Slices Of Throw Time is like a Van Der Graaf arc between the bombast of Blurt/Ex/Dog Faced Hermans/Contortions/Birthday Party and the subtle, avant-composerly moments of Henry Cow/This Heat/Univers Zero/Faust. The punchy rhythm section, abetted by the squawky horns, makes for a music to which one can truly contort. La Stpo's musical muscle, however, is always backed up by solid jazz/classical informed chops that can and will chop any lesser outfit into nothing more than a pile of over-loud rock and roll dust. La Stpo infuses their punk with dynamics of both volume and texture, producing a slightly zeuhl flavoured post rock."

Artist:	VOLCANO THE BEAR
Title:	Classic Erasmus Fusion
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	MT 092CD

"VTB have crafted a strange geometry in their musique concrete between celestial duck honks and what sounds like a flood in the living room, there are more than a few occasions of heads cocked at the speaker in mundus caninus. Of course, this bodes well for humans, too. Augmented by all the dog-friendly moments is a double album of sprawling musical invention. Record one births gently into a lo-fi-adelic Comus-like saline that even might even win over the Devendra crowd, if the Devendra crowd had ingested just a little too much mushroom tea on that day and left their ironic trucker hats at the door. Song becomes fever dream and then pitches into a barren place of low estate and low chanting whose residents might well be eskimos. With typical minimalist pageantry, VTB mutate from piece to piece, punctuating along the way with surprise sounds that the aforementioned dogs love so well; the kinds of quirks that make Nurse With Wound and P16.D4 records such fun listens. VTB spin some very melodious tales, which are subliminally hooky, after a fashion. Spiritual and surreal are sisters. Quiet ritualism queues with Dadaistic and with progressive harmonies, together on the same fractured, out world, sing-along journey. And that's just record one. Record two crawls slowly from the echoey ooze, grows legs and then presents as a different and, in many ways, more dramatic creature. A long, shifting organ drone becomes a deeply psychedelic statement that bleats loud and strong like an acid bleached Spiral Insana or a sneaky This Heat."

Artist:	SILVERMAN, THE
Title:	Nature of Illusion
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	MT 096CD

"Features a unique vocal performance by Edward Ka-Spel. One of the truest indications of a good record is when it sounds like something is starting to go wrong with the car while listening to it. The latest Silverman sounds at turns like the breaks are going, the belts are slipping, the timing needs adjusting, the drive shaft has a shot bearing and the clutch is failing. Perhaps this is the very nature of illusion bespoke in the title. NOI is a much more amorphous excursion than some of Silverman's previous slow trance explorations, though it does display his trademark fondness for going to very quiet places. Through a polar silence comes a ringing metallic that fades off into contrapuntal, subsonic drones. A brief essay of percussive trails back into the liquid void."

Artist:	GEORGE & CAPLIN
Title:	Electronic Eulogy [from Morse Code Infinity]
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	MT 099CD

"Clearly one of the bright spots to rise up out of the so-called Electroclash debacle. Where groups like Chicks On Speed and Felix Da Housecat ultimately end up creating dance-floor anthems, G&C have been that weird brother hiding in the corner making minimalist masterpieces with dusty equipment. G&C's brand of minimal synth on Electronic Eulogy is a dark wave of another colour. Like underground synthesists of old, such as Ceramic Hello, or John Ruth, or even very early New Order, G&C's musical omniverse is a beatific one filled with lush, polychromatic chord progressions presented within a spare and melancholic framework. The wave is cold, but not blanched (as opposed to the repetitive sturm und drang of, say, Snowy Red or Suicide). An album of introspective quality, Electronic Eulogy steals seeds fostered in the glitch garden and grows them into a wholly unique and very melodious Tannen-baud. Those sweet electonyxx click, wash and whirr, counterpointed occasionally by acoustic guitar and/or vocals on a few tracks (a kind of perfectly flat and distant vocal delivery, somewhat like Dean Wareham. In fact, 'Dictionary Dream,' which happens to feature the guitar upfront, is something of a synth pop take on Galaxie 500). That's just the thing with G&C...they are like some long lost Factory or Cherry Red or 4AD cold/dark wave group, before there were deeply established camps within the synth and post punk worlds. Second Layer meets Shox? Minny Pops vs Insides? The Fast Set has a scone with early Arms Of Someone New? The opening 'Promenade,' with its brilliantly twisted boomerang timing structure and analog buzz, is like some kind of electro-crack. All in all, just lovely sequenced rainy day electronic head-music."

Artist:	GREEN MILK FROM THE PLANET ORANGE
Title:	City Calls Revolution
Label:	BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	MT 108CD

"Produced, engineered and mixed by Paul Mahajan. Got Green Milk? From across a veiled and ashen cosmos, well, from across the Sea Of Japan anyways; from the Planet Orange, hidden somewhere in the bosom of Nippon, gushes forth a froth of Green Milk. Fleeing is for naught, because City Calls Revolution is an eruption of Vesuvian intensity, and the Milk flow flash and searing, thick with Magma, scorching beast and building in its glowering wake. It's time to get psyched about psych again! If GMFTPO's first was its ersatz Future Days, then City Calls Revolution is its angry Yeti."

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