Browse by Label: DE STIJL

Artist:	WOLF EYES/SMEGMA
Title:	The Beast
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 036CD

Now available on CD. "Smegma man, fucking Smegma. They started the whole damn thing. Sure there was Lee Rocky & some soundeffects 78s that set the crew in motion but screw it.. you wouldn't be blasting The Beast or any Weird Handdrawn LP with rotten ears if it wasn't for this truly motley crew. In high school my sweet momma would give me ten bones a week for lunch, come Monday by noon that shit was blown at the local rec shop. When I only had a couple of raggedy bux left from gripping Zorlac stickers, the only option was the dollar bin at the store. It was there that John Bender, Haystacks Balboa, Nik Reicnek, & Peter Catham LPs blew open my teen mind to the netherworlds. Among the giants was this homemade wreckord by Ju Suk Reet Meat. Looked amazing.. had no idea. Threw it on for nearly every day since. Mutant loops, improv from alien swamp prom & deviant horrible ideas. Changed my life. Just what a young mind needed to replace the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Found out later it was from the Smegma camp, a strange unknown mystery troupe from Portland. No photos ever... just a numbling clip on a RRR comp video Lessard gave me & Dilloway, a tunnel view into the spiritual mecca that would the Smegma klan. Before the first Wolf jaunt out west we dropped them a postcard saying it would be good to meet. Soon it mangled into a recording session. We would be so honored. The day came. The Smegma house, totally pink, queued us in to rainy green Portland. We knocked. A femme voice said through the door, 'use the bell'. Nate pushed it and out came a gargled electronic siren. The door opened, Rock 'n Roll Jackie, 5 foot tall, grinning & long beautiful grey hair. We all fell in love. Soon after we meet Ju Suk & one by one slowly met all the Smegmas in one of the strangest nights ever. Burned Mind, Meltzer, Stan, Amazon Bambi, others. All weird as hell, checking us as much as us checking them. Yep, this is who we wanted to be with the rest of our lives... the Michigan crew had never been so inspired & moved but by this unholy blending of mutant minds... So we jammed. It was fucking amazing. Here are the results. Every year we are going to see them & hang like the best friend weirdo family. A total pilgrimage. Nate & I once got so blasted from Portland cloud that we projected that Smegma has always existed, ever since the beginning of time. Someone will always carry it on... might be this dude in Ypsi who has no face. Really. No nose, barely a mouth, always has a broken arm or something.. smells like shit. Dude is totally in Smegma. Fucking life rules. -- John Olson.

Artist:	NOTHING, CHARLIE
Title:	Outside/Inside
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 042LP

"Charlie Nothing was the fractured-psyche pseudonym of author, father, horsekeeper, organic farmer, beekeeper, philosopher and clown Charles Martin Simon, inventor of the dingulator (guitar sculptures made out of the metal from American cars). Charlie's only visible offering to the record buying public was really anything but. Due to its rarity, The Psychedelic Saxophone of Charlie Nothing, issued by Takoma Records in 1967, has been a source of consternation for in-the-know types for years. Outside/Inside, the second and only other Charlie Nothing LP, originally issued by Everitt Enterprises, thematically follows with two sidelong flute-based instrumentals. Nowhere on wax will you find a more palpable preserved air of a real-time dropout scene than with these sides of Nothing. It is a wonder that these records circulated at all outside the vacuum in which they were created. Nothingness, a California existentiality looping back on itself, preserved and disseminated as evidence. There are indeed very few records like these. Fully authorized / fully legit."

Artist:	LUBELSKI, SAMARA
Title:	Spectacular of Passages
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 054LP

"There is certainly nothing wrong with chanteuses -- we are quite lucky to now have a fair few in our aural midst as some of the young'uns seem to take off -- but neu-folk composer Samara Lubelski is absolutely not a chanteuse by nature. In truth to her pedigree in Metabolismus, Tower Recordings, Hall of Fame, the Sonora Pine, Pacer, Matt Valentine et al., she's a master of atmospheric textures at both juggernaut tempi and languorous sonic canvasses, her part as one of whole. Samara, with dew-flecked voice and slippery strung chords, makes that languor a tour of both honeyed breakfast plate and the midday crackle of dried grass. Third as bandleader, ten new classics of deliciously effusive songcraft, Passages joins Lubelski with The Clean's Hamish Kilgour and otherworldly luminaries Matt Heyner (NNCK), Christian Frederickson (Rachel's), and Cynthia Nelson."

Artist:	HOTOTOGISU
Title:	Chimärendämmerung
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 062CD

"Hototogisu are Marcia Bassett and Matthew Bower, and they dwell upon two continents (Marcia in Brooklyn NY and Matthew in Leeds UK). Both share rich discographical heritage. Marcia has recorded with numerous labels (Siltbreeze, Timelag, Eclipse, Troubleman Unlimited, etc.) with UN, GHQ and the Double Leopards, and Matthew with Total, Skullflower, Sunroof!, Vibracathedral Orchestra and more. A Wikipedia entry in his name clearly (sic) illustrates his cultural heft: Bower's huge discography of visceral, free drone-rock is probably the most formidable of its kind and he was rightly considered in 2005 by The Wire to be one of the map co-ordinates for much of what passed for a post-punk UK underground during most of the '80s and '90s (issue 259) . Chimärendämmerung is the 3rd Hototogisu release on Destijl and the 5 untitled walls of vertical viola drone/overtone, lapped by shifting electronic waves of feedback, blackened guitars, rhinegold cast deep into dying rivers, an instrumental cycle of conflict of the birth of a supreme aristocratic beauty into a fallen world, and its inevitable conflagration, then a glimmer of hope of escape from the cycle, in tune w/ the breath of the cosmos, like a glacial reimagining of Van der Graafs 'A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers', and it represents a current plateau for the duo."

Artist:	CIRCUIT DES YEUX
Title:	Sirenum
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 070LP

"From a small town in the middle of the land of milk and honey, where the air is filled with the blossoming of the fruit trees for a big part of the year, comes these perfect little lilies of bands that make perfect little records that reflect this fertile and flowery region. It's a timeless land, and making records there is possible during this surely short period of history wherein the youth of this era feel as if they've solved the mystery of life and love and it's really loving that is the answer to everything. All of which has nothing at all to do with Circuit Des Yeux and Sirenium, which was made in Indiana, and there aren't exactly pipers at the gates of Lafayette. Sound? It's the sound of 'issues,' and the sound of 'troubles.' You don't get but one phone call and honey, the girl's voice makes this message a bit rubbly anyway. Take the manic snorts of captain liberty, dissonant as chalk and the next moment as melodic as sharp yet slick, metal teeth. Take the mermaid, 1988, turn the tides, gently, gently away. Selected breath / silences / selected feedback. Take an argument you have here with an empty street while the memory of high traffic is leaking back. Sirenum has a real 'spiritual food' vibe and it's fucking pain and pleasure relief in this real met en zonder sort of way. This world is her world, and pipe if you like it."

Artist:	PARASITES OF THE WESTERN WORLD, THE
Title:	The Parasites Of The Western World
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 072LP

"The Parasites Of The Western World are a band from Portland OR who released their recorded debut in 1978. It's a fascinating spin, a galactic ramble across the otherworldly themes of alienation and paranoia, seemingly inspired by LSD and Philip Dick. Primarily the creation of Patrick Burke and Terry Censky, the Parasites were limitless with invention and completely DIY. This is a record that was recorded in an apartment, by a crew thoughtful enough to curtail its loud excursions for the daylight hours. Its rockist moves are surprisingly informed by the typical institutions of this era : Pink Floyd, the Beatles and Hawkwind and its many electronic flourishes are an above-ground sound that would presage the likes of Vertical Slit, F/I and Vertigo. The Parasites remain to be light years ahead of a time that has yet to come." Includes poster and insert.

Artist:	MESSAGES
Title:	Messages
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 076LP

"The baby believes the womb is the Universe. At birth there is a glimmer of light and a shifting of space. I was there, but now I am Here. Then there are still but 2 things : Me and the Universe. And then what happens is Other People. From a note sounded in 1960 and held for a long time, a continuum of Sound has been sluiced along a diagonal of personal ecstasy, and some have come to call it a Drone. Surrounding the Drone is a genre, and within, wheat and chaff often comingle all too comfortably. But with tones as thick and texturally luxuriant with spiritual resonance as their long, glorious hair, Messages are the two worthy gurus currently contributing to the echo. Messages evoke the womb. And when the womb smiles, it whispers Messages, and then there is the first glimmer of Light." Messages is Tres Warren of Psychic Ills (shruti box, guitar, ukelin), Spencer Herbst of Matta Llama (percussions) and Taketo Shimada (bass, tambura).

Artist:	PHANTOM PAYN DAYS
Title:	Phantom Payn Days
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 079LP

"Since the late 70s, while in the widely neglected 39 Clocks, he made records that never sold and played gigs that few ever saw, Juergen Gleue has arguably been the most important exponent of electrified German sound. Phantom Payn Days was made in the mid to late 90s and has never been released. It's his final LP and is overflowing with all the elements that romanticized, loner / stoner music claims, an encoded expression of highly private feelings, an ambiguous, emotional quotient, and a dark, murkily melodic vibe. It's a record that first and foremost lives and breathes with an endless stream of great songs. But perhaps its most curious component is it's amazingly prescient sound, a precursor to so many of today's lo fi acts, all wrapped up in their San Francisco hair."

Artist:	MOTHER OF FIRE
Title:	Mother Of Fire
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 082LP

"We're releasing an LP by a band called Mother of Fire. Inspired by many things, I'm reminded of two main veins: a Krauty, rhythmic throb and a sort of gutterized/behead the prophet stance that once seemed to have run up and down the West Coast (which is where MOF have called home for some time). Both of these things are filtered thru post-Spacemen sensibilities and fueled with violin, bass and drum, all of which makes for a disjointed listen evoking things you've heard before in a completely surprising and fresh way." Spot varnish cover and insert.

Artist:	FUCKIN FLYIN A-HEADS
Title:	Swiss-Cheese Back/Watching T.V.
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	7"
Price:	$5.50
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 083EP

"The Fuckin' Flyin' A-Heads were a band from Hawaii most commonly construed as 'punk', tho they might provide one of the more exciting links between a more typified conception of 'punk', and that of 'noise'. If the A side of this hybrid genre is the final aggregate regimented elements of deconstructed hard core that Harry Pussy by way of Magic Band displayed, the flip is the excess of Experience inspired freedom and recklessly abandons anything that even vaguely resemble 'form'. Perhaps the most radically mixed recording, ever (to the extent that you might wonder if they just fucked up, or were working with a broken machine). A completely astounding spin. Their first review is a riot :
from Damage Magazine, DEC 1980: 'White noise this pure must take lots of to work to perfect. Somewhere far away there is a 60s endless guitar solo, bass playing 2 notes, a cymbal being hit at a constant 2 / 4 beat, and a distorted voice talking. But mostly there is white noise, simultaneously complex and simple. It's quite disturbing when cranked up. I like to play this record and watch TV. It instantly gives a surreal sense to the most mundane images. Not recommended for anyone with high blood pressure.' -- M.C. Parker"

Artist:	ASKEW, ED
Title:	Here We Are Together Again/Yellow Dollars
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	7"
Price:	$5.50
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 086EP

"This is the last of the vintage, tipple era Askew, before the fingers cramped and began tickling digital ivory. These 2 wondrous cuts would've been included on the Little Eyes CD if time were not space. Wonderful live versions, of 'Here We Are Together Again' and 'Yellow Dollars', taken from David Porter's Show on WYBC, Nov 1969. These songs are the topical concern of that or any era (Love and War) and what else is there anyway?"

Artist:	YEH, C. SPENCER
Title:	In The Blink Of An Eye/Condo Stress
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	7"
Price:	$5.50
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 087EP

"I'm the rabbit who believes in the magic (in a way that a tiny girl can inspire quiet men), and it's the magic that keeps me in the dark (in the larger view, of producing records pursuing 1). Electronics Music, 2). 'Music as Furniture' (Modernistic Music), 3). Music with experimental new vision.) These are Songs that are Those Things. And these are essentially the first of C S Yeh's efforts to be widely available, discounting songs from 2002, documented previously by WHAT THE...? records."

Artist:	HYPE WILLIAMS
Title:	Find Out What Happens When People Stop Being Polite...
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 088LP

...And Start Gettin Reel. Restocked. "Hype Williams may or may not consist of two people named D. Blunt and Inga Copeland, it may or may not still be part of an 18 year relay project thought up by a lady named Denna Frances Glass. Lately there has also been rumor that it is the side project of singer Joss Stone (she evidently financed the making of it). Either way, when asked for a statement concerning Find Out What Happens When People Stop Being Polite, And Start Gettin Reel, we've been informed via email from Inga Copeland only these words: ritolin (sic) and rama lama 555 (sic)."

Artist:	HERTTA LUSSU ASSA
Title:	Hertta Lussu Assa
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 089LP

"Gnomic no-fi plunk, wheeze, rattle and moan courtesy of an unfortunately monikered (well...at least to English language readers anyway...it probably means something just lovely in Finnish...) supergroup comprised of Jonna Karanka aka Kuupuu, Laura Naukkarinen aka Lau Nau and Merja Kokkonen aka Islaja that draws from the seemingly eternal well of stoned detuned mischief that feeds the viaducts of the Finnish underground. The sheer density of acts positing variants on this same post-Amon Duul/Siloah-like freakout stylee there gives rise to questions of bandwagon hopping, but that's a discussion for another time. For the here and now, this first release of theirs is a choice manifestation of heavy-lidded third-mind acoustic weirdity that's as ungainly as it is mystically/chemically blasted."

Artist:	WET HAIR
Title:	In Vogue Spirit
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 090LP

"Wet Hair have been living on the road and in the studio for the last few years and have made something special out of little more than synths, drums, flesh, blood, organs and ideas. They've traveled the world supporting the astral concepts of their music, which has henceforth had a subterranean visibility. In Vogue Spirit is their third LP and it is surely the one wherein all elements have gelled : the hazy, shifting experimental semi-thrust, the psychedelic production (notice we didn't use the word 'dub') and the effortless melodic flow contribute to the vibe that makes this sound infinitely more fresh than the forms explored therein. There is no seismic shift. Worlds don't collide. Silver apples don't grow on the moon. The contributions Wet Hair makes nudge a strange and subtle augmentation on the template, and that's all I'm content with asking of pop music."

Artist:	JERUSALEM AND THE STARBASKETS
Title:	DOST
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 091LP

"Jeremy Freeze is a Memphis born songwriter who has spent the last few years in Columbia, Missouri playing and recording with Kim Sherman as Jerusalem and the Starbaskets. Before your preconceived notions of Missouri make things cloudy, consider the Black Artist Group, Screamin' Mee Mees, Drunks with Guns, Gene Clark and a whole lot of other shit that you don't know about get in the way. Lest there be other confusion, my friend Oliver, this 65-year-old dude from Kashmir, told me 'DOST' means 'brother man.' So basically, DOST is 'friend' but a more familiar way of the word. Just so happens that it's the phonetic same as 'dosed.' One crystalline thing herein is the jams. Freeze has reached that point where he's saying more by saying less and that's a level that many songwriters never reach. After a few years of playing gigs with Times New Viking, Wooden Wand and a short list of more or less limited releases, DOST is the band's first readily available release." Includes a full-color double-sided insert.

Artist:	CIRCUIT DES YEUX
Title:	Portrait
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 093LP

"Portrait is Haley Fohr's third LP and a massive step in her growth as a musician and artist. While pursuing a degree in recording and ethnomusicology she has become proficient in the studio. The result - radically unexpected qualities of cohesion and hi fidelity posit Portrait's narratives in a space that we've yet to experience. This sort of playing the game in the way that the game is usually played, I think is usually called a sell-out. And had her intent faltered to the slightest degree that conclusion might be apropos. But it's merely an effort to strip the canvas bare and get face to face with things. And it's Haley's intent that continues to be championed, as it has endured the acts of recording and performing and yet still stands strong and pristine. The rare qualities of strength and character can only be attributed to a rare artist. The modest, clarion sparkle of Portrait would not have been expected, or even achievable, considering the arc of Symphone and Sirenum, and it stands as a cornerstone and a monument, a testament to the daily practice of channeling her 21 yr old, roiling emotions into sound recordings."

Artist:	YEH, C. SPENCER
Title:	Songs 2002
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	Cassette
Price:	$7.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 094CS

"Double A sided cassette reissue of a severely limited one-sided LP, and what might be C Spencer Yeh's most trying, challenging and rewarding foray into a world previously unknown to him, and us: his world of song. Songs 2002 contain what are perhaps subtle homages to early Eno and primo era Bowie vis a vis the studio treatments of the raw sounds with which we're more familiar in his previous work. Yeh's songs work within two generalized veins: ala Eno's early attempts to communicate liquidly within a 'rigid' language and structure as pop/rock, and similar to Keiji Haino's sense of mythos and personal pulse. Recorded over 10 yrs ago, ultimately, these songs can stand aside the most difficult of outsider aesthetics. There is nothing really new here, aside from what is essentially editing and narration. Might just be me, but I think he's found love, both in what inspires him, and a new found expression."

Artist:	PARASITES OF THE WESTERN WORLD, THE
Title:	Politico/Zytol Automation
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	7"
Price:	$7.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 095EP

"De Stijl's excavation of The Parasites Of The Western World turns up the lead single for their second album in the form of an exact reissue. Originally released circa 1980-81, 'Politico' opened the B-side to Substrata with a rippin' new wave roller full of glam stomp, proggy arrangement and punky attitude. The synth-fueled instrumental B-side was exclusive to the single, and as tradition dictates, far more interesting, featuring Terry Censky and Patrick Burke in an ebullient symphony of synths, drums and guitar."

Artist:	STARE CASE
Title:	Lose Today
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 096LP

"Duo John Olson and Nate Young, names commonly associated with the underworld regime's electronic noise kings Wolf Eyes, are runaways, yet their direction toward the primitive and battered blues has been somewhat inevitable. At first, it appears accidental that the same players who have produced countless screeching aural onslaughts are creating the subtly sensitive and focused meanderings of fleshy and intricate scales. On second thought, Olson and Young love to push the envelope, as well as themselves, and Lose Today shows traces of their ever-present and contorting thumbprint: raw elegance. Though perhaps the mere consideration of the majestic noise kings performing by note seems both perplexing and cumbersome, think again. Their methods are cunning and their outpour is monstrously elegiac. Lose Today wields the ethereal meditative power leftover from The Velvet Underground's Sweet Sister Ray epic bootleg. The result: a melodious somnolent grievance that leaves the listener to feast on a curiously endless and internal banquet. Young snarls and writhes in irritated spiraling pronouncements that trail off in regretful, pained fashion, producing the same eventual something-isn't-right that The Velvet Underground secured, but set aside to allow the Michigan basement bluesmen to borrow. Also, here is Young's virgin performance on bass, a venture that proves suiting as his sparse yet stable meanderings are the backbone to a jam lost in the arcane. At times the bass lines seem to be counting off the seconds until an eventual meltdown. Meanwhile, Olson wanders off on woodwinds, seemingly tangled in wavelengths, letting his own sounds guide him through a brassy chilling darkness. He follows scales--Indian scales, blues scales--though the subtlety of Olson's discipline fosters to an expansive intimacy, a nuance so massive his quips on flute and saxophone are the secret architects of Lose Today's meditation. Olson takes the spiraling mania inspired by the likes of The VU's Sweet Sister Ray lose-all jam and lets it blossom into a soundtrack for a secret think tank whose sole purpose is to maintain a shadowed fire."

Artist:	OLAUSSON, JAKOB
Title:	Morning & Sunrise
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 097CD

"At some point all great explorers, from Amundsen to Kishan Singh Rawat, come to an opening up and cast their minds across a big space. A clearing, a promontory, a look out from a place no one's been before. Jakob Olausson ventured deep on Moonlight Farm, his debut for De Stijl in the winter of 2005. His singular expression returns on Morning and Sunrise, an explorer's codex, a gaze through to what's more important and less seen. The path yet traveled and the sun arcing over it. Morning and Sunrise is a different record from Moonlight Farm. Neither 'progression' nor the preferred 'natural progression' describe how. There is more electric guitar and it really whisks at your earbones, the playing is beautiful. Jakob's singing glows more. It gives light and shows love as it reassures, makes no false promises, says: You can be understood. Honest as the elements, whether you count four or 118. Words like 'loner' will be hung on Morning and Sunrise, and that's okay, we associate clarity this potent with solitude. And this could be the most lucid psychedelic record ever, morning is just so clear, and anyway, it's not really loner, because you are there all along. Don't we all just want to know how the next person gets along? Come out into the morning and see."

Artist:	OLAUSSON, JAKOB
Title:	Morning & Sunrise
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 097LP

LP version. "At some point all great explorers, from Amundsen to Kishan Singh Rawat, come to an opening up and cast their minds across a big space. A clearing, a promontory, a look out from a place no one's been before. Jakob Olausson ventured deep on Moonlight Farm, his debut for De Stijl in the winter of 2005. His singular expression returns on Morning and Sunrise, an explorer's codex, a gaze through to what's more important and less seen. The path yet traveled and the sun arcing over it. Morning and Sunrise is a different record from Moonlight Farm. Neither 'progression' nor the preferred 'natural progression' describe how. There is more electric guitar and it really whisks at your earbones, the playing is beautiful. Jakob's singing glows more. It gives light and shows love as it reassures, makes no false promises, says: You can be understood. Honest as the elements, whether you count four or 118. Words like 'loner' will be hung on Morning and Sunrise, and that's okay, we associate clarity this potent with solitude. And this could be the most lucid psychedelic record ever, morning is just so clear, and anyway, it's not really loner, because you are there all along. Don't we all just want to know how the next person gets along? Come out into the morning and see."

Artist:	BLACK TO COMM
Title:	Earth
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 098CD

"EARTH is a 2009 silent film by Ho Tzu Nyen, one of Singapore's foremost artists. The visually arresting film has been live-soundtracked by a number of artists (including Oren Ambarchi) in several locales, and after Black to Comm, a.k.a. Marc Richter's accompaniment at Berlin's Asian Film Festival and the Unsound Festival in Krakow (both in 2010), he decided to commit it to record. In Marc's own words: 'Most of the music was composed under the influence of heavy pain killers while recovering from a broken leg. The music (like the film) is about slowness and decay, states of unconsciousness, sleeping and waking up, dying and being reborn. The film basically is a post-apocalyptic collage based on paintings by classical European painters (Caravaggio, Delacroix, Rembrandt, Gericault) -- the music tries to translate that concept employing similar collage-based sampling techniques using loops made from vintage vinyl and shellac records combined with acoustic and electronic instrumentation and voice.' Richter's already formidable expressive power stretches over all of EARTH. Reflecting the countless cyclical forces that make up, oh, more or less everything we know and are, the music on EARTH is bracing, lovely, bustling and still, and at times bittersweet, a commingling of sensations and emotions that can't be neatly separated from one another. (EARTHis complex, as you know.) Guests on EARTHinclude David Aird, a.k.a Vindicatrix (on the Mordant Music label), contributing startling vocal work; Renate Nikolaus on an array of instruments and noise devices; Rutger Zuydervelt (singing bowls); and Christopher Kline (singing saw). EARTH is Black to Comm's seventh album and his debut for De Stijl, following the acclaimed Alphabet 1968 (on Type) and last year's vinyl-only collaboration with Mike Kelley of Destroy All Monsters (on the En/Of label)."

Artist:	WADA, TASHI
Title:	Gradient
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	7"
Price:	$7.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 099EP

"Tashi Wada is a San Francisco-based composer and performer whose recent work focuses on sound perception as a basis for direct modes of listening. His work has been performed throughout the United States and Europe, and for several years now he has performed alongside his father, Yoshi Wada. Gradient is two sustained tones, a fourth apart, positioned along a wall, one at each end. The string player produces a very slow glissando from one pitch to the other while physically moving from one pitch to the other -- in other words, the string player moves so that pitch distance coincides with spatial distance. The two possible directions form a sculpture-like presence shifting through all of the blue notes. Harry Partch often worked with this type of harmony, so Tashi and Marc Sabat used one of his adapted violas for the recording."

Artist:	ASKEW, ED
Title:	Little Eyes
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 032CD

First CD issue of this unreleased 2nd album, recorded in 1970. This was the intended follow-up to Ed's classic ESP-disk album, Ask the Unicorn from 1969. This CD adds 6 bonus tracks from radio sessions, 1970-71. Wow. "Ed Askew recorded Little Eyes in one continuous take during a brief, hot, hetero moment, 1970, New York City. Thirty-two years later, Destijl released it on LP. Made with little more than magnetic tape, Ed's voice, and the stunningly modern arrangements of his beloved Martin Tiple, Little Eyes is as grand, sad and beautiful a statement as can be expressed. His off-key lilt hangs like a seductive pink mist and settles deeply; you'll hear these songs long after they are over. Attempting to publicize an unreleased record, Ed did a string of radio gigs between New York and New Haven, and the best of them are collected here. Lovely and wild, this one is very near and dear to our hearts. Soon, yours too."

Artist:	OLAUSSON, JAKOB
Title:	Moonlight Farm
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 055CD

"Jakob Olausson is a farmer in the south of Sweden, from Landskrona, and he works there in the fields of sugar beets. Not to re-hero-ize the life of the prole, but the workday sun has had a clear influence: this is a rec made on a dime, in a dime-sized bedroom apartment, and it transcends all the limitations that that scenario has thusly taught us to expect. A real 'statement,' in the micro-politics of personal resistance/expression in a globally commodified life. Moonlight Farm is comprised of ten songs, somehow both comforting and unsettling, concerned with the classic subjects: the garbage, the flowers, one's mother, and the love of them all. Laid thick with a vague dissonance, they possess a mask of fog/haze, but the trail between writer/performer/song is not often trodden in such a deftly crystalline manner. Enter the Moonlight Farm."

Artist:	YONKERS, MICHAEL
Title:	Grimwood
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 056CD

"When considering Grimwood, it'd be a mistake to not also give thought to Microminature Love. Recorded in '68 for Sire, MML languished unreleased until the spring of 2002, when we unearthed it swank on wax (later reissued as a Sub Pop CD). Called the greatest psych record of the '60s by more than a few, it's no stretch to say that had it materialized, it would've altered the lay of the land. Tho for various reasons still unclear, the deal fell apart and the band split. Perhaps this was the first in a seemingly endless series of cruel blows for Yonkers. He retreated, and recorded Grimwood. As is said all too often about all too many recs, this is intensely private music. While not immediately recognizable as possessing the radical visionary qualities as MML, there is nevertheless a miracle at work. Usually there is a distance between singer/song. Here the distance is completely revoked. There is an immediate, definite coinciding between Yonkers and his Grimwood. Yonkers suffered a debilitating back injury in a warehouse accident in '71 when a half-ton of scrap metal fell on him. He had strong allergic reactions to a chemical that was injected into his spinal cord in '73,and he almost gave up the ghost. That caused a serious, life long condition called adhesive arachnoiditis. For awhile he retired from music. Tho recorded in '69, Yonkers privately released Grimwood in '74, along with 3 other recs: Goodby Sunball (recorded in '71), Michael Lee Yonkers ('72) and a duo with Jim Woehrle ('73), borders of my mind. If they sold at all, they sold horribly. There is a photo inside Sub Pop's MML CD of Yonkers throwing copies of Grimwood up in the air, as they'd seemingly become disposable, as well as a heavy burden to lug around. Enterprising rec collectors have had a run on Grimwood for some time and it's been impossible to affordably obtain. So here it is, remastered, digitized and priced for the people."

Artist:	JU SUK REET MEATE
Title:	Solo 78/79
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 057CD

"Smegma were formed as a reaction to the band's perceptions of how horrible things were in the '70s. 'We moved up to Portland just as the Los Angeles Free Music Society came out of the closet. There was the whole punk scene and a rebirth of things, but when we left, it was the deadest, worst time to be there unless you were into glam.' This disgust is reflected in the tone of the early classics Pigface Chant, Flash Cards, Disco Diarrhea and Glamour Girl 1941. The crown jewel, perhaps, of the early Smegma dawn, is this CD, a solo Ju Suk Reet Meate joint, recorded in '78/'79 and pressed in a miniscule quantity in '80, this is a recording that has been largely unavailable outside of certain collector circles. Even there, you better rub yr rabbits foot/save yr pennies. But here comes the kingdom, finally made available in an affordably-priced digipak CD, with liner notes by Wolf Eyes' John Olson and containing a couple of never before released tracks, 'Solo 78/79' aka 'Do Unseen Hands Keep You Dumb?' is a post-Zappa, stoned blues/concrete melange of guitar, tapes, 'Do Unseen Hands Keep You Dumb?' aka found sounds and voice. As a member of what many have called the greatest band of our time, Ju Suk Reet Meate has had an immeasurable influence, shaping the lives/sounds of the creators of underground culture the globe over, and this CD bears his heft."

Artist:	TUCKER, MARK
Title:	In The Sack
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 061CD

"There seems to be two truisms I keep to: ONE - By and large, when an album is described as 'loner / psych / real people' it isn't going to be as good as I hope, and TWO - The Residents suck. Generally these hold true for me, maybe you too, and often I'll look suspiciously at descriptions like that. But then I remember, hey the first few Residents records are pretty damn amazing, and hell, the Kenneth Higney and Moolah records are pretty great too. But when I have a need for the real people sound, the first record I reach for is Mark Tucker's In The Sack. Although better known for his Batstew record, which is pretty relative, this album is no slouch. The cast of characters is familiar, upright piano, backwards vocals, rants, ravings, life savings. But here it's damn cheap; hell you should buy a few for friends, I'm going to! Mark Tucker is very mean on the piano and the best backwards vocalist I've ever heard, he knows more than blues progressions, this guy is writing pop symphonies. If David Ackles or bootleg Brian Wilson is your bag, this one is gonna rip the sack open (you can take that literally or apply it to Coley style allusion). Comparisons to the first Residents record are not far off, but I truly prefer Tucker's record, and it wouldn't be out of place in a spin with Moolah, Bruce Haacks kids records, Song Cycle and Horrific Child." - Jim O'Rourke, Brooklyn 04.

Artist:	KING DARVES
Title:	The Sun Splits For... The Blind Swimmer
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 063CD

"So I would imagine that you'd have one look at the photo of King Darves we have here and think 'oh brother! Another guy with a beard getting over what looks like a bad case of the clap and an acoustic guitar. Where's my axe?' So we're not gonna put it up here. (Mystique, dig?) But its really not like that, I tell you! The bedrock of King Darves' New Brunswick-based concoction is certainly folk-based but there's no headband and he's not singing of pixies in the moss. This is somewhere between rolled cigs and the foggy vision of Big Pink from somewhere on Jersey Avenue, or maybe a one-manned Meat Puppets. This kid has really cobbled something together in his kitchen sink! The Sun Splits For... The Blind Swimmer will shock and please when the prettiest sound of his deep, rich voice comes out of yr headphones, and it'll make you tap yr toes and nod yr head like a little Jersey Goil." --Tony Rettman

Artist:	ORANGE
Title:	In The Midst of Chaos
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 064CD

"Free jazz group Orange's one and only release In The Midst Of Chaos was recorded in 1978 and became renowned saxophonist Paul Flaherty's first record. It's also the first and only release of legendary 'out' guitarist Barry Greika, who along with Bob Laramie on bass and Glen 'Hobbit' Peterson on drums remains a terribly under-recorded group. Orange made a screaming, blistering, howling slap of a record that defies categorization, as it pushed the already hazy '70s into uncharted confusion. An LP release of only 200 copies on its only run, it received the notice of seriously few. Besides the band, only two people definitely heard it; one sailed it out the kitchen window, the wife of the other demanded the thing leave the house. But as the times have changed, we're just certain it's gonna sell wildly now. So here you go, hardcore free-form improvisation enthusiastically rejuvenated, without shame." --Charles F. Destruction

Artist:	39 CLOCKS
Title:	Zoned
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 068CD

"The first public appearance pairing Christian Henjes (then 'Zero Jack') and Juergen Gleue (then 'Genius Nr.17') was in 1976, at the Dada Nova (a space later occupied by Otto Müehl's AAO commune) in midtown Hannover, Germany. Known for pranksterism and the destruction of the clubs in which they would perform, friction would follow the band everywhere. In 1979 they were thrown out of a show in Kassel at the Documenta (their sounds had disturbed Joseph Beuys). They created an outrage (they wrote a tune with the title 'Art Minus Idiots') at the Filmtage Hannover with their avant garde Super 8 movies under the guise of director Zachius Lipschitz. Rumour claims that at a Hannnover show at the Cafe Glocksee, they played the vacuum cleaner and a circular saw instead of guitars. Inspired, then (clearly), by protest in the broadest and most romantic sense (they wrote a tune with the title 'Radical Student Mob In Satin Boots') theirs was a sound attuned to classic American punk/Nuggets. This collection was put together with the non-completest in mind (originals of some of these records are as rare as Italian underwear), intending to display the general 39 Clocks vibe, but also some of their more curious wrinkles. And as Diedrich Diedrichsen wrote the first review of the band, we at DeStijl are very pleased with his liner notes."

Artist:	PENS
Title:	Hey Friend! What You Doing
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 071CD

"Where have all the good new British bands gone? Hello? Is there anyone out there? The answer is a pretty resounding 'nope'. Stop and think of a genuinely good new band you have heard in a year that is already way past half-done and I bet you ten Chomps you'll struggle. Then we saw Pens and it changed everything. Their set lasts about 14 minutes and the girls swap instruments in between tunes mainly because it appears none of them really know what they are doing. The whole thing is so swathed in static and reverb and shambolic about-to-fall-apartness that it's like watching that YouTube clip of the kid kicking through the granite wall and getting his ankle snapped in half: kind of bite-your-bottom-lip atrocious but kind of the best thing you have seen since ever. They also do a cover of 'Sex Beat' by the Gun Club that sounds like the Germs trying to be the Shangri- Las through a gauze of early K Records fuzz." -- Jammin' Johnson / VICE

Artist:	MICHAEL AND THE MUMBLES
Title:	Michael And The Mumbles
Label:	DE STIJL
Format:	LP
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 074LP

"Before Michael Yonkers would revise the history of recorded music with the clarion chords of Microminature Love he was in a band called Michael and the Mumbles and they made this self-titled LP in 1966. Upon immediate spins, their would-be debut comes off as a naive, teenage trip thru the typified garage band moves of this era. But repeated spins reveal a darkness beneath what some dullard might be deceived by as its crisp, winsome visage. It's only to a slightly less visible degree that the Mumbles LP has the same characteristics that would make Micro the singularly original piece that is; it's emotionally bleak themes, dissonant undercurrents, and recklessly wild performance. So, once again we have a Michael Yonkers LP that is going to turn the world upside down, make the college girls scream, and leave you wondering how many more times this can happen. Seriously, Pigeon Falls up here looks like a Riot on the Sunset Strip. Indulge yrself. PS. Michael and the Mumbles is on the king of all known formats (with a digital download coupon, natch). The mastertapes used herein are 45 yrs old and aside from the glitch on 'Cold Town' they sound amazing."

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