Browse by Label: TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS

Artist:	GASTR DEL SOL
Title:	The Harp Factory On Lake Street
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 019CD

"Is 90s nostalgia underway yet? If not, this reissue may be just the thing to get it started. In 1994, Chicago is the fountainhead for a bona-fide Scene, in which bands are giving timbre and texture priority over riffs and power chords. To the chagrin of many, the press will label it all 'post-rock.' It's the definitive movement of the decade, and front and center are Gastr Del Sol, comprised of David Grubbs (previously: Squirrel Bait, Bastro) and Jim O'Rourke (subsequently: Wilco, Sonic Youth). Some of their city-mates may shift more units; Gastr, with a relentless drive for reinvention, shift the boundaries of where a band can go. Avant punk, atonal song-styling, musique concrète, delicate piano-guitar interplay, raw electronics and modernist chamber music -- all are fair terrain, traversed with subtlety and finesse. Behind the obligatory horn-rims, Grubbs and O'Rourke have 'vision.' A dozen years later, this overdue reissue of 1994's The Harp Factory on Lake Street EP provides the missing piece in Gastr's otherwise available discography. To hear it again is a treat. It's their notorious 'big band' record, and the ten-piece ensemble is a veritable All-Star team of mid-90s Chicagoans, including members of Tortoise, Sea and Cake, Shellac, Dazzling Killmen, Brise Glace and the Vandermark 5; through studio maneuvering courtesy O'Rourke and engineer John McEntire, they blossom into a small-sized orchestra. Remarkably confident in the use of space and dissonance, Harp Factory also emphasizes the conceptual 'scrape', the friction between nuance and noise, that plays such a prominent role in Gastr's subsequent Upgrade and Afterlife LP. Familiar signposts are still in sight -- O'Rourke's compositional skills, Grubbs' associative, absurdist musings -- but this is definitely their boldest outing. It's a record full of blissful confoundment, one that aptly vivifies the spirit of an era. Gastr del Sol may have lasted a brief five years, but they are to the 1990s what the Magic Band, This Heat and Sonic Youth were to their respective decades: intrepid trailblazers through the backwoods of sound."

Artist:	YOUNGS, RICHARD
Title:	Festival
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 021CD

"In this, his first solo CD, he fuses disparate instrumentation (homemade electronics, plaintive vocals, clock chimes and found objects) into a lengthy series of pealing, minimal compositions that owe more to the slowly evolving drones and repetitive themes of Advent than any of his subsequent works. Dense electronic squalls are juxtaposed against shimmering percussion, culminating in the marvelously hypnotic 20 minute finale, 'The Sea Is Madness.' "

Artist:	GATE
Title:	The Dew Line
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 022CD

"Twenty years is long enough: It's time to acknowledge Michael Morley as an indie-rock patriarch. And why not? As the guitarist and vocalist for New Zealand noise-trip trio The Dead C and the man behind Gate (ostensibly a solo project, although Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo makes frequent guest appearances), Morley is the rare artist that record-hounds love to unearth: an isotope in the body Pop, radiating an invisible influence. With scores of micro-batch releases and an unmistakably intimate performance idiom, Morley ranks in the company of Jandek or Loren Connors, but it's geographic isolation rather than social disengagement that has deflected his work from reaching more ears. Still, if you don't recognize his name, you've heard his reverberations, in the ambient post-rock of Flying Saucer Attack and Labraford, the neo-psychedelia of Bardo Pond, and the fidelity-challenged whorl of Pavement and Sebadoh. Recorded in 1993 and out of print since, Gate's The Dew Line is the first part of his 'rock trilogy' (followed by The Monolake in 1996 and The Wisher Table in 1999). Rock it does. Typical Gate/Dead C no-fi guitar subduction and Morley's locked-in-the-car-trunk vocals are prominent, but there's also a hefty amount of scraping synthesizer menace and paleozoic riffage. The crust of noise is there, but crack open the sonic geode and you'll discover some nifty songstyling. In someone else's universe, the gem of an opening track, 'Millions,' gets play on AM radio, while 'Have Not' climbs the FM charts. Full of brooding atmospherics, The Dew Line is the most -- dare we say it -- accessible of any of Morley's records, and it stands on an equal footing with his Dead C high-water mark, Harsh 70s Reality, as an anti-rock rock classic."

Artist:	FAUST
Title:	Rien
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 024CD

Mid-90s album, repressed at last! Produced by Jim O'Rourke. "From 1971 to 1975, Germany's Faust carved a megalithic reputation as the greatest avant-garde group of the era. Formed in the spirit of the May '68 uprisings, they inspired the term 'Krautrock,' influenced generations of subsequent bands, and to this day define an entire genre. In 1994, Table of the Elements brought the reclusive Faust to America for the first time, taking them on tour and orchestrating their return to the studio. The result is Rien, the first studio recordings from Faust in over 20 years. With major contributions from producer and performer Jim O'Rourke (Sonic Youth), as well as guest members Keiji Haino (Fushitsusha), Steven Wray Lobdell (Redford-David Triad) and Michael Morley (The Dead C), Faust have managed to create a record as unflinchingly audacious and uncompromising as their earliest work. An aggressive collection of electronic pastiche, musique concrete, power tools and group improvisation results in an extraordinary return by one of the seminal experimental ensembles of all time. Out-of-print since 1995, this the first and finest of the records by the 90s-era Faust, notoriously packaged entirely in silver, with spoken credits hidden on the CD."

Artist:	RLW
Title:	Pullover
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 032CD

Repressed. "RLW is German composer Ralf Wehowsky, founder of renowned ensemble P16.D4 and the influential Selektion label. Pullover is a text-based electro-acoustic piece that includes contributions by Jerome Noetinger, Francisco Lopez, Stefan Schmidt, and Gastr del Sol's David Grubbs and Jim O'Rourke." "RLW is impossible to locate, his music resists pigeon-holing and refuses simple labels. It's neither industrial music nor musique concrete; it's not really computer music but nor is it improvisational; perhaps it's all of these things." --EST.

Artist:	CONRAD, TONY
Title:	Early Minimalism: Volume One
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	4CD
Price:	$42.00
Catalog #:	TOE 033CD

Repressed! Four CD box set with 96-page book and enhanced CD-ROM featuring interviews, performance footage and video scores. Includes the massive "Four Violins" (1964) -- one of the world's most important and space-inhaling pieces of music ever, which was only briefly available on LP. Mainline it as loud as you possibly can. Plus: "Early Minimalism: April, 1965" (for solo violin and string quartet) ; "Early Minimalism: May 1965" [performed here by Conrad, Alexandria Gelencser (cello) and Jim O'Rourke (violin)]; "Early Minimalism: June 1965" (studio work for four multitracked violins with cello). "The story becomes familiar: In 1962 Tony Conrad's amplified strings introduced the sustained drone of just-intonation into 'minimal' music. Conrad, together with John Cale, Angus MacLise, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela formed a performance collaboration from 1962-65 sometimes known as the Dream Syndicate. Utilizing long durations and precise pitch, their aggressively mesmerizing 'Dream Music' denied the activity of composition, articulated their shared ideas of performance, and established the Big Bang of 'minimalism'. When this remarkable group dissolved in 1966, their many rehearsal and performance recordings were repressed by Young and Zazeela, and remain unheard to this day. Conrad himself stepped outside of the Dream Syndicate once: on December 19, 1964 he recorded 'Four Violins', his only 1960s solo tape of violin playing. In 1987 Conrad set out on a return expedition to the site of these fragments to unearth the losses; the result is the epic 'Early Minimalism'. The finds of 'Early Minimalism' are richest at the place where 'Four Violins' was pointing, where the lost Dream Music would have fully realized its harmonic and expressive potential. Reaching back through time, Early Minimalism weaves a mobile narrative of minimalism: making music out of history, and history out of music."

Artist:	GILBERT, BC
Title:	Ordier
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 035CD

"Though the era of punk was widely regarded as a time of extremes, legendary group Wire and guitarist BC Gilbert provided the most problematic, visionary and ironic response to the music scene of the mid-'70s. The angular minimalism of their sound, the abstract, deadpan lyrics and a penchant for confrontation betrayed the art school origins and made Wire an idiosyncratic triumph. With bravery, integrity, absolute courage and energy -- and more ideas and concepts than any other musician of his era -- Gilbert continues to forge ahead. In his post-Wire work, he has utilized a variety of modernist tools and explored a vast range of experimental music, from electronic noise to ambient drones. Table of the Elements is now pleased to present the contemporaneous CD, Ordier. Recorded for the label in 1996 but subsequently believed lost, Ordier lets loose a wild swarm of electronics. As Gilbert writes: 'I'm taking a very, very minimalist approach and really getting inside some of the sounds and chasing them to destruction. It's done mostly with effects, guitar pedals pushed to the absolute limit.' Beautifully packaged in a custom-designed wood case, and featuring photographs by prominent photographer Bettina Herzner."

Artist:	PANHUYSEN, PAUL AND THE GALVANOS
Title:	Lost For Words
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 045CD

"Paul Panhuysen is internationally known for his large-scale sound installations, built as gigantic stringed instruments. In 1963 he started to develop works which combined many media -- images, light, projection, machines, objects, spaces, etc. -- as transitory events and installations. The Maciunas Ensemble, founded in 1968, became the source of his experiences with sound and music, while his recent Long String constructions created a synthesis of various disciplines including sculpture, architecture, music, improvisation, composition and performance. In The Galvanos, Panhuysen has drawn material from a wide variety of sound projects he has created over the past two decades and channeled them through numerically tuned, resonating wires. The original recordings (including previous compositions, as well as a speech by Joseph Stalin) are transformed by mechanical vibrations into completely new musical pieces. The resulting re-presentation of sound offers a unique and important look at the complex interrelation of mimesis and number in music."

Artist:	OLIVEROS, PAULINE
Title:	Primordial Lift
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	TOE 053CD

1999 release, repressed for the first time in many years. "Minimalist composer and founding member of the Deep Listening Band, Pauline Oliveros is known for creating pulsating soundscapes and sonic meditations. In these premier recordings, however, she engages a more aggressive, electric sound with assistance from fellow minimalists Tony Conrad and Alex Gelencser, and Gastr Del Sol's David Grubbs. Within a strategic modulation processed through a low-frequency oscillator, Conrad's violin, Grubbs' harmonium, and Oliveros' signature accordion drone and enthrall. The guiding metaphor of Primordial Lift structures the musicians' performances, mirroring the resonate frequency of the earth and its acceleration from 7.8 to 13hz and beyond. In 1994 the frequency was already at 8.6 and 13hz will be achieved by 2010, at which point the magnetic fields of the earth will pass through a zero point and a polar shift will occur. The acceleration from 7.8 to 13hz is 'Primordial'; 13hz and beyond is 'Lift'."

Artist:	DREYBLATT AND THE ORCHESTRA OF EXCITED STRINGS, ARNOLD
Title:	Live at Federal Hall National Memorial, 1981
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 054CD

"Arnold Dreyblatt is one of the most engaging of the second generation of New York minimalists. During a three decade career he has developed a distinctive -- and delightfully accessible -- approach to composition and performance. Employing modified and invented instruments and a unique tuning system, his music is a vigorously rhythmic and richly textured romp through the natural overtone series. This live CD celebrates the 25th anniversary of Dreyblatt's historic concert at Federal Hall in New York (where George Washington was inaugurated as President). Utilizing the natural resonances of the structure's spectacular dome, Dreyblatt and his Orchestra of Excited Strings present seven outstanding pieces from the Nodal Excitation series for just-intoned double basses, piano, hurdy gurdy and pipe organ, emphasizing dynamics and sonorities to stunning acoustical effect."

Artist:	PRESOCRATICS
Title:	Works and Days
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 072CD

"Having created a stir in the international cassette underground, the Presocratics now surface with a debut CD whose brilliance lurks within a form that can best be described as electro-acoustic agit-prop. An audacious cross between the old-school tape manipulations of Bernard Parmegiani and the wry politics of the Red Krayola circa Corrected Sogans, Works and Days culminates with a faithful, lovingly orchestrated version of the Mercer/Mancini classic 'Moon River'."

Artist:	CHATHAM, RHYS
Title:	Two Gongs (1971)
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 073CD

"The hour-long Two Gongs fills the entirety of [this] disc with its ethereal, droning psychedelia. While written in 1971, the '89 recording documented here features Chatham, along with fellow composer Yoshimase Wada coaxing heavy, overlapping tones out of a pair of Chinese gongs. The instruments buzz and hum, moving in waves from deafening rattles to soft, muted drones. The monstrous noise that Chatham concocts is far more akin to the seismic crashes of monstrously distorted guitar feedback than that of two unprocessed slabs of metal, and it proves the composer's interest in creating a similar world of sound out of whatever instrument currently proved his muse. On disc, the performance is jaw-droppingly powerful, a monumental chunk of glorious noise."

Artist:	THUUNDERBOY
Title:
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 076CD

Recorded and produced by Tony Conrad in 1973. Thuunderboy is Tony's son, Ted Conrad, and these are recordings of his turntable manipulations from the ages of 22 to 30 months, in 1973-74. "What, after all, does one make of a two-year-old boy, a child who ultimately comes to be armed with two turntables and a microphone, creating a sonic collage through his instinctive abuse of a stylus and various 45 rpm vinyl recordings -- including that of a popular novelty tune sung by 1970s Mormon pre-adolescent media sensation Donny Osmond? Does the resultant accumulation of scratching sounds, surface noise, and reiterations of fragmented vocal phrases -- offered up in varying turntable speeds: slow, fast and juuuuust right -- constitute a signal moment in the age of mechanical reproduction? Is it fair to argue that a precocious Ted, the once and future Thuunderboy, anticipated in these excursions of the early '70s everything from the rise of turntablism and hip-hop to the creative strategies of such disparate entertainers and/or conceptualists as Fatboy Slim, Christian Marclay and that erstwhile Savior of Pop (circa 1997), Beck? And if so, then what sort of volatile questions might this pose about the creative appropriation and manipulation of pre-recorded sources, about artistic intent, about the virtues of repetition and about the subversive deployment of consumer electronics in the dark and wild years before Napster? If, to paraphrase the archetypal Philistine's response to an abstract painting, a two-year-old can do it, does that diminish the accomplishment of the seasoned turntablist who has dedicated years to mastering the wheels of steel and cultivating its staccato language? Or, rather, does it affirm some unerringly democratic quality inherent in the very act of scratching and spinning, that a mere toddler could create hypnotic and deconstruct pop banalities into perversely humorous after-the-fact commentaries on the star-making machinery? What a splendidly infantile provocation!"

Artist:	CONRAD, TONY
Title:	Joan of Arc
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 077CD

"Tony Conrad is a founding father of 'minimalism' and a giant in the American soundscape. The indefatigable Conrad kept busy during the Revolution Summer of 1968. In addition to his reunion recordings with John Cale (documented in the Cale set New York in the 1960s), Conrad starred in Ira Cohen's legendary film The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda and made extensive solo recordings, including 'Joan of Arc', available here for the first time. One of Conrad's personal favorites, it's a long piece for pump organ, in which he conjures both searing white heat and malignant gothic dread. An excerpt was used as the soundtrack for the Piero Heliczer film of the same name, but Conrad feels a greater affinity with that year's Cohen film; accordingly, Cohen graciously provided restored stills from Thunderbolt Pagoda for the packaging of this release. Cohen's sumptuous imagery -- which Jimi Hendrix described as 'looking through butterfly wings' -- features a blissed-out and shirtless Conrad replete in pencil mustache, mascara and blood-red turban. The man is just downright cool -- about as cool as Hendrix, and almost always louder."

Artist:	PRESOCRATICS
Title:	Presocratics Serve Imperialism
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	TOE 078CD

"Presocratics Serve Imperialism is the latest dispatch from the doubted underclass intelligentsia. Here, Presocratics employ consumer and post-consumer goods to interrogate history and insomnia in their bid to wrest philosophy from professional academia and the class system it supports, thereby returning it to the people (in general, and those people who pay for CDs with only 20 minutes of music in particular). This EP starts by wrapping vocals and instrumentation around recycled heavy metal (Nestor Mahkno Discovers America) and climaxes with the society debut of The Break-Even Point, the most breathtaking ballad ever to grace the electro-acoustic stage. Behold rock energy mobilized against nostalgia."

Artist:	SAN AGUSTIN
Title:	The Expanding Sea
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	3CD
Price:	$42.00
Catalog #:	TOE 081CD

"Georgia natives San Agustin (David Daniell, guitar; Andrew Burnes, guitar; Bryan Fielden, drums) have performed with a multitude of notables from the improvised community, including Ken Vandermark, Thurston Moore, Loren MazzaCane and others, but this boxed set is the first truly representative document of their live presence. Haunting moments of introspection are enveloped in clouds of bluesy guitar notes, then swept away by great electric gales; drones rumble and shimmer in the aftermath. The Expanding Sea is a vast work by a tremendous ensemble, one that is discreetly creating a genre-defying yet archetypically American music."

Artist:	CONRAD, TONY
Title:	Bryant Park Moratorium Rally (1969)
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 083CD

"An October afternoon in 1969. Midtown Manhattan. A rally in Bryant Park against the Vietnam War. Down 42nd Street towards Times Square, Tony Conrad is adjusting microphones in his 5th floor loft, one directed at the TV set -- where it will pick up live local news coverage -- the other pointing out the window, where the echo of speeches and crowd noise mingles with the oceanic rush of crosstown traffic. As the event is about to begin, he rolls tape. Thirty-four years later, we hear what he heard. And the juncture, for so many reasons, could not be more critical. As the Bush Administration pursues a risky military agenda in the Middle East -- one with unsettling long-term implications both at home and abroad -- we see a nation not divided, as in the Vietnam Era, but strangely complacent. Our media-saturated reality functions like a drug, instantly televised warfare a new entertainment, and organized public dissent a novelty at home and a roaring chorus everywhere else. Conrad's recording of the Oct. 15 Vietnam Moratorium Rally is an eerie flashback that offers urgent new insights into our own lives and times, post-9/11 and full on into a new millennium."

Artist:	FAHEY, JOHN
Title:	Sea Changes & Coelacanths
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	TOE 085CD

Subtitled: A Young Person's Guide to John Fahey. This compiles Fahey's earlier releases for TOE: 1997's Womblife and the live followup Georgia Stomps, Atlanta Struts; plus the Hard Time Empty Bottle Blues 12" (all o/p as individual releases at this point). "In the 43 years between his first recordings and his death in 2001, John Fahey stomped across the American soundscape, leaving behind footprints of influence so breathtakingly vast that entire genres now huddle within them. Fahey's mesmeric guitar compositions fused the blues' syncopated rhythms with contemporary dissonance; Eastern influences with musique-concrete. He was the first to demonstrate that traditional steel-string finger-picking techniques could be used to express a universe of non-traditional ideas, and his contribution to American music is immense. Sea Changes & Coelacanths compiles all of Fahey's mid-'90s recordings for the Table of the Elements label and embodies an artistic essence, with sounds that are undiluted, uncompromised, starkly honest, pure of vision, and in every way innovative -- just like the man himself."

Artist:	VA
Title:	A Field Guide to Table of the Elements
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	TOE 090CD

... Southeastern Edition -- presumably this was originally done to be given away at SXSW? Now mass produced. "Since 1993, Table of the Elements has spoken that truth, focusing on musicians whose light shimmers outside the frames of convention and registering the ripples of music that are too essential to die or dissolve into the common currency. It has prospected for the rarest sort of sonic lode, the uncut goods blessed with a hearty half-life. The label's 100-plus releases are a vital contemporary archive, a survey of meaningful eruptions across a broad horizon of improvised, experimental, minimal and outsider musics. Here, on these two CDs, is a field guide to the essential Table of the Elements. This sampler is more than a summary of label highlights; the performances make a statement as bold as their visceral impact and as rich as the conceptual process that underpins their creation. It's the kind of music Table of the Elements is all about. It thrives outside the barricades, where no one else is looking. Where the truth is spoken." Artists featured are: Jonathan Kane, Arnold Dreyblatt, Zeena Parkins, San Agustin, Tony Conrad, Tony Conrad w/ Faust, Rhys Chatham, Leif Inge. Disc one has some previously released material -- (plus tracks by Dreyblatt, Parkins and Conrad that appear to be previously unreleased). Disc 2 is an unreleased excerpt from Leif Inge' "9 Beet Stretch" -- Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th symphony stretched to 24 hours, with no pitch distortions (complete DVD version on TOE forthcoming!).

Artist:	VA
Title:	The Great Koonaklaster Speaks: A John Fahey Celebration
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 091CD

"John Fahey's death -- he is believed to have died in the explosion of a house during the filming of Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point in 1969 -- is shrouded in confusion and camouflage. His remains were never found, and the question remains: did Fahey purposely stage his own death for his own occlusive purposes? Fahey's collusion of folk, blues, ethnic and modern classical methods, which suggests both the trickster and the shaman, has attracted a cult of musician followers over the years, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime. But his unsolved disappearance inspired another cult, which worships Count Saint Germain, a Rosicrucian adept who is said to have never died and has assumed various identities over the centuries. Disciples of this sect, heard on this record, believe Fahey -- 'The Great Koonaklaster' -- to be the most recent incarnation of Saint Germain. They view Fahey's music as a synthesis of Saint Germain's abilities as a classical composer and skills as an alchemist, and have absorbed his guitar style in order to pay homage to him. A variety of ritual services are contained within, and there is much to be gleaned from these Koonaklasterians' offerings; whether or not you choose to accept this immortal motherf#cker of the 20th century as Saint Germain is up to you." Artists include Jack Rose, Greg Malcolm, Ben Vida, Sir Richard Bishop, Michael Hurley, No Neck Blues Band with John Fahey and Coach Fingers, Lichens, Badgerlore, R. Keenan Lawler, Pumice, David Daniell. Worth it for the Rabbi Sky liner notes alone!

Artist:	COLLECTIONS OF COLONIES OF BEES
Title:	Six Guitars
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	TOE 092LP

"Their sound is expansive, vast, and billowing; full of ringing guitars, soaring in the best traditions of the Chatham/Branca standoff; meanwhile, beneath the clouds sprawl dewy meadows of gently rolling electronica. Six Guitars is just what its title states, yet so much more. Wildly versatile drummer Jon Mueller follows the rules by hammering on an electric guitar with mallets, enhancing the Steve Reichian vibe (compare this with Mueller's face-melting solo onslaught Metals). The band sparkles accordingly, lifting to a dazzling climax. It's epic minimalism in exquisite registration, and the perfect selection to introduce the Table Of The Elements Guitar Series (fans will be happy to hear that Mueller is on deck with a solo contribution to the series as well). Beyond the music, there's the similarly spectacular packaging. It's a one-sided, 12-inch LP, pressed on clear vinyl; the reverse is laser etched with an original illustration by acclaimed UK artist Savage Pencil, whose credits include album art for The Fall, Big Black, and Sonic Youth. It's a limited-edition pressing, so get it while you can -- disks from the label's original Guitar Series in 1993/1994 are now some of Collectorville's must coveted treasures."

Artist:	ATELEIA/BENJAMIN CURTIS
Title:	Baghdad Batterie
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	TOE 093LP

"On Baghdad Batterie, Ateleia and Benjamin Curtis fuse splendidly, as perfectly synchronized audio alchemists, and when they dip their axes in a vat of liquid electronica, the transmutation is complete:thick, glistening beats throb and undulate, without a tell-tale twang in sight. Baghdad Batterie is a fabulous piece of laptop psychedelia, and certain to delight fans of Curtis and Elliott's previous collaboration, the exhilarating School Of Seven Bells EP, 'Face to Face' on High Places. The packaging of this vinyl-only release is similarly spectacular. It's a one-sided, 12-inch LP, pressed on clear vinyl; the reverse is laser etched with an original illustration by acclaimed UK artist Savage Pencil, whose credits include album art for The Fall, Big Black, and Sonic Youth. It's a limited-edition pressing, so get it while you can -- disks from the label's original Guitar Series in 1993/1994 are now some of Collectorville's must coveted treasures."

Artist:	MUELLER, JON
Title:	Strung
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	TOE 094LP

"Peripatetic composer, performer, improviser, and designer Jon Mueller is a busy guy, and both the rock and experimental music scenes are the richer for it. As a drummer, he propels the ecstatic whorl of Collections of Colonies of Bees and the occasional guitar army of Rhys Chatham; alternately his solo project, Metals, is the most harrowingly intense percussive barrage you'll ever encounter. He also finds time to collaborate with artists ranging from Wilco's Glenn Kotche to Swans' Jarboe. Whether it's minimalist bombast, free-improv interplay, or electro-acoustic finesse, Mueller's got it covered. But what can he do with a guitar? In Strung, Mueller doesn't play the guitar; he scrambles its molecules. Laying down a photon-blast of sound, he initiates a relentless, rapid-pulse attack signal that summons wave upon wave of white noise. Think inexorable alien invasion -- The Day The Earth Stood Still, with Lou Reed as Klaatu and Metal Machine Music as the message. Earth doesn't stand a chance." Pressed on clear vinyl with great Savage Pencil etching on the b-side.

Artist:	AMBARCHI, OREN
Title:	A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	TOE 095LP

"There is a vivid breadth to the guitar deconstructions of Australian Oren Ambarchi. Sometimes his work takes a delicate lilt; it can also dive into dark and deep pools of sound when he joins cowl-core ensembles Sunn O))) (with Stephen O'Malley) and Burial Chamber Trio (with Greg Anderson). Whether with those bands, solo, or in collaboration with luminaries ranging from Mike Patton and John Zorn to Christian Fennesz, he consistently reroutes his instrument into zones of arch, alien abstraction. A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks offers a dizzying gaze straight into a chasm of extreme frequencies -- paint-peelingly high and bowel-churningly low -- all set atop a sub-strata of menace, angst, and contemplative beauty." Pressed on light-blue marbled, etched vinyl. B-side etching artwork by Savage Pencil.

Artist:	BELONG
Title:	Same Places (Slow Version)
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	TOE 096LP

"With Same Places (Slow Version), Belong evinces a slow-motion transformation -- plate tectonics, wired for sound. Aural mountains melt into seas; yet icy barrens yield to breathing jungles of detail. The single, sprawling track may evoke decay, dissolution and destruction, but underfoot are tendrils of inexplicable joy. Belong sings a lullaby of obliteration, and the paradox it embodies would make both Kevin Shields and Tony Conrad proud: crushing melancholia and shuddering euphoria, inexorably intertwined." Pressed on etched sea-foam green vinyl, etching artwork by Savage Pencil, London 2008.

Artist:	RANALDO, LEE
Title:	Countless Centuries Fled Into The Distance...
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	TOE 097LP

...Like So Many Storms. "Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo was part of the original Table of the Elements 'Guitar Series' in 1993; now he returns with Countless Centuries Fled into the Distance Like So Many Storms. It's an epic earful, replete with shimmering textures and an inimitable charging clangor. With ecstatic, rocking squalor, he summons some dazzling shronk, reminiscent of early SY, the soaring drone of John Cale, and even the looping orientalia of Dream Syndicate-era La Monte Young. So duck and cover, as Lee fires an impeccably aimed fusillade across the screaming fields of sonic love." Pressed on sea-foam green marbled, etched vinyl. Etched artwork on the b-side by Savage Pencil.

Artist:	CHATHAM, RHYS
Title:	A Crimson Grail (For 400 Electric Guitars)
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 106CD

"Rhys Chatham, the man who rocks the minimalist canon like a hurricane, gathers up the City of Light in the evanescent beauty of his latest piece -- written for 400 guitars and performed live in the basilica of landmark Sacre Coeur -- with 10,000 people watching and 100,000 more on national TV. As the music shimmers, it offers a snapshot of eternity, an echo of a moment a thousand years gone -- and a thousand years yet to come."

Artist:	MUELLER, JON
Title:	Metals
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 108CD

"Percussionist Jon Mueller works with rhythms that come from gong frequencies, from vibrations of the bodies of bass drums, and the surprising sonorities that occur with the combination of these elements. Now he applies these techniques to his latest solo effort, to stunning effect: Metals is, as its name suggests, a bold, all-percussion foray into heavy metal. No theatrical silliness here; just sheer exhilaration; the fundamental power of loud, organized, precise rhythms; ringing, heavy anti-melodies. It's this sound, in the many forms it has taken over the years that continually inspires new philosophies, drives independent thinking, and causes hundreds of thousands of people to bang their heads. Jon Mueller takes it, shapes it and makes it his own."

Artist:	PARKINS, ZEENA
Title:	Between The Whiles
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	TOE 110CD

"Having collaborated with artists ranging from Sonic Youth to Yoko Ono to Bjork, Zeena Parkins proves it: The classical harp is really a rock 'n' roll instrument. Forget angelic choirs; Zeena is the Jimi Hendrix of the amplified harp. With more soar, shimmer, screech, whine and wail than ever before, her new album, Between the Whiles, hurls wildly into oscillating soundscapes, showcasing her artistic vision and technical versatility. The sonic scope is immense, and there's a lot to explore; dive deep, and you'll come up with some rare and eerie treasures. Liner notes by Terry de Castro of The Wedding Present."

Artist:	PARKINS, ZEENA
Title:	Nightmare Alley
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 202CD

"Step right up and meet the astounding Zeena Parkins, the world's greatest electric harpist. Forget about angelic choirs; Zeena cites Jimi Hendrix as a major inspiration, and her harp work is similarly explosive, often blurring into fuzz-distorted terrain. Parkins is a lightning bolt of a performer, and a much sought after collaborator; she works frequently with Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo and Jim O'Rourke, has performed with Courtney Love and Yoko Ono, and has recorded extensively and toured the world several times with Icelandic avant-pop diva Björk. Recorded in 1992, Nightmare Alley was Zeena's first solo release and the first CD on Table Of The Elements. A hypnotic classic, it lures the listener into a parallel world of sensations, one that is disorienting and surreal, strangely pleasurable and more than a little dangerous. Step inside if you dare -- you won't believe your ears!"

Artist:	CHATHAM, RHYS
Title:	Die Donnergotter (The Thundergods)
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 801CD

"Rhys Chatham altered the DNA of rock. The New York-born composer began as a classically-trained prodigy, but by 1975, Chatham was fusing the overtone-drenched minimalism of John Cale and Tony Conrad with the relentless, elemental fury of the Ramones. It was an inspired amalgamation -- the textural intricacies of the avant-garde colliding with the visceral punch of electric guitar-slinging punk rock -- and with it Chatham created a new type of urban music. Raucous and ecstatic, this sound energized the downtown New York scene throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, prefigured the No Wave movement and cast a huge influence over the subsequent work of Chatham's many protegees, including Glenn Branca and future members of Sonic Youth. This release contains all of Chatham's best work of the period, from the notorious 'Guitar Trio' (1977) and the tumultuous, brass-based 'Massacre on MacDougal Street' (1982), to the soaring, euphoric masterpiece, 'Die Donnergotter' (1986). The accompanying 32-page book features rare photos plus essays by Chatham, Tony Conrad and Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo, as well as artwork by famed visual artist Robert Longo. Now widely available for the first time, these tracks vividly document those glorious years in the life of a city and a milieu in which the raw, the sophisticated and the danceable merged, and a new era of rock was born."

Artist:	CHATHAM, RHYS
Title:	An Angel Moves Too Fast to See
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 802CD

"By the late 1980s, Rhys Chatham was chafing against the logistical and financial constraints imposed upon him in the States; in his mind was a vast, unprecedented sound. Moving permanently from New York to Paris, Chatham began composing his masterpiece, a piece for one hundred electric guitars, electric bass and drums. The result, An Angel Moves Too Fast to See, is one of the most extraordinary works in the minimalist canon, one that demonstrates the majesty inherent in Chatham's amplified imagination. Now widely available for the first time, this lavish CD presents this sonic revolution in all its glory, and cements Chatham's reputation as a monolithic figure astride both rock and classical musics."

Artist:	KANE, JONATHAN
Title:	I Looked At the Sun
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	TOE 803CD

"Jonathan Kane's rollicking, majestic and critically-acclaimed debut February set you up with his lustrous, deep-grooved sound; now comes the bare-knuckled knock-out punch. On the opening track, 'BQE,' Kane compliments his signature wall of guitars with the high-lonesome serenade of pedal steel, then puts that pedal to the metal and barrels through the psychedelic badlands of Mississippi Fred Mcdowell's classic 'I Looked at the Sun.' Add the Dixie-fried strut of ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons to Glenn Branca's guitar armies and you're still only halfway to Kane's mind-blowing reinvention of both minimalism and the blues -- it's a blistering day's drive from anything you've heard before."

Artist:	TRANSMISSION
Title:	Transmission
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	TOE 804CD

"Here is an extraordinary excavation from the buried history of the Downtown NYC scene: the unreleased, self-titled Transmission EP, recorded in 1981-82. Comprised of Jonathan Kane and Daniel Galliduani, the duo is one-half of the original version of the behemoth band Swans. Transmission both preceded and ran concurrent with the formation of Swans (Michael Gira was enough of a fan that he mixed Transmission's few live shows), and much of their material evolved into Swans tracks, including the standout 'Weakling.' Unclassifiable within any conventional genre, it recalls the improvisation and complex, trance-inducing beats of North African music while adding a crust of no wave bluster and enough percussive artillery to sink a small island. Galliduani, whose saxophone is so heavily treated and processed that it sounds like a wall of guitars, lays down drones then adds weird, fierce, Eastern-tinged polyphonics; meanwhile Kane is a frenzied dervish, generating complex cross-tempos and rhythmic subdivision. Transmission is not only an absolute must-have for fans of either Swans or Jonathan Kane's bruising present-day efforts (not to mention his fine work with Rhys Chatham and La Monte Young), but an essential missing link from that Lower East Side scene of yesteryear."

Artist:	ARKANSAW MAN
Title:	Arkansaw Man
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	TOE 805CD

"Here is the unlikely CD debut of Arkansaw Man, a wildly obscure San Francisco art-punk band that flickered to life all so briefly in 1981. 25 minutes of music, 25 years ago -- and sayonara. Still, the best things in life -- in the life of music, anyway -- often are tucked away where they are hard to find. With a brilliant economy of means and a sparseness reminiscent of dub, the band got an amazing jump start on post-rock. It revels in terse and choppy guitar, the languid, sour leakage of keyboards and horns, and occasional lyrics sung as ironic disclaimer, while the spare yet vaguely ominous bass lines recall Gang of Four played back at 4 RPM. A quarter of a century ago, the spindly funk machinery and discordant scraping guitars of Arkansaw Man failed to give the world much to latch onto, so its music got lost, abandoned in a locker at pop culture's bus depot, the key left floating in a gutter somewhere one day to be scavenged. There's no better place to find a glimmer of artistic gold."

Artist:	SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
Title:	Face to Face on High Places
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	LP
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	TOE 807LP

"From the breathing clouds of the living mountain emerge School Of Seven Bells and their dazzling 12" debut, Face to Face on High Places. Benjamin Curtis, formerly of Secret Machines, leads with heliospheric guitar invocations. Bassist James Elilott (Ateleia) and drummer Joe Stickney (Rhys Chatham) provide the rhythm; twin sisters Alejandra Deheza (On! Air! Library!) and Claudia Deheza (On! Air! Library!, A Cloud Mireya) cast an irresistibly intense psychomagical spell with celestial vocal arrangements, keyboards, and transcendental songsmithing. Their sound is a dizzying whorl of pounding ecstasies, mystic lyricism, lucid dreamscaping, and mesmeric grooves. Luminous voices beckon from the far side of a mirage; whispered electronic infernos are swept away by raging torrents of percussion. Submit to School of Seven Bells, then ascend atop a thousand cyclones to a plain of infinite bliss."

Artist:	KANE, JONATHAN
Title:	The Little Drummer Boy
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD EP
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	TOE 809CD

"Do Jonathan Kane's fat-bottomed grooves take your breath away, make you lose your mind? Well, it's the holidays, and Jonny can give as well as he can take, so here's his gift to you, boys and girls. It's a classic, The Little Drummer Boy, done in his inimitable style, with layers of guitars, snow-drift-deep bass -- and you'd better believe there's drums. Hop into this sleigh -- it's jacked-up, tricked-out, it's got 850 horses and not a restrictor plate in sight. Yep, it's always a Blue Christmas when Jonathan Kane comes to town."

Artist:	COLLECTIONS OF COLONIES OF BEES
Title:	Birds
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 810CD

"Collections of Colonies of Bees sweep in grandly, in billowing swarms of sound, borne aloft on a thousand wings of minuscule, elegant detail. Guitars chime and soar, recalling the best campaigns of the guitar armies of both Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham; deft yet intensely focused percussion propels towards an inevitable dawn; covering it all is a gossamer veil of subtly nuanced electronica. Their CD Birds is joyous, epic minimalism in exquisite registration, a sound that is dazzling -- and as sweet as honey taken straight from the comb."

Artist:	NEPTUNE
Title:	Gong Lake
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 811CD

"Behold: Neptune, the most harrowingly original band on this planet -- or the next. Its three members are, in turn, musicians, sculptors, scientists, blacksmiths, electricians, and industrial machinists; relentlessly inventive, possibly sane. Together, they construct all of their instruments, forging guitars and drums out of circular saw blades, gas tanks, oil drums, bike parts, VCR casings, and miscellany from the trash. Electronics, and even cords, are homemade as well. The combined effect is a bizarre, post-apocalyptic mélange of steel, iron, wire, rust, rivet, knob and cable; it's lunacy, arc-welded for maximum destruction. Concerts are seizures of motion. Wearing 40-pound guitars assembled entirely from scrap metal, the members don't play their instruments -- they battle them, like mechanized Golems. But make no mistake, this is not simply art with sharp edges and serious customs issues. Neptune rocks. Hard. Recalling the slapdash angularity of The Fall, the rhythmic ack-ack blasts of This Heat, and the sheer proto-clangor of Einstürzende Neubauten, they count as one of the best experimental rock bands of any era. Their dynamic, expertly wrought songs and skilled improvisations don't start; they explode. Gong Lake is the band's first unlimited CD release, and with it the world will discover what fans of their live shows have known for years: Neptune is otherworldly."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Impala Eardrums: A Radium Sampler
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 812CD

"For fifteen years, Table Of The Elements has been the preeminent source of avant audio, championing minimal, improvised, and outsider musics of various spots and stripes. Now, as its influence radiates outward, the label presents Radium, its 'rock' imprint, showcased here with Impala Eardrums, A Radium Sampler. While minimalist legend Rhys Chatham leads the way with a delightful unreleased piece from his mid-80s archives, most of the other contributors are younger folks, from a new generation of performers. It's a diverse bunch, ranging from the raw Americana of Megafaun and Jonathan Kane, to the humid, pulsating krautrock of Ateleia and the spectral songcraft of Paul Duncan. Neptune serves up its version of home-forged proto-clangor, while Collections of Colonies of Bees and School Of Seven Bells pour forth in glistening, shimmering waves. Together, these eight tracks -- all previously unreleased on CD -- have one thing in common: a resolute will to march headlong into the untamed brambles and briar patches of 21st-century sound."

Artist:	CHATHAM & HIS GUITAR TRIO ALL-STARS, RHYS
Title:	Guitar Trio is My Life!
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	3CD
Price:	$26.00
Catalog #:	TOE 813CD

"Utilizing multiple electric guitars and a single chord, 1977's Guitar Trio is composer Rhys Chatham's signature work, and a euphoric, minimal-punk classic. Now, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Guitar Trio on an epic scale, Chatham musters an all-star guitar army for the 3CD set, Guitar Trio Is My Life! The sprawling collection features members of Sonic Youth, Swans, Tortoise, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Hüsker Dü, Modern Lovers, Silver Mt. Zion, Town and Country, Die Kreutzen, 90-Day Men, Collections of Colonies of Bees, and many more; even Tony Conrad gets in on the act. Together these artists celebrate Chatham's wordless anthem, with its minimalist origins, rock & roll rhythm, ecstatic whorl of harmonics, and ever-evolving, ever-expanding nature. So, take a listen, and hear what one man can do with hundreds of guitars, 30 years, one chord, and a skyscraper of amps set to LIQUEFY. Guitar Trio endures." Includes a 32-page book with liner notes and unpublished photographs.

Artist:	ST. PIERRE, MELISSA
Title:	Specimens
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	TOE 814CD

"Melissa St. Pierre tosses classicism and post-classicism overboard, utilizing the prepared piano -- John Cage's notorious instrument of choice -- and electronic enhancement to sail resolutely in the direction of rock & roll. Peppering the strings, hammers, and dampers with a variety of objects, she transforms the piano's typical timbre: sparkling gamelans chatter; harrowing voodoo drums call out in the night. Specimens, St. Pierre's debut, features production and performances by Collections of Colonies of Bees; together they rival famed electric harpist Zeena Parkins as conservatory arsonists with a decidedly Hendrixian flair."

Artist:	MEGAFAUN
Title:	Bury The Square
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 815CD

"From the vibrant Southern quasi-capital of Durham emerge Megafaun, wearing earnestness across the chest and abstraction along the sleeves. They pour forth dulcet harmonies, as seeking vocals tug banjo lines up the Appalachian mountains; redemptive noise soaks everything, like thick air wafting from the Atlantic. Clawhammer banjo and strummed acoustics lock and roll with electric guitars and electronic textures. They realize that folk implies deep, personal, intense expression, whether the instrument is a parlor piano with the lid thrown back or a distortion pedal with the case cracked loose. In this band, orthodoxy and unorthodoxy flow together as one."

Artist:	MUELLER, JON
Title:	Physical Changes
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	LP/CD/DVD
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	TOE 817LP

"Enter Jon Mueller's mammoth new solo percussion work, Physical Changes. If his previous solo effort Metals was about pummeling rhythms and frequencies, Physical Changes drives the whole idea into oblivion, as the sounds here are something to be felt as much as heard. Joined by the intense propulsion of James Plotkin (Khanate, Khlyst, Phantomsmasher), the textural chaos of Fred Lonberg-Holm (Wilco, Peter Brotzmann Tentet, Ken Vandermark's Territory Band), the computer meltdown of Marcus Schmickler (Pluramon), the surreal precision of Dan Burke (Illusion of Safety), the glorious flight of Jim Schoenecker (Collections of Colonies of Bees) and the stunning landscape film work of David Dinnell, Physical Changes takes the idea of 'heavy rhythm' and spreads it out over an elaborate, all-inclusive three format (LP/CD/DVD) release that reveals how complex and diverse heavy rhythm can actually be. From the pounding, raw country minimalism of 'Nothing Changes,' to the brutally intense onslaught of 'Things Will Not Stay the Way They Are,' Mueller takes the fundamental concepts of rhythm and percussion, those primal devices, and turns them into an entirely new experience that's heard, seen, and felt. Come experience it for yourself."

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Artist:	ATELEIA
Title:	Nightly
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	TOE 808CD