Browse by Label: UTECH RECORDS

Artist:	PLOTKIN, JAMES
Title:	Kurtlanmak/Damascus
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 001CD

"James Plotkin began his musical career as the guitarist for metal band Old with vocalist Alan Dubin. The two would cross paths again under the guise of Khanate. In the interim Plotkin would become involved in projects ranging from guitar bent soundscape and grind to free improvisation. His body of work spans format and label, recording for Avant, Hydra Head, Asphodel, Earache, Southern Lord and Archive among others. Whether writing, performing, or producing, his output has been invariably unique and extreme. Kurtlanmak/Damascus is no exception. Recorded live in New York and Buenos Aires respectively, the tracks show a side of Plotkin rarely seen: that of the solo artist. Plotkin utilizes two distinct setups for each performance and channels the sound of acoustic instrumentation through the hum of electronic sorcery. Originally released on Utech to overwhelming acclaim, Kurtlanmak landed squarely on Wire magazine's best Outer Limits release list last year. The music has been remastered for this edition and the packaging expanded. 'Damascus' is added here as a bonus track and is previously unreleased."

Artist:	MARHAUG, LASSE
Title:	Spaghetti Western Rainbow
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 002CD

"Hailing from the land of the rising snow, Lasse Marhaug has become one of the most commanding and respected sound artists in Norway. Having collaborated with artists from varying fields of musik (Sunn O))), Aaron Dilloway and Maja Ratkje to name a few) Marhaug's reach extends into musik for theatre, dance, installations and video. A salvo to Ennio Morricone, Spaghetti Western Rainbow stands testament to the Italian composer's enduring influence. Morricone collaborator Sergio Leone established the spaghetti western genre in 1964 with A Fistful of Dollars. The director used Morricone again to score the remaining two films in his three-part account of greed and violence (For a Few Dollars More; The Good, The Bad and the Ugly) Leone's critics were struck by his brutal depiction of an unromantic West, but his singular style, camera angles and extension of time made his film different from any western that had come before. Lasse Marhaug exacts Leone's slow, beautiful power and love for expanse with shades of Morricone's genius to create what will inevitably be considered one of his masterworks. Issued on Utech Records as a micro pressing of 100 CD-R copies in the winter of 2004. Lasse Marhuag first performed this music as an unbroken laptop work for a Chicago radio station. This edition finds the piece remastered and divided into two tracks that open and close the album. Two unreleased tracks recorded in Boston, Bergen and Oslo have been added as bonus material. Artwork inspired by the film The Great Silence."

Artist:	GREENLEE, SHAWN
Title:	Nysa
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 003CD

"Shawn Greenlee is a composer and performer of experimental music in Providence, Rhode Island. He is poised at the epicenter of a panicked music scene and is best known for his solo electronic music as well as for founding the frenetic rock group Landed. Greenlee has recorded for a number of labels including Load Records, Vermiform and Hospital Productions. Nysa represents a compendium of turbulence and singularities. The sound for drunken states on mythic mountains. A studio reshaping of recordings from several live performances with custom computer programs, gestural input devices, and circuit-bent electronics. It was assembled throughout 2006 in Providence and mixes human aktions with the performance systems: Needles(s), High, Maenads, and Augur. Each system utilizes a physical approach for exploring the hidden and creating the esoteric with digital audio. Hands move and draw across circuits and codecs. Oscillating cryptographs emerge as sonic divinations, interpreted by an ecstatic body. Interference reveals noise beneath noise."

Artist:	VULTURE CLUB, THE
Title:	Live Young, Die Fast and Leave an Exquisite Corpse
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 004CD

"Rumble // feedback // electricity. Only sound. The guitar is not dead. It is still humming and I believe in it. Copper wound is copper wound, today and yesterday. Magnets are magnetic, today and yesterday. Wood is wooden, today and yesterday. Electricity is electric, today and yesterday. These things shift in their own time and on their own basis. They are not forced and in my own capacity, I do not force them. The editor's role is Advocate. The rattle you hear, that is the energy and the idea. It is not all mine and it is not all theirs and it is not all yours. But it is all ours. There was darkness before there was light, I guess. We live in between. Name is Thomas Lee // borne somewhere and will die somewhere too // currently living in Lawrence, Kansas. I reside here because neighbors are not so close and most of them are old and deaf already. Downtown where the hipsters are, I can walk amongst them and no one knows about the amps and guitars. No need to scream about the weirdness because I am invisible and alive // they let me walk fast and away. These are my people is one way or another and I refuse to belong to them. Live Young, Die Fast and Leave an Exquisite Corpse. I can't explain it any better than that." --TL

Artist:	HALF MAKESHIFT
Title:	Aphotic Leech
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 005CD

"Aphotic Leech is the first movement in a series of ever changing modes which make up what Half Makeshift has slowly become. A bath of heavy drone and bitter piano chords strewn over top of subtle glitch work and manipulated percussion, Aphotic Leech trades malice for despair and shuns any probable hope. Created in November of 2006 from austere piano pieces, string fragments, a live percussion specimen and other various arrangements, this piece grew to be much larger than originally intended through a series of long manipulation and thought processes. It is a heaviness of a different kind which engulfs the body in a thick black sludge only to dissipate at once, becoming a reborn substance and finally draining itself, leaving a small fragment lingering after it expires."

Artist:	SKULL DEFEKTS, THE
Title:	The Sound of Defekt Skulls and Intense Cranium Contact
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 006CD

...Feedbacking Gothenburg and Chicago. "The Skull Defekts, represented by Henrik Rylander and Joachim Nordwall, were invited in late September 2006 by the Chicago non-profit organization Lampo to make their U.S. debut. With them they brought recorded sounds from their home on the Swedish west coast, Gothenburg. A city breathing culture, it is also Sweden's most important export harbor. While spending close to a week in Chicago, Rylander and Nordwall carefully prepared a piece to be presented on the Lampo event on September 30th. The duo recorded more sounds, searched for the Skull sound of Chicago, and found inspiration from the city itself and the people they met. They traveled with ten mixing desks and Nordwall's custom Drone Machine, ready to complete the project with sharp psychedelic & analog noise treatments. They also investigated the CM von Hausswolff 'There Are No Crows Flying Around The Hancock Building' thesis. A crow was found below the building, it did not seem to be able to fly. The Skull Defekts recorded it while it was playing and testing its wings in a nearby park. When the Skulls left, the crow was still on the ground."

Artist:	PLOTKIN, JAMES
Title:	Indirmek
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 009CD

"James Plotkin unveils his second solo release in as many years. Indirmek presents two distinct facets of his musical work. The first track 'Afyon' (opium) lies closest to Plotkin's trademark drift. In essence, a guitar track stretched to limitless possibility. An elemental fury contained, dissected and entrusted to a NYC audience for their consideration in the spring of 2007. 'Amfetamin' (amphetamine) is a second recording from NYC, performed in the fall of 2006. The track is considerably more immediate. Its allure can be credited to Plotkin's use of electronics to invoke raw sound and shape it as he sees necessary to fit a given context. The track speaks a multitude of languages in succession and simultaneously."

Artist:	CONVEY, JOSHUA
Title:	Vacant Integument
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 010CD

"Vacant Integument is the debut release from NY resident Joshua Convey. Sharp, spiky overtones rattle four skillfully assembled tracks. Each gritty frame is lined with a delicate array of guitar, harmonica and electronics. Quiet drone hums along as melody slowly reveals itself amongst carefully placed shards of raw feedback and noise. Not since Kaoru Abe or Masayoshi Urabe has the harmonica been used to such magnificent effect. Vacant Integument is a singular and resonant work that deserves all manner of praise."

Artist:	SACHIKO
Title:	Kunado
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 012CD

"Japanese vocalist and instrumentalist Sachiko (Overhang Party, Vava Kitora, Kosokuya) looses a second, white-hot solo release. Her brilliant debut You Never Atone For on There/Musik Atlack rode gilded wings straight to the heart of the psych sun. The journey continues with Kunado. A tincture of Taj Mahal Travellers, wispy oscillations and lysergic vocals bathes the recording in delicate atmosphere as Sachiko's sonic attack leaves vicious and harrowing results. A listen not soon forgotten."

Artist:	JUNZO, SUZUKI
Title:	Pieces for Hidden Circles
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 013CD

"Japanese singer/guitar player Suzuki Junzo (Astral Travelling Unity, 20 Guilders, Overhang Party, Miminokoto) weaves an improvised country-blues folk music with touches of acid and psych. While performing and recording mostly as a solo artist, he has collaborated with Hiroshi Hasegawa, Tabata Mitsuru and Kawabata Makoto. Pieces for Hidden Circles is a recording of the highest order, evoking spirituality and devotion unrivaled. A campaign to a world of solitude, each footfall and gust of wind resonating to the heavens."

Artist:	SKULLFLOWER
Title:	Desire for a Holy War
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 015CD

"Desire for a Holy War is mayhem piled on top of mayhem piled on top of squalls of caustic feedback. Furies spitting oaths of shrouded vengeance from ancient tongues. Plague riders dealing death on mounts of venomous ether, hooves pounding the wild earth. Matthew Bower may have reached a watershed with last year's Abyssic Lowland Hiss (Heavy Blossom), but it is with Desire... that he has come to conquer. Never has Skullflower sounded so severe or remorseless. Utech Records has invoked a connate soul in visual artist Stephen Kasner to develop a second fine art series of CD releases for the label. The series will comprise nine volumes of 750 copies each over the course of 2008 beginning in April. Kasner has committed the bulk of his next outputs to painting original and exclusive canvases. His subject matter has yet to be disclosed, but the artist has spoken in general terms of a new direction he wants to explore in his work. A package unique to the series has been designed to highlight Kasner's residuum and the accompanying music. The foundation of the series is the belief that a visual device can bind a disparate body of music in a meaningful way. The genesis of this idea was first explored with photographer Max Aguilera-Hellweg in 2007 and the result was Utech Record's acclaimed Arc Series. Fruit borne from that venture has led to this stab at further examination. Kasner immediately saw value in the theory and agreed to help cultivate and refine it." Last copies, deleted edition.

Artist:	GAMMELSAETER, RUNHILD
Title:	Amplicon
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 017CD

"Runhild Gammels�ter (Thorr's Hammer, Sunn0))), Khlyst) releases her first solo recording. The purpose was to create something organic -- sound with and about life. A lonely thing, like life, arisen from void. Stillness and a microphone, vocal chords. An idea, thoughts, a goal. Sounds of cycles of life and death, birth and cessation, described with terminology from physics, chemistry and biology. Creating by amplifying an infinitely small idea, creating an Amplimer, an Amplicon. Amplicons are pieces of DNA formed as the products of natural or artificial amplification events. Like evolution, giving rise to animal forms with ability to reproduce and die. Amplifying from a minute non-tangible idea something larger which may be experienced with the auditory sense. In physics, matter creation is the appearance of elementary particles in physical processes; the opposite of annihilation. Amplicon sees Gammels�ter as a creation operator, increasing the number of particles in a given state, taking the operation necessary to amplify ideas to sound. Mixed by Tore Ylvisaker of Ulver."

Artist:	STARGAZER'S ASSISTANT, THE
Title:	Shivers And Voids
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 018CD

"David J. Smith (Guapo, Miasma & The Carousel Of Dead Horses) releases a second set of recordings as The Stargazer's Assistant. Following The Other Side of the Island on Aurora Borealis, Shivers and Voids is a union of instrument, voice and tape. A soundtrack left waiting for the right film to accompany it through the dark. Sweeping, intricate, sometimes ominous, yet always exuding a warmth of emotion. Ancient forests, vast plains, billowing clouds, rusted metal hulks, wet rock walls, lights flickering in darkness. The Stargazer's Assistant reveals all this to us."

Artist:	ALUK TODOLO
Title:	Finsternis
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 022CD

"Aluk Todolo are a recondite creature. Part okkult black metal fiend and part vindictive kraut menace. Somehow the doppelganger works and Finsternis proves for a second time there is brilliance in the absence of light. Dry, spare percussion grievously mines the scrapes, shrieks and shimmer of mutated guitar and bass. Finsternis is the German word for eclipse, mimetic of cyclic elements, phases and unphases, endless rebeginnings, broken circles and perfect circles. A dangerous, noxious coil of all things black. Edition of 750."

Artist:	BLOOD FOUNTAINS
Title:	Floods
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 023CD

"There is no beginning, there is no end, only perpetual oscillation between experience, memory and gravity. Emotion propels our lives, connected to one another and all things through infinity. Floods reaches inward, to the icy depths of the heart to touch and to return with ancient elements unfolding in spectral bliss and horror. Reality of pain and agony is equally married with yearning, dreaming and joyous exaltation. Stephen Kasner evokes a fully-realized painting-to-music translation, with collaborations by David Beaver, Mat Woods, Cheryl Pyle and the haunting vocals of Yoshiko Ohara (Bloody Panda). Floods calls forth a remarkable section of time and feeling, simultaneously compressed and unfurling. A frozen monster of memories, hope and love, and a constant reminder of death's door. Seamless, endless, connected energy. These are fragments of hauntings within us all. We must always remember. Edition of 750."

Artist:	NADJA
Title:	Trembled
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 024CD

"Trembled has returned, triumphantly. Released by Utech Records [046] in the summer of 2006 on limited CD-R. The principal live recordings from Toronto have been remixed/remastered and include a rare performance of Swans 'No Cure for the Lonely.' The core of the release, though, is 'Tremble,' a cascading improvisation of drift and atmospherics revealed to audiences on an occasional basis. The track is telling of the fluidity with which Nadja create and why the band has become so highly regarded. 'Breakpoint' and 'Corrasion' complete the set. Exclusive material has been added in 'Stays Demons' and a second version of 'Tremble' recorded by Scott Slimm in Philadelphia. Illustration by Justin Bartlett. The ultimate document of Nadja at their most electric and empyreal. Edition of 900."

Artist:	SUM OF R
Title:	Sum Of R
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 025CD

"Switzerland's Sum of R is Reto M�der (RM74) and Christoph Hess and Roger Ziegler (Herpes � Deluxe) constructing/deconstructing sound in ways that infest and cloud the interior of the mind. The implements: electronics, bass guitar, piano, drums, harmonium and Lenco turntables. The science: deep pulsations, organic drones, melodic feedback accompaniment, vinyl loops, analog sound sources, reversed audio, haunting vocal treatments. The sum: a living, breathing organism that sustains varied levels of function without ever losing its holistic unity. Presented in a heavy black matte digi printed with silver ink. Includes silver/black fold out insert. Photography by Rik Garrett. Edition of 750."

Artist:	CALCINATION
Title:	Calcination
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 026CD

"Calcination is the first stage in the process of alchemical transformation, the administration of heat until a given substance is reduced to ash. It is often symbolized by sulfuric acid, a powerful corrosive that eats away flesh and reacts with all metals except gold. In sociological terms, the fire of calcination represents turning to dust, life and death, the cycle of existence. Antoine Chessex (Monno) and Ktho Zoid approach their music similarly, burning through dense layers of sax and guitar. Amplification, feedback and reduction are applied until an impenetrable resin remains. Edition of 500."

Artist:	VAGUSNERVE
Title:	Lo Pan
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 028CD

"The lo pan is an ancient, intricate compass used in the practice of traditional Chinese feng shui and is sometimes referred to as 'the universe on a plate.' A lo pan consists of two parts -� a square wooden base into which is fitted a freely rotating saucer-shaped disk. In the centre of the disk is a small depression containing a magnetized needle. Between the needle and the edge of the disk are engraved several concentric rings, each divided into sectors containing different sets of Chinese characters. The relationship between this physical object and the music you hear on this album was inspired by a dream that Li Jianhong (guitar) had in June 2006. In his dream he came to a clearing in a dark forest which contained a huge lo pan, as big as a table. Convinced that the device could provide a way to summon UFOs, he lay down on the lo pan and began to rotate around the various symbols on the concentric rings. As he did so, a vast array of UFOs appeared above the forest. For Li Jianhong then, the lo pan represents a form of ancient knowledge that can be used to unlock the secrets of the universe. His collaborator in VagusNerve, Vavabond (laptop), reads the lo pan in a slightly different way. For her, it is a device which can be used to discover a balance between the individual and the cosmos, by aligning personal energy with the cosmic. This idea of balance runs through the music as it pulses, shifts and resonates freely, seeking to create and then destroy structures of equilibrium. Photography by Vavabond. Typography and drawing by Li Jianhong. Text by Alan Cummings. Edition of 500."

Artist:	HASEGAWA-SHIZUO
Title:	Lift
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	UR 029CD

"It was on a night when sleep simply would not come, no matter how long I sprawled on the grass or how many pages of my book I leafed through. The black shaggy 'thing' expelled all the breath in its body. Phu phu phuu. And as it did so, something glowed softly at the crown of its head. 'Ahh, what a beautiful light! I should put a hat over it to stop it flying away.' The black shaggy thing took his favourite hat, the one he had hung from a tree branch, and popped it onto his head. 'Perfect.' Hirotomo Hasegawa and Shizuo Uchida. Hasegawa was the lead singer of seminal early eighties Japanese punk/hardcore group Aburadako (Greasy Octopus), while Uchida was a long-term member of Haino's Nijiumu medieval dream-drone unit. The recording is the result of unedited improvisation. A beatific recording filled with light and avidity. Edition of 500."

Artist:	HORSEBACK
Title:	The Invisible Mountain
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 039CD

"As Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain was a satire of the western approach to personal enlightenment and self-actualization, Horseback's The Invisible Mountain is a work composed as a means to channel the self-destructive tendencies of its maker Jenks Miller. The channeling process has required a functionally solipsistic worldview based on the efficacy of individual will in ascertaining its specific reality. This worldview, in turn, has caused a sort of fissure between social consciousness and individual consciousness. In specific, the invisible mountain is an abstraction of the God-self in this whole process, a tenuous and ever-collapsing fabrication that perpetuates the individual psyche amidst processes that would otherwise destroy it or steal its creative power. The mountain itself is false: existing only to the individual as he climbs toward self-realization, and unknowable in any external reality; but it is as necessary as it is false. Without the fabrication, individual reality would crumble and one would be stripped of creative power. The record itself is based on repetitive guitar riffs and drum patterns similar to mantras in meditation, blackened vocals referencing the uncomfortable tension between one's quest for transcendence and their unresolved relationship with the rest of society The tracks are devices to help maintain discipline in an attempt to conquer. The last track breaks from the mantras into a less rigorously controlled wash of sound. Liberation. Pressed with black ink on a black translucent paper sleeve. All white inserts with poster. Illustration by Denis Kostromitin. Edition of 500."

Artist:	URAL UMBO
Title:	Ural Umbo
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	UR 040CD

"Ural Umbo is Reto M�der (Sum of R, RM74) and Steven Hess (Fessenden, Haptic) electrifying internal music through a broad spectrum of instrumentation. Horns, piano, organ, harmonium, bass guitar, strings, electronics, drums and percussion guide the formation of black, subliminal melodies and slow feedback accompaniments. Each piece consumes the organic and dynamically balanced process that created it. With a nod to 1960s horror movie scoring, M�der and Hess displace sound from the veil of the supernatural and coax it back to our world. Presented in a heavy black/white sleeve with white translucent paper overlay. Photography by Rik Garrett. Edition of 500."

Artist:	ARCHITEUTHIS REX
Title:	Dark As The Sea
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	UR 041CD

"Architeuthis rex. Leviathan. King. Magnificent sea dweller and haunter of the dreams of Italian artist Antonio Gallucci. Dark As The Sea is that dream, each of the seven recordings an aperture into a horrific underwater world filled with the fear of what lies outside. Together, the album is a kaleidoscope of Don Cherry's Brown Rice, backward masked King Tubby acetates, strange strings, outer space broadcasts of unholy funeral rites, Native American percussion and metaphysical drone. Illustration by John Rockwell. Edition of 500."

Artist:	SKULL DEFEKTS/THE SONS OF GOD, THE
Title:	Received In Studio Dental, Gothenburg
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	UR 044CD

"For the recording, Henrik Rylander and Joachim Nordwall of drone operators The Skull Defekts got together with the legendary performance and noise duo The Sons of God -- consisting of conceptual artist and self-proclaimed king of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland Leif Elggren and electro-acoustic sound artist Kent Tankred. The place for the meeting was Rylander's Studio Dental and the album was received in one night. The process developed immediately and there was no struggle to find a common idea of sound. Rylander and Nordwall on no-input mixing desk and analog synths and Elggren and Tankred on amplified metallic rakes, an old fan and FX. Something was caught on tape. That something is what you are now listening to. Photograph by Carley King. Edition of 500."

Previous Page Index of Labels Next Page

Artist:	MENCHE, DANIEL
Title:	Wolf's Milk
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 007CD

Artist:	KNELL
Title:	Last Ten Meters
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 008CD

Artist:	ZAIMPH
Title:	La Nuit Electrique
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 011CD

Artist:	MITSURU, TABATA
Title:	Lumrapideco
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 014CD

Artist:	HEAVENSORE
Title:	Asmodai
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 016CD

Artist:	KLANGMUTATIONEN
Title:	Schwarshagel
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 019CD

Artist:	RST
Title:	Tomorrow's Void
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 020CD

Artist:	FINAL
Title:	Dead Air
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 021CD

Artist:	GARGAUD, GUILLAUME
Title:	She
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 027CD

Artist:	GOG
Title:	Mist From The Random More
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 037CD

Artist:	DUMONT, OLIVIER
Title:	Living In Holes And Disused Shafts
Label:	UTECH RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	UR 038CD