Browse by Label: VHF

Artist:	PELT
Title:	Brown Cyclopaedia
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 025CD

Previously available as a double LP on the band's own label, now on CD w/ new artwork by Christina Carter. "Pelt distill the most worthy influences of the recent generation of obscure bands down to the best of the best and add a healthy dose of their own isolation-honed touch. Songs ring with simple, emotionally charged vocals and expressive guitar playing, easily the equal to the best from the NZ/Xpressway scene. Careful soundscapes emerge from a dense fog of guitar and horn noise. Middle-eastern sounding drones are conjured from a trio of guitars and a wordless vocal. Slowly, life becomes meaningful again."

Artist:	YOUNGS/SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH, RICHARD
Title:	Metallic Sonatas 1-15
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	VHF 040CD

"15 short, searing slices of electronic mayhem on this, the prolific duo's latest and last for awhile (Simon Wickham-Smith is moving to Australia), contrast the song-oriented action of their previous release Pulse of the Rooster. Performed on electric sitar, voice, glass harmonica, drum machine, electric cifteli, electric banjolin, violin, cello, cardboard boxes, Casio, electric shirt-reinforcer, electric bass, guitar, bowed cymbals, electric Thai harp, clock-chimes, reed organ, and bagpipes, the sounds have been mutated into towering alien sculptures evoking the "textures" of metals. Each piece is short and novel enough not to slip into dreary repetition. Metallic Sonatas, like most R!!! & S!!! releases, somehow makes the most unusual music accessible."

Artist:	SUNROOF
Title:	Delicate Autobahns Under Construction
Label:	VHF
Format:	2CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	VHF 041CD

"This is the first CD release by Matthew Bower's new group, following the retirement of Skullflower and Total. The trio of Bower, John Godbert and Neil Campbell mines territory similar to Total but with a more group-oriented, communal trance arrangement. Taking cues from minimalist composers, Indian music, and assorted folk musics, Sunroof uses guitar, violin, hand percussion and reeds to build up layer upon layer of stratospheric bliss. On top of the wedges of sound floats Bower's sometimes gentle, sometimes excoriating, always unmistakable electric guitar."

Artist:	WICKHAM-SMITH, SIMON
Title:	Butterfly Dust
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	VHF 044CD

"The first solo CD by Simon Wickham-Smith follows a long and prolific 10 year recording partnership with Richard Youngs. Recorded during a temporary relocation to Australia, Butterfly Dust is a strikingly intimate solo performance on organ, voice, Peruvian Reed, and didgeridoo. The performances here are informed by a rare combination of virtuosity and exploratory improvisation. In comparison with some prior performances (e.g. Simon's startlingly skilled assault on a grand piano on Knish), Butterfly Dust is in a more minimal style, where sounds are given room to build up and establish a mood over the long term. This is particularly true of the long organ solo "Objects Appearing", where notes are slowly added to a drone over a period of several minutes, giving each newly introduced note a significant impact."

Artist:	SUNROOF
Title:	Found Star Sound
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	VHF 046CD

"Found Star Sound is the annual dispatch for 2000 from Matthew Bower and friends, continuing their long legacy of outward-bound audio verit�. Recorded mostly at Bower's Cumbrian home in the rainy and windy UK Lake district, the group's droning guitars, organs, voices, and violins blend with twinkling percussion to evoke an atmosphere perfectly suited to such an environment. Following a brief living-room-organ-with-built-in-rhythm-section-gon e-haywire introduction on 'Pink Stream 1', the CD builds a vibe around Bower's thickly buzzing but mellow & casual guitar. Steadily picking up momentum, the record peaks with the chugging sound of trains epic 'Pink Stream 2', calms briefly, and then goes out strong with a rousing blast of guitar and violin scrape on 'Silvera'. Another scuff from the UK's biggest scuffmakers."

Artist:	VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA
Title:	Versatile Arab Chord Chart
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	VHF 048CD

"Versatile Arab Chord Chart is the second full-length outing by the quintet of Neil Campbell, Michael Flower, Julian Bradley, Bridget Hayden, and Adam Davenport. They cut the drones in their life with extremely effective bursts of near rock, in a style reminiscent of the pre-Nico Velvet Underground (circa 1966 or so). The band's combination of clattering percussion, droning strings, and considerable sense of where to put the 'groove' on tracks like 'Catching Lovers With Blank Arms' makes them unique among their peers."

Artist:	MONTGOMERY, ROY
Title:	Silver Wheel Of Prayer
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 049CD

"With so much outward-bound free action these days, it's oddly comforting to hear someone's -- well, Roy Montgomery's -- version of the journey to the heart of the inner cosmos. A sister record to Montgomery's Drunken Fish CD The Allegory Of Hearing, Silver Wheel has seven complementary instrumental tracks, played mostly on Tiesco six-string and recorded mostly on four-track. A couple of tracks are dominated by a new Farfisa organ, which provides a gliding drone and waver on which to hang titles like 'For The Disoriented' and 'For The Mortified'."

Artist:	MAKOTO, KAWABATA
Title:	Inui 2
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 051CD

"Inui 2 is the first widely available solo CD by this prolific Japanese guitarist/composer/bearded guru. Known primarily for his recent work with oddballs Acid Mothers Temple, Kawabata's career actually goes back to the late '70s and spans many styles, including solo guitar improv, electronics, folk, and of course the deranged acid mayhem associated with the PSF scene. Performed entirely solo on violin, kemenje, zurna, electronics, sarangi, taiko, gong, water, bouzouki, cello, vibes, organ and sitar, the four tracks that make up Inui 2 are perfectly executed dream-music, equal parts delicately floating and heavily droning. There's also one all-too-short modal essay for bouzouki that is amazingly beautiful."

Artist:	YOUNGS/SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH, RICHARD
Title:	Lake
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 052CD

"Originally issued in an edition of 300 on their No Fans label and for all intents and purposes unavailable and unheard for a decade, the tenth anniversary CD-ification of their classic debut double LP still sounds as revelatory and alien as it did when it was released. Tracks like the immortal college freak-out 'Dance: Help the Aged (Give Them A Heart Attack)', the minimal pulse epic 'Chord', and the psych-fuzz rock mania of 'Goat' have been undiluted in their majesty by the unbearable decade that has elapsed between then and now. Deep breath, keep the eyes from rolling back in the head, focus, focus, highest rating."

Artist:	WINGTIP SLOAT
Title:	Add This To Rhetoric
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	VHF 057CD

"On this long planned (and frequently delayed) restoration of the Virginia trio's rare and out-of-print singles and compilation tracks from the early '90s, all 30 tracks make their first CD appearance, restoring two of the earliest VHF titles to print, along with a wealth of other impossible-to-find gems. Covering their most active years, Add This To Rhetoric captures Wingtip Sloat at their baffling, fragmentary best, dealing out slashing rock sides that bristle with hooks and ear-catching weirdness. Sloat's superbly packaged, handmade/homemade singles were among the finest of their era, and although they appear here on a plain ol' CD, the music still sounds as revelatory as it did 15 years ago. Rifling through ideas with Wire-like efficiency, Pat Foster's trebly, jabbing guitar, Ange Dubuc's rumbling bass, and Dave Bishop's unpredictable drum splatter carried the charge that pretty much invented the VHF label itself. Wearing their influences on their sleeves, the CD includes smashing covers of key tracks by The Clean, Tall Dwarfs, Sun City Girls, Swell Maps, and World of Pooh. Booklet includes liner notes from the band and VHF HQ along with period ephemera for a full immersion experience."

Artist:	WICKHAM-SMITH & RICHARD YOUNGS, SIMON
Title:	LAmmerGEIER
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 058CD

"This finds the duo continuing to pursue the head-scratching assortment and range of outer sound in a somewhat more contemporary style. LAmmERGEIR makes use of all sorts of exotic instruments, but like Metallic Sonatas, many of the pieces have undergone electronic transformation, adding an extra layer of unsettling aural alchemedia to the tunes. Some of the sounds show the influence of Simon's laptop work over the last couple of years. Laptops aside, the layers of microscopic detail on LAmmERGEIER should give listeners plenty of practice in differentiating sounds that are produced by complicated software and sounds that are produced by a guy whacking a baking tray with a stick."

Artist:	FROM QUAGMIRE
Title:	The Tropic of Barren
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 059CD

"The debut release from Virginia's From Quagmire. A trio of Dorothy Geller, James Wolf, and Rake guitarist Vincent Van Go-Gogh, FQ's beautiful, mysterious and just plain weird art-song drift is a look into a rather under-explored corner of the underground universe. The slowly unfolding songs are based on Dorothy's nylon-string guitar and hushed-but-pointed vocals, punctuated by Wolf's expertly sawed violin and Van Go-Gogh's unpredictable percussion, electronics and guitar interjections. The music is highly detailed and performed with significant individual personality, rather than the predictable loud-soft-repeat bombast of other contemporary post-whatever ensembles.'

Artist:	SUNROOF
Title:	Bliss
Label:	VHF
Format:	2CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	VHF 060CD

"The atmosphere of this somewhat delayed yet unstoppable annual collection from long-in-the-tooth UK vibe maestro Matthew Bower and friends (who include Neil Campbell, Rosalie Bower, and maybe some other people -- honestly, who can tell?) is mostly spaced and buzzing instruments and voices hovering and floating in the dense mix, all running together like some sort of alien shortwave broadcast. Disc 1 takes off from where last year's Found Star Sound left us -- a mix of fuzzy guitar and organ rhythms jousting with voice, bowed strings, and unidentifiable percussion in a compressed fog. Disc 2 is a headlong rush into newish territory, with analog synth vs. birdsong, child's voice vs. sawing violin, chug vs. fizz, etc. There are many tracks on both discs that have subtle (and overt) melodic and rhythmic undercurrents suggesting a fuzz/hiss-dominated alternate-universe version of say, Harmonia or Richter Band."

Artist:	BLACK TWIG PICKERS
Title:	North Fork Flyer
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 061CD

"North Fork Flyer represents the continued persistence of a type of Appalachian folk music that has come and gone from the popular radar over the years, but has never completely disappeared from the Black Twig Pickers' Southwest Virginia home. The songs on North Fork Flyer are mostly traditional numbers (with a few originals sprinkled in) that form the backbone of a century-old tradition -- the music of bonfires, front porches, coal miner's festivals, and informal gatherings. These 'mountain ragas,' as the group calls them, have been recorded, performed, and revised continually by a who's who of true American artistry -- luminaries such as Bukka White, Mississippi John Hurt, John Fahey, Bob Wills, Holy Modal Rounders, New Lost City Ramblers, etc., etc. Recorded live to DAT on front porches and in family rooms, North Fork Flyer blends the fiddle blues of Ralph Berrier Jr., Isak Howell's sinewy guitar and the drone and twitch of Pelt's Mike Gangloff's fretless clawhammer banjo with the trio's rough-around-the-edges but warm vocal harmonies. Played to the accompaniment of night insects, passing trains, and the noise of wandering children, the music retains the charm of tradition but is free of fake antiquarianism and nostalgia. Regardless of age, the music is just as relevant today as it was 100 years ago and the band plays it like they mean it."

Artist:	PELT
Title:	Ayahuasca
Label:	VHF
Format:	2CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	VHF 062CD

"Recorded over a period of more than two years at various live and studio sessions, this double-CD shows the heavily bearded Jack Rose, Mike Gangloff, and Patrick Best broadcasting from lesser-known and newly discovered corners of the drone-omniverse. Most striking about the record is the inclusion of several traditional tunes, arranged for the group's eclectic instrumentation. While Pelt have long performed acoustic material, Ayahuasca is the first release to fully explore this part of their repertoire. 'The Cuckoo' and 'Deep Sunny South' are traditional Appalachian numbers, played and sung with considerable skill and feeling. The sawing bowed acoustic guitar on the former and the rolling banjo and Tibetan bowl accompaniment on the latter draw a direct line between raw/folk traditions and the deep, visceral drone music that Pelt have specialized in over the past several years. Combining the two styles neatly, 'A Raga Called John' features Jack Rose's very, very fine country-blues/Fahey-influenced fingerstyle guitar over a shifting backdrop of hurdy-gurdy and concertina, before giving way to tanpuras overrun by fretless banjo. Of course, on top of all this easily comprehensible music there's plenty of ear-cleansing, ecstatic drone, from the two long floatation-inducing trios for bowed electrics and esraj to the wall-shaking electric hurdy-gurdy mania of 'Bear Head Apparition.' Truly a record for our times, such as they are."

Artist:	KAWABATA & RICHARD YOUNGS, MAKOTO
Title:
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 064CD

"This untitled CD of duets by Kawabata Makoto, the leader of Acid Mothers Temple, and the slightly less available Glasgow librarian Richard Youngs shows the pair in a relaxed yet psychedelic mood where it is immediately apparent that the two are really listening to one another instead of merely adding to their already vast discographies. Throughout the five untitled tracks, simple modal melodies are performed on acoustic guitar, autoharp, organ, voice and other instruments rubbing against the swirling production and layers of shifting haze. Young's identifiable voice, guitar and autoharp greet Kawabata's echo treatments on the first track, while track three reverses the process with Young's minor key picking cutting against Kawabata's thick, visceral drones. Tracks two, four and five all use a base of beautiful fingerpicked guitar melodies, layering organ, synth, tape effects and echo until a mellow cosmic vibe is achieved."

Artist:	WICKHAM-SMITH, SIMON
Title:	Extreme Bukake
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 065CD

"In contrast to the live performance-based pieces on Simon Wickham-Smith's 1999 CD Butterfly Dust, the perversely titled follow-up Extreme Bukake is a dissection of religious music, realized on laptop computer. Traditional components like Catholic hymns and Wickham-Smith's vocal on a Hare Krsna prayer get fragmented, splintered, and reassembled into a rich blob of sound. According to his notes on the tracks, 'The Self-Immolation of Thich Quang Duc' is a programmatic work based around the death of the titular Vi�tnamese monk who set himself alight to protest about the activity of the Vi�tnamese government in the early 1960s. He was a friend of Thich Nhat Hanh, whom Martin Luther King Jr. nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965. The music sounds like the insanity of the situation, the external noise of cars and people and the internal noise of the heart and the soul of this man. 'Sri Guru Vandana' is a song from the Hare Krsna (ISKCON) tradition of Krisna Vaisnavitism, a nod in the direction of Wickham-Smith's pre-Buddhist, teenager self, the young man who got into ISKCON and then freaked out at the evangelical nature of the organization. This track acknowledges the positive side of his experience. 'Ave Regina Celorum' is based on a Catholic hymn to Mary, an attempt to create a piece which could perhaps be used for meditation, either formal or informal."

Artist:	VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA
Title:	Dabbling With Gravity And Who You Are
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 066CD

"The latest and current pinnacle from the quintet of Neil Campbell, Bridgit Riley, Julian Bradley, Michael Flower, and Adam Davenport was assembled from recordings of their weekly sessions in Flower's kitchen. The tracks here represent the joyous, celebratory side of VCO -- all forward motion, massed strings, percussion, horns, and little instruments rocketing forward in a swirl of sound. Compared to the more austere sounds of recent CDs like Lino Hi and Versatile Arab Chord Chart, the tracks here take off from the spot where the loose hippie-chant-and-drum action of collectives like Amon D��l intersects with the polyglot instrumental approach of mid-'60s Sun Ra."

Artist:	FROM QUAGMIRE
Title:	Caught In Unknowing
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 071CD

"Working from Dorothy Geller's assured finger-picked and plucked nylon-string guitar, and James Wolf's elegant violin lines, From Quagmire explores a kind of hushed, terse chamber song that is so unlike anything else it's hard to draw comparisons. V2G2's unorthodox interruptions of sawing bowed guitar, free-'jazz' drumming, and other unlikely audio splatter is the wild card that keeps things from getting too austere. Usually it's totally beside the point, but it's worth mentioning that unlike most underground folk/outsider weirdness, the music here is superbly recorded in close-up detail."

Artist:	YOUNGSBOWER
Title:	Relayer
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 072CD

"The second collaboration between these two stalwart titans of the true UK underground comes eight years after their first pairing on the Site/Realm LP. The title no doubt a nod to the odd resemblance of seven-year-old Rosalie Bower's cover art to another LP of the same title, this Relayer throws out the live methodology of the earlier LP for a dense set of layered studio recordings. Like the music of Matthew Bower's Sunroof! group, the tracks are rainbows of colors and textures with string drone, percussion, bleeps, and the unidentifiable, competing in a mix devoid of the traditional 'lead with backing' schema. Many tracks have the kind of welcoming electronic bed seldom heard since the demise of Harmonia, with ring-modulated fuzz bleeping away over a chugging, but non-oppressive beat."

Artist:	BLACK TWIG PICKERS
Title:	Soon One Morning
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 073CD

"The second CD by this SW Virginia area trio is firmly planted in Old-Time Appalachian tradition, but concentrates mostly on original material. Standing out in particular is 'Floyd Allen,' Ralph Berrier Jr.'s masterful retelling of an area tragedy with a sweet and unexpected major/minor chorus change-up. Mike Gangloff's lengthy and elegiac instrumental 'This War Is Killing Me' glides along on a sad melody passed around between resonator guitar, cello and fiddle. Many tracks are anchored by Gangloff's unusual gut-string baritone banjo. Two solo instrumentals on the CD add balance between the vocal numbers -- Isak Howell's 'Have You Been To Alabama?' is a subtle fingerpicked workout, while Gangloff's 'Ironto Special' is a considerably more exotic-sounding modal construction on the big banjo."

Artist:	SUNROOF
Title:	Cloudz
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 075CD

"Bi-annual collection of pillow sound from Matthew Bower & Co. Fairly mellow and spacey, � la the Embroidered Birdsong Nearly Meadows disc from Sunroof's 2001 Bliss double-CD. Layers of twinkling keyboard, guitar, unidentified fuzz, short wave, etc. Very much in the style of Harmonia and Cluster in spots. There are a couple of amped-up moments here and there, including surprise lead guitar action on 'Tornado Rose Canoe,' and the excellent fuzz-grilled rock of 'Primavera' (aka 'AC/DC' -- a staple of recent live sets). According to no less of an authority than Neil Campbell, Cloudz is 'the best Sunroof ever'."

Artist:	PELT
Title:	Pearls From The River
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 076CD

"First new music in a couple of years from the trio, focusing entirely on their acoustic side -- a single session recorded in Virginia by Mikel Dimmick. 'Up the North Fork' is a trio for banjo, baritone banjo, and cello -- after the snaky bowed introduction, the fast thwacking of the banjos and forcefully strummed cello take over and whip up a storm. The other two tracks are lengthy ragas (one in C, one in D) with the virtuoso modal guitar of Jack Rose front and center."

Artist:	VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA
Title:	The Queen of Guess
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 077CD

"While certainly VCO's most upbeat and percussive music, the nine tracks on this immense, visceral slab of rackety action run through a wide range of styles. 'Ramshackle Sunrise' has a gamelan-like, five-note melody overlaid with a hovering drone. 'The Silent Socket' rocks with 'Sister Ray'-style guitar careening along side actual drums. The two 20-minute epics that bookend the record are a study in contrasts: 'Your Head Shone Like A Stone' has a heavy, excited buzz, while the closing 'Goodnight Stars Goodnight Air' is a gentler acoustic epilogue, gliding into the rosy future."

Artist:	HWAN TRIO, KANG TAE
Title:	Love Time
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 079CD

"Love Time is under-documented Korean alto player Kang Tae Hwan's debut release; his trio includes Makoto Kawabata and percussionist Ichiraku Yoshimitsu. More minimalist than free jazz, Love Time centers on Hwan's long circular tones, avoiding common free-alto styles in favor of a roughly hewn clarion approach. Kawabata and Yoshimitsu shadow Hwan subtly on sarangi and bowed percussion. The music gradually builds to a crescendo, with Kawabata switching to guitar and Yoshimitsu moving to the drum kit. An atmospheric and understated work. In letterpress gatefold. One track, fifty minutes."

Artist:	ROSE, JACK
Title:	Two Originals Of...
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 081CD

"The debut solo CD by Jack Rose combines his much-lauded Eclipse LPs Red Horse, White Mule and Opium Musick. While the former is generally recognized as inspired by the Takoma tradition, Rose adds his own exotic influences and recognizable touch -- whether abstracting on the modal epic 'Red Horse' or the rough slide stylings of 'The Colonel's Blues.' The latter is an eclectic collection with pieces for 12-string (the percussive and dark 'Black Pearls'), 6-string, and lap guitar. The two tracks featuring the lap guitar are duets. The lovely raga-ish 'Yaman Blues' features Pelt's Mike Gangloff on tanpura, and the near-ragtime of 'Linden Ave Stomp' features Glenn Jones of Cul de Sac on his vintage Gibson. The 12-page booklet reproduces the liner notes from both LPs and adds a few snaps."

Artist:	NEILSON & RICHARD YOUNGS, ALEXANDER
Title:	Ourselves
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 082CD

"Ourselves was originally recorded in Glasgow 2003 as a one-hour special for broadcast on London's Resonance FM but turned out too good to leave to the ether. It is the first collaboration between VHF mainstay Richard Youngs and octopus-armed percussionist Alexander Neilson (currently working with the Glasgow big-band Scatter, whose debut is due soon on Cenotaph). The music here represents something of a return to the extended psychedelic mania of mid-'90-s R!!! outings such as Asthma and Diabetes and Enedkeg. 'Beam' kicks off the CD with Youngs ripping it up on electric guitar over a thick blanket of hand percussion, plucked strings, and backwards scraping noises. The 36-minute 'Mexico' follows with more string mangling, segueing into an atmospheric interlude for voices, bowed cymbals, and bells. The final track is an unusual rendering of the traditional 'God Bless The Master,' with Youngs's unmistakable voice carrying the original melody over the cloud of bric-a-brac and swells of electricity swirling in the background."

Artist:	L
Title:	Holy Letters
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 084CD

"Recorded in 1989 and 1990, Hiroyuki Usui's barely circulated masterpiece of deeply felt self-expression beautifully captures the spirit and substance of a half-dozen key sub-underground pillars of sound. Working with guitar, vocals, vibes, harmonium, bass, drums, cello, field recordings, didgeridoo, and more, Usui blends delicate folk, psychedelia, and experimental sounds into a mostly subdued but undeniably glowing suite. The layered but careful instrumentation on the epic title track and 'Troll' backs the alternately plain-spoken and crooning vocals perfectly. Odd touches like snatches of throat singing and bowed vibraphone leap out of the mix at just the right time. There are overt references to the blues (the first track is an oblique cover of 'Cold Was The Ground') -- but other than the occasional slide guitar touch, the connection is overwhelmingly in the timeless feeling and atmosphere. For anyone who's into Richard Youngs, Popol Vuh, Six Organs of Admittance, Tim Buckley, acid-folk, or Japanese underground, this is an essential purchase. VHF's reissue includes the entire CD and seven-inch from the original package, plus a ten-minute bonus track from the original sessions. "

Artist:	ROSE, JACK
Title:	Raag Manifestos
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 085CD

"Compiled from a variety of sources, Raag Manifestos cuts across various acoustic styles much like Rose's Opium Musick LP, but with a more aggressive attack. 'Black Pearls from the River' and 'Hart Crane's Old Boyfriends' are dense, serious assaults on the 12-string, with the intensity of the latter enhanced by Ian Nagoski's roaring electronic backdrop. With subtle tabla accompaniment by Eric Carbonara, 'Crossing The Great Waters,' is another epic modal journey in the style of Pelt's 'Road To Catawba' and Rose's own 'Red Horse.' The traditional 'Blessed Be the Name of the Lord' finishes off the CD on a calming note. In mini-gatefold."

Artist:	ILK
Title:	Canticle
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 087CD

"Outrageous CD of prog rock from Richard Youngs' and Andrew Paine's Ilk, Canticle is a long promised follow-up to the group's 1998 CD Zenith, which was released on Youngs' No Fans label. Unlike Youngs' more 'minimalist' solo records, Ilk drapes his songs and voice in thick layers of heavy jams, and then piles on the production tricks, vocal layers, Steve Howe-style leads, synth bleeps, and other racket in beautifully intricate arrangements. Canticle is clearly influenced by the classic UK progressives but unmistakably contemporary. 'A Guiding Principle' and 'Landsong' marry Youngs' and Paine's multi-tracked voices with over the top full rock-band arrangements. 'Honour's Prospect' mixes mystical narration with some searing fuzz-guitar, and is followed by the bass-heavy march of 'The Weight of Stars.' 'Tilling' shimmers and echoes, leading into the spacey and cosmic 'Outward & Homeward.' The folky 'Of Souls' serves as a fittingly simple epilogue to the suite. Veronica Rennie's cover art completes the package in highly appropriate style."

Artist:	FROM QUAGMIRE
Title:	Habitats In the Wound
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 088CD

"Enigmatic trio From Quagmire's third release of startling art-song works in an area completely devoid of identifiable US / Anglo 'folk' influence. The 'Quag's mix of collage and roughly styled human performance is full of dramatic contrast. Most tracks house Dorothy Geller's voice and pointillistic, nylon-string guitar in a thick embrace of droning sound. Much of the CD was recorded in the UK, where guests Helena Espvall-Santoleri (cello), Sharon Krauss (whistle and clarinet) and Simon Wickham-Smith (electronics) added their substantial input to the record. Touches such as Wickham-Smith's understated electronics on 'A Father's Vision' and Espvall-Santoleri's dark bowing on most cuts redefine From Quagmire's signature sound -- away from the percussive and jarring avant explosions heard on Tropic of Barren and Caught In Unknowing and toward a more subtle, refined brand of expression."

Artist:	MAKOTO, KAWABATA
Title:	Inui.3
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 089CD

"The third volume in an acclaimed series by the Acid Mothers Temple leader, Inui.3 focuses on Makoto Kawabata's highly personal brand of epic instrumental drone. Performing on bouzouki, sarangi, electric guitar, viola, and ECS-101, Kawabata emphasizes the gradual build of monumental sound structures. Running twelve minutes each, 'Sui' and 'Ken' are darkly spun tales, with wisps of sound keening over a distant backdrop. Recalling the Speed Guru's lovely 2001 collaboration with Richard Youngs, the 47-minute 'Fuku' is based on a hypnotic arpeggio plucked out on the bouzouki over which Gong-style glissando guitar and other zonked sounds are carefully layered."

Artist:	PELT
Title:	Untitled
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 090CD

"(untitled) is a devastating set of almost pure white light from the newly upgraded Pelt lineup. The album's intense drone music represents a return to 'sonic-ism' for the quartet of Jack Rose, Mike Gangloff, Patrick Best, and Mikel Dimmick. Like 2003's effort Pearls from the River, (untitled) is an all-acoustic affair. The group concentrates on producing dense clouds of overtones from guitar, cello, Tibetan bowls, gongs, sruti, and esraj. Track one is an overpowering straight line a la the Theatre of Eternal Music, an atmosphere of stasis with gong and bowl flickering subtly over the massive track bed. Track two is a 32-minute epic that begins with the soft strains of Jack Rose's 12 string, picks up dueling cello and esraj and gradually builds in intensity with the sounds of gongs and other unusual percussion. Track three is the live staple 'Sundogs,' where Rose's Weissenborn lap guitar and Gangloff's resonator guitar produce a stream of unearthly high, singing overtones in an uncanny acoustic impression of electric feedback. The final track is an epilogue of Best's keening cello, again ignoring the usual technique associated with the instrument in the pursuit of pure weirdness."

Artist:	ROSE, JACK
Title:	Kensington Blues
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 092CD

"Kensington Blues, the fourth full-length release from Jack Rose, is an inspired mix of styles and sounds that brings his in-person steel string guitar mastery down to CD scale. This is Rose's most diverse outing by far, with straight ragtime, heavy 12-string, and that sweet, sweet Weissenborn lap guitar all checking in. Honed during endless touring in 2004, the repertoire here is delivered with maximum authority in a series of first-take performances recorded in early 2005."

Artist:	KAWABATA, MAKATO
Title:	Inui
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	VHF 095CD

"Long-planned reissue of Makoto Kawabata's first solo LP, from way back in 2000 (or roughly 100 releases ago, in Kawabata terms). Originally released by the mighty SIWA label in a tiny, hand-printed edition of 300, this has long been the most sought-after Kawabata item, pretty much impossible to track down without a wallet full of eBay slush funds. The music, as on all the releases in Kawabata's Inui series, is intensely personal and introspective, with long, softly focused tracks featuring acoustic stringed instruments from around the globe (including violin, sarangi, oud, sitar, bouzouki, lyra, shou, and nei). French filmmaker, musician and longtime Acid Mothers Temple collaborator Audrey Ginestet lends her crystal voice to the album opener, 'Shin.' This new, limited reissue is packaged in a fabulous multi-color, hand-screened mini-gatefold printed by Alan Sherry of SIWA."

Artist:	PELT
Title:	Skullfuck/Bestio Tergum Degero
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	VHF 098CD

"Now available to all, a new pressing of the extremely limited edition live CD previously attainable only on the band's 2006 European tour. Contrary to the Grateful Dead reference in the title, Skullfuck is a tight recording of a single, intense November 2005 performance from NYC's Knitting Factory. The set begins with an epic group arrangement of Jack Rose's 'Calais To Dover,' with Rose's 12-string shadowed by Mike Gangloff's fiddle, and the thick drone of Mikel Dimmick and Pat Best's harmonium and srutis. The three-part 'Bestio' suite follows, with the group moving to Tibetan bowls and gongs, building up a huge sheet of sound which peaks in a brief 'encore' of wild gong smashing. This new edition is packaged in a gatefold 'eco-wallet' with cover art designed by fabric and fiber-artist Emily Keown."

Artist:	VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA
Title:	Wisdom Thunderbolt
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	VHF 102CD

"Wisdom Thunderbolt marks the triumphant return of Vibracathedral Orchestra after more than three years in the wilderness of intermittent performance, tangential projects, and unfindable limited editions. The seven tracks on Wisdom are the VCO's most rocking dispatch ever, neatly combining the Ra-like collage of tracks like Wisdom Thunderbolt with the insistent pulsing jams of 'A Natural Fact' and 'Order of the Broad Eraser.' 'Ochre Dust' and 'Rainbow Whirlwind' are more in the old-school VCO thick-blanket of sound, with tuned-percussion melody peeking out from the fog. After a surprise opening, 'Sway-Sage' heaves with raucous drumming (courtesy of Magik Marker Pete Nolan) under the swells of sound. Hard to imagine, but this is the first widely available music (except for the Tuning to the Rooster comp) from the VCO since 2003's acclaimed The Queen of Guess."

Artist:	YOUNGS & ALEX NEILSON, RICHARD
Title:	Electric Lotus + Lotus Edition
Label:	VHF
Format:	LP+CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	VHF 103LP

"This epic double set combines an LP of all-electric rock mayhem with a CD of subtle drum/shakuhachi tracks. Electric Lotus is the Youngs and Neilson's self-proclaimed 'rock' album, and it is a mind-boggling clutch of guitar/bass/drums demolition. Coming off like an amphetamine-fueled Guru Guru, the music tumbles out in a crazy quilt of stun-level attack zonage, especially on the side-long Electric Lotus. Neilson's staggering freedrumming hits a new peak here, stepping beyond his laudable work with Jandek, Bonnie Prince Billy, etc., into new realms. Youngs lights it up with raging guitar and bass action, including some deeply psychedelic leads, and on 'Kickin' The Glass,' some killer 'heavy' riffing. Lotus Edition is a companion CD of restrained and completely live duos for drums and shakuhachi. Youngs had previously issued a disc of shakuhachi solos with dense delay and layering effects, but here his untrained but highly musical output on the ancient instrument is in deep conversation with Neilson's drum set. A couple of the tracks feature the kind of long notes, bowed cymbals, and other droneage heard on previous releases like Partick Rain Dance, but in a stripped down live setting."

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Artist:	FLYING SAUCER ATTACK
Title:	Distance
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 014CD

Artist:	YOUNGS/STEVE TODD, RICHARD
Title:	Georgians
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 022CD

Artist:	SKULLFLOWER
Title:	This Is...
Label:	VHF
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VHF 023CD