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Browse by Label: WEIRD FOREST
Artist:
KLONDIKE & YORK
Title:
The Holy Book
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
LP
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 002LP
2002 release, the earliest available Weird Forest album. From
Arthur Magazine
: "Chad Stockdale seemed like a pretty unassuming guy when we met, but his recordings on tenor saxophone, recorded with percussionist Nate Beier, are really wild. Under the procedural soubriquet, Klondike & York, the pair has released an LP,
The Holy Book
, that treads outsider jazz as strangely as Arthur Doyle might. Stockdale's tone is fractious and scattery, but follows neither the bellow nor the tinkle of the Euro free jazz tradition. If anything, he recalls the strangest players of the American fire music underground, who investigated internal chambers of passion with their reeds blazing softly. Skronky sax, scuddering drums, some wall-eyed synthesizer, everything blended like some sorta weird stew of darkly boiling orgone. Its one of the best free jazz duo records to come out of Sacramento since [your favorite here]. And frankly, its even better than that." --Byron Coley. Limited to 500 copies.
Artist:
STOCKDALE & KEVIN CORCORAN, CHAD
Title:
Kevin & Chad
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
7"
Price:
$5.50
Catalog #:
WEIRD 003EP
2002 release. "This is the high and mighty speaker shredding first documentation of the duo of Chad Stockdale (Klondike and York) and Kevin Corcoran (Antennas Erupt, Get Get Go,). The idea behind this album was to make a hardcore record but through free jazz idioms. I played my tenor through a rat pedal and Kevin got in touch with his inner hardcore monster for the drums. Chris Woodhouse recorded for maximum potency. This is a 7" of loud whirlwind sudden blasts of howling, house-flattening, molten meltdown compression, chamber, free core. I'm VERY happy with this record. It came out just like I wanted." Limited to 300 copies on yellow vinyl with fantastic see-through cover art.
Artist:
HEXLOVE/FAULOUAH
Title:
Free Jazz From Slavery
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
2LP
Price:
$19.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 007LP
"If one were dim enough to go about explaining the new double LP from Hexlove/Faulouah by pointing up parallels between it and the future-thinking music which has surely influenced its creator, I imagine the task wouldn't be too daunting. One may first notice that
Free Jazz From Slavery
is awash in the sublimely complex percussion patterns of 20th century composers like Harry Partch, Eugene Kurtz, and Iannis Xenakis. Or one might wonder if Zac Nelson, the man in the cockpit of this thing, hadn't been listening to
Another Green World
since he was in the womb. And certainly it wouldn't be a stretch to say that the jibing spirit of early-'80s Pere Ubu experimentation is all over the more flippant efforts like 'Don't Say I Didn't Warm Yah' and the watery blurb that opens the record, 'Aztec vs. Dolphin.' This, though, is the wrong way to go about listening to or talking about any of Hexlove/Faulouah's work. Musical ancestors are worn proudly on Nelson's sleeve, but as eagerly as he celebrates them, he also delights in taking them, along with himself, down a peg. The snarky punning of the album's title, the faux-shamanic chanting and cooing, the deliberately murked-up and buzzing arrangements, all belie an agenda that involves not only a glad embrace of the less austere reaches of avant-gardism but a pointed critique of its elitism and intellectual posturing. Tracks like the doom-laden 'Lots of Wings Carry Seeds,' which pulses like the metabolism of some slumbering extinct beast, display a staggering sense of grey beauty but are quickly undercut when Nelson begins to take a more blithe and self-deprecating tack. This, though, is not to the record's detriment; it never falls into mere novelty or self-parody. The sheer technical brilliance, evident on every track, earns quite a big spot on Nelson's cheek to put his tongue in. The most glorious moments, though, are those in which he is able to marry these two tendencies, as on the desperate and busy 'Grump up the Volume,' which opens the second side of the first record. And this is just the first record. All doubts that may have been lingering about Nelson's seriousness or capabilities vanish completely after even the most cursory listen to the second record. Alone, it is a startlingly focused and beautiful ambient masterwork, but it shines all the more when it is coupled with the chaos of the first record. The long, breathing pieces are tranquil and meditative, yet never naïve or on the look-out for a place in The New Age. Under every track, however, spare and delicate, lurks an anxiety that constantly threatens to swallow all delusions of well-being. Though it drones and broods, it is never without texture. Alive with the haunting organ of 'Exits Very Damp' or the subtle xylophone flourishes of 'Big Happy Lotus,' it manages to maintain a clean, coherent spirit without becoming sterile or devolving into massage music. The side-long closer and centerpiece of the album, 'Psychopomp,' though, is as sparse and heavenly as music gets, but it still attains such a raw human beauty that after you hear it, the last thing you want to do is lie down for a massage. Rather, you want to run out and find the human who created it and thank him." --Steve Rodgers
Artist:
SO SO MANY WHITE WHITE TIGERS
Title:
So So Many White White Tigers
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
PIC. DISC
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 009LP
2005 release. "San Francisco-based rock band So So Many White White Tigers play bad-energy, propulsive, off-timed noise skree with lots of ballsy guitar moves and dysfunctional vocal shrieks and squeals from Liza that are sure to sting and cause infection. Gerald lays waste to the drums and guitarist Ned positively shreds the strings. Garage-y punk and chunks of mammoth wall of noise, like if Harry Pussy made rock songs or something. Whatever it is, one thing's for sure -- something just ain't right with these kids. So So Many White White Tigers were born to come to your town and freak you out. Recorded by Mr. Chris Woodhouse. And we're not just saying it's good: the band was picked as a Bay Area Best by the
SF Chronicle
and the packaging, designed by Aaron Winters at Abide Visuals, was recognized as one of 2005's best designs in
HOW
magazine's International Design Annual." Limited to 660 copies on kitty-head collage picture discs.
Artist:
YELLOW SWANS
Title:
At All Ends
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
LP
Price:
$16.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 010LP
"
At All Ends
is the third major record in the Yellow Swans vast body of work. This record is an assured record of chiming drone and heady pelvic sky fuckery. New sounds emerge from the Yellow Swans camp that are more hushed, and whisper with the logic of deep space. Whereas the last record was a laser beam-guided minimal transmission with dark overtones, this new release injects sonic clouds full of pink Oxycontin. Guitar lines sketch out a melodic vision that stupifies with hypnotic repetition with layer upon layer of rich and dense guitar chug build into multi-orgasm songscapes that leave the loins sore and the mind spent. An exhausting journey into pleasure and single-mindedness. Elements of lush drone stretch the proceedings in vast strokes. Yellow Swans veer towards Krautrock territory with this new record, and it will go down in the big books as their most beautiful and vibrant record thus far. Limited to 1000 copies with beautiful single pocket gatefold jackets with art by Jamie Potter."
Artist:
INCA ORE
Title:
Brute Nature versus Wild Magic
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
LP
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 011LP
2005 release. "Inca Ore is the solo voice of Eva, the singer of such fine bands as Alarmist and Malibu Falcon. Inca Ore travels the cosmos on fiery phoenix mattresses with the voice of a goose-quilled cloud pillow siren calling to all the constellations in the universe. Eva uses her vocal range and delay complement to create the sounds of entire sorceress covens through her lone voice. Lovely psychedelic drone mixed with narcoleptic folk. An enchantress of the highest order! Side A was previously issued as a CD-R in a small pressing of 100 copies on the Collective Jyrk label. The B-side is a brand new track consisting of one astounding, 18-minute interstellar vocal trance-out!" Artwork by Aaron Winters at Abide Visuals.
Artist:
YELLOW SWANS AND MOUTHUS
Title:
Conan Island
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
LP
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 012LP
"An inevitable match made in Hades. Four titans workin' it out in the primordial mulch and all the gods are cowering in their presence. The dual intertwining guitar-attack impacts and fragments into the dense concrete percussion forest surrounded by a shroud of pulsing caterwauling skree. A harum-scarum locomotive ride of thick, bombastic & heavy proportions... just like you want it to be. Play loud for optimum effect! Cover art by Brian Sullivan. Limited to 500 copies."
Artist:
HEXLOVE
Title:
Want To Be Nice
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
CD
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 014CD
"Hey, sometimes everything gets a little too much and the ol' nostrils feel constricted and the stomach feels empty and inside out.
'Just step out of it [like a transparent sphere].'
'I was always told to use a warm towel.'
However. What is this Hexlove shit doing to me right now? Putting me on the ropes, yo. West Coasting Zac Nelson double-doses and lifts this rump roast with layers of sprite-like bliss wafting; a come-and-go series of ghosts over spans of time then in fact here comes a complete cosmic sine-flute journey. I don't know, maybe Vangelis and Klaus Schulze get fed each other's good vibes and then, oh yeah, the realness of the sound and a weight or extreme heaviness. Walls, sheets, large tarps of these 'good vibes' get spun by a sampler dish of Sunroof-esque absolute hum'n'burn clatter, completely searing, straight-up whopper, and somewhere around the near edge of celestial submerged polyorchestral non-existence emersion into microshard peaks of looping bucolic, stoney walk-on-the-water synth(?) fragment melody permeation you -- eventually, no matter where you are -- you're pretty much lost in a mellow excitement/familiar space
'I think someone whispered my name'
- type deal. All the mentioned unfolds in one 39 minute track." -- Loren Shimanek
Artist:
YELLOW SWANS
Title:
Psychic Secession
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
2LP
Price:
$19.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 016LP
2005 release. "This is the third Yellow Swans vinyl release on Weird Forest and they've really tattooed it out of the ballpark on this one. It's a pulse-pounding, synapse-blasting expedition straight to the cacophonous pleasure points of your innards. It must also be known that it's one of the most grooving releases I've heard all year, dig? Makes me shake it maniacal. Yellow Swans? Yeah, they do all these things, baby. Their ultimate release -- simply phenomenal -- features a treasure-trove of guests including Christina Carter, Inca Ore, Axolotl, The Dead Science, Gerritt, Silentist, The Cherry Point, Leif Sundstrom, White Rainbow, and Jeremy Romagna." Includes a side-long bonus track not on the CD versions! This is the vinyl edition of the CD release on Load Records. Limited to 1000 copies."
Artist:
FAMILY UNDERGROUND
Title:
Black Hole
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
2LP
Price:
$21.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 019LP
2007 release. "Family Underground drenched the East Coast of the USA in molten syrup last year and they toted along a tour CD-R entitled
Black Hole
released by the fine folk of Secret Eye. Mega bummed I didn't get to feel their magic live but I ordered that tour disc post-haste. Man, when I got it, I was slain. I thought it was their finest work to date so I had to invoke it on vinyl. I tapped into the band's communication network and together we figured this would make a killer double LP, definitely one for the record books. So The Underground sent me a half hour of unreleased musics to fill the vinyl sides to fruition. Holy Hannah, was I unprepared for A! How well the new jams mind-melded with the other tracks. And B -- the superb variation of the entire work with paramount peaks and deep arcane valleys. Get it and trip!" Limited to 500 copies on black vinyl with full color gatefold jackets.
Artist:
DMPH
Title:
Oakland/Sacramento
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
7"
Price:
$5.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 021EP
"DMPH is a new Sacramento-Oakland free improv trio consisting of Chad Stockdale (tenor sax), Kevin Corcoran (drums/percussion) and Derek Monypeny (guitar). This record finds them starting from intuitive scatter/splatter into a deep, dense windtunnel on Side A (Oakland), while on Side B (Sacramento) a similarly conversational beginning leads to a highly electricified freakout squall that might put some heads in mind of Last Exit. Clearly, these guys have done their homework. Derek plays guitar in the magnificent bay area group Oaxacan and Kevin has recorded with such luminaries as Tetuzi Akiyama and Christian Kiefer. Chad has previously appeared on records with Kevin and is one half of the free jazz duo Klondike & York."
Artist:
CAN'T
Title:
Private Time (Part 2)
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
LP
Price:
$17.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 022LP
"For me, this is the ultimate Can't LP. It's a sound cornucopia of everything Jessica Rylan does so beautifully... amazing scraped and destroyed analog synth-laden vocals, lovely singer/songwriter stylings with acoustic guitar, and Shaggs-style garage gusto! This record features Jessica's own homemade synthesizers including the Little Boy Blue! One of my favorite Weird Forest releases to date! Beautiful color covers by Abide Visuals and a fabulous inner sleeve with artwork by Jessica. Limited to 500 copies."
Artist:
BUK BUK BIGUPS
Title:
Buk Buk Bigups
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
12"
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 032LP
"Weird Forest drops the debut 12" from Sacramento's newest, best-kept, filthy secret. Buk Buk Bigups was created as an avenue for Sacramento-based musician Aaron Zeff to explore the outer parameters of popular and experimental music. Influenced by industrial tones, Krautrock rhythms and disco humor, Zeff takes the forgotten sounds of 1999 pre-Brooklyn Sacramento and reinvigorates the disco-notdisco formula with some guitar freakazoid dead-pan party anthems and fried mutant bedroom funk. The A-side, 'Hot Mess', gives a nod to a DFA-style production through chopped high-end riddim, but with a classic vibe: Manzanera's
Primitive Guitar
-era axe soaring solos, Roger Troutman's blunted affected vocals, and unconscious
Dirty Mind
cat-calls. 'Endless Itch', the B-side, is a lurching oxycotin-laced slow burner not straying too far from a funkier version of Factums or a subdued Gary War, but channeling Bay Area legends Tuxedomoon. We've already coined the default genre descriptor for your blog: 'plastic brown-eye soul' or, if you like, 'valley downer funk.'"
Artist:
LOVE CRY WANT
Title:
Love Cry Want
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
2LP
Price:
$24.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 035LP
Repressed. "Nearly 40 years after its creation, Weird Forest is proud to release this seminal jazz album for the first time ever on vinyl. The incendiary grooves captured in this wax defy description. It is not free, funk, fusion or fire music - it encompasses all of these sounds and then blasts far beyond them. Featuring the late great organist, Larry Young (Miles Davis circa
Bitches Brew
, Tony Williams'
Lifetime
, etc), this album is mandatory listening for fans of Miles Davis'
Live Evil
fusion era, Young's own
Lawrence Of Newark
, Sun Ra's cosmic explorations and even Japanese guitar terrorists like Keiji Haino and Masayuki Takayanagi. Beautifully packaged, Weird Forest-style, in a deluxe double-gatefold cover and remastered for vinyl by Weasel Walter, the
Love Cry Want
2xLP is an essential document of a criminally unheralded group." Recorded in 1972.
Artist:
DEAD WESTERN
Title:
Dead Western
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
7"
Price:
$5.50
Catalog #:
WEIRD 040EP
"Dead Western plays the type of music that makes genres obsolete. It is not that DW does the cross genre pollination clusterbarf, but that Troy Mighty's sounds exist outside of any one (or two or five) genres. Perhaps, just perhaps the music recalls the mellow, introspective side of Current 93 or the druggy downer folkishness of Legendary Pink Dots, but that is stretching things as much as claiming that Troy's voice is a melted version of Bing Crosby. Yes, there are elements of downerism and croonerdom in Dead Western, but DW goes deeper than weird and depressing. There is something beautiful in this bizarre world. Definitely not for the orthodox, but also far from being so out there that the music is incomprehensible. I am very much taken with this record." --Scott Soriano, Z-Gun. Limited to 500 hand-crafted copies on clear vinyl with die-cut, full color sleeves.
Artist:
SUGIMOTO, TAKU
Title:
Mienai Tenshi
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
LP
Price:
$19.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 042LP
"This is Taku Sugimoto's very first solo release originally released in 1988 by the artist himself in a small edition of 100 copies. Its a far cry from his current style. Back then, Taku was very much influenced by MC5 and The Velvet Underground. This is a fiery live in-the-red solo electric guitar improv blowout! Fans of Masayuki Takayanagi and High Rise take heed! Mastered from the original reel-to-reel tapes. Faithful reproduction of the original insert and the debossed handmade covers. Limited to 500 copies."
Artist:
BEE MASK
Title:
Hyperborean Trenchtown
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
LP
Price:
$17.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 044LP
"I think Chris Madak was born after impact in a car crash, and his
Hyperborean Trenchtown
will enter the world in a similar fashion. The album resonates a future sound vision that can only come from an old soul destined to further pave the paths laid by electronic and minimalist pioneers. Thorough audio examinations covering every facet of sound/tone property as a whole will reveal astonishing new layers listen after listen. Undeniably pure processes of creating and sustaining sound visually, sonically and otherwise brings a mathematical and scientific accuracy that hasn't been seen since the days of Lovely Music Ltd. or GRM. The album's two side-long cuts are divided into two displays of versatility with varied sound sources including amplified acoustic instruments, hand-made electronics, phonography and more. Brilliant textures and audio hallucinogenic time/space wormholes create infinite listening possibilities for this album. Few albums can create such a disorienting tunnel that it sounds as if the record has multiple albums locked within itself -- you can hear these sounds and interpret them in so many ways that only time can unlock its many possibilities. Great albums only gain significance and this is surely no exception. Listen to this record on your turntable and stop time completely or melt into the past or the future with it -- your choice." -- John Elliott. Silkscreened jacket.
Artist:
STARVING WEIRDOS
Title:
Self-Hypnosis
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
2LP
Price:
$21.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 048LP
"What's going on here? Well, a couple sides of
Self-Hypnosis
were recorded in a concrete racquetball court (and a couple of sides weren't) which has been mysteriously transformed into the legendary Black Ark Studios and Lee Perry is going NUTS with the ol' echo effects. A tiny clatter in the background suddenly rushes up to your ear-bones, magnified into giant sheets of rubberized steel plates which bounces as high as you are. The backwards flow-motion is set on fire as the storm approaches. Various liquids are aerated while dub insects skitter about the killing floor. Little crashes, hither and thither, mostly between the buildings -- not causing much damage at all. Oh oh, those voices sound pretty serious. Time to go? Nope. These here farming combines sure are hard to start up but, boy, when they do you're in for a thrashing. Ham radio on rye. Moldy rye. Mutter all you want and loop it, why don'tcha? The other two sides are not rock and roll or hoochie-coo. The mystery is killin' me! Is that a giant wet thumb rubbing on a window? Aren't you the big man, buster! I like how the guitar gets sucked into a vortex and then keeps popping out and scaring me. It's all bone saws and throwing stars. Ducks and covers. And where is that humming noise coming from? Oh, now I get it. Awesome! Lemme play this again!" -- Dennis Yudt. Gatefold sleeve; white vinyl.
Artist:
STARVING WEIRDOS
Title:
Path Of Lightning
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
2LP
Price:
$21.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 049LP
"First off, this 2xLP set has THEE best cover I've laid my sockets on in many moons. It is soooo eye-burningly great that I'm tempted to run out and buy a van just to have the image painted on it. It's about time the art world came around to the lucrative 'ray-gun touting topless women riding giant tarantulas through darkened valleys' market. Bra-fuckin'-vo! But I'm not getting off my high horse just yet. I must say that this latest from NorCal's finest, Starving Weirdos, is one of their most swell/swollen yet to date. Four flippin' sides of confuse-adelia for both the farm-fresh kid to the well-heeled cad. Way noisier than the releases on Root Strata,
Path of Lighting
is chock full of mystery moves and dynamo hums, from the tripped-out textural flips on 'Into the Flatlands' flickering in and out of foci to the almost-an-environmental-statement of 'N.Y. Blues' with talk show jibber jabbing into the corrosive static as the grooves run out. The two dudes in Starving Weirdos are joined by yet another dude for two tracks and it's tough to know exactly what he's adding (besides another layer of ecstasy gush) but they're my fave sides. For sure. These two sides sound like the fine line that separates No Neck Blues Band from Sunburned Hand of the Man. The final track could/should have been in the movie Rosemary's Baby, right around the time Mia Farrow is screaming
'What have you done to his eyes!'
As the kids these days say,
'Fuck you, dad!'
-- no wait,
'Dude, that would rule!'
Yeah, that's it. So, let recap -- you get the deluxe gatefold jacket courtesy of the always peachy Weird Forest label, twin slabs of head-spinning secret laboratory recordings and man -- that cover is making me so hot!." -- Dennis Yudt
Artist:
PUMP KINN & DON/BRIAN MILLER & KEVIN SHIELDS
Title:
Virgin Passwords
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
LP
Price:
$14.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 050LP
"So Cal noise Nor Cal. Recorded at the end of nearly 9 months of touring,
Virgin Passwords
reflects a long evolution in sound and concept for Brian Miller & Kevin Shields. A combination of mechanical grindings and digital sweeps, mortal shovings and sudden transportations into secret chambers hold the secrets of the Virgins themselves. The Virgins that control the universe. The mafia of the cosmos. Beyond the cliched metaphor of purity and straight to literally not having sex at all. Because a Brian Miller & Kevin Shields performance proves that a noise show can be (hyper)active, crowd-engaging and knock everything to the floor without invoking angst and self-loathing. In other words, without hate-fucking everyone. Virgins. Pump Kinn & Don: 'Hijokaidan by DJ Screw.' One side apiece from each of these duos of destruction." Limited to 300 copies with beautiful DJ-style jackets designed by Aaron Winters at Abide Visuals.
Artist:
EXPRESSWAY YO-YO DIETING
Title:
Bubblethug
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
CD
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 052CD
"Pat Maherr is probably best known for his explorations into fetishistic industrial ambience under the Indignant Senility moniker, but cassette hoarders will know that the Oregon-based producer runs a syrup-laced sideline in half-speed rap. Through a handful of tapes, Maherr's DJ Screw-influenced sound has already bagged him something of a cult following, but
Bubblethug
, his sophomore 'album proper' truly takes things further into the abyss, melting his signature pulse into a dark, viscous tar. Pitch shifting rap tracks might not be a new idea at this point (hell, it's practically a mainstream practice in Houston), but Maherr takes this as just an entry point -- slicing and stretching his chosen joints into a buzzing symphony of stutters, noise and chewed-up cassette tape. The resulting pieces are thick, heavy and pummeling -- a demonic mid-point between punk and rap that mercifully avoids ska. The distant skeletons of the original songs are all but dissolved as the beats decompose noisily around them, dissolving choruses and crushing the life out of guest emcees. Links to lo-fi music, hypnogogic pop and psychedelic music will no doubt be made, but
Bubblethug
is defiantly hip-hop from beginning to end. There's a beat, there's a rapper and with the help of Maherr's spread of tape machines and filters he's taking the genre to places it rarely gets to go. It might only tentatively balance on the 'elements' ... but when rap's got no other place to go, all that's left is to travel deep down into the annals of unacceptability."
Artist:
EXPRESSWAY YO-YO DIETING
Title:
Bubblethug
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
2LP
Price:
$29.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 052LP
Gatefold 2LP version.
Artist:
AMBARCHI/FENNESZ/PIMMON/REHBERG/ROWE
Title:
Afternoon Tea
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
2LP
Price:
$29.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 055LP
"Who would have thought a relaxed sunny afternoon, newfound friendships and some spur-of-the-moment would have resulted in what's been described as 'one of the most compelling documents of both free improvisation and electronic'?"
-- All Music Guide
"It's the people involved in
Afternoon Tea
-- originally released in 2000 on German label Ritornell and now available on vinyl for the first time with a new master, bonus tracks and newly discovered live recordings -- that ensured it as more than a happy accident. The twin guitar presence of AMM's Keith Rowe and Oren Ambarchi and kindred spirits of the laptop -- Sydney's Pimmon, Vienna's Christian Fennesz and Peter Rehberg -- made it a momentous day. With all the players coming together during the 2000 What Is Music? Festival,
Afternoon Tea
stands as a highpoint of the then-emerging intersection between Powerbook performance and guitar improvisation. All subtlety, nuance and detail, it is a revelation of restraint. Built on a steadying flow of burbling rhythm, the quintet slowly weave around each others' sonics in layers to create a tonal palette immersive in its atmosphere and magnetic in its compulsion. Hindsight clearly reveals the heart of these pieces -- important to note, considering they were recorded at a time when laptop performance was an alien concept to many in experimental music, suffering controversy and backlash as well as an over-abundance of pale approaches from many who took it on as novelty as opposed to serious musical pursuit. Those involved in the
Afternoon Tea
session left their Australian tour inspired, citing their merry time in the country eating, drinking and hanging out at the beach as well as their performances as a direct influence on their following work.
Afternoon Tea
remains one of the quiet and real achievers for experimental music of the past decade. Remastered in May 2009 and packaged in deluxe Stoughton gatefold jacket with artwork designed by Stephen O'Malley. Vinyl edition of the CD reissue from Black Truffle Records, includes the same bonus tracks. First time ever available on vinyl."
Artist:
DEAD REPTILE SHRINE
Title:
The Sun Of Circles And Wood
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
2LP
Price:
$26.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 056LP
"Finally, the legendary Finnish black metal project returns with the first full-length album in years! With a unique and encompassing sound, Dead Reptile Shrine has always been uncomfortably slotted in the black metal genre but DRS fits right into the Weird Forest catalog.
The Sun of Circles and Wood
encapsulates all aspects of the Dead Reptile Shrine sound: primitive riffs, ambient synth pieces, droning backdrops, snarled vocals, plaintive cries, Satanic chants, the works. But this album isn't a celebration of darkness -- it's a portrait of a soul being torn apart by dark and light elements. The poor listener is dropped down a well and left to wallow in the stench of her own soul's filthy excrement, the pain alleviated only by scant glimpses of light at the top of the well that seems so far, far away.
The Sun of Circles and Wood
was mastered by Pete Swanson and comes in a beautiful full-color deluxe gatefold vinyl edition limited to 500 copies."
Artist:
LIL B
Title:
Rain In England
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
CD
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 057CD
"Just who is Lil B? The Based God has scored so many Youtube hits and crammed so many full length albums under his belt it can be hard for youngbloods to get a handle on what this rap savant is all about. Is he the internet sensation with a hundred girls on his dick? Or could he be the leading light of a new hip hop underground, one that has finally wrenched itself from the grubby backpacks and the cynicism of the mid 1990s? He's both, and with
Rain in England
the story gets even more mysterious and far more incomprehensible. Those already up to speed on B's molasses-beats and stream-of-consciousness ('based') flow will think they got him pegged. Internet hype and heavy tunes -- battle raps and copious interviews. He's the anti-Drake -- all ill-mannered, hungry and mercilessly lo-fidelity, and unafraid to make a beef over Twitter.
Rain in England
shows an antithesis to this character, a tempered side to his ADD report card. Part new-age ambient and part hip hop, the record is uncharacteristically fluid, with B's singular rhymes falling perfectly into a bed of syrupy electronics. B never falls into the trap of allowing himself to get too abstractedly wordy, yet we always retain the sense that he's not your typical street rapper. He's young, but there are stories to be told, and those stories are heard through the frosted glass of burned synthesizer melodies and disintegrating pads. Singular, disturbing and certain to polarize listeners,
Rain In England
is an album destined for a new breed of rap fans. Lil B may just be the genre's brightest young hope; what exactly that genre is, only time will tell." -- John Twells
Artist:
LIL B
Title:
Rain In England
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
2LP
Price:
$25.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 057LP
2LP version in in wide-spine jacket with 18x24" poster insert.
Artist:
MUDBOY
Title:
This Is Folk Music
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
LP
Price:
$15.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 059LP
"Raphael Lyon is the enigma known as Mudboy. From the incredibly detailed art/packaging to bizarre mp3 releases attached to scrap metal or plant matter to Freddy Krueger-inspired art installations, Lyon has always been one of the strangest cats on the scene. This unique perspective also infects his music. Whereas many of today's kosmiche-influenced artists bubble up from the noise scene (with knob-twiddling pedal pusher seemingly a prequisite to sequencing synth jammer these days), Mudboy's work hints more toward the avant-garde as well as a touch of the classical. Originally released on CD in 2005,
This Is Folk Music
finds Lyon placing each sound with purpose and carefully sequencing the songs to create a dark, slightly twisted yet strangely beautiful soundscape. Listen to the gunshot crack that kicks the album into high gear on 'Solitron Wave', the seamless transition from the sparkling melody of 'Running' into the jungle rhythms of 'Beirut Dance Party', even commonplace field recordings of waves and night sounds take on a different dimension in Lyon's hands.
This Is Folk Music
may have been his first major release but already, all the trademark elements are present: the skewed aesthetic, the attention to detail and especially, the strong compositional sense. This is Mudboy. Art/layout by Raphael Lyon. Vinyl reissue specially re-sequenced by the artist. Limited edition of 500 includes 22" x 22" insert with mp3 download of the album in its original form."
Artist:
WINTER DRONES
Title:
Blood In The Coffin
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
CD
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 060CD
"Leon Dufficy is primarily known as guitarist in the hippie-jam outfit, Hush Arbors, but now he steps into his own as the driving force behind Winter Drones. Sounding like the perfect combination of fuzzed-out ambient drift, shoegaze swirl and propulsive pop sensibilities, Winter Drones have slowly gained attention in their native U.K. with a handful of obscure CD-R/cassette releases and compilation appearances. Earlier this year, the band's debut album,
Blood In The Coffin
, came out as a limited-edition tape on U.K. micro-label Sexbeat Records. While legions of artists are mining the ambient style, Dufficy stands out because of his ability to develop his soundscapes, infusing them with a touch of melody to impart a sense of emotion. Songs like the lead-off track, 'Watch Your Eyes,' set the mood perfectly while 'Bongs Dream' shows Dufficy's intuitive understanding that the perfectly weighted note/chord can add tremendous emotional resonance to an atmospheric piece. But Dufficy isn't some common nu-age denizen and the album really shines when the drums come in and the band rocks out. 'Winnie Coopers Bones' and 'Two Long Weeks Part 2' find Dufficy perfectly capable of crafting memorable songs that stick with the listener. The album's centerpiece, 'Stiff Wizard,' serves as a thesis statement for the entire album. Over ten minutes, the track starts with flanged/fuzzed guitars swishing about and sounding like jet engines on a runway. As the piece builds towards take-off, a simple radar-like melody begins pinging and the song takes flight when the drums and driving guitar chords launch in -- a perfect microcosm of the whole record."
Artist:
NOVELLER
Title:
Desert Fires
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
LP
Price:
$15.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 064LP
"The solo project of Brooklyn-based guitarist and filmmaker Sarah Lipstate (Rhys Chatham's Guitar Army, Glenn Branca's 100 guitar ensemble, Parts & Labor, Carla Bozulich / Evangelista, Cold Cave), follows up her
Red Rainbows
CD (No Fun 2009) with this compositional evolutionary step from layered, loop-based drones to more expansive formal arrangements of swells, throbs, tones and shimmer. 'Almost Alright' explores territory charted by Fripp & Eno or synth-heavy contemporaries Emeralds. 'Kites Calm Desert Fires' is a sandstorm of rich, percussive guitar, warm humming bass and swirling rhapsodic chimes. 'Toothnest (for Chris Habib)' arrives at an idyllic sonic plateau of windswept fuzz and tremolo, then charges blindly with a soaring guitar solo evocative of bagpipes triumphantly marking a return from battle. Art by Sarah Lipstate. Originally released on CD by Saffron Recordings. Limited edition vinyl comes with 11"x11" insert."
Artist:
BATHING DRUID
Title:
Beltane Loofah
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
7"
Price:
$5.50
Catalog #:
WEIRD 066EP
"It's true of Bathing Druid, as it's probably true of all major proverbs, 80-syllable titles of old-fashioned royalty and a good deal of e.e. cummings' later poetry: it all started with a Madlibs-derivative word game. Despite the unbelievable weight of its results, the game is surprisingly basic. It requires three players, each of whom independently chooses one word to fill in a sentence, the structure of which is always the same from round to round (
'What is a (noun) but an (adjective) (noun)?'
). When the sentence is filled in with sufficiently vague, timeless words, the game can conjure some profound questions. In fact, if you read all of the obscure, sometimes omitted footnotes to the texts of the ancient philosophers, you will find one consistent source from which knowledge has been universally drawn since the dawn of time: The Sentence Game. (Modern technology has brought about the height of the game's productivity, through a widespread experiment, being conducted in zoos everywhere: for years, chimpanzees have been arbitrarily pontificating, through machines designed to offer random words at the press of a button.) As previously mentioned, it was through this game that Bathing Druid got its name (the result of the fated round was,
'What is the midwest but a bathing druid?'
). Philosophical doors swung wide open when first this question was asked, and Bathing Druid like Brigadoon descended on the Earth -- an apparition, both quick to enchant and to disappear. Luckily, those who stumbled upon the band in its brief window of being need not wait 100 years for its next appearance. This 7" record is the only known artyfact of Bathing Druid. All songs were created within one week, and recorded in one day. May the
Beltane Loofah
wash you clean and make you new."
Artist:
NOVELLER
Title:
Glacial Glow
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
CD
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 068CD
"Sarah Lipstate is Noveller and
Glacial Glow
is her most assured, accomplished statement to date. Lipstate largely sheds the distortion and feedback present in much of her earlier work. Instead, she relies on instantly memorable melodies, a wider sonic palette, and excellent pacing to deliver arguably her best album. Noveller announces her intentions from the opening track, appropriately titled 'Entering', as the syncopated rhythm of the melody represents a new twist from her previous guitar work. This is only the hors d'oeuvre for the stunning 'Glacial Wave', which drifts along serenely until Lipstate rains down gorgeous arpeggios like icy shards from the heavens. Other pieces feature sparse arrangements anchored by pulsing throbs which evoke a subtle, creeping anxiety more menacing than the feel-good retro-horror soundtracks making the rounds these days. Throughout
Glacial Glow
, Lipstate exercises restraint and a fleeting melancholy feeling pervades the album. It says something about an album's quality when the closing track, 'Ends', is chosen as the lead-off video. Ocean sounds combine with the lovely chord progression and guitar lines to create an uplifting, yet slightly wistful feeling and a perfect bookend to the record."
Artist:
NOVELLER
Title:
Glacial Glow
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
LP
Price:
$18.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 068LP
LP version on clear vinyl with full-color, double-sided insert.
Artist:
TERRORS
Title:
Lagan Qord
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
CD
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 071CD
"Perhaps the true test of an artist is taking common elements and fashioning a unique sound all their own. Elijah Forrest, as Terrors, is one artist who passes the test. A bi-coastal vagabond dropping tapes from southern California to Baltimore, Forrest has traveled many miles, seen a lot and judging from his music, not all of these experiences have been good. Terrors is relatively unprolific by underground tape culture standards, putting out a handful of well-received cassettes over the last few years. Each release is filled with simple songs built around his voice, guitar and at times, a healthy wallop of tape hiss ambiance and feedback. With these simple ingredients, Forrest injects a sense of weariness and sadness into his songs -- even the instrumentals which loop, layer and wrap back around themselves seem imbued with a touch of grey. The chords, melodies and progressions may sound familiar but in Forrest's hands, a freshness and timelessness breathes within these songs. Weird Forest is excited to present
Lagan Qord
, a compilation of Terrors tracks culled from the last few years. Wonderfully remastered by Sean McCann, these songs have never sounded better."
Artist:
TERRORS
Title:
Lagan Qord
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
LP
Price:
$18.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 071LP
LP version with insert.
Artist:
GARRINCHA AND THE STOLEN ELK
Title:
Void
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
CD
Price:
$12.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 072CD
"With a pair of cassette releases in recent months on the venerable tape labels, Stunned Records and 905 Tapes, Garrincha & The Stolen Elk may seem like neophytes on the scene but the truth is Davy Bui and Matt Kretzmann have been making music together in one form or another since 2002. 'I Don't Believe You' kicks off the album with chiming bells and an upbeat church hymn slowed down and matched to a barrage of processed chanting voices. The song morphs into a hypnotic guitar loop layered with ringing synths, guitar washes and ghostly vocals, all building to a cacophonous climax replete with bleating saxes, a buzz metal riff and shredded guitar. 'Tower of Babble' begins with sounds of rainfall and something sounding like slowed-down Gregorian chants as a chiming guitar melody softly repeats, eventually giving way to a buzzing organ drone, a tribal drum beat and belted German vocals before taking a final sinister turn with an insistent snare roll propelling the song towards its grand finale. The album concludes with the side-long, three-part 'First Rites, Last Communion' suite. Heavily comprised of processed Asian church ceremony field recordings accompanied by occasional guitar and keyboard statements, the piece eventually erupts into a maelstrom of noise blasts, wild guitar and ringing bells before settling into a series of long, drawn out tones. Mastered by Graham Lambkin (ex-Shadow Ring), this album sounds like little else in the Weird Forest catalog."
Artist:
GARRINCHA AND THE STOLEN ELK
Title:
Void
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
LP
Price:
$18.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 072LP
LP version with insert.
Artist:
DEAD RAVEN CHOIR
Title:
Cask Strength Black Metal
Label:
WEIRD FOREST
Format:
3LP BOX
Price:
$52.00
Catalog #:
WEIRD 666LP
"The most insane black metal release ever!!! Three, yes three vinyl LPs of the harshest sounding evil, atmospheric off-kilter black metal. Call it black metal folk. The loudest, noisest, crazy, insane-sounding blasts of skree with strange folky melodic undertones of banjo, cello, mandolin, and percussion and the most frightening vocals ever dared to be recorded. Many traditional folk songs shrouded in blasts of white noise armageddon. For fans of twisted, unique, raw black metal with a very bent edge. Pray (no, commit ritual sacrifice) to the underworld that your stereo survives! This release compiles the 'Sturmfucklinglieder,' 'Grand Ravishing Extravaganza,' 'Sevenfold Songs Of Death,' and 'Sheath And Knife' EPs, all previously released in very small pressings and all long, long gone!" Limited to 999 copies on pitch black vinyl with 7 inserts in a beautiful dark forest-clad box.
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