New Releases for October 2007

Index of New Releases for October 2007

Artist:	KALENDAREV, YURI
Title:	Sound Sculptures
Label:	DIE SCHACHTEL (ITALY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$25.00
Catalog #:	DSART 004CD

"Bronze silkscreened custom designed heavy natural cardboard digipak, complete with booklet in Italian and English. 300 hand-numbered copies. Yuri Kalendarev belongs to the generation of Russian underground 'non-conformist' artists -- the dissidents of the '70s. He has been working for 30 years with different media such as granite sculpture, land art and light. He came upon the sonic possibilities of his work while exploring the intersection of sculpture and sound vibrations. His 'Sound Plates' are forged with hammers and fire out of acoustic bronze compounds. They are designed to generate a large range of frequency oscillations, from massive low-frequency drones to deep percussive sounds that allow multiple interactions with the listener's inner being. In redefining the concept of sculpture in pure sound terms, the work of Yuri Kalendarev aims to explore a new aural experience beyond the act of listening, an investigation into the realm of 'pure acoustics.' The performances captured on this CD represent the crystallization of the physicality of Kalendarev's sound sculptures, his attitude to rhythm, and his ability to create an atmosphere of deep concentration, silent communion, and mystery."

DIGITALIS

Artist:	BAARS/WOUTER VAN VELDHOVEN/RUTGET ZUYDERVELT, MARISKA
Title:	Zeeg
Label:	DIGITALIS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	ACE 004CD

"Zeeg represents the best that the Dutch underground has to offer. Combining the talents of Rutger Zuydervelt, Mariska Baars and Wouter Van Veldhoven, this album shows off what can happen when the stars align. This is stunning in its scope and breadth. It's a sonic magic trick. Most enchanting is how Zeeg manages to slow time to a near stand-still. The sounds and motifs unfold like a snail trapped in tar; each note, each sound seemingly more important than the previous. The depth of sound is considerable, and the impact is immense. While the performers know exactly where they plan to take you, the listener remains shrouded in mystery. It's all about the journey and this is a deliciously delicate place to get lost in. The care with which Zeeg was improvised and created is obvious. But how, exactly, these three stalwarts manage to pull the listener down this diamond rabbit hole where stellar time is meaningless is a riddle. Through Van Veldhoven's use of tape recorders and metallophone to Baars' lovely voice that is endlessly manipulated and looped by Zuydervelt, everything clicks. Add in Zuydervelt and Baars' guitar work and you have an exquisite combination. Zeeg is simple. It is minimal. And it is pure beauty. If you cannot disappear here, then you aren't truly living."

Artist:	CLYDE-EVANS, JOHN
Title:	apetal thunderfall
Label:	DIGITALIS
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	DIGI 044CD

"It's been a monumental year for John Clyde-Evans. He recently returned from a year living in the Punjab region of India, and after a slew of releases under his Sikh name of Tirath Singh Nirmala, he's back to the good ol' JCE. That's not all that's changed, though. His latest opus, apetal thunderfall, spins off into a new web of cacophony, leaving behind the pastoral anthems of yesteryear and taking aim at more abrasive ways to leave behind the rust. apetal thunderfall was recorded entirely during JCE's stay in Jalandhar in 2007 using found software and audio sources. The resulting recordings feel almost primitive. Evans uses his uncanny ability to blend and mix multitudes of tones into sprawling thickets of sound. It is hard to call this music drone, but at the same time there is a continuous flow to these three pieces that works in a similar way. Over the course of 43 minutes, this music etches itself into your skull, drilling itself in deep without drawing blood. Divided into three tracks, apetal thunderfall is more a singular entity than a collection of works. This album is cathartic, both musically and as a vehicle for JCE himself. But make no mistake, this is not spiritual music with mystic over/undertones. Simply, it is the new aural vision from one person made while living in India for a year. It is abrasive yet beautiful, and harkens back to a time and place when things were far less complicated."

Artist:	POCAHAUNTED/ROBEDOOR
Title:	Hunted Gathering
Label:	DIGITALIS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	DIGI 045CD

"There's a savage battle raging in the hallowed streets of Los Angeles, being fought by prehistoric megaliths spewing lava from their mouths. These acid-tongued shamans are interested in one thing and one thing only, and that's to raze this city to the ground. Okay, perhaps it's not so apocalyptic, but hot off the heels of opening for Sonic Youth, dirt worshippers Robedoor and their native sisters Pocahaunted have unleashed an army for the ages with Hunted Gathering. Drones painted with black holes collapse under their own weight while the archangelic voices of Pocahaunted birth a brand new world of spirit decay. Hunted Gathering is both a split release and a collaboration. Each band offers up their own malfeasance while collaborating on the epic final eponymous track. The union of these two groups is a natural combination. Two members are married and run the Not Not Fun label together and they share amps and a practice space, for example. But there's also something about both that is visceral and raw. Robedoor's subsonic doom is washed down with a smooth chaser of Pocahaunted's reverberating soul sounds. Recorded by the inimitable Bobb Bruno at the NNF/Bored Fortress studio space across many moons in 2007 and mastered by Yellow Swans' Pete Swanson, Hunted Gathering is an essential feast for fans of doom-infused drones and Stevie Nicks. These hunting & gathering songs from the Eagle Rock air also feature appearances by the aforementioned Bruno as well as Changeling mastermind, Roy Tatum. Climb the totem pole and let these mutant beasts put you under their psychosis spell. Hunted Gathering is full of antiquated sounds soaked in electric mud. Robedoor and Pocahaunted are your brothers and sisters in conjuring and the gatekeepers to a lost universe of sonic enchantment."

Artist:	MANPACK VARIANT
Title:	Sticky Wickets
Label:	DIGITALIS
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	DIGI 047CD

"Manpack Variant is the persistently intermittent co-mingling of electronicists Jaime Fennelly (Peeesseye, peeinmyfacewithsurgery, Phantom Limb & Bison) and Chris Peck, resulting in transcendent sound rituals and unexplainable detritus such as the recent Flash Vault 7" split with Gerritt on Misanthropic Agenda and now Sticky Wickets, the band's first full-length CD. Sticky Wickets will take the paint off your walls. Bone-crunching noises fly in an analog heaven, short on altitude but high on fire? Insanity? Asylums? Try it all on for size. Manpack Variant are bringing barrels of concrete to the show, ready to build a scuzzed-out monument complete with skeleton electronics and bags of fuzz. And to add even more sparkle, Sticky Wickets features original artwork by Jason McLean. Entranced by latent characteristics of military-industrial sound hardware, Manpack Variant has laid audiences from Vienna to Vancouver (to waste) with their own special bland of ecstatic nose drool. Ambient ambient ambient! Ambient ambient ambient! Four years now they have failed to either get a sharper blade or have a new one made. Take a load off: the album woks!"

DIRT CREW (GERMANY)

Artist:	DIRT CREW
Title:	Raw
Label:	DIRT CREW (GERMANY)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	DIRT 003CD

It's been a few years, several singles, and even more remixes since James Flavour and Break 3000 (collectively working as Dirt Crew) emerged as innovators in the house/electro/techno scene, but all this time a proper artist album has been the missing element. A peek into the near-future sees that fact change, as the duo now drops Raw, their debut album. Take a hint from the album's title -- this is house music stripped down to its barest form, with dark, heavy tracks pounding and pulverizing the dancefloor, then building it up a few minutes later. The album is said to be both a look at the kind of music Dirt Crew has championed since its inception, as well as a hint of what's to come in the future. The boys were also nice enough to include a bonus disc with this release, featuring favorites from their remix resum� over the past few years, with the likes of M.A.N.D.Y., Jimpster and Gomma's Who Made Who getting in the mix.

DRAG CITY

Artist:	GHOST
Title:	Overture
Label:	DRAG CITY
Format:	CD/DVD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	DC 330CD

"At sunset on the night of October 9th, 2006, a crowd gathered at Nippon Yusen Soko, a converted warehouse space located on Yokahama Bay. Their purpose: to see and hear new music played by Ghost. Once they had completely arrived, the doors were shut and locked and the announcement made: no one would enter or exit the space until the performance was complete. Starting in complete darkness, the performance was spun, like yarn from a cocoon. The set for this evening was not just new to the audience. For this event, Ghost played entirely improvised material. Improvisation is the wellspring of creation for Ghost, both live and in the studio, though they've never made an entire album of improvisations until now. In order to not miss a single inspiration, Ghost brought their orchestra's-worth of instrumentation, playing bass, drums, piano, electric and acoustic guitars, saxophones, flute, tin-whistle, bells, frame drums, lute, tabla-baya, waterphone and even tapes! The performance space was chosen for its sonic qualities such as natural reverb as well as its resemblance to Potala Palace in Lhasa -- an ancient meditation retreat. Band members were spaced apart to prevent eye contact and allow distance for the reverberations to unfold between them -- which in turn, were recorded by four microphones spaced distantly from the band and faced toward the walls, in order to catch the sound in the room with the audience present as well as the echo of that sound. The CD performance is an edited version of the evening's events -- but the DVD is a completely live, four-camera view into the collective journey of Ghost and their audience. In addition to the sounds and sights of the band in action, the viewer will also experience the atmospheres created by Overheads, whose far-ranging light works (and subtle placement of a lace curtain) enhanced the mood within Nippon Yusen Soko that night." DVD length: 1 hr., 30 mins.; color, NTSC format; All-Region; Audio: Stereo & 5.1 Surround.

Artist:	HANNEMANN, JENS
Title:	Complicated Drumming Technique
Label:	DRAG CITY
Format:	DVD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	DC 341DVD

"After many years of selling LPs and CDs full of the wild mystery of music with no explanations and fewer apologies, Drag City is pleased to finally be able to give something back to the legions of wanna-be musicians that form our listening audience around the world. Complicated Drumming Technique is a first for us: an educational DVD teaching the craft of drum work (aka drumming) to beginners and experts alike. Respected comedian and television personality Fred Armisen brought percussionist Jens Hannemann to our attention with an ingenious DVD that opened our eyes to the responsibilities and million little victories that drummers everywhere experience behind the kit, unbeknownst to us. If we knew so little about it, then the rest of you are probably completely in the dark! Don't worry; Jens Hannemann's Complicated Drumming Technique can easily be yours as well." Special Features: Printed Scores, Interactive Menus, Chapter Selection, Full-Color DVD label. Color, NTSC format, region free, Running time: 28 min.

Artist:	RANDALL OF NAZARETH
Title:	Randall of Nazareth
Label:	DRAG CITY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	DC 347CD

"The connection between Randall and his mother band is evident from the kickoff track, 'Safety in the Sand,' which rolls like a rock group named Pearls and Brass, but with the rhythm section mysteriously disappeared and an acoustic guitar replacing the galloping electric. As different time signatures and tempos drift in through the performances, the preferred mode of expression remains acoustic, to haunting effect. Randall of Nazareth's take on the folk blues canon is expert, informed by the deities of the 19th and 20th centuries, but idiosyncratically his own. Picking and groaning, Randall streamlines the performances with discreet touches: jingling bells sweeping through 'Climbing Trees,' a chorus of harmony voices in the distance in 'It's Nice to Know,' extra licks on the guitar or vocal here and there. There's an inherent joy in the playing and the realization of these odd moments -- which is good, because there's a numbed loneliness to Randall of Nazareth that the song 'Ballad Of A Sorry, Lonely, Breaking Man,' (with the lyric couplet 'my closest friend and I can't bear to hear your name/I should pack my things and go back from where I came') doesn't begin to touch. Randall of Nazareth sees the world from the bottom of a glass, with the floor falling away to expose an underworld of aching soul. Gritty, arid, timeless... this is music that evokes squalor with elegance, evoking midnight at noon with all mysteries intact and growing quietly more intense with the years. Randall of Nazareth is Randy of Pearls and Brass."

Artist:	WHITE MAGIC
Title:	Dark Stars
Label:	DRAG CITY
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	DC 350CD

"In our galaxy small regions of space weighing more than about five of our suns exist. They consume nearby gas and stars and nothing ever escapes their grasp. In the centers of large galaxies these regions can weigh as much as several billion suns -- Dark Stars. The Dark Stars EP contains themes of the Universe, and the dark stars that remain unseen in the night sky and within us. They are the infinite holes in the universe and in the human soul, remnants of a supernova. Invisible stars exist if they are massive enough. The Dark Stars EP is succinct and has a more immediate sound than the sprawling landscape and detail of its predecessor, Dat Rosa Mel Apibus, yet still captures the same spirit of depth and exaltation. Mira Billotte's song writing and vocal incantations once again convey an ephemeral, immortal universe of sounds. 'Dark Stars' also has great vocal additions from Doug Shaw that interweave with Mira's commanding voice, plus an excellent Doug Shaw composition called 'Winds.' In addition, Jim White contributes his complimentary and intuitive powers on drums. Tim Koh adds a new layer of strength on bass with intricate lines and just the right emphasis on key parts."

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