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viewing 1 To 25 of 63 items
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ALT 079LP
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Skin Bank is the second full-length vinyl release from Italian techno deviant Crypto Order. Drawing inspiration from conspiracy theories, occultism, transhumanism and the New World Order, the project mixes confrontational themes and recycled propaganda with a haunting blend of dark beats and ominous melodies. Thanks to a prolific body of work amassed over the last few years, savvy listeners who have been paying attention to the right places will know him already as an unorthodox force to be reckoned with in today's underground music world. A hallmark of Crypto Order's work is an enigmatic deployment of both sound and vision. Heavy electro-style breakbeats and extra-terrestrial atmospheres create a warped-yet-familiar sound reminiscent of early techno, whilst a compelling visual aesthetic evoking echoes of the early industrial and power electronics scenes infuses it further with a sense of mystery. Themes of power and control have been par for the course in the music of Crypto Order and Skin Bank is no different, manifesting a world that invites the listener to question the reality around them and dive deep into the shadows of their own repressed and murky consciousness. This is a kind of electronic body music which sends you into a dystopian realm of chaos and intrigue, throwing up uncomfortable questions along the way.
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ALT 077CS
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Psywarfare on this recording was Dwid Hellion (Integrity) and Mauritz Mets. Recorded live in Paris on July 11th, 2003 at La Boule Noire. Cassette comes with an eight panel fold out J-card and Psywarfare sticker.
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ALT 074CS
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Cassette version. The collaboration between Klara Lewis and Nik Colk Void somehow seemed inevitable. Both artists having seen their releases published by Editions Mego, individually carving out idiosyncratic voices in the worlds of extreme, abstract electronic music. With Full-On, Lewis and Void explore and assimilate the very edge of their individual practice where a unique collaborative interface allows two voices to combine and morph into a third voice. Lewis and Void play ping pong with the conversation of sounds, generating ideas and bouncing them off each other, simultaneously encouraging the other to go further with their ideas opening up an opportunity to engage with previously unexplored terrain. Guitars, synths, Eurorack modular systems, voice, sampling, and outboard processing are folded in a playful unification with a propensity to tease, explore and extract new ideas and shapes, sometimes brutal, sometimes playful. Trust was also a compositional tool allowing instinct to freely move on any aspect of the sound and space. This sound/feeling/instinct/association let this wild and wonderful material grow organically into something new. The result of this exploratory interplay are 17 intense miniatures reveling in the process of unadulterated experimentation and whimsical interplay, not just between the humans, but the machines themselves. United in an endless series of sonic U-turns, this daring duo intertwine pop and noise whilst also bringing together visions of tender techno and forthright ambient. The various zones which manifest from all these reveals vocals shifting in mysterious ways, dust drenched beats churning limpidly and devilish string loops navigating a disorientating domain. The experience of listening to Full-On is to be confronted with a range of ideas resulting in a platter of emotions. A place where beauty and the beast collide with the impulsive and outright weird. What a wonderful world.
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ALT 074LP
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The collaboration between Klara Lewis and Nik Colk Void somehow seemed inevitable. Both artists having seen their releases published by Editions Mego, individually carving out idiosyncratic voices in the worlds of extreme, abstract electronic music. With Full-On, Lewis and Void explore and assimilate the very edge of their individual practice where a unique collaborative interface allows two voices to combine and morph into a third voice. Lewis and Void play ping pong with the conversation of sounds, generating ideas and bouncing them off each other, simultaneously encouraging the other to go further with their ideas opening up an opportunity to engage with previously unexplored terrain. Guitars, synths, Eurorack modular systems, voice, sampling, and outboard processing are folded in a playful unification with a propensity to tease, explore and extract new ideas and shapes, sometimes brutal, sometimes playful. Trust was also a compositional tool allowing instinct to freely move on any aspect of the sound and space. This sound/feeling/instinct/association let this wild and wonderful material grow organically into something new. The result of this exploratory interplay are 17 intense miniatures reveling in the process of unadulterated experimentation and whimsical interplay, not just between the humans, but the machines themselves. United in an endless series of sonic U-turns, this daring duo intertwine pop and noise whilst also bringing together visions of tender techno and forthright ambient. The various zones which manifest from all these reveals vocals shifting in mysterious ways, dust drenched beats churning limpidly and devilish string loops navigating a disorientating domain. The experience of listening to Full-On is to be confronted with a range of ideas resulting in a platter of emotions. A place where beauty and the beast collide with the impulsive and outright weird. What a wonderful world. LP version comes on clear vinyl.
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ALT 051COL-LP
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Clear vinyl edition. Alter presents a remastered edition of Cremation Lily's second album. Recorded whilst living in Hastings and originally released as a double cassette on his Strange Rules label in 2017, The Processes And Instruments Of Normal People forms a trilogy of albums in the Cremation Lily canon that were influenced by the life and atmospheres within British coastal towns. Composed using a rudimentary set-up of synth, drum machine and two modified walkmans, Cremation Lily draws upon a broad range of influences from the underground electronic music spectrum. Noise, tape music, and ambient techno are all referenced and align to form a cohesive collection of tracks, flowing fluidly in sequence. Melancholic synth pads and deep kick drums intersect with crude field recordings and occasional bursts of feedback, evoking a claustrophobic uncertainty that feels more like being pulled under than carried above. Features additional piano and violin by Theodore Cale Schafer.
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ALT 069LP
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Water Temple is the debut album of the Berlin-based group Property. Comprised of Marijn Degenaar (NL) and Vivant de Non (AUS). The album wanders through dense end-of-world sensations without keeping away from piercing melodic instrumentation. As hazy as Water Temple can get, Property just as easily trade the murky side of their post-punk sound for analog synthesizers that feel almost celestial. Used to striking effect on Water Temple, the chorus-heavy bassline is interwoven with a strident melody that punctures the rhythm and accents the Neue Deutsche Welle energy that the pair play on at certain moments. Similarly, the vocals on Water Tempel flirt with our cracked times from another angle, rendering a remarkable first transmission from this new duo. Foggy synthesizers fill the cavities of every track, though the driving leads ensure the ambience never overtakes the song-structures across the album.
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ALT 065EP
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White square flexi disc 7" w/ silver foil print and fold-out printed cover. First new single in four years from Welsh post-punk band Chain Of Flowers. "Amphetamine Luck" is produced by Jonah Falco (Fucked Up, Jade Hairpins) and serves as a taste for the bands second album. Edition of 200.
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ALT 063LP
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Since 2010, Adam Keith's solo project Cube has been supplying a steady run of records and cassettes that capture songwriter-ly fixations and frustrations in a dexterous style of wounded electronics. Though Cube has been the centerpiece of his activity for some years, he's all the while remained active in collaborations, playing in bands such as SPF and Mansion to name just a few. Rounding off a decade of dialogues and agitations, Alter now presents Keith's third LP under the moniker of Cube, Drug of Choice. Based in New York, though managing a functional transience that takes in California too, Keith's latest iteration as Cube launches a panoramic set of sonic touchstones into a gristly and hypnotic orbit. Seismic drum machine parts partition an album that layers industrial-tipped takes on digi-dub with roaming guitar lines, piano vignettes, and breakbeat theatrics. For all the abrasiveness and rhythmic allusions that Keith employs, his use of voices alongside lush manipulations of errant samples and atmospheres tempers the commotion, delivering something that feels as much focused on artful constructions of private experiences as it does the cathartic qualities of noise.
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ALT 056LP
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PRIVAT is a band based in Vienna. With one live show and a compilation appearance under their belt, the duo of Robert Pawliczek and Robert Schwarz are short on extant information. Despite this, there's a wealth of novel tact and flashpoints in the wicked intensity of PRIVAT that makes sense as a consolidation of the duo's cumulative activity across music and the visual arts in the last decade. Their debut album, Ein Gedachtnis Rollt Sich Auf Der Zunge Aus, is an annihilating introduction to this new collaboration. Schwarz's background lies in both architecture and computer music. Across a handful of labels, he's presented field recordings and experimental works, and he's participated in exhibitions with some of Europe's most prominent institutions for adventurous art practices. He is also the co-founder and curator of the Viennese festival PARKEN; Or, Live in the Park, which aims to mediate experimental forms of music in public spaces. Pawliczek is a conceptual artist and musician, and it's his work that graces the sleeves and can be found in accompanying video material. He's been involved in some exceptional groups and projects that have been centered in and around Berlin in the last years. These include Bobby Would, Heavy Metal, Itchy Bugger, and Pitva. Having met in Antwerp in the orbit of Dennis Tyfus' former gallery Pinkie Bowtie, the pair initially began to work on PRIVAT back in 2018 around a shared affinity for repetitive electronic music and an aesthetic preference for spartan coldness. Ein Gedachtnis Rollt Sich Auf Der Zunge Aus makes good on their pact. The album presents a set of works that carefully balance the galvanizing propulsion of rhythmic electronics with the kind of textural palette that betrays the pair's experimental roots. Deadpan vocals are delivered throughout, developing a kind of frosty symbiosis. Tempered by just arrangements, there's a song-writerly core that's organizing the album's somber meditations, piquing moments of comparison with Moroder's rawness as readily as anything that's cultivated in industrial music's tape-worn dirges.
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ALT 059LP
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Back in 2019, Ravioli Me Away debuted their hyper-surreal operatic work The View From Behind The Futuristic Rose Tellis across the UK, including two sold-out shows in London. Difficult to contain, and wound-up with a truant's sense of narrative, it presented a wondrous cacophony of erupting media and performances patched together with wit and existential alarm. A suite of songs circling themes of aspiration and the everyday run through the opera, and these were released in parallel by Wysing Polyphonic, one of the commissioning institutions. A selection of these songs were then reinterpreted and reshaped into forms that befit a club setting, debuting at Supernormal festival in the same year. Entitled Naughty Cool, Alter now presents these collective club reworkings by H.M.S. RMA for the first time on vinyl and digital formats. Uplifting and delightfully crooked throughout, the tracks are shuffled together and stitched as a "DJ mix." In six segments of vocal-led missives and soft drops, the sunniest hooks of early Chicago house are recalled, all cross-pollinated with the collective rhythms and tones of the UK's rave subconscious. A freeform, DIY rowdiness lurks around every corner, equally evoking punk's flings with disco. The familiar sound and presence of Ravioli Me Away's Alice Theobald, Rosie Ridgway, and Sian Dorrer aren't lost in the edits and adaptations, and they come backed-up with Tom Hirst (Design A Wave), opera singer and artist Siobhan Mooney, and Dean Rodney Jnr (The Fish Police), all of whom took part in the original opera itself. Naughty Cool was engineered by John Hannon at No Recording Studios and mixed and mastered by Amir Shoat in London. This record is dedicated to the memory of Donna Lynas.
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ALT 064LP
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MICROCORPS is the new project by artist and musician Alex Tucker (Grumbling Fur, Alexander Tucker, Imbogodom) exploring electronics, cello and voice. The debut release XMIT is an eight-track album featuring collaborations with Gazelle Twin, Nik Void, Simon Fisher Turner, and Astrud Steehouder. Tucker's ever-evolving sound world continues to unfold with this collection of harsh realms centered around processed electronic systems, strings, and vocal manipulations. On the new album, MICROCORPS employs altered voices, sound synthesis and atomized beat constructions. In a move away from previous projects XMIT investigates erasing the self, removing obvious traits of the hand and voice, and allowing a focus on the humanoid rather than the human. Instead of recognizable lyrics and coherent imagery, MICROCORPS evolved synthesized voices to generate alternate characters. He expands, "I was investigating how language brings our world into being and how manipulating the actual grain of the voice could open up momentary shifts in perception." Each track is born from a balance between composition and improvisation within set parameters. At each stage audio is heavily processed and then reconfigured. Setting up systems that are non-repeatable, where decisions can be premeditated and intuitive but never the same with each performance, using hardware and instruments outside of the computer to make live stereo takes that have limited room for editing and mixing. "I'd been looking into combining dream music with machine rhythms, but there are so many great examples out there of both music forms, so I started to cut up the drones and really filter the drum patterns to create a hybrid space." The album artwork features manipulated ink drawings by Tucker that originally featured in his recent comic ENTITY REUNION 2. XMIT refers to a time in which information both physical and nonphysical transfers at an alarming rate beyond human comprehension into an age which is at once banal and terrifyingly alien.
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ALT 051LP
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Limited vinyl edition of Cremation Lily's second album. Originally released as a double cassette on his Strange Rules label in 2017, The Processes And Instruments Of Normal People forms a trilogy of albums in the CL canon that were influenced by the life and atmospheres within British coastal towns. Composed using a rudimentary set-up of synth, drum machine, and two modified Walkmans, CL draws upon a broad range of influences from the underground electronic music spectrum. Noise, tape music and ambient techno are referenced and align in a cohesive collection of tracks, flowing fluidly in sequence. Melancholic synth pads and deep kick drums intersect with crude field recordings and occasional bursts of feedback, evoking an uncertain claustrophobia. More like being pulled under than carried above. Features additional piano and violin by Theodore Cale Schafer, new mastering by John Hannon. Edition of 250.
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ALT 054LP
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Alter present Tendrils, the first LP release from London based artist and musician Malvern Brume. After gathering some hushed praise from the UK underground for a couple of excellent cassette releases and strong local live performances, Tendrils is the first definitive document of the Malvern Brume sound world. His instrumentation and sound sources would be considered familiar staples in the world of "experimental" music, but Rory Salter does an admirable job of making them his own. Comprised of eight pieces, this is electronic music at its core but a kind that sounds as if it's being played through fog. Like spores growing on a damp surface. Densely composed and thick with an almost asphyxiating atmosphere -- even during the record's more minimal moments -- track titles like "Caught In The Exhaust Trails" and "Sunk Into Plastics" only heighten the tone further. Salter was originally born in the countryside and since relocated to London, a place he finds "over stimulating in every sense." Much of Tendrils could be taken as a response to the city and a means of equating the two. Camberwell is listed as the location for composition, but field recordings are attributed to rural landmarks. The Rollright Stones on the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire border and Seven Sisters Cliffs by the English Channel are two in case, but despite their picturesque origins Salter renders them into abstract clatter. As if dubbed from the private tape archive of an old eccentric. In addition, synthesized electronic tones hum and buzz, occasionally giving away to strange, slurring sequences that sound like lost transmissions from the radiophonic workshop. Despite the nod to this electronic music institution, it's lacking the sincere level of esteem that can turn one into a heritage act. There is a strangeness and distant other worldliness to the music that feels unselfconscious and keeps Malvern Brume from being easy to define by contemporary terms. Salter says the album is defined by movement and the environments that have inspired him over the years. In his own words, "each of these tracks is inspired by a journey or moving through a space, an audible A to B." With that in mind, Tendrils is perfect music for solitary inner-city marshland walks and urban bike rides to forgotten local suburbs.
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ALT 058LP
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What happens when you arrive to a party and everyone is leaving as you are walking in? If a bass drum booms in the woods but no one is around to hear it, does it even boom at all? Can you build a mansion with playing cards? Nick Klein returns to Alter with the cryptically biographical No Shortage of Rope, his third release for the label and significantly, potentially his first full-length album. Consisting of seven tracks, No Shortage of Rope is a consolidated collection of recordings Klein made after leaving his long-term base of NYC to become a full-time resident of Den Haag, Netherlands. Using some newfound free time post-move, Klein wanted to approach his working process in the studio a little differently to create something long form. Describing his time in the studio, Klein says it was "the most hermetic studio endeavor I have ever undertaken." It certainly seems that Klein harnessed this period of productivity to make the most of what his music could offer as No Shortage of Rope is the man in his most pointedly pure form. As an artist Klein has followed his own path around the fringes of the contemporary American underground without much worry of where he may end up as a result. This has led the majority of his work to be best contextualized by the rough beat-music associated with artists like Beau Wanzer, Shane English, or Container and the celebratory unpretentious world of noise. Opening track "Sitting In Glass" sets an irreverent foundation with gratuitous chainsaw-like synth noise that sucks the air immediately out of the room. The subsequent tracks are more or less Klein back at the office in beat-based terrain, but with some noticeable differences. The kicks are harder and percussive elements have been chosen and rendered with sharp detail, taking up more space and disguising how minimal these pieces are despite their bombastic delivery. The biggest surprise comes in the final track "French-Property.com," a book-ending piece of percussion-less glacial electronics and maybe the most expansive thing Klein has made to date. Regardless of Klein's intentions regarding the club, it couldn't have been too far from his mind purely for the reason that No Shortage of Rope just bangs like fuck for the most part. This is hard rhythmic electronic music built for basements and the record-boxes of adventurous DJs, just very much made on his own terms. Color LP.
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2CD
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ALT 053CD
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Double-CD package collecting the two most recent Cremation Lily albums; The Processes And Instruments of Normal People (2017) and In England Now, Underwater (2018), previously only available on vinyl. Observations of coastal England and isolation via tape-washed electronics and field work. Six-panel, digifile with eight-page booklet.
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ALT 052CD
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Container is the project of American noise veteran Ren Schofield, originally from Providence, Rhode Island, and now based in London. Editions Mego offshoot Spectrum Spools -- run by old friend John Elliott of the band Emeralds -- took the punt to release his debut LP, a collection of mutated techno tracks simply titled LP (SP 007LP). The record gained attention quickly in the electronic music scene largely thanks to Schofield's unique production style that separates him from forms of conventional dance music. Whilst the music of Container sits perfectly fine within dance music, years on the US noise circuit have given Schofield's brand of techno a rawness and direct intensity that stands out in the club and crosses over into other sub-sections of the underground. His modest set up of Roland MC-909, a four-track porta studio and an array of pedals allowed him to hone his scuzzy and bewildering beat music over the years, leading to three more well-received, and literally titled, LP's. Over this time period Container also released some EPs on Morphine, Liberation Technologies, and Diagonal, did a variety of remixes for acts like Four Tet, The Body, Panda Bear, and Fucked Up, plus maintained a healthy touring schedule that reached over every continent. Almost a decade since his debut, Container arrives on Alter with his first non-LP titled album called Scramblers. The title taken from both a Baltimore street drug and a Rhode Island Diner he used to eat at with his father. Schofield elaborates: "The juxtaposition between these two Scramblers is a great one. I wanted to pay homage to a nice name that lends itself to both depraved and wholesome contexts and do my part to carry on the tradition." The eight tracks have their origins in live performance and a more high-octane delivery is noticeable when compared with previous Container albums. "Mottle" sits in a mysterious zone between the productions of EVOL and early Ruff Sqwad. Fierce electro cuts like "Trench" and "Nozzle" work alongside the nauseous slink of "Duster", which in typical Container fashion morphs into a frenzy in no time. A frenzy which may be linked cosmically to the fact that Scramblers was recorded, mixed, and mastered in one day, reinforcing further his unorthodox and fun approach to club music. CD packaged in mini LP style sleeve with inner wallet.
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ALT 052LP
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LP version. Transparent blue vinyl with insert. Container is the project of American noise veteran Ren Schofield, originally from Providence, Rhode Island, and now based in London. Editions Mego offshoot Spectrum Spools -- run by old friend John Elliott of the band Emeralds -- took the punt to release his debut LP, a collection of mutated techno tracks simply titled LP (SP 007LP). The record gained attention quickly in the electronic music scene largely thanks to Schofield's unique production style that separates him from forms of conventional dance music. Whilst the music of Container sits perfectly fine within dance music, years on the US noise circuit have given Schofield's brand of techno a rawness and direct intensity that stands out in the club and crosses over into other sub-sections of the underground. His modest set up of Roland MC-909, a four-track porta studio and an array of pedals allowed him to hone his scuzzy and bewildering beat music over the years, leading to three more well-received, and literally titled, LP's. Over this time period Container also released some EPs on Morphine, Liberation Technologies, and Diagonal, did a variety of remixes for acts like Four Tet, The Body, Panda Bear, and Fucked Up, plus maintained a healthy touring schedule that reached over every continent. Almost a decade since his debut, Container arrives on Alter with his first non-LP titled album called Scramblers. The title taken from both a Baltimore street drug and a Rhode Island Diner he used to eat at with his father. Schofield elaborates: "The juxtaposition between these two Scramblers is a great one. I wanted to pay homage to a nice name that lends itself to both depraved and wholesome contexts and do my part to carry on the tradition." The eight tracks have their origins in live performance and a more high-octane delivery is noticeable when compared with previous Container albums. "Mottle" sits in a mysterious zone between the productions of EVOL and early Ruff Sqwad. Fierce electro cuts like "Trench" and "Nozzle" work alongside the nauseous slink of "Duster", which in typical Container fashion morphs into a frenzy in no time. A frenzy which may be linked cosmically to the fact that Scramblers was recorded, mixed, and mastered in one day, reinforcing further his unorthodox and fun approach to club music.
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ALT 048LP
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Alter present the debut vinyl release from Melbourne's Trevor, aka graphic artist and Total Control drummer James Vinciguerra. Becoming A Bed gathers seven tracks that run the gamut between battered drum-machine beats, minimal-wave, scratchy noise, and spoken word. "Romp With Monty" is the album's least demented moment and delightfully evocative of its title with simple melodies and rigid drum machine patterns. A sharp contrast to the flailing gabber and breaks combination on "Cabbage Land", resembling something akin to Jamal Moss or Beau Wanzer experiencing a severe breakdown of both mind and hardware. These hybrids of erratic, free percussion and wild synth blurts (see also "Midi 2") lend the album a charming edge, favoring a playful kind of experimentation which extends to the album's calmer moments too. "Bedtime Story" provides one such bit of respite and the only appearance of Vinciguerra's voice, processed here in a cold, curious monolog that ruminates on lethargy and illness, atop looping dark ambient textures. It's position in the album providing a centerpiece of cavernous and confounding simplicity. Elsewhere, tongue-in-cheek end skits sound as if they were heckled at the end of a gig and then decidedly left on the tape. The reckless rave of closing cut "Speed Ave" reflects this in-the-moment sensibility, the machines being close to escaping their captain. It may provide the most didactic dancing effort on the record, but neatly aligns with a loose and uninhibited mindset that skirts around the same warped techno vision as label affiliates Cru Servers or Acolytes. This is music for the most fun of dancefloors.
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ALT 049LP
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The Australian duo of Jarrod Zlatic and Nisa Venerosa harness expansiveness through a sepia-tone collage of intangible digital textures and adapted vocal chamber music. Formed in the early 2000s, previous albums for cult-labels like Chapter Music and Siltbreeze waded through dubby psych-rock territories but their latest for Alter stands alone. Recorded in Melbourne by Sam Karmel (F ingers, CS + Kreme), the album occupies an eerie, pastoral twilight zone. Venerosa's stark singing style challenging the ambient textures weaving in and out of the stereo field. Plain Songs slowly unfolds through a mesh of processed drones, flickering static, and fragile yet propulsive bedding loops. "G.B.H" sees the pair utilizing layers of spoken word and keyboard motifs atop spiraling background whirs and softly uttered harmonies. The late-night atmosphere pervades with "On Temptation" and "Forever Turned" where slow, dissonant passages work in tandem with Venerosa's spectral vocal shifts. Zlatic's trumpet howls into the ether on "Flowers and Fade" accompanied by drum rattles, repetitive mantras, and oscillating synthesizers to mark one of the LP's most unique and isolated moments. There are hints of Nico's Janitor of Lunacy (1996) and Meredith Monk's Book of Days (1990) at play, where the icy screeches and distortions give way to the wax and wane poetry of "A Short Confession".
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ALT 074EP
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A new double single by Hey Colossus for Alter. "Carcass" is taken from their latest Four Bibles album (ALT 047CD/LP) and leaves a poppier impression, albeit Hey Colossus style, with dual vocals and searing guitars. "Medal" is a near three-minute blast of their signature dirge with a hook as big as the sound itself. Two tracks, the two sides of Hey Colossus -- half melodic downer pop and the other a destruction tune with no respite. Edition of 300.
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ALT 046LP
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For the last twelve years, The Pheromoans have occupied their own peculiar niche in the UK's DIY music scene. County Lines is their fifth full-length and takes in each aspect of their past sonically, providing a wry tonic for today's heady exhaustion. More of life's banalities and stale daydreams are given a good airing in Russel Walker's lyrics. Delivered with the usual droll lethargy, he's a septic entertainer par excellence who teases out just enough of the very real horror of the UK's current predicament to keep his aggrievements charming. At times -- see "Troll Attack" -- it's a crushing lament. County Lines weaves Walker in and out of meandering guitars and crude drum machines that waltz and tumble with live drums. Brittle synths light the way to the album's aggravated sections, which ever so gently hark back to the group's earliest recordings. The penultimate piece, "Ultra Skies", offers the clearest trace of The Pheromoans' past. The frenzy edges us into a reverberating trance, pulling a sucker punch like an inconclusive nightmare. Orange vinyl.
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ALT 047LP
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LP version. Hey Colossus are one of Europe's great live bands. Since 2003 the six-piece has been driving around the continent with their "pirate ship" backline of broken amps and triple-guitar drang, elevating audiences in every type of venue imaginable; a doctor's waiting room in Salford, an industrial unit in Liege, and a vast field next to a river in Portugal. Four Bibles is their twelfth studio album and the first to be released by London label Alter. Recorded by Ben Turner at Space Wolf Studios in Somerset, it's their most direct album yet and follows a well-documented trajectory of evolution that began (in the truest sense) with 2011's RRR (REPOSE 063LP) for Riot Season and continued across three albums for Rocket Recordings. Lead vocalist Paul Sykes sounds more in focus than before, dialing down the effects and using reverb/delay to carry his lyrics rather than smother. The band has also fine-tuned to leave some room for extra depth. Piano, electronics, and violin (by Daniel O'Sullivan of This Is Not This Heat and Grumbling Fur) all find a way in amongst a familiar mesh of interlacing guitars, wrapped round a taut rhythm section. Like every other Hey Colossus record before, the line-up has altered and the sounds reflect this. From the weight of "Memory Gore", to the subtlety and swag of "It's A Low", via the sonic extremes of "Palm Hex/Arndale Chins" this is exactly as the band are live; raging and rail-roading but somehow in control. Grooves for those who want to dance or for those who want to hug a wall and nod... bleak dystopian imagery submerged in relentless rhythms and low-end rattle. The songs breath life and soul -- Hey Colossus have never sounded fresher or more on point.
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ALT 047CD
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Hey Colossus are one of Europe's great live bands. Since 2003 the six-piece has been driving around the continent with their "pirate ship" backline of broken amps and triple-guitar drang, elevating audiences in every type of venue imaginable; a doctor's waiting room in Salford, an industrial unit in Liege, and a vast field next to a river in Portugal. Four Bibles is their twelfth studio album and the first to be released by London label Alter. Recorded by Ben Turner at Space Wolf Studios in Somerset, it's their most direct album yet and follows a well-documented trajectory of evolution that began (in the truest sense) with 2011's RRR (REPOSE 063LP) for Riot Season and continued across three albums for Rocket Recordings. Lead vocalist Paul Sykes sounds more in focus than before, dialing down the effects and using reverb/delay to carry his lyrics rather than smother. The band has also fine-tuned to leave some room for extra depth. Piano, electronics, and violin (by Daniel O'Sullivan of This Is Not This Heat and Grumbling Fur) all find a way in amongst a familiar mesh of interlacing guitars, wrapped round a taut rhythm section. Like every other Hey Colossus record before, the line-up has altered and the sounds reflect this. From the weight of "Memory Gore", to the subtlety and swag of "It's A Low", via the sonic extremes of "Palm Hex/Arndale Chins" this is exactly as the band are live; raging and rail-roading but somehow in control. Grooves for those who want to dance or for those who want to hug a wall and nod... bleak dystopian imagery submerged in relentless rhythms and low-end rattle. The songs breath life and soul -- Hey Colossus have never sounded fresher or more on point.
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2LP
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ALT 050LP
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The stark, rattling percussion and morbid howls into the ether of "Theme 7" signal not just the return of NAAAHHHH but kick-start Alter's fiftieth release with suspense. ALERT! dredges the depths of grimy UK bedroom studios, old computer hard-drives, and budget lager-soaked gallery sonics in search of presenting a unifying vision of a particular brand of the here and now. Label associates Chain Of Flowers take you deep into hypnotic motorik territory, whilst similarly driving new work from Teresa Winter shows a more frantic side to her productions than 2018's LP for Death of Rave (RAVE 025LP). The underground sound of puddle country shines through with contributions from anarcho. sample-mulch legends Cru Servers and Night School mastermind Apostille. Fellow Glasgow-based Helena Celle delivers an old-school jack trax style rhythm work out alongside The Modern Institute trying their hand at deranged happy hardcore and the finest Mancunian ambient you'll hear all year from Space Afrika. One of the most enthralling moments comes from Raime side project Moin, a claustrophobic, tempo-disregarding marriage of sound that will make you feel like you're lost at sea and seconds away from drowning. Each piece on ALERT! is bound by a distinctly punk attitude, a form of experimentalism that skirts across genre markers and forces you to sit up and pay attention. Zero coffee house easy listening or functionality here -- there's metallic clanging, skittering drums and screeches, tough as nails gabber compression (check the Acolytes track "Feelings") and dirge-y guitar feedback all fighting for space in a surprisingly coherent manner. Sound artist and broadcaster Mark Vernon's "The Object Invoked Has Disconnected From Its Host" lulls you into quintessentially British, nightmare-inducing radiophonic territories with terrifying fragmented media chatter, making for one of the highlights of the compilation. If anything, we can agree on the fact that this double LP stands to highlight the fringes of carefree, convention defying abstract electronics that currently permeate our little island in an illuminating and necessary way. Also features Anna Peaker, Mosquitoes, Mumdance, and Tomaga.
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12"
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ALT 038EP
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Total Control's caustic charm is stunning and oblique. Laughing At The System, is a succinct statement, but it feels like the sharpest thing they've ever assembled. Written and recorded over the past couple of years in various lounge rooms, bedrooms, and rehearsal studios, across Melbourne, regional Victoria, and Western Australia. Far from cynical, but earnestly neurotic, the potency of the atmosphere that Total Control has mustered across Laughing At The System registers as a deeply commanding, though bleak, psychedelic-ism for the future.
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