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LP
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FD 124LP
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$22.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 4/23/2021
New album by a favorite artist of Fourth Dimension, whose work can traverse everywhere from avant-folk or otherworldly pop to minimalist electronics or some of the most fervent "outer sounds" one can dredge from the deepest crevices of their doubtlessly life battle-scarred imagination. On Metal River, Richard Youngs offers four songs of deep space beamed curdled electronics not far removed from being akin to the contorted death caterwauls of a cyborg species reaching out in uttermost anguish. It's like prime Edgar Froese getting snagged on Incapacitants before tumbling headlong into a dingy cellar that then has its door slammed shut and locked before one notices the only company is accorded by body parts in dusty and moldy demijohns. Features three songs on the first side, "Days of Gravity Indoors", "Metal River" and "Rainy Days Static Caravan", plus the side long "Dual Monody of Accumulated Detritus". The perfect follow up to the 2dicks 7" lathe-cut also featuring Richard Youngs and released by Fourth Dimension in June 2020. White vinyl.
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CD
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FD 125CD
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$14.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 2/26/2021
For a number of years now, Fourth Dimension has been responsible for releasing most of Gary Mundy of Ramleh's solo works under his Kleistwahr guise. Each of these albums is possessed of a thematic approach harboring some of his obsessions, passions and explorations into both pure, unadulterated sonic expression and many of the concerns driving it. Although traces of Gary's longstanding interest in unforgiving and uncompromising music can often be found threaded throughout Kleistwahr's work, it is (rather like Ramleh's own recordings) far more nuanced and subtle. Contorted layers of psychedelic noise converge with tormented vocals, ghostly organ sounds wafting in from a derelict church, life beat pulses, rhythms that fall in on themselves and an avant-garde sensibility apparently drawing from minimalist composition and a crushing feeling of unease itself jarred into all manner of surprising shapes. This is music to fall backwards into whilst understanding vipers lurk somewhere close by. In the Reign of Dying Embers, however, is not entirely wracked by the kind of primal despair best reserved for daily coverage of leading world events, though. There are flecks of light in the mix, some held on to and nurtured more than others, that suggest a reaching out to better things. More than this, Kleistwahr proffers a somewhat more personal take on matters, harnessing a sound that embodies the sheer paradox of existential crises converging with meaning as the world around crumbles and burns. Each and every Kleistwahr album appears akin to Gary's taking another step towards curling into a quiet corner with one defiant fist still raised. Being itself founded on the idea of addiction in all its forms and the colossal pressure upon us to "escape" by varied means, In the Reign of Dying Embers underlines the hope in hopelessness so boldly it might well constitute the strongest statement thus far.
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CD
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FD 126CD
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$14.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 2/26/2021
Stare Taśmy is a Polish typical supergroup, at least by Krakow standards. The musicians have quite an impressive background, including punk, improv, experimental, and even classical music. They've joined forces here to let out a loud shriek of angry disbelief, triggered by the general shape of the current society and the amount of malarkey in Polish public discourse. The album is titled Kryzys Czytelnictwa and consists of six punk, jazz, and religious chants, all combined to form this quite specific, powerful music. The genre they represent (and actually invented, too) is called "dark prog reality stand-up": hysterically serious compositions are filled with sampled voices of politicians, decades-old speeches found on abandoned anonymous cassette tapes and articles from current newspapers read out loud without any changes to the silliness and hatred of the original texts. Because there's no need to criticize anyone anymore, the world is perfect as it is. They just appreciate the details. Stare Taśmy is: Małgorzata Tekla Tekiel - bass; Paulina Owczarek - baritone sax; Tomek Chołoniewski - drums; Marcin Barski - voice and samples.
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Book
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GH 8393BK
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Grim Humour ran between 1983 and 1993 and proved itself one of the most popular UK fanzines throughout this time due to its documenting many groups, large and small, who initially arrived from the punk/post-punk world and its cousins in industrial or electronic music, whilst coupling this to an interest in horror films, underground cinema, literature, graphic novel/comics and more esoteric areas. Although the passions for matters beyond music grew as the 'zine itself grew, the early editions captured here in what is to be the first of two book volumes reflect the work of several teenage friends so devoted to the music they enjoyed they felt compelled to delve further into it. Naive, impassioned, and underpinned by a modicum of sarcasm that got cranked higher in later editions, Grim Humour perfectly balanced deference with irreverence when it came to music. Throughout the approximately 300 pages collected here, original pages are reprinted alongside re-edited interviews, reviews and other such features from the first ten editions of the 'zine, published between 1983 and 1987. Also featuring new text exclusive to the book by some of the groups, as well as a number of essays by those either involved with the 'zine or who avidly read it, this book serves as a (perhaps cracked) snapshot of a time when independent music didn't necessarily mean "indie". Comprising interviews with Killing Joke, Abbo (UK Decay), And Also The Trees, Crass, Virgin Prunes, Death In June, Portion Control, Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, Coil, The Leather Nun, The Damned, The Fall, Fools Dance (featuring Simon Gallup of The Cure), Big Black, Head Of David, Alternative TV, and many others, this book helps illustrate just how far punk and its own darkened tendrils actually reached in an age when fanzines and their concomitant cousins in mail art, cassette labels and suchlike helped fill in the gaps the music weeklies simply couldn't. This will be of interest to all who grew up through this era and still have a place for it in their hearts, besides those with a lot of interest in any of the groups featured. 300 pages; A4 softcover.
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FD RJBK
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$26.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 11/20/2020
During the past few years, material has been gathered concerning the group Ramleh for a book focusing on their beginning as one of the UK's leading power electronics mainstays to their becoming a more outward-bound rock group given to blending sprawling psychedelia, noise, post-punk, intense electronic music and far more besides, in addition to occasionally nodding to their earlier sound. Initially founded by Gary Mundy and Bob Strudwick after being inspired by punk, avant-garde, and industrial music, as well as the complete restart accorded by Whitehouse, Ramleh soon tore apart the templates with a sound and vision entirely their own. Mostly sidelined in the decades since, the group, now driven by Gary and Anthony Di Franco, has proven itself to be one of the most versatile and downright headstrong to have arrived from a time when dozens of such groups went almost as fast as they appeared. Like the very best of them, however, they not only kept going despite the odds, but also continued to push themselves artistically and explore new places just when an audience was starting to take notice. The idea of fitting snugly into a particular style was never on the agenda, irrespective of the group's having created a sound completely their own to work within. With the advent of the digital age, Ramleh deservedly gained a comparatively wider audience and are now often seen critically acclaimed or cited as an inspiration by other groups. Partly for these reasons, a book felt like a natural step to take in order to help pin down one of the more interesting narratives to have arisen from such realms of music, and indeed some of the ideas behind it. Collecting around 356 pages centered on a lengthy and conversational interview with Gary Mundy that looks back at Ramleh's inception and moves through the group's work until and including The Great Unlearning album, plus some of the peripheral projects, Grudge For Life: A Book About Ramleh also includes additional interviews and insight from Anthony Di Franco, Stuart Dennison, the late Simon Morris, Teho Teardo, Stephen Meixner, Steve Pittis, William Bennett, Kate MacDonald, Juntaro Yamanouchi, Richard Rupenus, and others. Besides also including a discography including extensive personal notes from Gary and Anthony and some other bonus material, there are pages dedicated to reprinted ephemera and some previously unpublished photos. Richard Johnson, responsible for conducting the interviews and collating the material, has released albums by both Gary and Anthony on his Fourth Dimension Records imprint. He has also produced a book devoted to his Grim Humour fanzine, plus during more recent years has contributed to several magazines. Book B5 hardback.
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CD
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FD 123CD
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Map 71 are Lisa Jayne (words, voice, art) and Andy Pyne (drums, sounds, production). Turn Back Metropolis is their fifth album. The record shifts from the hypnotic ascent of the ambitiously minimal title track to the jabbing industrial pulse and social realism of "Stitches". The strutting fantasy mischief of "Siren Tank" leads to the slinky dub vibe and darkly surreal intimacy of "Scissor Kiss Experiment". Then you wake up to another day living the unsettling rhythm of English seaside "Suburbanites". Turn Back Metropolis is as inspired by the dangers and safety in Map 71's habitat as it is by Lisa and Andy's musical influences. The fields are in sight of the city, but there's a curfew and the city waits for you to return.
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2CD
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FD 121CD
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Double-CD version of the critically acclaimed The Great Unlearning album, originally released in mid-2019 as a double-LP by Egyptian label Nashazphone (NP 030LP). This release saw Gary and Anthony not only reunited with Stuart Dennison, Martyn Watts, and Philip Best, but also collaborating with Philip's wife (and Consumer Electronics partner) Sarah Froelich and delivering perhaps their most surprising and immediate work to date. Drawing from post-punk, ravaged psychedelia, raw electronics and, of course, the group's own background as purveyors of music both intense and uncompromising, The Great Unlearning is their most accomplished work yet. This is the culmination of where all their ideas have been heading over the years and undoubtedly proves Ramleh to be completely on top of their game. Packaged in a six-panel sleeve.
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7"
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FDS 120EP
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Typical for Ramleh as they stand now, both songs represent just two of the many sides they're now given to exploring. Bold, serious, playful and once again illustrating exactly how easily they straddle the line of being great musicians never afraid to turn that notion on its head by rising to new challenges, this single pays testament to their current upward curve. Green vinyl.
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CD
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FD 119CD
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Advancing the post-punk infused concoction of blazing garage and art-driven destructs-rock, as established on Hand & Leg's grinding self-titled debut from 2017, the bass and drums are here cranked to new heights of molten activity. Murky shades of sexual negativity plough forth with the help of obsidian distortion, careering bass dirges so scuzzed they can clog arteries, ungodly squalls of paint-stripping noise, and a tendency towards playful rhythmic rituals themselves only offering brief respite from the merciless and sweat-drenched sonic saturation perfect for the late night clutches of a dingy basement. This CD version includes bonus track "Omonoia", which will also appear on a forthcoming limited-edition 10" compilation on Fourth Dimension, Low Expectations.
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CD
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FD 117CD
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CD reissue of the last album from Ramleh's Anthony Di Franco, whose long-running solo JFK project has been dedicated to the kind of concrete mixed rhythmic pummel countless others would almost kill for since the cassette network culture of the 1980s. Between then and now, JFK has had several albums released featuring either archive or his latest works at that particular time. These have been endorsed by labels such as Harbinger Sound, Peripheral, Chondritic Sound, and others plus, more importantly, have signaled a consistency in Anthony's dedication to exploring those spaces where vast blocks of sound crumble into heavily polluted rivers of anger, despair, and frustration. It's an immersive sound that, naturally, shares a little common ground with Ramleh yet emphasizes the monstrous chasms that can be drawn from a sturdy combo of bass-churn and galvanized beats primed from a nightmarish dancefloor. The CD version of Weapon Design presents ten devastating tracks, two of which did not appear on the acclaimed vinyl version from 2018 and are exclusive to this version. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy, London.
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CD
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FD 112CD
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Post Internet Blues is UK group Gad Whip's latest album, following several low-key cassette albums released since 2014, plus the four tracks that constitute 2017's limited edition In A Room EP. Gad Whip blend avant-garde sensibilities with a contemporary take on the place where D.I.Y. culture meets post-punk, hints of deconstructed garage rock and interstellar voyaging through sweat-drenched waking dreams. Immediate, powerful, confounding and kept in place by wry, sometimes observational, vocals that recall Jason Williamson and Mark E. Smith.
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CD
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FD 113CD
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Recorded by a quartet of grubby fools in a miserable warehouse in Cleveland, Compassion And Vision sees Limbs Bin founder Josh Landes joined by a cast of repellent perverts -- Wyatt Howland, Erik Brown, and David Russell -- to deliver maybe the worst masterpiece to date. With Howland providing a nauseating rumble and Brown and Russell trading off turns on the kit, the two pieces that constitute this album place the listener in uncomfortable proximity to the conditions of the session. In Howland's completely unforgiving mix, you can smell the seat almost as much as the piss. Over its duration, Limbs Bin explores a range of feelings from anger, exhaustion and resignation to agony, frustration, and misery. War jazz for the emotionally underdeveloped. Terror grind for cowards. Lean back, take a deep breath and experience Compassion And Vision.
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2CD
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FD 098CD
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Return of Richard Youngs to Fourth Dimension, a label that has supported his work since the early 1990s via collaborations with Simon Wickham-Smith. The latter returns to this set, based around the notion of songs featuring special guests. Spread over the two discs, the eleven songs here assume all manner of sonic guises that are often difficult or sometimes blissed-out, but always rewarding. Most include guests, themselves from a wide variety of backgrounds (taking in all from groups such as Trembling Bells and Vibracathedral Orchestra to folk, bagpipe music, and abstract electronics), and are each named after a geographical location for reasons only the artists know. Spanning almost two hours, it not only once again illustrates precisely how prolific an artist Richard Youngs is, but it firmly compounds his place as one who can comfortably traverse everything from avant forms of songwriting to those even less charted spaces. As visionary as Robert Wyatt, he unwittingly exudes everything most perceive the very idea of English eccentricity as being. So-called "outsider" music rarely arrives so pronounced and at the same time so warm and inviting. Special guests include: Alasdair Roberts, Donald WG Lindsay, Neil Campbell, Sybren Renema, Alastair Galbraith, Reg Norris, Mick Elborado, Norifumi Shimogawa, Oren Ambarchi, and Simon Wickham-Smith.
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2X7"
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FD 108EP
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Presently Untitled collects exclusive tracks by each of the artists on Fourth Dimension. Each needs no real introduction, united in being committed to exploring a wide range of sounds and ideas. Richard Youngs continues to confound in his approach to dronework, Theme morph between abstract electronics and power-noise, Sion Orgon plays alien pop and Alternative TV deliver post-punk. Extnddntwrk (Andrew of Sleaford Mods) is in downtempo mode, Map 71 blend percussion and electronics, and Kleistwahr prove their devastating and immersive sound can be contained in a short piece. Edition of 350. DIY punk-style sleeve with an insert.
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CD
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FD 110CD
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Ramleh's Gary Mundy has been rather prolific in recent years with his solo Kleistwahr project. As with his main concern, there's a deep-seated interest in pushing the parameters where certain sonics can fall into a seismic vortex of sheer overload yet remain tethered to a knowing sensibility where greater power can be derived from simply holding back. Since the incredible This World Is Not My Home album in 2014 Kleistwahr has embarked on a single-handed mission to not only take such possibilities as far as possible, but also reach inwards and rip out its core being in order to further attempt to make sense of its doubtlessly tarnished place in the universe. Although in and of itself often tempered to the point restraint assumes new, often disturbed (and disturbing) psychedelic or even filmic, properties, this music arrives like a spitting and foaming scream into the insanity of the void and the myriad challenges and questions it inexorably keeps hurling at us. Kleistwahr is akin to one man having scaled a great height poking out of an infinite chasm and wondering why he bothered.
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FD 107CD
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Void Axis is Brighton duo Map 71's fourth album. The previous one, Gloriosa, released on Fourth Dimension saw them garnering more praise and attention than before. During the interim they have continued to play live regularly. Map 71's approach draws from post-punk, improvisation, electronics, and other such realms of music. "Engrossing half-stories that provoke a hallucinogenic rumination of the world...hypnotic percussive grooves, creating a broad-band spectrum of texture and motion" -- Freq.org.uk; "Jayne rants like Lydia Lunch run through a vocoder" --Byron Coley, The Wire
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LP
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FD 101LP
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The very latest from Ramleh's Anthony Di Franco, whose long-running solo JFK project has been dedicated to the kind of concrete-mixed rhythmic pummel countless others would almost kill for since the cassette network culture of the 1980s. It's an immersive sound that, naturally, shares a little common ground with Ramleh yet emphasizes the monstrous chasms that can be drawn from a sturdy combo of bass-churn and galvanized beats. Whilst the labyrinthine textures beamed in from steelworks remain very much suggestive of a charred psychedelia twisted way beyond any stupid hippie dream, JFK's work remains hewn with a distinctive edge at once uncompromising and agile enough to pull you in without the slightest hint of a protest. Music perfect for the age always hinted at when younger by pessimistic sci-fi films that we sometimes appear to be living in... Eight devastating tracks mastered and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy, London.
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12"
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FD 106EP
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Mark Perry has remained the sole surviving original member and driving force. Alternative TV have been responsible for around fifteen albums since their formation, with the last one, Opposing Forces (2015), proving to be their strongest thus far, marrying of igneous rock, idiosyncratic touches, barbed commentary, and occasional seething undercurrents of dark psych. Dark Places introduces four songs cascading between full-on rock to a kind of abstract minimalist electronics approach perfectly in keeping with Alternative TV's occasional traverses to the furthest reaches. Vic Godard's guests on guitar on "Like A Tomb".
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CD
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FD 102CD
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Brighton's Map 71 are a duo comprised of Andy Pyne (percussion, electronics) and Lisa Jayne (words, voice). Together they have been working away at an approach that draws from post-punk, improvisation, electronics, and other such realms of music to create a refreshing environment where reflection, wry observations, the abstract, and immersion can develop. They have existed for a few years now and had several releases out both on their own Foolproof Projects imprint and via a couple of other labels. Gloriosa itself is a reissue of a very limited cassette album released by Fourth Dimension Records in 2017 but included here are six bonus tracks previously issued on a CDr and cassette album. Map 71's songs aren't really songs. They dispense with melody and the verse/chorus structure for an intentional disconnect between Lisa Jayne's delivery and Andy Pyne's beats. Lisa Jayne doesn't have to shout or accentuate her proclamations, observations and confessions; it's the rhythms that provide movement here. It's not always poetry either. And while the electronics revel in comparisons with the proto-electronic sound of Suicide and the rhythms of Z'ev, they're just as likely to co-opt the electro beats of techno.
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CD
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FD 100CD
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Collecting two songs from the long out-of-print, ultra-limited 10" lathe-cut released in spring 2017 on New Zealand Independent Woman Records, "Broken and Beaten in 5/8 Time Part 1. Beaten" and "Broken and Beaten in 5/8 Time Part 2. Broken", plus two previously unreleased tracks exclusive to this release. Generally more refined than previous Kleistwahr work, the pieces here catch Gary Mundy (also of Ramleh and Broken Flag Records) furrowing his distinct and recognizable take on a kind of contemporary psychedelia with dystopian leanings. Also nodding towards the fug generated by certain "krautrock" groups whilst retaining threads of those uncompromising power-noise surges he built his reputation on, this is music guaranteed to take you to new spaces before forcing you to nervously look over your shoulder.
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CD
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FD 099CD
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Remastered reissue of Splintered's Moraine, originally issued on vinyl only in 1997 by Germany's Suggestion and No Risk No Fun labels. Two lengthy tracks comprising piano, found sounds, loops, wild sax, electronics, and suchlike, besides the full-on and blissed-out psychedelic-noise the group were renowned for. The first piece also includes sounds recorded by Jim O'Rourke for a limited edition DAT release on Soleilmoon intended for other artists to use. Who knows if anybody else ever sourced this, but Splintered duly rose to the bait and may well be the only group who ever made use of this DAT (itself called Use). This remastered reissue also includes new, exclusive bonus material by Siôn Orgon, Stuart Theme, and Steve Pittis/Band Of Pain, helping to bring a fresh slant to the music which itself already sounds timeless.
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CD
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FD 096CD
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Reissue of Thurston Moore and Tom Surgal's long out-of-print 1996 Not Me (originally released as both CD and 10" on Fourth Dimension). Two pieces of improvisational electronics, guitar, and drums, 11 minutes each. Includes 2016 liner notes by Moore. Packaged in gatefold CD sleeve. Limited edition of 500.
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CD
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FD 095CD
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Eight new solo works from Gary Mundy, whose latest Ramleh album, Circular Time, received a lot of praise when released in late 2015. At times taking on a slightly more tempered approach this album still arrives stamped with Gary's own take on a descent into a black-hole where screaming can definitely be heard. Kaleidoscopic noise has rarely sounded so triumphant or majestic whilst paradoxically resigning to the flaws of the human condition. This album will complete the present trilogy of Kleistwahr releases for Fourth Dimension and is to be once again housed in an oversized gatefold sleeve based on the original Broken Flag style. Edition of 300.
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CD
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FD 094CD
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Following the 2014 release of Kleistwahr's album This World Is Not My Home (FD 091CD), Fourth Dimension Records presents a remastered reissue of The Return, originally released as a limited-edition LP by Noiseville in 2009 and long out of print. Gary Mundy (Ramleh, Breathless, Broken Flag founder, etc.) never felt completely satisfied with the Noiseville release, so he digitally remastered the album for this edition, which also includes two previously unreleased bonus cuts. This release captures Mundy's original intention to render the music at once powerful and dynamic in a setting where volume is a significant part of the sound. As with Mundy's long-running group Ramleh, the music of Kleistwahr stems from a place both angry and anguished. Underpinned by a huge sense of existential despair, a sense of urgency and frustration likewise screams from this music. Long known for his part, along with Whitehouse and Consumer Electronics, in creating a music subsequently known as "power electronics," itself copied by hundreds of groups to lesser effect or seen as a wellspring of inspiration by countless others often removed from this form, Mundy's own forays have always ventured far beyond such convenient trappings. Kleistwahr, his solo enterprise, testifies to this exploration and, more importantly, to Mundy's place as a progressive and highly accomplished visionary artist deserving of far more than his status as merely a cult concern. The Return witnesses electronic music once more teased and reshaped into something highly original by one of the genre's master craftsmen. Listen to it as loud as your ears can take. Packaged in gatefold Broken Flag-style sleeve.
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10"
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FDTEN 093EP
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Limited edition 10" featuring two sides of mixed cuts by Andrew Fearn of Sleaford Mods. Sways between buoyant yet grizzled electronica, nightmarish hue, post-dancefloor meltdown, acidic squelch, malfunctioning space probes, and snatches from the ether. If SM can often be described as confrontational, then the music of Extnddntwrk may well be there to help flesh out the hallucinations induced by the sucker-punches. Musically owing, however, more to his own work in Infant and an entire background in homespun electronic works, Untld comes from the same place as SM yet is coupled to something altogether more personal, driven by bittersweet experience.
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