New split CD release that pairs the London-based Family Battlesnake with Chicago drone duo Number None. One long 28 minute tone-float from the duo incarnation of Family Battlesnake (Bill Kouligas and Harry Astras) and four slowly collapsing galaxies from Number None. Hand-numbered edition of only 200 copies in oversize card sleeves.

We were always big fans of Chicago-area drone navigators Number None so it’s a pleasure to reconnect with one of the great gentlemanly presences on the contemporary underground, None’s Chris Miller, as a member of this great trio, Anemone Lodge. Here Miller is joined by Gwyneth Merner aka The Opera Glove Sinks Into The Sea/Byssus and Matt Erickson of Radiant Husk/Sudden Oak. The sonics here feel as if they are more closely related to Tokyo than anything that might orbit Chicago, with a feel for deep dark space and lonesome F/X vibrating in a gulf of silence that mimics what you gotta imagine were the sounds reverberating around Takehisa Kosugi’s brain circa 1969. Indeed, Taj  Mahal Travellers best exemplify the style of minimal droning psychedelic improvisation that this trio excel in, with simple sound events, a violin string, possibly, a slow-spinning globe of electronics, a pin-prick of light, rising like fleets of hungry ghosts in the distance, vibrating names made alien and lonely through the disfiguring use of delay. It’s totally gripping, a form of organic improvisation that is as sensual as it is absolutely dislocated from the physical. If your dream date involves a basement, the sacramental use of psychedelics, spontaneously improvised sonics and the endless application of head-spinning F/X then you might want to marry this little fucker. Just fantastic: “Having lost a member since the initial Anemone Lodge sessions of 2006, the now-trio’d version of Chris Miller (Golden Sores, Number None), Gwyneth Merner (Byssus) and Matt Erickson (Radiant Husk, Sudden Oak) decided to bunker down in Chicago once again, this time in the sweltering July heat of 2009. Using myriad instruments to minimal effect, the trio attempted to navigate the continuum between magnifying slight gestures and constraining more expansive swaths of clatter. Would it be agreeable to claim their intentions to be akin to those of the East Bionic Symphonia, though with only a third of the members and with much of the rough-hewn edges snipped away, only to be gathered and polished into mirror form? Perhaps. Or could one state that what was once a three-hour session of assembly-defined, free-sound troubleshooting has now been condensed, groomed and catalogued into a set of auditory star charts? Indeed. Or could it be that the borders between spontaneous composition, elastic cosmos-echo and the fluid passage of long-tone regeneration were blurred, if only for a temporary moment in a cool basement on a muggy Illinois night?” – BF. 

“The is the sound of your haywired central nervous system committed to tape... Beautiful, slowly evolving, yet unnerving electronic psych that bleeds out to a total shutdown on side 1. Blood is still boiling on side 2 even if the comatose state of mind is a fact... exploring the inner workings of a life support machine.. Black case C-30 cassettes in black/yellow fold-around paper cover. Edition of 50.” – GS.

“Four approaches to destroying time... Alistair Crosbie hits with a mammoth drone fuzz out. BM serve up a soup of slow moving industrial static. Divine Coils play it minimal squeezing the air out of your lungs. Family Battlesnake destroy with a thug life side that pins you to the wall then leaves......... no explanation. Edition of 101.... black & white covers.... black & white tapes.....black & white spray.” – SH.

Excellent split set from Family Battlesnake and Japanese psych/noise legends Astro on Bill Kouligas’s (Family Battlesnake) suave new vinyl-only imprint:”Delving into the realm of deep listening, transported by way of analog synthesizers, Family Battlesnake weaves an electronic web that cocoons the listener in warm cascading frequencies. Calls to mind classic electronic composers such as Charles Dodge, Eliane Radigue and even a hint of NWW. Family Battlesnake is Bill Kouligas, a London-based Greek who also performs and records with Sudden Infant. Astro is Hiroshi Hasegawa of the legendary and now defunct Japanese noise unit C.C.C.C. Sonic waves of squealing feedback and oscillating waveforms meld with biting distortion in the appropriately titled “Lunatic Luminescence”. Enveloped by haywire electronics and burbling loops & skree, Astro has constructed an impressive piece of modern electronic music of devastating magnitude. A fine document of pure Japanese sonic nihilism and fresh deconstucted electronic frequencies. The Lp is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker in a limited edition of 330 hand-numbered copies, pressed on 140g vinyl and comes in a poly-lined inner sleeve. It is packaged in a pro-press jacket which itself is housed in a two-tone silk screened pvc sleeve with interweaving geometric designs.” – Pan.