Limited solo cassette from Truscinski, drummer with GHQ/X.O.4/Slaughterhouse Percussion, Steve Gunn et al, touches on the detonating Industrial rhythms of Einsturzende Neubauten, Z'EV et al while incorporating great blats of liberated Afro-American fire moves, passages of bowed and scraped drone and some grimy, distorto-primitive punk stratagems. On Bill Nace of Vampire Belt's own label.

Limited edition of 100 copies documenting a live solo show from Marcia Bassett that took place 6/6/06 in Hasselt. 28 minutes of thick, frozen air, slow brain-bloating highs, and thunderous ecstasy peaks. One of the darkest/densest blats from Marcia to date and highly recommended. Comes in wraparound colour pro-printed sleeves.

Edition of 800 copies split 7 Record Store Day release from two of the most consistently wowing contemporary guitar slingers. Gunn’s side is a gorgeous meditation on American steel string modes that has a heady Fahey atmosphere while Ahmed’s is a little grainier and more downer/drone fixated, more focussed on the lonely aspect of his first two albums. 

The first ever release from the Hototogisu duo of Matthew Bower (Skullflower/Total/Sunroof) and Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards) that even approaches being ‘generally available', Green is a real CD - not a CD-R - pressed up for the group by the sainted Ed Hardy of Eclipse records and available in an edition of 1000 copies complete with a suave full-colour booklet reproducing a bunch of the duo's art. Anyone whose mind was blown by the vision of this pair powering their way through one of the most magical/unforgiving sets of Subcurrent 2005 will find plenty to drown in here. Tracks are shorter than on previous releases, though even more obsessively detailed. There are points where the cacophony is so insanely oversaturated that the noise starts to sound as if it's spontaneously giving birth to language: you start hallucinating words and sentences, almost as if the film protecting you from a constant bombardment of information-heavy environmental radiation has been blown apart. Green also features some of Hototogisu's most straight-ahead death/doom metal moves. Although they're not quite Skullflower, the first track features snatches of classic death metal riffs alongside the stomach-punch of a cheap drum machine and on their theme song, the beautifully ferocious “Heavy Blossom”, Mick Flower of Vibracathedral Orchestra plays drums. Alongside all the iron first action, there are some beautiful moments where Marcia and Matthew's voices melt into ribbons of pure white light and the whole thing floats to the ceiling. A modern classic, and possibly the best Hototogisu album to date. Highest recommendation.

Edition of 100 copies art book presenting colour reproductions of six of Marcia Bassett’s (GHQ/Zaimph/Hototogisu) psychedelic paint/collage works, running from Rorschach forests peopled by huge kittens through weird crystal geometries and distressed anatomy. Stapled card booklet.

Massive double studio LP from the duo of Marcia Bassett (Zaimph/GHQ et al) and Matthew Bower (Skullflower/Sunroof), recorded at the NNCK-related Black Dirt Studios, issued in a run of 700 copies in gatefold sleeves, long out of print. Pale Fatal Sister feels like the apex of the Hototogisu catalogue to date, the ultimate statement of their ecstatically overloaded aesthetic. Parts of this recording sound like Angus MacLise’s Joyous Lake Aspen flexi disc played through a mountain of Marshall stacks while storms generate huge elemental Oms in the background, all of which is broadcast through an obliterating wall of pure electricity. Sounding simultaneously uplifting and oppressive, this is Valkyrie –styled drone that vibrates with rainbow visions of the blackest psychedelia, the most extreme metal and the most bombastic avant garde composition. A new peak for this group, just mindblowing. Highly recommended.

Brand new full-length recording from the duo of Matthew Bower (Skullflower/Total/Sunroof et al) and Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards/Zaimph/GHQ) features a more rock-reverent take on the kind of vertical screens of impossibly detailed overtone that defined their earlier albums, with Marcia's viola slow-burning fluttering afterimages of neon spirals deep into the air while Bower's guitar/microphone worship generates repeat-ascensions of overloaded ecstasy tone. Something grittier, more immediately tactile, that makes this their most dramatically meat-based orbit of hallucinated space/time vectors to date. Highly recommended.

Heavy collaborative album in an edition of 300 copies from Marcia Bassett (GHQ/Zaimph/Hototogisu et al) and Carlos Giffoni. Bassett feels like the dominant voice here, rolling out wave after wave of crushing tonal feedback and huge rushes of iron-clad chords while Giffoni stacks perilous accumulations of rotor tones, analog drones and monolithic electricity.

New set of solo electric guitar recordings from Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards/GHQ/Hototogisu et al). Tectonic string work that has the weight of planets, with high, eerie melodies threaded through massive baseline drones. Aspects of Keiji Haino, Charalambides and Electronic Meditation-era Tangerine Dream make this a particularly explosive set. On Brother Raven’s label, hand-numbered edition of 200 copies. 

Hand-numbered edition of 200 copies LP on Manuel Mota’s private Headlights imprint documenting a heavyweight duo set from Marcia Bassett of Zaimph, Hototogisu, Double Leopards, GHQ et al and improvising Portuguese bassist and guitarist Margardia Garcia. Garcia is one of the major new generation European free players, coming out of the same scene as Mota, and she’s just as capable of generating Swans-style Industrial entropy as she is playing explosive fire music. Here Bassett uses keyboard and guitar to create austere arcs of Industrial-strength drone that Garcia anchors with tactile, questing strings, giving the whole thing an odd avant-classical backbone. 

New line-up and new post-Metal stance for Matthew Bower’s Skullflower, with thundercrack guitar and epic/baroque classical European bombast married to sheets of obscuritant power electronics: “The most remorseless, brutal Skullflower ever! Alternating between granular lo-fi primitive rock and granular lo-fi primitive Power Electronics, this taut disc is a chain mail glove of hate to any lazy minds who've tainted the air with describing Skullflower as 'psychedelic'. But that's not to say this is an all out total assault. There are also moments of tender acoustic balladry, it’s just that they don't exist. The remorseless brutal sound is primitive, but as detailed and rich as a blood soaked medieval canvas, somewhere betwixt The Rita and Clandestine Blaze, but more brutal! Long live the New Flesh! Kether is in Malkuth, Malkuth is in Kether, but in a different way...” – CSR. 

Much anticipated hook-up between these three trans-Atlantic monsters. One-side each and then a third monster inter-band jam. Leopards side is a classic haunt, with wraiths of hovering drone peaking in eye-rolling vocal confusion, while the Mouthus track is a fabulous punk trouncing of fuzz-impacted guitar and clattering electrified skin. Sunroof! jams are the real highlight though, especially the doofily-named “Cortez Tha Killa” that features Matthew Bower on repeat-riff nirvana while Mick Flower of Vibracathedral Orchestra lets his wrist fly with some of the most insane and righteously piloted post-Young acid delirium of anyone’s career. Too fucking much. Final big-band side presents a beautiful void of spooked eternity, with shadow forms moving in and out of earshot like so much hallucinatory cumulus. Comes in a full-colour gatefold sleeve, already sold-out at source, so move it.

Self-released album from this Mouthus/Double Leopards supergroup featuring botha Mouthus and Mike and Maya from Leopards. Sound is as beautifully Euro-fixated as the recent Religious Knives stuff, with soft oceans of glazed 1970s synth patterns washing across the backs of yr eyelids like the Cosmic Couriers play the brain scores of Terry Riley and Klaus Schulze. A beautifully pink stone and highly recommended for fans of soft dopey muzz.

New solo album (first ever 'real' CD release after a bunch of limited CD-Rs) from Marcia Bassett of Double Leopards/Hototogisu/GHQ et al, released on Domink Fernow of Prurient's label. A real departure from her last few releases, Sexual Infinity has a darker, almost documentary-style atmosphere, with the low malevolent hum of late night, neon-illuminated streets (a hint of William Bennett's Bradford Red Light District in some of the more nocturnal 'field' style passages) cut up with the roar of jet engines, seedy, auraless orbits of cracked drone-tone, lurching blown-out synth violence that could almost be a field-recording of the aftermath of a Suicide riot and the most evocatively placed globes of murky drone. All held together with almost Haino-esque stabs of epic repeat chord runs. Highly recommended.

“When spinning this dark velvet cloak a door opens to clouds of smoke shooting out the windows sills of the shell of old library like ink plumes while smokes leaps like black cats between the curtains. Stone and concrete crumble and fill the air with gray gas showering the maze of shrubs in the courtyard with a dark veil of soot. Marcia Bassett has tread the waters of noise psych drone and continues to defy the categories. A dark psychedelic guitar wash peaks its head out of the smoldering coals that could have been released on the mighty slaughter productions death industrial temple from Italy. Further morbidity croaks from the slicing vocals of a distraught entity being ripped from one dimension to the other... and rather enjoying her ordeal. Light the candles and burn the incense....Limited to 300 copies.” – NFP. Already sold out at source.

Limited edition of 550 LPs from Carter Thornton compiling a few years worth of mail collaborations with players like Burning Star Core, Alan Dubin (Khanate, Gnaw, OLD), Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards, Zaimph), David Shuford (NNCK, Enos Slaughter), Pigeons, Kuwayama Kiyoharu, Marshall Avett (Zandosis), Greg Wildes (Gas Tank Orchestra), Carl Smith / Derek Phelps, Darwin Smith, Smith Harrison and Dr. Mijin Kim. Buncha styles devoured and regurgitated, from scattershot drone explosions and spare percussive strategies through laminal flashes of rainbow electronics. Plus it’s all compiled and programmed in a way that is totally maximalist, giving it the feel of some weird Euro art/rock obscurity in the orbit of Futura/Red et al. Excellent.

New solo jams from Chris Bush of Caboladies in an edition of 75 copies. Melodically complex structures of synth tone with layers of fuzz and confusion cloaking soaring harmonies and epic drones. Even better than his recent CD-R on Robert Beatty’s label.

Edition of 500 copies UK tour 7”. Tomutonttu aka Jan Anderzen of Kemialliset Ystavat presents a side of small instrument psychedelia, with day-glo ticker-tape melodies and fast, chattering drones. The Oneohtrix Point Never side is just gorgeous, a slow float through Zones Without People-style ambience and spiralling clouds of synthesized strings. Very beautiful. Recommended.

Edition of 200 copies CD-R on Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never’s own label. Dog Master Teleportation – aka DMT – presents music reformulated and overdubbed by a quartet of players, including KGB Man (aka Daniel Lopatin), Shaun Trujillo, J. Glennon and P. Giordano. The music is minimal, with translucent electro-stylings that feel like the extracted DNA of lush synth soundtracks isolated and made sidereal using extreme compositional process. All the recordings pre-date the OPN LPs and they cover a fairly wide spectrum, from punked 20^th century avant garde moves to Industrial-scale electro confusion. “Manic Shooter's DMT is sonic weird hieroglyphs from combination Taos, New Mexico and Long Island; the hybrid of which mirrors the effect... bent clues will set you on a path while others are meant to deceive you. Powerlines whisper instructions in a non gendered voice. Mystical Hasid rapper vaporizedendlessly in interlocking dimensional mechanism. Remember this was during the initial Bush era, pre-dating 911 and thus Junior's eyeballs hadn't yet been upgraded to format terrestrial. Mirror plates in the eye cavity is how they found terrorists. Shooter was the first to command green missle control, similar to a Tartan warrior he refracted the beams himself and thus took the problem into his own hands. DMT is an in and out enhancement of this frightening time, as if the lingering confusion of a post-Inside Edition childhood had naturally spawned the devastated political mis-en-scene, building up to the 911 simulation telecast we witnessed while en route to Yusef Lateef's class when we got word of the attacks. This is also a historic document containing some of the first ever KGB MAN overdubs, as well as marking the first time in RIAA history that anyone has ever exclusively fucked with Prince of Darkness and Alphaville on a sampling level, but beyond recognition, musique concret style, plus a touch of cartoon Skinny Puppy meets Mike Patton isolated in a hotel room with a portastudio while on tour with Bungle in '97 vibes. I have recommended Trujillo to be committed to the Material Eye Institute for dog master evaluation. Enjoy it while you can and as Lou said, "watch out for worlds behind you." – DL.

New issue of this excellent underground/H-Pop journal, perfectly bound 110 pages w/colour and b/w printing and bundled with a CD-R and a DVD-R. Articles by Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), Cameron Stallones (Sun Araw), Michael McGregor interviews Velvet Davenport, Jesse Jarnow on Recording The Cosmos with Greg Davis, an interview with new age keyboard legend Iasos and more by Daniel Bachman, Nate Grace, Emilie Friedlander and Curtis Knapp. Artwork from Camilla Padgitt-Coles, Brenna Murphy, Christelle Gualdi, Christian “Megazord” Oldham, Daniel White, E*Rock, Hydrothermal Emerald, Jon Rafman, Julien Laugier, Massimiliano Bomba/Rawraw, Michelle Ceja, Productlaneevol, Push the Button, Stephanie Davidson, Yannick Val Gesto. The CD-R comes with tracks from La Big Vic, Airbird, Laurel Halo, Dent May, Ducktails, Buffalo Moon, Velvet Davenport, The Twerps, Young Prisms, Big Troubles, Alex Bleeker, Chuck Person, Zonotope ™, Sacred Harp and Dolphins into the Future while the DVD-R features video art from Amy Ruhl (excerpts from How Mata Hari Lost Her Head & Found Her Body, scored by Julian Lynch, Samantha Cromwell (live video of Speculator), Laurel Halo (video feedback piece), Ray Concepcion (live video of Julian Lynch), Christian “Megazord” Oldham (video for Dolphins into the Future), Maia Stern (live video of La Big Vic) and Ryan Hover (video remix of Candy Claws song). 

Stunning dream-team summit from a buncha heavy-hitting synth/drone heads – James Ferraro, Daniel Lopatin of Oneohtrix Point Never, Laurel Halo, Samuel Godin and David Borden. Borden is best known for his soundtrack work on The Exorcist as well as his membership of Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company, a new music ensemble that formed in NY in 1969 in order to perform works by Terry Riley, Steve Rich, John Cage etc but that soon developed into one of the first live synth ensembles. Frkyws 7, part of RVNG’s on-going collaborative series, presents five tracks live-channelled by variations of the line-up and it is a goddamn stone: if you can imagine the ultra-sensual slow-mo body sweeps of OPN’s Returnal extended to the point where the biological is confused with the cosmological and the cosmological with the synthetic then you’re approaching the kind of epic, hallucinatory sensuality that the group generate using washes of deep/endless tone and barely stated arcs of synthesized melody. In many ways this might be the most straighforwardly beautiful set of recordings from any of the players, with all of the revelatory power of the 2001 soundtrack re-set for a post Halve Maen/Atem mindset. Indeed, it sits nicely alongside Ferraro’s own Heaven’s Gate as a kind of hi-fi companion to that set’s vision of delivery into the future, with the closing track “Twilight Pacific” as beautiful as anything on his masterpiece Marble Surf. Easily one of the synth/drone records of the year with a majestic vision of the form that would devour and dwarf anything that comes close. Cool paste-on sleeves, comes with a download coupon that also includes a bonus track. CD version imminent. Highly recommended! 

Although Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never has always had little in common with the hosts of vague new age synth muppets that came up in his wake Replica marks a definitive severing with anything that might have served to function as common ground. This latest album has a more progressive edge – in both the generic and evolutionary sense. The beautiful settings of electronics, horns and F/X has some of the hazy underwater ambience of Robert Wyatt’s classic Rock Bottom, that same sense of a parallel musical world that exists on the cusp of consensual pop/prog/experimental modes. It also has the same feel of being fully conceived as a distinct work as opposed to merely a collection of tracks. Whereas Returnal had a distinctly erotic edge – the electronics like a slow pass over a lover’s body – Replica feels much more melancholy, the post-coital ennui to Returnal’s come-on. Reputedly put together using audio procured from TV ad compilations, the act of recontextualising what was already tied-up with the hypnotics of desire somehow makes the music seem much sadder, the reflection of the void that they set out to fill with false promises and subliminal erotics and at points the music is almost harrowing in its emptiness, it’s loneliness. Across Replica Lopatin’s compositional style is at an all-time complex peak, creating great hall of mirrors constructions from exhalations of breath and subtle cosmo-jazz settings, floating all-the-way out into angelic almost Basinski-esque drones and baroque piano laments . Another massive step elsewhere from one of the most rigorous thinkers and inspired conceptualists to come out of the contemporary underground.

Although Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never has always had little in common with the hosts of vague new age synth muppets that came up in his wake Replica marks a definitive severing with anything that might have served to function as common ground. This latest album has a more progressive edge – in both the generic and evolutionary sense. The beautiful settings of electronics, horns and F/X has some of the hazy underwater ambience of Robert Wyatt’s classic Rock Bottom, that same sense of a parallel musical world that exists on the cusp of consensual pop/prog/experimental modes. It also has the same feel of being fully conceived as a distinct work as opposed to merely a collection of tracks. Whereas Returnal had a distinctly erotic edge – the electronics like a slow pass over a lover’s body – Replica feels much more melancholy, the post-coital ennui to Returnal’s come-on. Reputedly put together using audio procured from TV ad compilations, the act of recontextualising what was already tied-up with the hypnotics of desire somehow makes the music seem much sadder, the reflection of the void that they set out to fill with false promises and subliminal erotics and at points the music is almost harrowing in its emptiness, it’s loneliness. Across Replica Lopatin’s compositional style is at an all-time complex peak, creating great hall of mirrors constructions from exhalations of breath and subtle cosmo-jazz settings, floating all-the-way out into angelic almost Basinski-esque drones and baroque piano laments . Another massive step elsewhere from one of the most rigorous thinkers and inspired conceptualists to come out of the contemporary underground. Limited edition cassette version in a run of only 200 copies.