Alastair Galbraith
Damo In Dunedin
Nextbestway 04
CD-R
£12.99

New very limited release on Galbraith’s own Nextbestway label and only available from Volcanic Tongue. This is an amazing set, documenting Damo Suzuki of Can’s visit to Dunedin on 24th February 2007. And sure, there have been endless half-assed local band blow-outs featuring Damo over the past few years but this is a really remarkable recording, not least for the band that Galbraith put together for the occasion, with himself on Velvets-damaged violin, Robbie Yeats of The Dead C on drums, Matt Middleton aka Crude on saxophone, Joan George on bass, Tristan Dingemans on guitar and Damo on vocals. The fidelity is classic Xpressway-style, a feel that’s beautifully compounded by the photocopied inserts with typewriter credits and every copy comes with a hand-painted collage on the back. The sound is wild, with Yeats’s punk-primitive approach to detonating time giving it the feel of a massively ragged Dead C blow-out. The set feels really organic, building into overloaded peaks of amp destruction and mainlined jams before fading back to spare repeat-o minimalist oblivion, while Damo makes with some of his most mantric incantatory vocals. The whole deal has a classic 90s underground feel and it’s easily the best fucking record that Damo has made since he pulled the plug on Can. Highly recommended.

Magik Markers
For Mary Meyer, The Blind Bear Of The Dust Bowl
Arbitrary Signs No Cat
CD-R
£8.99

New limited-run self-released Magik Markers album with material drawn from basement recordings, live jams and confrontational live bombs. A heavy Tietchens/Schulze gothic keyboard vibe to the opening “Blind Bear Dissolves” makes it feel like their most Kosmiche instalment to date but later blats featuring Elisa on delayed mono-syllabic vocal punctuation and Patti-inflected coos in front of a sea of restless college dopes effectively ratchet up the aggro levels to the point where you’re dropping terms like acid punk while marvelling at the duo’s elastic approach to time, space and wah-wah flecked single-chord cave stomps. Sounds great. Comes in the usual screened envelope packaging.

Fabulous Diamonds
s/t
Nervous Jerk Jerk-012
CD
£10.99

New CD edition of this excellent LP that came out on Siltbreeze: Fabulous Diamonds are an Australian duo with a beautifully confused attack and a combative, sexually-charged group persona. Nisa Venerosa’s chanted vocals seem to be drawn from a rich Australian rock/pop heritage, most specifically from the whole Cannanes/Rabbits Wedding axis, cut up with a touch of UK art punk ala Wire offshoot Dome/Public Image Limited/Raincoats etc. For the most part the music consists of weird accumulative cells of rhythmic folk-primitive saxophone, keyboards, harmonium, tapes, electro percussion and plenty of delay and some pieces sound like the kind of homemade dub-damaged DIY that might’ve shown up on the Y Records label, had they more fully embraced the sound of UK bedrooms. Almost impossible to place temporally – anywhere between now and 1978 would be a good guess in a blindfold test – extremely psychedelic in a very homespun way, with crude aspects of free jazz, new wave and psychoactive minimalism. Highly recommended.

Pocahaunted/Orphan Fairytale
Split
Release The Bats RTB-27
7”
£5.99

”One track each from Pocahaunted (California) and Orphan Fairytale (Belgium). Pocahaunted has been real busy the last year: opening for Sonic Youth, several collaborations with Robedoor, tape/cd-r releases on Not Not Fun, Arbor, Fuck It Tapes etc, split LPs with Christina Carter and Mythical Beast... and yeah, we could go on forever (and mention the 2 new vinyl albums on Arbor and Woodsist that are being released at the same time as this 7"...)! Here Amanda and Bethany gives us Warpaint, another dubbed-out and almost heavy lo-fi anthem with that always so special and unique Pocahaunted vibe. The discography of Orphan Fairytale, the solo moniker of Eva Van Deuren, mainly consists of very limited tape and cd-r releases so far, with the only previous vinyl output being an amazing collaboration LP with Mudboy. Live actions includes a performance at No Fun Fest 2007 and a set that took place inside of a container. Here she continues with her haunting and always captivating and melodic keyboard hymns. Made By Mermaids is a trip in the ocean gone bad. Limited to 500 copies. Full colour labels, yellow big-hole sleeves with design and screenprint (in glowing red) by RTB-sidekick HLG.” – RTB.

Arthur
July 2008
Arthur No Cat
Magazine
£1.00

Free with any order over £20.00 if you ask! The £1.00 covers the postage to ship it to you. Sorry but due to its weight we can't ship Arthur on it's own. Latest issue, with a cover story on Jason Spaceman, excellent autobiographical article from cinematic/occult legend Alejandro Jodorowsky, how to hex a corporation, mugwort, Erik Davis, Julian Cope, The Entrance Band, underground comix, reviews and Byron Coley and Thurston Moore’s Bull Tongue column.

Dry Rib
Whose Last Trickle
Messthetics #213
CD
£11.99

Necessary collection of UK DIY satori from Rob Vasey’s Dry Rib, one of the more obscure players in the UK Messthetics scene. Dry Rib were a surreal post-punk group that combined sharp, new wave stylings and angular dynamics with surreal lyrics and some choice avant confusion. Ed Ball (The Times/O Level/Television Personalities) signed them to his Clockwork label and they were regulars on John Peel before Vasey split and formed As, Hem, Syrup who expanded on the erratic avant rock of Dry Rib with Beefheartisms and more of a focus on improvisation. This set collects tracks from both groups and solo work along with liners, memorabilia and recollections from Ed Ball.

Emeralds
Live
Gneiss Things 05
CD-R
£9.99

Limited self-released album in a hand-numbered edition of only 200 copies featuring five expansive planet-sized drone works recorded live across 2007-2008 in Cleveland, New Haven and Amherst. Some of their most explicitly gorgeous Kosmiche stylings here, with fluttering keyboards and guitar that bring to mind Klaus Schulze circa Black Dance as well as the monolithic form of early Tangerine Dream

Makoto Kawabata
We Don’t Know Where We Came From
Important Imprec-205
LP
£14.99

Brand new solo album from the Acid Mothers leader Makoto Kawabata in screenprinted sleeves, edition of 500 copies. This is a fantastic distillation of alla his various modes, from Inui-styled dreamtone psych through refracted Japanese folk and in-the-red distorto worship. Recorded live at Kaccho-Buu Matsuzaka in 2004, with Makoto switching between electric and acoustic guitars, it’s also his best solo side for an age and a timely reminder of his PSF pedigree, just in case you forgot. Recommended.

Nice Face
Can I Fuck It?
Jerkwave Tapes No Cat
C40 Cassette
£5.99

New, limited cassette album from this excellent bedroom punk/synth unit, with 12 tracks that expand their reach into warped soundtrack noir, crude surfed-up psych and keys-led garage blasters. Excellent nowhere feel to the production gives it that all important postcard from the void feel.

Performing Ferrets
No One Told Us
Messthetics #216
CD
£11.99

Much-anticipated reissue of the alla the necessary material from one of the most legendary UK DIY avant/punk ensembles, Performing Ferrets. Notorious record collector Johan Kugelberg famously pronounced their ultra-rare LP “the most seminal LP to come out of DIY” and it’s not hard to see why, with a classic sound that reconciles English experimentalism from The Fall to Richard Youngs, with aspects of contemporaries like TV Personalities and a beguiling out-of-time feel that is pure suburbia. There is something so spontaneous about the Ferrets recordings that perfectly encapsulates what the fall-out from punk was truly all about, combining homegrown musical aesthetics with a liberating art-punk stance and a sound that combines primitive melodica with guitar, drums, massed vocals and unforgettable songs. Totally fantastic and up there with The Desperate Bicycles in terms of sainted UK DIY. Features tracks from their legendary LP, demos, cassettes and EPs from 1978-1982. Recommended.

Scott Foust
Here’s To Love!
Swill Radio 028
DVD
£9.99

Long-awaited full-length film from Scott Foust of Idea Fire Company et al, starring Matt Krefting (Son Of Earth), Meara O’Reilly (Feathers), Jessi Swenson (Believers/IFCO), Graham Lambkin (Shadow Ring) and Foust himself. Music from Idea Fire Company, Tart, The Pickle Factory, XX Committee and Y Front. “Here's To Love! is reminiscent of the past glory of silent film, when the beauty of the image predominated, yet it looks firmly to the future. it is the story of a quest by three young people to find their aesthetic idol and save him from his degraded state, told through slowly unfolding scenes with striking, lingering, and sometimes aesthetically challenging videography. These images are closely matched with original music by Foust and his various sound projects from throughout his career. a film to be watched with thought and a patience not usually demanded by today's methods of hyperactive, cartoonish editing, Here's To Love! should be viewed as a series of extended moving paintings, accompanied by truly timeless music.” – SR. Region 0 DVD.

Teenage Jesus & The Jerks/Beirut Slump
Shut Up And Bleed
Cherry Red #367
CD
£8.99

Excellent overview of early Lydia Lunch action that takes in alla the amazing Teenage Jesus & The Jerks recordings, from the pre-Jesus line-up with James Chance through the No New York comp, the Orphans and Baby Doll 7s, the Pink 12”, Live At Max’s and The Artist’s Space and the later Beirut Slump EP. Alongside Mars, Teenage Jesus represent the cream of the No Wave implosion and Lydia Lunch’s slide guitar work remains one of the most formally aggressive re-thinks of the instrument to date. Hearing alla this early material back-to-front makes for a timely slap around the head. Comes with some excellent snaps and sleeve notes. Recommended.

US Girls
Introducing...
Siltbreeze SB-94
LP
£10.99

US Girls is the cover of choice for the activities of Ms. Megan Remy, a solo artist who uses tape loops, vocals, guitar and fucked-up delay/reverb environs to conjure ghosts of the American night. In some ways her mode is comparable to the vocal experiments of Inca Ore or Grouper but there's a grimier, punk primitive edge to the way that she wraps her lungs around minimal song-forms and instrumental fragments that is singularly beautiful. The whole recording has a damaged, far-away fidelity, one that speaks of huge geographic space, of shortwave signals bounding from planets and of all of the darkest sounds from the furthest ends of the dial - Suicide, Scorces, even Springsteen’s Nebraska. In fact there's an amazing cover version of Springsteen's "Prove It All Night" that further bolsters a long-held personal theory that with Nebraska, Springsteen's closest reference point was the hunted midnight 'billy sound of Vega and Rev. On "Prove It All Night" Remy finally joins the dots, with the most forlorn, emotionally-damaged reading of any Springsteen track to date. Elsewhere there are instrumentals that take off on wordless delayed vocals and simple repeating guitar patterns and songs that touch on the furthest vectors of articulated form in much the same way that the Circuit Des Yeux record did. If you dig the sound of analog entropy then Introducing... is sure to become your post-midnight spin of choice. Screened covers, one-time edition of 500 copies, no re-press. Highly recommended.

Vodka Soap
Shee-Ro Gateway Temples
Pacific City No Cat
Cassette
£6.99

Major new limited self-released cassette from Spencer Clark of The Skaters in solo Vodka Soap guise. Shee-Ro Gateway Temples represents the apex of his Voudon ritual-inspired trance navigations, with jungle sounds, bird calls, zoned synthesizers and overlapping, firewalking rhythms combining to generate legions of beautifully-formed mandalas that cross dark, primal energies with future-as-junk scenarios and an extremely minimal, though confoundingly dense approach to personal revelation. This is some of the deepest psychedelic sound to come out of the underground since Angus MacLise’s skull exploded in Kathmandu. Liner notes from Charles Berlitz. Highly recommended.

Acid Mothers Guru Guru
Psychedelic Navigator
Important Imprec-160
CD
£9.99

"AcidMothersGuruGuru features Mani Neumeier from the legendary and influential German Krautrock group Guru Guru as well as Kawabata Makoto and Atsushi Tsuyama from Japan's holy Acid Mothers Temple. The result is a fiery fantasy filled, loud/soft, colorful trans-generational psychedelic collaboration. The AcidMothersGuruGuru started in a spontaneous session in March of 2006 in Nagoya, Japan. When the improvisation commenced the passionate excitement was clear to all in the room and it was then that this special psychedelic trio began. A Japanese tour was planned, an album was recorded and this recording is the fruits of this mutual musical admiration. While all involved will admith that this is a dream collaborations it was the Acid Mothers Temple guys who were worshipping Guru Guru in their teens. The AcidMothersGuruGuru is two generations of psychedelic rock joining forces for the 21st century." - IR.

Anthony Braxton
Quartet (GTM) 2006
Important Imprec-184
4xCD Box
£19.99

“This specially priced 4 CD box set is packaged in a deluxe 10-panel digipak with a 12 page essay from Anthony Braxton. Scroll down for extensive photography of this beautiful box. Quartet (GTM) 2006 is Anthony Braxton's first release for Important Records. GTM stands for Ghost Trance Music and this four CD box set contains four Ghost Trance compositions recorded in quartet with Anthony Braxton playing reeds, Carl Testa on bass, Aaron Siegal on percussion and Max Heath on piano. This 4 cd box also contains a definitive essay by Braxton on his Ghost Trance compositions. Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945 in Chicago) is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist and philosopher. Inspired by John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen as much as John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, Anthony Braxton has crafted an immense body of highly complex work. Though Braxton is hardly known to the casual listener he is certainly one of the most prolific American musicians/composers to date, having released well over 100 albums since the 1960s. In 1994 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. Braxton plays a multitude of instruments including the flute; the sopranino, soprano, C-Melody, F alto, E-flat alto, baritone, bass, and contrabass saxophones; and the E-flat, B-flat, and contrabass clarinets. Early in his career, along with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and violinist Leroy Jenkins, braxton led a trio and was involved with the AACM or the Association For The Advancement of Creative Musicians. Never genuinely accepted into the Jazz establishment, the association was aptly titled. In 1968 Braxton recorded the highly influential For Alto, the first full length album for unaccompanied saxophone. Braxton joined pianist's Chick Corea's existing trio with Dave Holland (double bass) and Barry Altschul (drums) to form the short-lived avant garde quartet "Circle", around 1970. When Corea broke up the group, forming Return to Forever to pursue a fusion based style of composition and recording, Holland and Altschul remained with Braxton for much of the 1970s as part of a quartet, with the rotating brass chair variously filled by trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, or trombonists George Lewis or Ray Anderson. This group recorded on Arista Records. The core trio plus saxophonist Sam Rivers recorded Holland's Conference of the Birds, ECM. In the 1970s he also recorded duets with Lewis and with synthesizer player Richard Teitelbaum. In the late 1970s he recorded two large ensemble recordings, "Creative Orchestra Music 1976," inspired by American jazz and marching band traditions, and "For Four Orchestras." Both of these records were released on Arista. Anthony Braxton studied philosophy at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He has taught at Mills College and is now a Professor of Music at Wesleyan University. He teaches music history, improvisation and music composition.” – IR.

Birchville Cat Motel
Seventh Ruined Hex
Important Imprec-169
CD
£9.99

Major new album from Campbell Kneale’s power-blues orchestra, with additional six-string muscle provided by Matthew Bower (Hototogisu/Sunroof/Skullflower et al). The sound here crosses the kind of endlessly accruing fuzz majesty of Chi Vampires with the lightning strike adrenaline tone of Skullflower’s Orange Canyon Mind to birth a gargantuan new take on heavy metal satori. Recommended.

Monopoly Child Star Searchers
Gitchii Manitu (12 Step Retrance Program For Troubled Dream Warriors)
Pacific City No Cat
Cassette
£7.99

New limited cassette album from Spencer Clark of The Skaters, the second broadcast of his Monopoly Child power visioning. Helium-inflected gamelan sonorities create dancing chains of thudding African percussion somewhere between Whitehouse's Racket, the endless rhythmic torrents of Frank Lowe's Black Beings and Terry Riley's all-night tape modulations. Comes in a fold-out wraparound sleeve with hermetic liners.

Monopoly Child Star Searchers
Mandala Levitations
Pacific City No Cat
Cassette
£5.99

Another new limited self-released album from Spencer Clark of The Skaters et al. “The representation and actualization of patterned symbols for integration within the communities’ temple (MIND). Cyclical meditations as informed by the temples organ pipes 5665, 3773, 275572, 14633641, goodbye. For the forms of the symbolic mind and that of the physical to act in togetherness and to hallucinate this phenomenon amongst the stars. To be experienced under the influence of MSG.” – Charles Berlitz, Fourth World Magazine.

Monopoly Child Star Searchers
Start Levitating Now!
Pacific City No Cat
Cassette
£5.99

New limited self-released set of ritual soundtracks from Spencer Clark of The Skater et al. This one is heavier on the percussive figures, with almost Moroccan-style intersecting drum circles and dunting melodies illuminated with shadowy melodic forms, the warp of primitively cranked cassette and a smear of pipes, F/X and helium inflections.

Vanishing Voice
Stone Tablet
Important Imprec-122
CD
£9.99

Beautiful drug-woozy ensemble psych that builds from the slightest hints of tape-loop sci-fi chamber huzz into the most celestially charged space blues to come out of the ranks of the Vanishing Voice to date. Endlessly gorgeous music box melodies get trapped in wows of wonked taped while satellites chatter like small children lost in tall, tall grass and zonks of percussion build lush hymnals from sidereal harmonic/rhythmic constructs. When the whole group start to slowly march towards the speakers with chugs of single chords and those flighty, padding drums you could well be crossing the drawbridge into Schloss Norvenich during the first live actions that would birth Can's Monster Movie and Heidi Dahl's immaculately conceived vocalisations are every bit the match for Malcolm Mooney's bringing-down-the-sun style. If yr at all into the endless garage hypnotism of the '66 Velvets and the way that the various German/Euro communes turned that music from an up-tight urban spike into a wide-open form of communal narcosis then this is surely your poison. Highly recommended.

Astro/Hiroshi Hasegawa
Live At Muryoku Muzen Temple
Important Imprec-198
LP
£14.99

Excellent new limited LP (500 copies) from Hiroshi Hasegawa’s (ex-CCCC) Astro project. This is a fantastic sounding and beautifully packaged set that features Hasegawa recorded live using oscillators, EMS synthi, ring modulator and vocals. Some of the most overtly microdot-inflected noise to come out of Japan in a while, with Hasegawa combining monolithic levels of fuzz and ruthlessly a-musical EMS with a hypnotic tonal background in a way that ties up several decades of all-night flight, joining the dots between Hawkwind’s space ritual, Conrad Schnitzler’s Gelb and the last Consumer Electronics LP. One of the best ‘Japanese noise’ records in an age and highly recommended.

Dead Wafer
s/t
Maim & Disfigure No Cat
CD-R
£7.99

New on Zac Davis of Lambsbread's label: "2nd release from this mysterious tape/echo/vocal wipeout.... a bit more droned out than the earlier cassette release, but still same burned vibe.... maybe if the other one was the sound of waking up in pain from smoking too much weed the night before, this one is the sound of what happens after that pain has already been killed with a heavy early morning session.... edition of 50." - Zac Davis.

John Coltrane
One Down, One Up: Live At The Half Note
Impulse B0002380-01
2xCD
£14.99

Unreleased live recordings of saxophonist John Coltrane's 'classic quartet' with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones are a rare enough deal, never mind ones that capture the last fireballing moments of this implosive group, but the previously unavailable One Down, One Up is the real deal, the sound of four jazz musicians pushing speed-of-thought sound beyond any previously established modes to the point that even the musicians themselves have given up trying to bend their brains around every schlup and whump of the music. Indeed, there are moments during the cataclysmic title track that make you all-out marvel at the almost impossibly accelerated arc of Coltrane's career, one that flashed from early musical experiments within the confines of genre to the kind of all-out magic/metaphysic spirit-questing that tears through form in favour of the demands of all-devouring supra-musical concerns like revelation and deliverance. All this and "My Favourite Things" too. One Down, One Up is a two CD set that bundles two separate performances, both recorded at the tiny Half Note club, situated at the mouth of the Holland Tunnel in NYC. Coltrane's band had a virtual residency there during 1964 and '65, squeezed onto the tiny, box-like stage like flesh-cogs in an experimental think-tank. Impulse, Coltrane's record label at the time, opted not to record any of his marathon Half Note performances, leaving it down to jazz DJ Alan Grant to immortalise these breakthrough sets, recording and broadcasting them on his late night radio show. Grant passed master copies of the recordings onto Coltrane himself and after the saxophonist's death in July 1967 they languished in the family vault, their reputation slowly increasing in stature thanks to a run of blurry bootleg editions. Hearing both 1965 sets in comparative fidelity (there are still some drop-outs, as well as a layer of evocative late-night fug) is a genuinely scalp-raising experience. Coltrane is on ferocious, break-on-through form, riding the head of the title track through the roof of the saxophone's upper registers before unlocking entirely with a solo that incorporates dense phonetic blasts and single-note roars. Drummer Elvin Jones's playing is particularly exultant, riding and crashing through the torrential steel waves of Coltrane's horn with a pugilistic ferocity and the section where the two drop into a duet comes across like a spontaneous pre-figuring of Coltrane's later sax/drums set with Rashied Ali, Interstellar Space. And even though the cracks that would eventually destroy the group altogether are fairly apparent, they only add to the momentous sense of drama and personal quest, with pianist McCoy Tyner desperately grasping at the frayed edges of structure while Coltrane leads the hallelujah choir straight into the abyss. But there's still plenty here for fans of 'classic' Coltrane and the set is bookended with some straight-forwardly gorgeous arrangements of canonical Coltrane material, particularly a 22 minute version of "My Favourite Things" that flits from saccharine to sacramental with nothing but a long blast from Coltrane's lips and a lilting take on "Afro Blue". The whole package is beautifully assembled, with liners by Ashley Khan, author of a book on Coltrane's A Love Supreme recording, and a raft of snaps from the gig all collected in a booklet. Plugging back in to the later ecstasies of Coltrane's mission just reminds you of how much the saxophonist did to re-wire jazz's evolutionary thrust and One Down, One Up is a beautiful ticket straight to the third-eye of the storm. Highly recommended.

Vibracathedral Orchestra
s/t
U-Sound Vol 13
CD-R
£8.99

Great collection of cloud-gobbling live improvisations from the line-up of Adam Davenport, Bridget Hayden, Julian Bradley, Mick Flower and Neil Campbell recorded in Leeds and Manchester 2002. Packaged in the usual U-Sound wraparound sleeve style. Recommended.

William Parker
Through Acceptance Of The Mystery Peace
Eremite MTE-012
CD
£11.99

The mid- to late 70s through the early 80s are commonly characterised as barren years for freedom in general, but the flame was still burning bright; only it was hidden away in countless artist-run lofts. With the music now deemed commercially unviable, the musicians took to supporting themselves and each other; the ultra-heavy saxophonist Marzette Watts led the way, setting up a space in the old ESP Disk premises at Cooper Square, and Rashied Ali, Fred Hopkins, Carla Bley and Sam and Bea Rivers quickly followed suit, establishing an informal network of performance and meeting spaces in New York's East Village. Bassist William Parker, nowadays the Lower East Side's very own lightning rod, bass player with David S. Ware and leader of ensembles like In Order To Survive and Little Huey Orchestra, made his first recordings during this period. Originally released on his own Centering Records in 1981, and now highly collectable, Through Acceptance Of The Mystery Peace is a compilation of performances from throughout the 70s. Such loft scene regulars as the flighty post-Ornette altoist Jemeel Moondoc, multi-reedist Daniel Carter and drummer Denis Charles put in appearances across a series of stately, precisely plotted compositions that burn with evangelical fervour. Parker combines the authentic wood and wire feel of bassist Jimmy Garrison with an esoteric, poetic approach to ensemble writing that encourages highly individual voicings and interpretations. In a way, he has taken up Coltrane's mantle of getting players gigs and deals, and keeping them philosophically strong and focussed. His workshops are legendary, more like mystical-philosophical pow-wows than practice sessions. So, yeah, another totally necessary issue from Eremite. Recommended.

Arthur Doyle
Live At The Dorsch Gallery
Carbon CR-56
CD-R
£14.99

Rarity: limited edition of 50 numbered copies presenting a fantastic live show from Miami, Florida in 2000 from this feral saxophonist/vocalist. Long out of print.

Kikuri
Pulverized Purple
Victo #110
CD
£11.99

Debut release from this monstrous new Japanese underground supergroup that pairs arguably the two most influential and radical modern Japanese musicians for the first time, Keiji Haino and Masami Akita aka Merzbow. Recorded live at the Victoriaville Festival in 2007, Haino pretty much dominates the proceedings, which isn't to say that Akita is reduced to any kind of background contribution but rather that Haino - in the way he does with other heavyweight collaborators like Tony Conrad et al - immediately establishes the grounds of the exchange. It's a good move, especially when he's dealing with the kind of overwhelming firepower and monomania of Akita. When the first track starts out it sounds like classic Merzbow for the first minute or so but then Haino usurps the arc of the track with some unlikely wordless vocals, forcing Akita into backing down to a cracked Industrial drone while Haino builds loop after loop of forlorn song. In fact, the first track is most directly comparable to the psychedelic choral song of Haino's Nijiumu project. After that there's a bunch of tracks that see Haino using percussive, acoustic instruments and combining lung-destroying vocals with Akita's streamrolling analog assault. But it's the final track that's the real monster, a 30 minute guitar/electronics/drums jams with Haino playing classic iconoclastic single note lead bombs ala the first track on Pathetique while Akita destroys a drumkit behind him. A fantastic set that goes well beyond what you might expect from this particular duo. Also features a picture of Haino wearing baggy trousers and big clumpy boots - what the fuck? Highly recommended.

Nothing People
Anonymous
S-S Records SS-036
LP
£11.99

Full-length album from this great Californian avant-garage/new wave ensemble that combine, apocalyptic late night electro-threat with a sleazy glam-punk edge that would’ve sat just right on the same bill as Suicide and The New York Doll’s at Max’s Kansas City. There’s a weird decadent, sci-fi edge to the music that conjures the kinda pre-punk psychedelic pooftery of ensembles like Victoria Vein & The Thunderpunks, Debris, Twinkeyz et al along with some choice Euro synth austerity and UK post-punk moves that makes the overall cut of their jib seem kinda approximate to a DIY take on Roxy Music although it sits just as well with established west coast art-rock moves like Chrome, Minimal Man et al. Either way, this is another great, weird modern rock record and is highly recommended. Edition of 600 copies.

Fushitsusha
1991.9.26 19:15~20:08
PSF PSFDV-2
DVD
£14.99

First ever DVD from Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha reissues what was originally a VHS document of a raging performance from the classic trio line-up circa 1991, with Haino joined by bassist Ozawa and drummer Jun Kosugi. Filmed with a single camera positioned on Haino's side of the stage it's a great straightforwardly shot document of Fushitsusha's heavens-storming live show with no obtrusive effects or editing save the odd zoom. For the most part the group are in heavy overdrive mode and the interaction between Ozawa's static bass gravity and Haino's insanely overdriven/octave-bombing guitar work is an absolute delight. Kosugi was a great Fushitsusha drummer and his staccato punctuation and brain-dazzling way with time propels the group onto a whole new plane of now. Haino pulls so many body-blurring rock moves that at one point it almost looks like he's dissolving in front of your eyes. It's always a blast to actually see the group play live, as the physical aspect of their attack is vital to their sound and this is a real, raucous peak. Show comes from a night when Fushitsusha shared the stage with Zorn's Pain Killer (their set appears on the Rituals LP). 53 minutes, NTSC region-free coding. Highest possible recommendation.

Amon Duul
Paradieswartz Duul
Wah Wah Records LPS-060
LP
£18.99

Excellent vinyl reissue of this classic side from the original, communal line-up of the first Amon Duul, their sole album for the legendary Ohr label and still their best. Released in 1971, Paradieswartz… pretty much set the standard for drug-dosed higher-minded polyphonic folk trance and lumbering cultic dooms, a blueprint further expanded on by everyone from Ghost through The No-Neck Blues Band, Tower Recordings and The Vanishing Voice. This new reissue comes with the addition of a couple of key single-only tracks, “Paramechanical World” and “Eternal Flow”. Limited to 500 copies. Highly recommended.

Andrew Coltrane
Cathedral Of Invisible Wounds
Hermitage Tapes No Cat
Cassette
£6.99

Zoned solo analog crunch from Michigan maniac Andrew Coltrane generating flashing synth beams of dense white light. Edition of circa 10-20 copies on his own label.

Andrew Coltrane
Hidden Underworld
Hermitage Tapes No Cat
Cassette
£6.99

More electro-acoustic Industrial brain-melt from Michigan’s Andrew Coltrane, with solo visions of dirt-caked drone, heavy metal silence and grainy, Industrial environs. Edition of circa 10-20 copies as ever.

Andrew Coltrane & Steve Kenney
Beast In The Basement
Hermitage Tapes No Cat
Cassette
£6.99

Excellent doomy duo blat from two key electro minimalists from Michigan, Andrew Coltrane (aka Cold Turkey/AC) and Steve Kenney (Demons/Steve Llama et al). Kenney is on synth, Coltrane on electronics, classic Gothic/Industrial moves cut with a liberated improvisatory ethic. Edition of circa 10-20 copies on Coltrane’s own label.

Attar Cups
Untitled
Blackest Rainbow Recordings No Cat
LP
£13.99

Hand-numbered edition of 299 copies with colour paste-on sleeves from this communal Maine-based free folk unit that features Nemo Bidstrup of Time-Lag/Drona Parva, Sparrow Wildchild of MV’s The Bummer Road and three members of Visitations. Long acoustic jams that share headspace with Tower Recordings or even a more folk/less Fall reverent Shadow Ring, with minimal, repeating acoustic jags that fall just the right side of lonesome to re-kindle memories of My Company Is Misery-era US Saucer.

Ego Summit
The Room Isn’t Big Enough
OLD 3C #26
CD-R
£8.99

New limited to 250 copies shrink-wrapped CD-R reissue of this legendary Columbus, Ohio supergroup blow-out, featuring the late Jim Shepard (V3/Vertical Slit), Michael Hummel (Mike Rep & The Quotas), Tommy Jay (who cut the great Tall Tales Of Trauma side), Ron House (Great Plains/Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments) and Don Howland (Gibson Brothers/Bassholes). This massive slab pretty much laid down the blueprint for a whole new brand of idiosyncratically destroyed DIY punk/folk/blues with a bunch of hard thinking loners channelling a whole heap of verging-on-sociopathic alienation, cheap beer and as serious as your life poetry with all of the disembowelling formal fury and no-fi aesthetic of The Dead C, Half Japanese and Hasil Adkins. That no one fucking bothered to follow the trails is our own dumb luck. The LP was later parodied/given tribute by the Ego Plummet supergroup, with members of Son Of Earth/Wooden Wand et al but this is the source. Highly recommended.

Factums
The Sistrum
Sacred Bones Records SBR-004
LP + 7”
£12.99

Beautifully packaged LP + 7” set from Factums, with their heaviest future-punk vision yet. Here they take the apocalyptic Cleveland flats garage sound of Pere Ubu/Rocket From The Tombs and cut it up with west coast synth stylings (Minimal Man/Chrome et al), almost Detroit-style repeat-riff damage, Harsh 70s-era Dead C/early Mouthus moves and a drugged, monotone vocal that sounds like it was recorded in wraparound shades and leathers by Klaus Dinger’s zombie boyfriend. This record has that kinda zoned late-70s/early-80s bedroom studio 3am feel that you keep thinking you know well until you realise it’s a fantasy you invented in your own head. Either way, Factums have brought it to life through a combination of retro-futurist vision and primitively sophisticated chops and I’m glad that it finally exists. As with alla the Scared Bones releases, the whole package is a real pleasure to behold. Recommended.

Hearts Of Animals
Stars Say No EP
Dull Knife Records No Cat
7”
£5.99

Edition of 300 hand-numbered copies from this cool new Houston, Texas based label. Hearts Of Animals is the nome-de-plume of Houston-based Mlee Marie who makes perfectly crafted bedroom dreampop with crude DIY overtones that moves from what you might imagine a more pop-song oriented Inca Ore might shoot for through to lo-fi takes on the sound of Brix Smith and primitively dubbed psychedelic miniatures.

Isolde
All Things To Fall Like Marching Men
Penny Poppet 003
CD
£13.99

Hand-numbered edition of 300 copies deluxe reissue of the first barely-available release from the UK duo of Andrew Chalk and Robin Barnes in a hand-made mini-LP sleeve by Chalk. A series of lunar constructs that combine bell and piano tones with delicate percussive melodies, owl sounds, smears of slow-motion muzz and almost Loren Mazzacane-style luminous solo guitar.

Jojo Hiroshige
Kokoro No Uta, Saigo No Uta
Alchemy ARDVD-002
DVD
£15.99

Wild DVD compilation of assorted Jojo Hiroshige (Hijokaidan) footage, including one promo video (!) with plenty of lurking-in-the-desert-in-a-tux style moves, a bunch of insane live No Wave/Stooges solo guitar blunts, various group settings with plenty of delayed-soaked angel/psych and a bunch of thrilling collaborations, including a wild baseball-bat riot with Masonna, improvised downer blues with Doodles and some staggering formal damage in the company of blasted folk spirit Kan Mikami. Beautifully assembled and packaged, endlessly re-watchable and the perfect companion for the recent Hijokaidan DVD/CD. Highly recommended.

Kylie Minoise
Fucking Hates You!
Kovorox Sound 031
CD-R
£7.99

“Eleven brand new tracks of aggro-situationist tinnitus vending health and safety violating guerrilla rituals. Total running time – 57:06.”

Kylie Minoise
Fucking Loves You!
Kovorox Sound 032
CD-R
£7.99

“Eight brand new tracks of fierce feedback shriek, crippled tone, rhythmic mangle and creeping terror! Total running time – 49:46” – KS.

Magik Markers
Danau Blues
Arbitrary Signs No Cat
CD-R
£7.99

Limited self-released professional board recording of a live Markers show that took place in Austria. Quite a different sound for them here, verging on extended dreamtone Japanese psych, with Elisa’s guitar caught up in a deep drift of reverb and what sounds like a weird use of tapes combining to give it a macabre Basil Kirchin-esque edge. Then the whole thing explodes into some staggering guitar/drums freak-outs with Elisa pulling some blasted six-string violence straight from the air that could almost be Kousokuya. One of the best and weirdest Arbitrary Signs releases. Each copy comes with hand-lettered details on the sleeve. Recommended.

Magik Markers
Pwtre Ser
Arbitrary Signs No Cat
CD-R
£7.99

Limited self-released home-studio recordings from the Markers duo, cut in San Francisco in early 2008. Four tracks that range from splatter-punk free jazz drums and deep-space guitar through clouds of Kosmiche foo and wordless choral vocal. This one kinda continues on the Japanese psych tip that Danau Blues initiated and it sounds great. Comes in screened sleeves.

Nice Face
Thing In My Head
Sacred Bones Records SBR-007
7”
£5.99

Two track single from this one-man fuzz guitar and beatbox unit with an approach to the mystery zone that is as beguiling as associated loners like Blank Dogs while cutting up the whole post-GBV/Siltbreeze crude pop song aesthetic with some satisfyingly ragged bursts of lead guitar.

Plastic Crimewave Sound
s/t
Eclipse No Cat
LP
£12.99

New limited edition studio LP from Steve Krakow’s Plastic Crimewave Sound that combines the Notting Hill street fighter sound and caveman wasa-wasa of The Deviants, Edgar Broughton and Crushed Butler with lead guitar action that hotwires licks from The Stereo Shoestring and Ash Ra Tempel and some wild, hip-humping boogie rock. The most lurid, technicolour psych moves this side of Acid Mothers Temple.

Rat Owl/Andrew Coltrane
Infested Deck/Dead At The Embassy
Hermitage Tapes No Cat
C30 Cassette
£6.99

Limited run of 10-20 copies from Andrew Coltrane’s imprint, with one side recorded solo by AC 7/7/8 early in the morning in Cleveland, Ohio, second side from the group Rat Owl, live at AC’s 7/4/8 and featuring AC alongside Steve Smith and David Payne (Fossils et al). Comes sealed in a plastic bag with insert artwork.

Richard Youngs & Simon Wickham-Smith
Veil (For Greg)
Insignificant Records 016
CD
£8.99

Just reissued by Jagjaguwar, these are the original copies of this duo album from Richard Youngs and long-term collaborator Simon Wickham-Smith, recorded in Chicago in 1995. Richard plays sampler, electric guitar, drum machine and moog, Simon uses sampler, drum machine, voice and moog. It’s a weird record, with a baroque, almost gothic avant-garde feel at points, which segues into an austere concrete/radiophonic workshop assemblage of bloops, tones and electricity, all rendered in a benign DIY/Industrial style that is quintessentially Youngs.

RTFO Bandwagon
New Jack EP
Dull Knife Records No Cat
7”
£5.99

Limited edition of 300 hand-numbered copies, already sold out at source, from this Columbus, Ohio unit featuring Rich from Psychedelic Horseshit on drums. Seen comparisons to these guys that would situate em downwind of the kinda folk-punk moves associated with The Mekons and even Camper Van Beethoven, though you might wanna throw in a heartbroken K Records aesthetic (The Few?) and maybe even some Modern Lovers-style clap and stomp.

Sunburned Hand Of The Man
Glak
Manhand MH-85
CD-R
£8.99

New self-released album in a hand-numbered run of only 100 copies and packaged in slimline DVD cases with insert. Consisting of recordings drawn from the Flower House in Leeds, Greenfield and various live actions featuring John Moloney, Mick Flower, Rob Thomas, Ron Schneiderman, Sarah O’Shea and Paul Labrecque. Ranges from hi-fi blues goofs and Beefheart breakdowns through cut-up and warped tapes, primitive proto-Industrial Hawkwind touch-downs and great mutant pop songs. Track titles embedded on the CD. A fully realised set from these heads. Limited numbers available.

Sunburned Hand Of The Man
Gluk
Manhand MH-86
CD-R
£8.99

New self-released album in a hand-numbered run of only 60 copies, limited numbers available. Quartet recordings from the Flower House in Leeds, featuring John Moloney, Mick Flower, Rob Thomas and Ron Scheiderman. Free improvised jams almost in a Don Cherry/Byard Lancaster/Sea Ensemble vein complete with stand-up bass, strings and horns give way to an extended avant rock wipe-out that has a touch of Volcano The Bear.

The Pink Noise
Dream Code
Sacred Bones Records SBR-005
LP
£11.99

First full-length album, beautifully packaged, from this French-Canadian duo who use processed guitars, drum machines, primitive boombox fidelity and a nice late-70s/early-80s teenage wasteland feel that combines Suicide circa “Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne” with zoned minimal synth stylings, a Chrome-play-Silicon-Teens feel and the kind of historically askew aesthetic that would cross punk primitive basement moods, garage punk energy and post-Throbbing Gristle Euro-Industrial austerity in a way that could almost be a less Marvel-comics specific take on Todd Tamanend Clark’s Nova Psychedelia. Excellent, and should appeal to alla the Blank Dogs/Eat Skull fans.

The Skaters
Physicalities Of The Sensibilities Of Ingrediential Strairways
Eclipse No Cat
LP
£11.99

Brand new long-awaited 2008 full-length vinyl album from The Skaters and easily one of the major releases of the year, a record that fully delivers on their hallucinatory power-vision of channelled vocals inhabiting spectral environs transmuted via the imagined thought-forms of Sun Ra, Angus MacLise, Basil Kirchin and Brion Gysin then obsessively Xeroxed and treated with various entropic strategies in order to muddy the ritual to the point where it feels more akin to a sonic scrying mirror than a simple snapshot. These five tracks represent some of Spencer Clark and James Ferraro's darkest work to date, a nightside epic that takes in percussive Moroccan trance forms, hypnotic keyboard reveries, voices from the pit, the repetition of barbarous name as a mainline to oblivion and some of the murkiest, shadow-populated modern psychedelia ever to blow apart feeble terms like 'noise' and 'drone'. A magical album from two of the most original and consistently mind-blowing underground thinkers. Limited edition, one-time pressing, no re-press. Highly recommended.

The Times
Enjoy/Up Against It
Artpop! #1516
CD
£8.99

Another Ed Ball reissue, this one restores 1985’s Enjoy The Times – a continuation of the Frank Summit trilogy launched by the earlier This Is London – alongside The Times’ soundtrack to Joe Orton’s Up Against It. Heavily indebted to The Kinks, John’s Children, The Creation et al, Enjoy combines DIY moves with psych stylings and a mod attitude to line-up alongside classic English concept sides like The Village Green Preservation Society/Arthur et al.

The Times
Pop Goes Art!
Artpop! #20
CD
£8.99

Another instalment in this excellent on-going reissue program focussed on Ed Ball’s back catalogue. This one reissues the first Times album proper, cut in 1981 in the wake of the dissolution of Ed’s classic DIY punk outfit O Level. Dan Treacy of The Television Personalities makes an appearance on a bunch of tracks here and the songs perfectly reconcile the primitive UK bedroom feel of Ed’s earlier singles with sharp pop art guitar action, modernist smarts, psychedelic punk and classic English iconography running from The Creation to The Prisoner. A classic UK underground album.

The Wiggins
Feed The Ghost
Dull Knife Records No Cat
7"
£5.99

Another cool 7” on this new imprint out of Houston, Texas, The Wiggins hail from Houston and play murky, arachnid garage punk in the mode of The Cramps with some post-Velvets minimalism ala The Jesus & Mary Chain/Suicide et al. 300 hand-numbered copies.

Various Artists
The Found Tapes: Minimal Wave From North America '81-'87
Minimal Wave MW-009
LP
£19.99

Another excellent overview of classic minimal synth/punk/new wave weirdness from the USA circa '81 through '87 courtesy of Minimal Wave. This one bundles tracks that run from Subterranean-style synth-freak through Industrial drone, Kraut-styled bloop and new wave dreamtone, all cut with that primitive garage ‘edge’ that we all go for. Tracks from Futurisk, Ohama, Iron Curtain, Deo Toy, Mark Lane, Crash Course In Science, Dark Day, Craig Sibley, Tara Cross and Experimental Products. A great place to start your minimal synth explorations. Edition of 500 copies on 180g vinyl with insert. Recommended.

Wild Gunmen
End Ov The World
Mad Monk No Cat
CD-R
£9.99

“Were pretty thrilled to offer up the third volume in this series of CDRs by Wild Gunmen. End Ov the World is our favorite of the bunch, because it offers the expected - chaotic wastoid jams, cacaphonous raging, and crude acoustic punk ditties - along with the entirely unexpected - essentially, the albums untitled 12 minute closer, which is by far the best thing the band has ever done. "12" is a monstrous piece of low bass tones, disembodied vocal samples, ominous cascading noise, spooky backward effects, and singer Kristys deadpan voice (sample lyric: "I hate being raped every day / every day that I live I am raped / Everybody rapes me every day / do you know what its like to be raped every day?"). Scary shit. This track is unlike anything else in the WG discography, sounding like a cross between Consumer Electronics Teenage Nuremberg and "Revolution 9" for a post-Mullholland Drive world. There are other highlights as well, like the Godz-style punk of "Up Your Ass" (featuring rare lead vocals by either Ron or Witt), and a nearly lucid cover of "Folsom Prison Blues," complete with train whistle sound effects. Elsewhere, banjos collide with saxophones, guitars feed back mercilessly against found audio, chaos reigns. If you’re new to Wild Gunmen, this is the place to start.” - Mad Monk

Claudio Two
Contemporary Suicide Music
Mad Monk No Cat
CD-R
£9.99

Third limited-edition CD-R (run of only 150 copies) from this new project led by James Toth aka Wooden Wand and featuring Jessica Toth and original Golden Calves vocalist Max Mev Wicker. Following in the wake of their shelved second album, Jazz Improve, Contemporary Suicide Music feels more like the repository for alla Toth’s more outré sonic strategies, almost as a companion to his more classic song-based work as Wooden Wand. Here there’s a whole bunch of weird, private press style gambits, with tracks that range from devouring, almost Hototogisu-esque dinosaurs-in-the-fog style drones, squiggly early-Tietchens inspired synth magic, instrumentals that sound almost exactly like Department Store Santas playing “That’s Just Fine” by Spacemen 3 and some shredding solo punk guitar. Another highly recommended instalment.

Claudio Two
Hot Lead
Mad Monk No Cat
CD-R
£8.99

New limited to 150 copies self-released CD-R from this Wooden Wand offshoot featuring James and Jessica Toth (aka Chazz Improv and Norma Bates) and Max Wicker: “Latest and best from this mysterious tribe finds them in full synthesizer horror mode. Taking cues from the soundtracks of John Carpenter, the mutant space techno of Allan Bryant, the time-lapse mesmerism of Robert Fripp, and the intrepid synthesizer experiments of Ruth White, Hot Lead deals in nightmarisharpeggios, shapeshifting noise and ominous melodic variations. Recorded direct to 8 track - no boring, sterile microhouse polish here - and comprised of mostly solo tracks by individual members. Complete with dreamy Sisters of Mercy fanboy cover art.” – MM.

Jazzfinger/Culver & Fordell Research Unit
Split
Blackest Rainbow Recordings No Cat
LP
£12.99

Split LP in a run of only 280 LPs, featuring a particularly mesmeric sidelong Jazzfinger track. Top prize for the most pathetic adolescent noise/horror cover art idiocy yet to Mr “French” whoever he is. You might just wanna tear it off.

Wild Gunmen
Cocain Spyders
Mad Monk No Cat
CD-R
£9.99

Second limited edition CD-R on James Toth aka Wooden Wand’s own imprint from this fabulously confused and confusing unknown basement project, edition of 150 copies: “The second volume in this exciting series by this wastoid troupe from the buckeye state is even better than the first. While the highly popular Volume One introduced the band as the parole board's answer to the Cherry Blossoms, Volume Two: Cocain Spyders (the misspelling is the band's) finds the group more stoned, introspective and deliberate, with oscillators, delay drones, horns, and high pitched feedback squeals taking the place of more 'traditional' instruments. Singer Kristy is, as ever, center stage, singing beautifully harrowing misfit tales of lonely strangers, train wrecks and dreams fading away. Volume Two also features what is perhaps, in our opinion, the quintessential Wild Gunmen track thus far - an untitled jam near the middle of the disc begins like any other paranormal WG track, until Kristy nonchalantly takes a break from singing to audibly converse with her captive party guests about sex and cocain(e), while Witt and Ron, undaunted, lock into a supremely fucked clarinet / guitar duet that sounds like a moonlight meeting between Rafael Toral and Little Howlin' Wolf. When Kristy decides to begin singing again, the track only gets weirder, stretching out over several parts and nearly fifteen minutes like a lost ESP side or perhaps the music the guy who left the desperate answering machine message at the beginning of Charalambides Market Square might have made. As if all of this weren't enough, Volume Two also includes the soon-to-be-punk-classic "(I've Got A) Washboard (For A Stomach)." This is the second in what we hope will be a long running series of releases by Wild Gunmen on Mad Monk, but each one could be the last - word has it a few of the band members are dead set against these releases - so treasure and cherish every minute while it lasts!” – James Toth.

Wild Gunmen
Volume One
Mad Monk No Cat
CD-R
£9.99

Limited edition of 150 copies on James Toth aka Wooden Wand's Mad Monk imprint from this contemporary real people/private press/bad drugs squad who combine helium femme vox, primitive acoustic death-dirges ala Jandek, bloops of electronics and haunting red-neck acid country psychosis. Perhaps Toth puts it best: “I was introduced to the music of Wild Gunmen by Russ Waterhouse, who handed me a tape wrapped in silver foil and told me I'd love it. He was right, and I immediately wrote to main Gunman Witt, just telling him how much I liked his band. He wrote me back immediately, promising "years" of more music, and telling me I'd better get ready, because this was some serious shit. He explained that the band - a trio - were 'bad on the biz end' because they were all saddled with being drug addicts and had also been dealt the unfortunate blow of all being born under the sign of Libra (???). He also told me that two of the members were former FM radio DJs on Cincinnati's WAIF. A few days later, a package arrived containing three unmarked 90 minute cassettes, and a handwritten letter. The letter featured color copies of a sexy drummer who, Witt explained, was dead now, and another photo of a very young girl who Witt claimed to have taken to see GG Allin. The letter, rife with more references to the copious amount of drugs the band takes, quotes from South Park, and casual boasting, was still not enough to prepare me for the amazingly twisted sounds contained on the tape. Eerie acoustic blues, with oscillator and other various noises, super confessional lyrics sung by what sounds like the demon spawn of Jandek's gal Nancy and Niagara, and the unmistakable sound of several fucked up adults getting together to rock out in a self-described 'drug infested nut house.' This one is hard to explain, and frankly, I'm at a loss - a very authentic psychedelic nightmare that may be a little too 'real people' for it's own good. Of all the amazing shit coming out of Cowtown lately (and there is a LOT!) this is some of the most fried by far. Some of it maybe sounds a little like Sam Esh? I don't know, man. Anyway, this is the first of what we hope will be many releases of Wild Gunmen material on Mad Monk. We are super excited to share this with the world! I asked Witt to send me cover art and song titles, and he told me to "just make them up, cause no one here can ever agree on them...our singer Kristy is a drug addict...half the time I just want to kill her. And surprise us and cook up your own design for a CD cover - title it anything you want." Okay, then!“ James Toth/Wooden Wand. Recommended.

Dead Raven Choir
Sturmfuckinglieder
Battlecruiser No Cat
CD-R
£9.99

One of the best releases to date on Campbell Kneale/Birchville Cat Motel/Black Boned Angel’s own black/death imprint, Dead Raven Choir combine an apocalyptic iron fist of metal stylings and sick folk melodies with an impenetrable wall of tortuous electronic noise and distorted vocals. This one features a bunch of mind-blowing cover versions, including three tracks by Townes Van Zandt (their version of his great “Waiting Around To Die” is particularly eviscerating), one by Garnet Rogers and one by Leonard Cohen (“First We Take Manhattan”). This is some fantastic, all-enveloping noise with massive vertical chord shifts that’ll lift you right out of our skin. Highest recommendation.

Drowning Yellow Swans and Jim Alteri
Drowning Yellow Swans
Carbon CR-116
CD-R
£8.99

Another haunted hangar full of machine codes, feedback, swells of overloaded guitar, fucked up digital trash and chatter from the otherside all carved into huge, flashing sculptures by these radical Bay Area actionists. A particularly mesmeric instalment in a run of 100% killers from this group.

MV & EE with The Golden Road
Moment Spacing/Bong Judge
Golden Lab Records ROWF-5
7"
£4.99

Limited edition of 500 copies from Matthew Valentine and Erika Elder with backing from Willie Lane, Samara Lubelski, John Moloney, Sparrow Wildchild, Janane Trip and Chris Livingood. A side is a beautiful up-tempo Valentine/Elder duet while the B features a more extended, drug-huffing take on the same material. Recommended.

Soil Sing Through Me
What We Can Keep
Spirit Of Orr #43
CD-R
£10.99

Second album from this monolithic free rock group based in New England and featuring Ruth and Kyle from Feathers alongside Paul Labrecque and Ron Schneiderman of Sunburned Hand Of The Man. Starts off with the same kind of deeply-focussed nocturnal ritual previously channelled by the Aether Myth'd all cut to ribbons with electric modal form before blurting into full-blown speed-freak re-runs of Silence ear sludge/behemoths like Träd Gras Och Stenar and International Harvester as well as the kind of group-mind metal previously buckled by Amon Düül. Features guest appearances by John Moloney of Sunburned and Meara O'Reilly of Feathers/Idea Fire Company. Hand-numbered edition of 100 copies in sprayed digipaks. Recommended.

The Cops
Fables
Battlecruiser No Cat
CD-R
£7.99

Not Pete Nolan’s garage punk trio, these Cops are based in Dublin and play horse-pounding thrash/doom rock with drum machines, ferociously trilling electric guitar and lung-scraping vocals that sound a lot like Yamataka Eye at his most regressive. Something invigoratingly infantile about this whole angular mess that pushes it way past a lot of the competition. Comes in the label’s standard, all black/obi style. Limited.

Don Cherry
MU First Part + Second Part
Charly CDGR-291
CD
£8.99

Excellent budget reissue of this classic 1969 duo side from Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell, still one of the peerless duo sessions to fuse free jazz, pan-global trance and cultic vibrations. Both sides were issued by the BYG/Actuel imprint, great to have em together on CD. Highly recommended.

Halana
#3 Winter 1998
Halana No Cat
Magazine + CD
£9.99

Storeroom score of a bunch of issues of this legendary and long out-of-print magazine/CD set. Issue 3 is particularly prized for featuring the second instalment of Volcanic Tongue columnist Alan Licht's Minimalist Top 10 and it also features fiction from John Fahey, a new text from Amiri Baraka, a performance transcription by David Grubbs, an interview with Bernhard Gunter, a translation by Alan Cummings of a great interview with the late free Japanese bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa and some autobiographical writings from Charlemagne Palestine. The CD features over an hour of unreleased music from John Fahey, Motoharu Yoshizawa, Bernhard Gunter, David Grubbs, Charlemagne Palestine and Alan Licht. Reading this again made me massively nostalgic for the whole feel of the 90s pre-internet underground. I fucking miss it. But this is as good a time capsule as any. Highly recommended.

Mars
78+
Atavistic ALP-48
CD
£10.99

CD collection that bundles all of the studio recordings from Mars, the premier No Wave group to blow out of the New York underground in the late 70s. Mars - Sumner Crane, China Burg, Mark Cunningham and Nancy Arlen - burned ferociously bright in their short lifetime, their music an exhilarating post-punk refusal of any remnant of Blues form in favour of percussive slabs of guitars, solos played way the hell over the bridge, lyrics delivered in a tranquilised thousand-yard monotone and rhythms like subway trains. This one collects all of the necessary sides – including “Puerto Rican Ghost”, “Helen Forsdale”, “Scorn”, “The Immediate Stages Of The Erotic” – and contains the seeds of so much to come, from Sonic Youth to Fushitsusha.

Prurient
Shrimp Crescent
Hospital Productions HOS-122
Cassette
£8.99

Rarity: Very limited 2005 two-track cassette from Prurient, with stapled paper covers and inserts, long out of print.

Shizuka
Heavenly Persona
PSF PSFD-52
CD
£12.99

Quite simply one of the greatest psych/bliss guitar records of all time. Shizuka’s vocals are pitched just this side of Venus while guitarist Maki Miura (ex-Fushitsusha) lays down some of the most mind-blowing melodic/noise guitar solos this side of you-fucking-name-it. Also features Jun Kosugi (ex-Fushitsusha) on drums. Highest recommendation. One of the key Japanese underground albums.

Sonny & Linda Sharrock
Paradise
Water #104
CD
£10.99

Reissue of this neglected 1975/6 post-Black Woman side by avant guitarist Sonny Sharrock and vocalist partner Linda, with a full band cutting mutant funk/jazz/rock claccicism with freak stylings, break-out guitar and post-Yoko vox. Liners from Byron Coley.

Sun Ra
The Magic City
Evidence ECD-22069-2
CD
£9.99

CD reissue of an excellent 1965 side from Sun Ra and Arkestra, originally self-released on Saturn. The title track is an excellent ensemble improvisation with Ra on clavioline and piano and inspired solos from John Gilmore, Danny Davis, Pat Patrick, Marshall Allen and Harry Spencer. Three more tracks drawn from recording sessions at the Olatunji loft. Comes with liners by biographer John F. Szwed and snaps.

Kaoru Abe-Hiroshi Yamazaki Duo
Jazz Bed 1971.1.24
PSF PSFD-67
CD
£12.99

For any Abe neophytes this is the one to start with; a high-wire duo set that sees Abe's breath conceptions shredded by Yamazaki's ferocious percussive assault. Yamazaki is best known for association with free-noise guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi as part of the guitarist's New Directions ensemble and this is a wild disc, with two long tracks recorded 24/1/1972 that pack as much blood and fire as already-canonical blow-outs like Adieu Little Man, Duo Exchange and Interstellar Space.

Pink Reason
Winona
Woodsist 014
7”
£6.99

New EP from Pink Reason, a three tracker that dovetails nicely with the ragged arc of the Siltbreeze LP, with massively downer ballads ala Jim Shepard/V-3 spiked with the kinda basement garage gnosis previously associated with the whole Twisted Village/Luxurious Bags axis. A good one. Limited supply, already sold out at source.

Astral Social Club
Astral Social Club #11
Astral Social Club No Cat
CD-R
£7.99

Brand new instalment from Neil Campbell ex of Vibracathedral Orchestra's latest drone/psych/electro project. Limited to 100 copies this set features seven tracks that run from amphetamine/exotica takes on primitive hand drum and skin vibration, totally fractured deep-space dub grunts, railroading psychedelia and glorious, overtone rich hymns to oblivion ala classic Vibra/Sunroof.

Aural Fit
Aural Fit 2
PSF PSFD-179
CD
£12.99

Follow-up to this Japanese psychedelic power trio's gob-smacking self-released debut. Their first full-length for PSF, this one almost outdoes Mainliner in terms of totally over-the-top fuzz-damaged production, with a bottom end that's as crunchy as Blue Cheer and as wiped-out as Nanjo Asahito's Christmas card list. The vocals are wild; aggressive, barked, monosyllabic and the lead guitar seems to coalesce out of distortion, tape warp and densely compacted highs and lows to birth serpentine forms that meld the time-warping potential of early Makoto Kawabata at his most formally extended with a more damaged punk rock/No Wave style that could almost be Les Rallizes Denudes-play-Germs-play-Motorhead with the addition of Billy TK for exaggerated axe ecstasy. Can't recall anything quite as adrenaline-charged and obliviously wasted as this since maybe one of the more brutal Univive sides. The guitarist/vocalist is called Mondo, they look like the Scientists circa Atom Bomb Baby, there are four massive tracks on the disc that never let up with the fuzz=satori stance and it all comes packaged in a hard card shrunken LP style sleeve with Obi. It's at times like this when you remember all over again why PSF is the greatest label in the world. Highly recommended.

Bixobal
#4
Ri Be Xibalba No Cat
Zine
£2.99

New issue of this US zine, with a tour diary from the Scottish Resonant Spaces event from Akio Suzuki, the cinema of Fernando Arrabal, Stomu Yamash'ta and a ton of reviews.

Blood Stereo
Magnetic Headache
Bottrop Boy B-Boy-035
CD
£10.99

First ever ‘real’ CD from the duo of Dylan Nyoukis and Karen Constance, aka Blood Stereo, released to tie-in with their exhibition of the same name that took place in Berlin. “Blood is dripping from my stereo and my ears. Blood stereo submerges its listeners in horror vacui. The awfulness of emptiness is made audible in all its horrific detail. This album can be construed either as a radio play for exhausted ears or the ideal soundtrack for waking up from a disturbing nightmare. Reality refuses to return this early in the morning and all that remains is a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. Voices wander around in your head, somewhere there is the creaking of a door and in the distance you hear someone softly crying. British noise wizard Dylan Nyoukis (from, among others, Prick Decay) and partner in crime Karen Constance combine to let rip under the name Blood Stereo. The pair set about their work in subtle way. Instead of loud eruptions of noise they set out to create the most quietly disturbing of soundscapes. Think an innocent walk in a Transylvanian mountain village or a Blair Witch forest or any other godforsaken place where your only companions are the whispering voices hell-bent on driving you insane and the howling wind. Listen to The Magnetic Headache with your headphones to feel the sounds dripping through your eardrum and crawling up your brainstem. On the last track, honorary guest Neil Campbell aka Astral Social Club sprinkles a little stardust into your stereo - a much-needed, soul-cleansing coda after such an ominous head trip.” – BB.

Charlie Feathers
Rare And Unissued Recordings Volume One: Wild Side Of Life
Norton CED-332
CD
£9.99

New collection of totally fantastic out-takes and unissued madmanisms from Charlie Feathers, one of the all-time greatest American folk-spirits. If you picked up the Revenant set you’ll already be aware of what a supremely individual vocal stylist Feathers was, as well as being a life-long rockabilly purist, but this new set of unissued gold from Norton might just be the weirdest and greatest motherlode ever birthed via his lips, running from minimal home-recorded ballads that are so primitively rendered it sounds as if Charlie is trying to re-take Nebraska from the hands of Springsteen with fuggin Mike Rep at the controls to classic hip-hunching rave-ups. This volume features an unissued take on the amazing title track, lonesome country punk, rave-up hillybilly git fiddlin and a whole lot more grease. Recommended.

Charlie Feathers
Rare And Unissued Recordings Volume One: Wild Side Of Life
Norton CED-332
LP
£10.99

New collection of totally fantastic out-takes and unissued madmanisms from Charlie Feathers, one of the all-time greatest American folk-spirits. If you picked up the Revenant set you’ll already be aware of what a supremely individual vocal stylist Feathers was, as well as being a life-long rockabilly purist, but this new set of unissued gold from Norton might just be the weirdest and greatest motherlode ever birthed via his lips, running from minimal home-recorded ballads that are so primitively rendered it sounds as if Charlie is trying to re-take Nebraska from the hands of Springsteen with fuggin Mike Rep at the controls to classic hip-hunching rave-ups. This volume features an unissued take on the amazing title track, lonesome country punk, rave-up hillbilly git fiddlin and a whole lot more grease. Recommended.

Charlie Feathers
Rare And Unissued Recordings Volume Three: Long Time Ago
Norton CED-334
CD
£9.99

New collection of totally fantastic out-takes and unissued madmanisms from Charlie Feathers, one of the all-time greatest American folk-spirits. If you picked up the Revenant set you’ll already be aware of what a supremely individual vocal stylist Feathers was, as well as being a life-long rockabilly purist, but this new set of unissued gold from Norton might just be the weirdest and greatest motherlode ever birthed via his lips, running from minimal home-recorded glassy-eye ballads that are so primitively rendered it sounds as if Charlie is trying to re-take Nebraska from the hands of Springsteen with fuggin Mike Rep at the controls. This volume features some monsters: “Jungle Fever”, “Lonesome Whistle”, “Frankie And Johnny”, “Knoxville Girl” and more. Recommended.

Charlie Feathers
Rare And Unissued Recordings Volume Three: Long Time Ago
Norton CED-334
LP
£10.99

New collection of totally fantastic out-takes and unissued madmanisms from Charlie Feathers, one of the all-time greatest American folk-spirits. If you picked up the Revenant set you’ll already be aware of what a supremely individual vocal stylist Feathers was, as well as being a life-long rockabilly purist, but this new set of unissued gold from Norton might just be the weirdest and greatest motherlode ever birthed via his lips, running from minimal home-recorded ballads that are so primitively rendered it sounds as if Charlie is trying to re-take Nebraska from the hands of Springsteen with fuggin Mike Rep at the controls to classic hip-hunching rave-ups. This volume features some monsters: “Jungle Fever”, “Lonesome Whistle”, “Frankie And Johnny”, “Knoxville Girl” and more. Recommended.

Charlie Feathers
Rare And Unissued Recordings Volume Two: Honky Tonk Kind
Norton CED-333
CD
£9.99

New collection of totally fantastic out-takes and unissued madmanisms from Charlie Feathers, one of the all-time greatest American folk-spirits. If you picked up the Revenant set you’ll already be aware of what a supremely individual vocal stylist Feathers was, as well as being a life-long rockabilly purist, but this new set of unissued gold from Norton might just be the weirdest and greatest motherlode ever birthed via his lips, running from minimal home-recorded ballads that are so primitively rendered it sounds as if Charlie is trying to re-take Nebraska from the hands of Springsteen with fuggin Mike Rep at the controls to classic hip-hunching rave-ups. This volume comes with a great snap of the Feathers brothers suited up and smoking on the back (the original rat pack!), unissued takes on classics like “We’re Getting Closer To Being Apart”, “Folsom Prison Blues”. Some beautiful country weepers and some streamlined rockabilly whump. Recommended.

Charlie Feathers
Rare And Unissued Recordings Volume Two: Honky Tonk Kind
Norton CED-333
LP
£10.99

New collection of totally fantastic out-takes and unissued madmanisms from Charlie Feathers, one of the all-time greatest American folk-spirits. If you picked up the Revenant set you’ll already be aware of what a supremely individual vocal stylist Feathers was, as well as being a life-long rockabilly purist, but this new set of unissued gold from Norton might just be the weirdest and greatest motherlode ever birthed via his lips, running from minimal home-recorded ballads that are so primitively rendered it sounds as if Charlie is trying to re-take Nebraska from the hands of Springsteen with fuggin Mike Rep at the controls to classic hip-hunching rave-ups. This volume comes with a great snap of the Feathers brothers suited up and smoking on the back (the original rat pack!), unissued takes on classics like “We’re Getting Closer To Being Apart”, “Folsom Prison Blues”. Some beautiful country weepers and some streamlined rockabilly whump. Recommended.

DDAA
Action And Japanese Demonstrat