bruce russell “left-handed blows: writing on sound 1993-2009” book

• left-handed blows: towards a technique of incognito
  
• ten aphorisms in lieu of an editorial policy for logopandocy
  
• what is free?: a free noise manifesto
  
• a little aesthetic discourse: a dialogue between alastair galbraith and bruce russell
  
• contra-fludd/contra-kepler: the disharmony of the spheres extolled in ten theses
  
• heaven on earth is always a beguiling prospest: a dialogue between danny butt and bruce russell
  
• to think is to speculate with images: rosicrucian linguistics revisited as semiological discourse
  
• tuplas
  
• poi$on + lie$ = money + death - the axe interview
  
• on the guitar: practical materialism - lesson one
  
• the real ‘driver ufo’ - douglas lilburn: complete electro-acoustic works
  
• thinking my head to the sky: practical materialism - lesson two
  
• points of reference: here to go
  
• midnight crossroads tape recorder blues
  
• concerning the duende: practical materialism - lesson three
  
• celestial disharmonies: retuning the ears of the world with sound art
  
• time under the rule of the commodity: notes towards an epistemology of tape music
  
• silver machines and stone henges: pumping the pipe organ of psycho-social mind control
  
• battering down all chinese walls
  
• dub me tender: a brief personal history of the sound recording as an artistic medium
  
• why i make recordings
  
• caution: analogue artist at work!

clouds press release...

left-handed blows: writing on sound 1993-2009 by bruce russell published 2009 by clouds, auckland, nz 128 pages preface by alastair galbraith  ‘left-handed blows’ is a collection of essays written by bruce russell (dead c.) reflecting on sound, improvisation and critical action in the field of culture. about the title these are days when no one should rely unduly on his ‘competence’. strength lies in improvisation. all the decisive blows are struck left-handed.  walter benjamin (1928). ‘one-way street’ summary of contents the contents of the volume were first written for ‘logopandocy: the journal of vain erudition’ originally published with compact discs on the corpus hermeticum label, as liner notes for other compact discs, or as catalogue essays and journalistic pieces. there are also a theoretical introduction and conclusion, which provide a framework within which these occasional pieces can be collectively understood. essays 1999-2008 left-handed blows: towards a technique of incognito practical materialism lesson 1: on the guitar practical materialism lesson 2: thinking my head to the sky practical materialism lesson 3: concerning the duende time under the rule of the commodity celestial disharmonies: retuning the ears of the world with sound art the real ‘driver ufo’: douglas lilburn in memoriam (the wire) battering down all chinese walls (the wire) why i make recordings (revue et corrigee) caution: analogue artist at work! logopandocy 1994-97 what is free? a free noise manifesto contra-fludd/contra-kepler: the disharmony of the spheres extolled in ten theses a little aesthetic discourse: a dialogue between alastair galbraith and bruce russell heaven on earth is always a beguiling prospect: a dialogue between danny butt and bruce russell ‘to think is to speculate with images’: rosicrucian linguistics revisited as semiological discourse ten aphorisms in lieu of an editorial policy for logopandocy liner notes 1997-2008 ralf wehowsky tulpas 1997 ralf wehowsky points of reference 2003 birchville cat motel gunpowder temple of heaven 2008 bruce russell midnight crossroads tape recorder blues 2005 bruce russell 21st century field hollers and prison songs 2007 interview 1999 ‘poi$on + lie$ =  money + death’ bruce russell interviewed by marco fusinato in axe no. 19, ed. john nixon and marco fusinato about the author bruce russell is a practitioner in sound, who since 1987 has been a member of the dead c. this genre-dissolving new zealand trio, mixes rock, electro-acoustics, noise and improvisation in equal measures. he has also been active as a solo artist, and directed two of new zealand’s vanguard labels, xpressway and corpus hermeticum.   he is currently studying at rmit towards a doctorate in sound. this seeks to establish a theory of the social utility of improvised sound work, building on guy debord’s critique of the commodity-spectacle, walter benjamin’s reflections on time and commodity fetishism, and karl marx’s theory of value.

ralf wehowsky / bruce russell “sights” compact disc

• first sight (14:42)
  
• second sight (12:00)
  
• third sight (18:39)

corpus hermeticum press release...

take two collaborators, one a german sound artist noted for his painstaking micro-engineered computer compositions, the other a new zealand noise terrorist with a reputation for making albums over his morning tea breaks. put them in a basement studio in karlsruhe for three days in february 2003, feed them on coffee and apple juice and let them out to walk in the woods once a day. what do you get? sights, a dramatic collision of two very different but complementary approaches to the same problem -- 'what is this sound?'. this is a postcard from bruce russell's 2003 european holiday, consisting of three duo improvisations, one recorded after the fact by mail collaboration, and two recorded live in ralf's studio. russell and wehowsky take turns in the studio playing guitar and manipulating a range of tone generating electronics, while the mail collaboration includes clavioline and teaspoons. the recordings have then been subjected to ralf wehowsky's characteristically careful mixing, where stereo placement and subtle tweaking of the recorded sounds grants a bewitching crystalline sheen to every click and whine. it's the combination of instantaneous composition and carefully-planned post-production that imparts the mystery to this particular session. at once quite unlike wehowsky's recent work, yet imbued with the same ethos of care and judicious consideration which marks all his productions, sights if anything represents a return to the more carefree jamming practiced by the earliest post-punk incarnations of his first band, pd. in this we see some influence from the slap-dash new zealander, but whereas the average russell production has an unmistakeable air of accident about the fact that anything wound up on tape at all, in this case the beautifully-managed production does perfect justice to the audible excitement captured at the point of creation. there's a measured care to the way these sounds have been put together, but there's no slavish adherence to any tenets regarding how the results should sound. this is too rocking to be reductionist, too chance-driven to be minimalist, and too noisy to be lumped with any temporarily fashionable schools of micro-improvisation. what you get is the meeting of two well-made-up minds, which have spent upwards of two decades each deciding what the business of sound is all about, and then a long weekend putting the resulting experience into practice.

tetuzi akiyama / greg malcolm / toshimaru nakamura / bruce russell “international domestic” compact disc

• tetuzi akiyama + toshimaru nakamura - physics room (14:37)
  
• tetuzi akiyama + greg malcolm - dunedin public art gallery (12:42)
  
• tetuzi akiyama + bruce russell - physics room (18:30)

corpus hermeticum press release...

alan licht “the evan dando of noise?” compact disc and booklet set

• i hate gate (part 3) (8:18)
  
• ambulance chaser (1:18)
  
• west twenty (19:05)
  
• lonesome valley (5:50)
  
• for jojo (13:06)
  
• untitled (0:19)

corpus hermeticum press release...

bruce russell “maximalist mantra music” compact disc

• the war between desire and technology (cut up) (15:30)
  
• on certain obsolete notions (full length) (20:10)
  
• the war between desire and technology (tape version) (10:57)

crank automotive press release...

bruce russell - maximalist mantra music the latest and newest domestic release from handful of dust and dead c member.

a handful of dust “spiritual libertines” compact disc

• a preface to the hieroglyphic monad of dr. john dee (14:48)
  
• the first dance in honour of the sabbatai sevi (4:22)
  
• his heart savage and buzzing, like a swarm of black flies (1:31)
  
• roses and bitumen, gift of song (4:24)
  
• the second dance in honour of the sabbatai sevi (2:28)
  
• this world has more beauty than a ram's skin painted red (6:40)
  
• the oneness of adam qadmon (5:50)
  
• the third dance in honour of the sabbatai sevi (2:30)
  
• and the sun is not named, but his power is amongst us (6:54)
  
• a single eye all light (10:17)

crank automotive press release...

a handful of dust - spiritual libertines a compilation of several earlier handful of dust records from overseas. get them all at a great domestic price. compilation of pieces of the anabase and qadmon tapes, some lathe cut offerings + two unreleased tracks (1 & 10).

bruce russell / john wiese “fronts” seven inch single record

• californian front (4:26)
  
• southern front (4:17)

a handful of dust “now gods, stand up for bastards • the philosophick mercury” double compact disc set

• the book nature: chapter the first (3:38)
  
• oration on the dignity of man (13:39)
  
• the expulsion of the triumphant beast (15:08)
  
• the lullian art (8:55)
  
• the book nature: chapter the second (6:01)
  
• the dark lantern of reason (22:29)
  
  
• fama fraternitatis (29:58)
  
• god's love to his people israel (30:16)

no fun productions press release...

nfp-34 a handful of dust 'now gods, stand up for bastards / the philosophik mercury' 2xcd now gods, stand up for bastards / the philosophik mercury is a double-disc re-issue of two limited and long out-of-print works by this obscure enigma. plunging straight into the chasm of ultra-minimalist abrasion and chaotic improv, these two records stand as unrelenting and engrossing epics of guitar feedback, disintegrating electronic sound, string-shredding violin abuse, and other facets of impassioned iconoclasm. recommended for lovers of amm, henry flynt, and hijokaidan. a handful of dust are a group consisting of a core duo of bruce russell (the dead c) and alastair galbraith. formed in dunedin, new zealand in 1990.

the dead c “tusk” compact disc

• plane (11:10)
  
• head (10:50)
  
• tuba (1:25)
  
• half (5:15)
  
• imaginary (7:35)
  
• tusk (11:55)

siltbreeze press release...

dead c / tusk siltbreeze sb 64cd after years of flirting with profound torpor, the finger is removed from the carb and new zealand’s favorite sluggish trio gets a lung full of bigtime entropy. slow, quiet, and barely played, this masterpiece sounds like it was recorded by several death row inmates on morphine. the future of rock right here, right now. ... while the next year's tusk -- titled ironically after the fleetwood mac album -- proved to be their last effort for siltbreeze. it also marked the end of their most prolific period, as the band subsequently spent an astonishing (for them) three years off record.

the dead c “the white house” compact disc

• voodoo spell (2:33)
  
• the new snow (12:28)
  
• your hand (7:25)
  
• aime to prochain comme toi même (0:56)
  
• bitcher (6:32)
  
• outside (17:59)

siltbreeze press release...

dead c / white house siltbreeze sb 40cd the dead c hit another creative high point with 1995's the white house, another fan favorite that brought a touch more structure to the group's usually free-form compositions.

the dead c “trapdoor fucking exit” compact disc

• heaven (6:42)
  
• hell is now love (2:16)
  
• mighty (5:39)
  
• power (4:32)
  
• bury (3:18)
  
• bury (refutatio omnium haeresium) (15:40)
  
• sky (2:53)
  
• bone (2:36)
  
• krossed (6:32)
  
• calling slowly (2:50)
  
• helen said this (10:59)
  
• acoustico: power (2:18)
  
• acoustico: bone (1:46)
  
• acoustico: mighty (1:48)

siltbreeze press release...

dead c / trapdoor fucking exit siltbreeze sb 40cd the dead c was formed in dunedin, new zealand in 1987, with a lineup of guitarist/occasional vocalist michael morley (a onetime member of the evocatively named wreck small speakers on expensive stereos), bassist and xpressway label head bruce russell, and drummer robbie yeats (formerly of the well-liked kiwi pop band the verlaines). in keeping with the early formats of xpressway and morley's own precious metal imprint, their earliest releases were only available on limited-run cassettes, but they also hooked up with flying nun in 1988 to issue their first lp, dr503 (which was retitled dr503b and dr503c for later reissues). a second flying nun lp, eusa kills, appeared in 1989 and featured a bizarre cover of t. rex's "children of the revolution." the dead c next forged a relationship with the philadelphia-based indie siltbreeze, which would issue the majority of their output over the ‘90s. the first was 1990's helen said this, which was later reissued on cd as part of a two-fer with the formerly cassette-only trapdoor fucking exit (the latter's title was used for the cd).

bruce russell “gilded splinters • tape works by bruce russell: 1995-2005” compact disc

• sonatas for toy fire engine and tape delay (12:24) 2000
  
• for laurie penney (17:33) 2002 / 2005
  
• poi$on+lie$=money+death [version] (9:44) 1995 / 2004
  
• canterbury vignettes#2: from space (12:20) 2000 / 2003
  
• tunnel radio [detour autours] (15:27) 2001