neptune “improv” long playing record

• thorns
  
• #23
  
• #24
  
• #25
  
• #26

neptune “silent partner” long playing record

• #35 (1:43)
  
• cash mattress (8:03)
  
• triple your money (5:23)
  
• canine species (4:28)
  
  
• collection plate (7:02)
  
• #36 (3:11)
  
• rest from breathing (7:43)
  
• #37 (1:11)

northern spy press release...

artist: neptune title: silent partner catalog number: ns 013 format: lp street date: october 11th, 2011 there’s probably not much to say about punk’s continued existence. like jazz or sitcoms or party politics, it just carries on eating and breathing and shitting and propogating. it’s only interesting when someone comes along trying to advance the form. like “arrested development” or dennis kucinich, they’re usually forgotten. this would all be relevant if neptune were a punk band, which we’re not at all sure is the case. they create a sense of undermining the status quo, which is pretty punk, but then they screw things up by undermining the punk status quo. they’re not really a guitar band, although they do play guitars of a sort, handcrafted by boston sculptor and founder jason sidney sanford. but they’ve also covered the go go’s, which isn’t punk, not really. recorded at machines with magnets, the same studio employed by battles, the psychic paramount, and the skull defekts, “silent partner” pushes neptune up to two dozen releases over 15 years, and finds them continuing to push their electrified, rhythmic sound while staying true to what has always made them evocative. they’re too musical to be a noise band, and yet the noises they make are never quite recognizable. having lost drummer daniel paul boucher in 2009, sanford and mark william pearson made the counter-intuitive decision to focus on making an album heavy on drums. with kevin emil micka (animal hospital) and farhad alexander ebrahimi (big bear), they envisioned a new sort of drum thing for neptune and devised a new arsenal of instruments – not least of which is a feedback machine devised out of a prototyped yoga ball. there’s also amplified bicycle spokes and drum-triggered oscillators. and yet, it’s a tightly controlled sonic environment. the eight-minute “cash mattress” might be a display of sonic creation, but when they come around to the simple rock of “canine spaces” the sound is familiar, even if the sounds comprising it aren’t. neptune is not dealing in willful avant-gardism. they are creating out of necessity. they’re crafting new rock where the old one won’t do. excitement’s at play. featured artists: jason sidney sanford: vocals, low-end guitar, railroad spike, bicycle crank arm, spoke protectors, spring, whistle, electronic noise generator, aluminum bowls and plates mark william pearson: oscillator organ, baritone guitar, amplified toms, drums, percussion, suitcase, aluminum bowls and plates kevin emil micka: drums, percussion, drum-triggered electronics, vocals, oscillators, radio, aluminum bowls and plates farhad alexander ebrahimi: drums, amplified drums, percussion, amplified bell, voltage-controlled oscillators, vocals, triggered electonics, feedback membrane, aluminum discs and bowls

neptune “silent partner” compact disc

• #35 (1:47)
  
• cash mattress (8:07)
  
• triple your money (5:27)
  
• canine species (4:32)
  
• collection plate (7:07)
  
• #36 (3:16)
  
• rest from breathing (7:47)
  
• #37 (1:24)

northern spy press release...

artist: neptune title: silent partner catalog number: ns 013 format: cd street date: october 11th, 2011 there’s probably not much to say about punk’s continued existence. like jazz or sitcoms or party politics, it just carries on eating and breathing and shitting and propogating. it’s only interesting when someone comes along trying to advance the form. like “arrested development” or dennis kucinich, they’re usually forgotten. this would all be relevant if neptune were a punk band, which we’re not at all sure is the case. they create a sense of undermining the status quo, which is pretty punk, but then they screw things up by undermining the punk status quo. they’re not really a guitar band, although they do play guitars of a sort, handcrafted by boston sculptor and founder jason sidney sanford. but they’ve also covered the go go’s, which isn’t punk, not really. recorded at machines with magnets, the same studio employed by battles, the psychic paramount, and the skull defekts, “silent partner” pushes neptune up to two dozen releases over 15 years, and finds them continuing to push their electrified, rhythmic sound while staying true to what has always made them evocative. they’re too musical to be a noise band, and yet the noises they make are never quite recognizable. having lost drummer daniel paul boucher in 2009, sanford and mark william pearson made the counter-intuitive decision to focus on making an album heavy on drums. with kevin emil micka (animal hospital) and farhad alexander ebrahimi (big bear), they envisioned a new sort of drum thing for neptune and devised a new arsenal of instruments – not least of which is a feedback machine devised out of a prototyped yoga ball. there’s also amplified bicycle spokes and drum-triggered oscillators. and yet, it’s a tightly controlled sonic environment. the eight-minute “cash mattress” might be a display of sonic creation, but when they come around to the simple rock of “canine spaces” the sound is familiar, even if the sounds comprising it aren’t. neptune is not dealing in willful avant-gardism. they are creating out of necessity. they’re crafting new rock where the old one won’t do. excitement’s at play. featured artists: jason sidney sanford: vocals, low-end guitar, railroad spike, bicycle crank arm, spoke protectors, spring, whistle, electronic noise generator, aluminum bowls and plates mark william pearson: oscillator organ, baritone guitar, amplified toms, drums, percussion, suitcase, aluminum bowls and plates kevin emil micka: drums, percussion, drum-triggered electronics, vocals, oscillators, radio, aluminum bowls and plates farhad alexander ebrahimi: drums, amplified drums, percussion, amplified bell, voltage-controlled oscillators, vocals, triggered electonics, feedback membrane, aluminum discs and bowls

neptune “gong lake” compact disc

• silver pool (1:33)
  
• grey shadows (4:25)
  
• paris green (3:50)
  
• purple sleep (4:15)
  
• yellow river (4:17)
  
• copper green (2:38)
  
• blue glass (3:08)
  
• black tide (4:23)
  
• red sea (5:37)
  
• ebbing (0:50)

cause celebre; pretty much the first mass-market album by one of boston’s longest-running experimental rock bands, neptune. i remember the first time i saw jason sanford’s guitars hanging in the stairwell of the e.u. wurlitzer shop on mass. ave (thankfully now r.i.p. - fucking awful place...) - garishly sharp things forged of scrap iron w/nails for frets - i couldn’t even begin to imagine the sort of music that would get played on these; until i caught the band at an outdoor concert on the m.i.t. (or was it tufts?) campus a few years later (maybe jessica rylan was playing bass w/them at that stage? no? they did collaborate w/her recently on that lp on golden lab) - their angular-yet-somehow-also-tribal-sounding art-punk piqued my interest, having just discovered savage republic, the fall, & crash worship (all fairly good reference points for their sound ... at the time at least) in the intervening years they’ve mixed things up considerably - we’ve shared a few bills over the last year-or-so & i must say that their current stage-show (an entire vansworth of repurposed wwii era surplus electronic crap, carefully rewired by the band & controlled by jason & mark mainly by flipping lightswitches :: ... along with a full complement of jason’s guitars & dan’s by-comparison traditional drumkit) is terrifying; and quite a sight/sound to behold ... this record consists of short art-punk lineage songs built around repeating electronic patterns (not too dis-similar to the silver apples in that regard) and jason’s at-times indecipherable prose. it all sounds great, a kind of almost primitive calculators / suicide-esque flair resounds throughout ...

“impala eardrums • a radium sampler” long playing record

• rhys chatham - untitled (1986) (5:20)
  
• jonathan kane’s february - pops (6:26)
  
• megafaun - beloved binge (3:15)
  
• paul duncan - silver eagle (4:24)
  
  
• collections of colonies of bees - athlete (4:37)
  
• neptune - lightning and the flight of birds (4:11)
  
• ateleia - grasses (5:14)
  
• school of seven bells - limb by limb (4:27)

“impala eardrums • a radium sampler” compact disc

• rhys chatham - untitled (1986) (5:20)
  
• jonathan kane’s february - pops (6:26)
  
• megafaun - beloved binge (3:15)
  
• paul duncan - silver eagle (4:24)
  
• collections of colonies of bees - athlete (4:37)
  
• neptune - lightning and the flight of birds (4:11)
  
• ateleia - grasses (5:14)
  
• school of seven bells - limb by limb (4:27)