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previous record label: blossoming noise		there are 12 titles on blue chopsticks in stock. they are listed below.		next record label: bomb mitte

$13.41

back in stock as of
february 16th, 2009

first in stock on
august 25th, 2008

threads:
art-punk

blue chopsticks (usa) #bc 18 cd

circle x “prehistory” compact disc

current (6:18)
prehistory part i (5:13)
prehistory part ii (5:18)
culture progress (6:31)
underworld (7:52)
beyond standard (4:43)

may 2008 release ; cd reissue of the debut long-player by this louisville-by-way-of-dijon art-punk group ...

blue chopsticks press release...

circle x, prehistory bc18

circle x were formed in 1978 from the remnants of no fun and the i-holes, louisville, kentucky's first two punk bands. (no fun, also featuring tara key of the babylon dance band and antietam, finally appeared on record in 2007 on the excellent bold beginnings: an incomplete history of louisville punk compilation.) circle x got the hell out of dodge quickly enough, settling upon new york, then dijon, france, and then back to new york again.

their self-titled ep is a lurching, squalling monster. prehistory is a tire-burning left turn. the pendulum arc of tony pinotti's vocals still contain throat-shredding howls, but expands to contain croons, moans, speech. bruce witsiepe's and rick letendre's lacerating guitars are dumped into a dubbish aquarium of reverb, and dave letendre worries polyrhythms nearly to death. the studio's gritty and cloudy. after the trash-compaction of their first ep, this is the sound of unhurried, committed exploration.

so where did circle x fit in among their peers? it's fair to describe them as a genre unto themselves. they came from punk rock and art school and sounded like none of their potential allies. they arrived in new york at the tail end of no wave, at the same time that equally ornery bands like swans and sonic youth were getting revved up. circle x are every bit as distinctive and attitudinal as throbbing gristle, pil, theoretical girls, dna, or mars, and yet they don't particularly sound like any of these groups. after prehistory, they resurfaced with four white-vinyl seven inches (later collected as the box set the ivory tower) and the 1994 celestial, an album for the then-fledgling matador label. bruce witsiepe passed away in 1995, marking the end of the group.

critic jordan mamone hit the nail on the head when he wrote: "every rare utterance from these unsentimental adventurers possesses a passion and a manifesto-writing fervor usually reserved for turn-of-the-century culture movements."

$13.41

back in stock as of
august 25th, 2008

first in stock on
november 20th, 2007

blue chopsticks (usa) #bc 16 cd

luc ferrari “far-west news (episodes 2 and 3)” compact disc

episode 2: from page to the grand canyon (1) (3:51)
episode 2: from page to the grand canyon (2) (8:10)
episode 2: from page to the grand canyon (3) (4:31)
episode 2: from page to the grand canyon (4) (6:30)
episode 2: from page to the grand canyon (5) (6:31)
episode 3: from prescott to los angeles (1) (7:41)
episode 3: from prescott to los angeles (2) (4:39)
episode 3: from prescott to los angeles (3) (3:30)
episode 3: from prescott to los angeles (4) (4:46)
episode 3: from prescott to los angeles (5) (2:54)
episode 3: from prescott to los angeles (6) (4:26)

blue chopsticks press release...

luc ferrari, far-west news (episodes 2 and 3) - bc16 cd

far-west news is the late luc ferrari's three-part aural travelogue of time that he and his wife brunhild meyer spent in the american southwest in 1998. far-west news strains familiar categories of genre; as ferrari himself writes, 'it's not a report or a soundscape, not a hörspiel or an electronic work, not a portrait or a recorded reality exhibit, not a transgression of reality or an impressionist account, not a so on or so forth. it's a composition....[c]omposition in some cases, especially in mine, and increasingly in my life, is a perverted game with the truth.' there you go. file under 'perverted game.'

far-west news is constructed from field recordings, narration, and overlaid electronic music fragments. the electronic interruptions read as representations of musical accompaniment that likely existed in luc ferrari's brain to keep things interesting -- herky-jerky musical phrases are slathered ex post facto atop the sounds of a foundry, a garth brooks-ish singer-songwriter, a walk in death valley. these david lynchian sonic interruptions of the everyday have a found object quality that's central to far-west news. there's a steady macro-rhythm of cars passing along the highway, recalling the basso continuo of the train in glenn gould's the idea of north.

in his dual role as composer and tape editor, luc ferrari had a supreme knack for musicalizing the comedy of linguistic confusion. luc and brunhild, far-west news's main characters, treat locals and yokels alike -- with exquisite visitor-hospitality. lewis and clark, meet bouvard and pécuchet. this could be a case study in cross-cultural sociality.

far-west news takes place during the lead-up to the clinton impeachment -- innocent time -- and lewinsky looms over the landscape. it's all punctuated by luc's laugh. far-west news, like ferrari's classic presque rien no. 1, is a work of landscape. where presque rien no. 1 presented a landscape wiped of speech, far-west news revels in the locals' voices and their choice of words.

$13.41

back in stock as of
august 25th, 2008

first in stock on
august 25th, 2006

blue chopsticks (usa) #bc 14 cd

bastro “antlers: live 1991” compact disc

antlers (7:56)
hirscheneck (3:09)
educated fool (4:20)
metal legs (2:58)
sleepy taste (3:53)
beatlenacht (7:28)
glistery (8:36)
video: glistery / jefferson-in-drag (9:29)
video: floating home / noise/star / hirschenbeck (10:47)

blue chopsticks press release...

also includes quicktime movies of bastro
live in germany and holland.

blue chopsticks cd released on september 20, 2005

$13.41

back in stock as of
august 25th, 2008

first in stock on
august 25th, 2006

threads:
guitar-themed
free-improvisation

blue chopsticks (usa) #bc 13 cd

noël akchoté “adult guitar” compact disc

i want to be happy
petite fleur
montée 74
woody 'n you
it could happen to you
whims of chambers
catalogue 67
modèle 63
profile bas
autumn leaves
first demo
l'arrivée des macho woman
antenne 62
flos florum
i love you
framus swing 1917
numéro 122
avec jacques thollot
how about you

blue chopsticks press release...

blue chopsticks cd released on july 20, 2004

$13.41

back in stock as of
august 25th, 2008

first in stock on
august 25th, 2006

blue chopsticks (usa) #bc 11 cd

david grubbs / mats gustafsson “off-road” compact disc

rendezvous up north (12:11)
dystopian turboprop (5:53)
pumpkin creek (3:26)
three if by train (1:56)
skiing + shooting (4:58)
back off (4:54)

blue chopsticks press release...

david grubbs & mats gustafsson, off-road - bc11 cd

off-road is david grubbs and mats gustafsson's second duo recording, the follow-up to 1999's apertura. apertura consists of two long, nearly-static improvised duos for harmonium and reeds, making it perhaps the slowest, steadiest boil in either participant's discography. off-road finds the two of them forsaking their earlier, ice age m.o. for a shower of digitally re-composed slivers, the metal-on-metal timbre of a saxophone equipped with contact mics, grubbs's chiming electric guitar, and gustafsson's pro rhythm analog synthesizer clipped to the bell of his horn. turntablist henry moore selder makes a couple of guest appearances marked by sharp rhythmic counterpoint and low-frequency warbles and moans.

off-road was recorded in stockholm immediately following grubbs and gustafsson's scandinavian tour in february 2002. those shows were chaotic events that wandered from song to free-jazz freakout to tunnel of drone to digital collage to mouthless saxophone and brainless, bruising guitar. the final set of the evenings were quartet performances with the turntable and drums duo rock out (selder and niklas korssel, who also play with mats in the group djustable), and that's how henry came to make all that tone-arm rumble in the studio.

off-road has a similar range to the live shows in an even-more compacted time frame, from the improvised pop tune "pumpkin creek" to the fractured, groove-cursed "three if by train," from the meditative, still surfaces of "rendezvous up north" to the fire alarm plus plunderphonics of "back off." with off-road, an already improbable duo takes a frightening turn beyond genre. the cover photo by john flavell shows the riot that took place at louisville, kentucky's commonwealth convention center in 1983 after the mid-show cancellation of a performance by neil young. (released march 2003)

$13.41

back in stock as of
august 25th, 2008

first in stock on
august 25th, 2006

blue chopsticks (usa) #bc 10 cd

van oehlen “rock & roll is here to die” compact disc

intro
tunnel
child
in the heat of it
unhappy
in dus tree
questions
on
r&r
tunnel-dub
fin

blue chopsticks press release...

van oehlen, rock & roll is here to die - bc10 cd

here we go -- a thumping, heavy-footed beat, a bass tending towards the liquid, a scratchy orchestral sample that brings to mind peter and the wolf, and mayo thompson's glee in singing an r for an r an eye for an eye rock and roll is here to die gone tomorrow albert and markus oehlen are back with rock and roll is here to die, and who's to say that they're not going to have a hand in finishing off the beast? the brothers oehlen are stellar, oft-decorated visual artists with a long history of thorny, helpful interventions into the world of music.

albert has been a red krayola mainstay and provocateur since the mid-1980s, and is also responsible for the leiterwagen label (j.b. slik, jailhouse, titankatzen, bullenterror), the new stream manifesto, and rumored to have something to do with the spate of wendy gondeln remixes.

markus drummed in the legendary german punk band mittagspause, and records for leiterwagen under the name don hobby. in the words of johnny cash, they've seen 'em come and go, and they've seen 'em die. it's true. but don't stop asking why. they were there as punk shaded into post-punk and scraped together the deutschmarks for an analog synth. they're still here as various reissues of daf, der plan, and palais schaumburg awaken in "new releases" sections and find themselves spun by electroclash djs. in this period of relative inactivity from the red krayola, give respect to van oehlen for placing a microphone in front of mayo thompson and letting him rip, as he does on "tunnel" (no apologies to ccr's "run through the jungle), "child," and the aforementioned, crowd-pleasing "r & r." (released march 2003)

$13.41

back in stock as of
august 25th, 2008

first in stock on
august 25th, 2006

blue chopsticks (usa) #bc 09 cd

david grubbs “act five, scene one” compact disc

act five scene one (1) (15:01)
act five scene one (2) (14:58)
act five scene one (3) (14:59)
act five scene one (4) (14:59)

blue chopsticks press release...

david grubbs, act five, scene one - bc9 cd

act five, scene one is an hour-long instrumental piece that features the trio of david grubbs, tony conrad, and dan brown. you'll find it divided into four ingestible fifteen-minute slices of sawing and banging and riffing and cutting and shapeshifting. (hence the turf-over-tops cover art by doug aitken.) act five, scene one is an electrified universe, one perhaps recognizable from grubbs'most recent ep, thirty-minute raven (rectangle).

you could think of it as an hour-long television drama as compared to the sitcom-length raven -- except that act five, scene one is the more broadly comic, less deadpan of the two. it also makes sense to think of these pieces in terms of locked grooves. as repeat-mode rock and roll, e.g. we'd made it all the way to the fifth act when scene one got stuck and kept starting over and over again. your attention is teased, then taxed; the drift begins, and then it's interrupted by that perfectly regular signpost. alarmclockwise, it's snooze-bar rock and roll -- factoring in thrills, chills, spills, quills. act five, scene one contains some of grubbs'most electrified sounds since. . . ? a few reference points: highway driving (solitary); a pinball game; a dream about breathing underwater. (released march 2002)

$13.41

back in stock as of
february 16th, 2009

first in stock on
august 25th, 2006

best of 2006 !!!

blue chopsticks (usa) #bc 08 cd

luc ferrari “cycle des souvenirs (1995-2000) exploitation des concepts no.2” compact disc

untitled (8:13)
untitled (5:45)
untitled (5:59)
untitled (7:05)
untitled (7:16)
untitled (5:16)
untitled (8:26)
untitled (6:53)
untitled (4:56)
untitled (7:43)

blue chopsticks press release...

luc ferrari, cycle des souvenirs - bc8 cd

"i have been composing a new series of works under the general title 'exploitation des concepts.' the point is to take concepts i have been experimenting with throughout my entire life as a composer, and to put them to use in every possible direction: in instrumental as well as electroacoustic music, in video, in multimedia installation, in new technologies as well as old ones . . . . these exploitations go in all directions: the tautology, superimposed cycles, the minimalism of the "presque rien" series, architectures of chance, anecdote, narrative, everyday sounds, arte povera . . . souvenirs . . . etc. -- all these concepts that have always preoccupied me but which until now i hadn't really exploited.

"so we find images of my childhood, my street, my subway; places i passed through and which struck me enough to record them, certain villages in italy or the sea in portugal; of my present, too: workplaces, my souvenirs, my house. the "cycle des souvenirs" also means that all the elements are structured in cycles which, when superimposed, produce chance encounters." -- luc ferrari made over a period of five years, luc ferrari's cycle des souvenirs is a large-scale electroacoustic work that revisits numerous periods from his five decades of composition. this is its first release. seventy-two years young, luc ferrari has been raiding his archives. armed with the series title exploitation des concepts, the first fruit of this labo was les archives sauvées des eaux ("the archives saved from the waters"), a piece for cds and turntables that has been performed by ferrari in duo with dj olive as well as with montreal-based turntablist martin tétreault. les archives sauvées des eaux was originally scheduled for the delayed sonic youth-curated "all tomorrow's parties" festival in los angeles. cycle des souvenirs is the second work in this series. it initially took the form of a multimedia installation that included video work by ferrari. given the densely detailed, elliptically refracted, imaginative sweep of the soundtrack for the installation, ferrari decided to revisit the material and craft this stand-alone audio version. luc ferrari is one of the pioneers of musique concrète. he was an early participant in the groupe de musique concrète and assisted in the founding of the groupe de recherche musicale (grm). his work has been performed in numerous retrospectives, most recently in two concerts at the museum of contemporary art in chicago. (released february 2002)

$13.41

back in stock as of
august 25th, 2008

first in stock on
august 25th, 2006

blue chopsticks (usa) #bc 07 cd

workshop “es liebt dich und deine körperlichkeit, ein ausgeflippter” compact disc

für wen? (5:55)
scheusalstage (5:09)
die verwundung (3:53)
die zukunft von nahweg (3:21)
wie sieht es aus? (4:21)
missa lux (3:35)
jetzt ist vakanz (4:35)
es darf gelacht nisch mehr (4:16)
im winter (5:31)
erfüllung (3:46)

blue chopsticks press release...

workshop, es liebt dich und deine körperlichkeit, ein ausgeflippter - bc7 cd

this is workshop's first us release in their decade-plus existence. workshop is the duo of stephan abry and kai althoff -- currently divided between hamburg and cologne -- and "you and your physicalness are loved by a dropout" is their translation of the title. with es liebt dich und deine körperlichkeit, ein ausgeflippter, workshop have cut their cloth into shorter sections (the previous lp, meiguiweisheng xiang, consisted of three long pieces), emphasized lyric- and songwriting, and marshaled a distinctive palette of sounds that favors nylon-string guitar, harp, synthesizer, sitar, and overlays of drum kit and drum machine. their european label sonig, home to mouse on mars and lithops, refers to it as "krautfolk," and offers the following "superficial" comparisons: pink floyd, neu, brigitte fontaine, international harvester, red crayola, boredoms . . . reference could also be made to robert wyatt's fearlessness in dropping his voice into a sonic void, to the dazzling heterogeneity of indian popular music (abry was co-compiler for doob doob o'rama: filmsongs from bollywood), or to the visceral, macabre character of althoff's visual art. (althoff's work has recently appeared on the covers of artforum [the october 2002 issue contains a lengthy profile by tom holert], flash art, and the paris review.) their first two records, workshop and welcome back the workshop, reminded some of their cologne predecessors can, particularly the damo suzuki era. workshop made an abrupt, tires-squealing turn in 1995 with talent, a prescient plunderphonic effort. meiguiweisheng xiang is a pungently organic, back-to-the-groove affair in which time progressively distorts. i had the good fortune to see a rare live performance by workshop in 1999 in graz, austria. i had no particular expectations about how such a peculiarly introverted, esoteric group might translate their strengths -- or discover new ones -- in a live performance. that night workshop performed as a seven-piece group, an awesome three-guitar lineup that followed every hiccuppy nuance of althoff's voice; the evening's graceful arc concluded with workshop merging with and finally yielding to the delirious house dj neon leon. (released february 2002)

$10.85

back in stock as of
august 25th, 2008

first in stock on
august 25th, 2006

blue chopsticks (usa) #bc 05 cd

david grubbs “the coxcomb • avocado orange” compact disc

the coxcomb (16:59)
avocado orange (10:28)

blue chopsticks press release...

david grubbs, the coxcomb / avocado orange - bc5 cd

in the summer of 1998, having enough clay left over from his drag city solo debut the thicket, david grubbs set out to fashion a companion piece. so he went to paris. responding to the invitation of quentin rollet and noël akchoté to make an lp for their rectangle label, grubbs penned "the coxcomb," an adaptation in song of stephen crane's short story "the blue hotel." this seventeen- minute morität is scored for three voices: the narrator (stephen prina, still stoked from his drag city debut, push comes to love); the swede (grubbs, wild-eyed and singing through gritted teeth); and the cowboy (played to perfection by deep-voiced sasha andrès, singer of the group héliogabale). grubbs's guitar yarn is fleshed out by the saloon band of didier petit (cello, voice), yves robert (trombone), thierry madiot (bass trombone), and quentin rollet (alto sax). the original lp and picture-disc lp version of the coxcomb featured as its b-side "aux noctambules," a gentle concentration-jam featuring noël akchoté on electric guitar and grubbs making definitive use of the hohner organa. "aux noctambules" has since entered the digital domain as a 3" cd from rectangle. in its place is "avocado orange" - this time from the same clay as grubbs's the spectrum between -- a full-group reworking of his solo piece "onion orange." it features akchoté and rollet as well as the dual percussion team of john mcentire and dan brown. albert oehlen has revised his original cover artwork, providing harrowing punctuation to the project. (released december 2000)

$13.41

back in stock as of
august 25th, 2008

first in stock on
august 25th, 2006

blue chopsticks (usa) #bc 03 cd

van oehlen “we are eggsperienced” compact disc

intro (of the damned) (1:36)
the in kraut (3:12)
conneggtion (2:00)
hare krishna (6:04)
boogie for sale (2:41)
thx style (1:02)
the mask (2:00)
hitrocking (4:48)
late stream (2:27)
new energy soul (3:06)
flat stone-evil woman (1:41)
emergency (4:41)
vertbiking (2:07)
the power of jazz (1:50)

blue chopsticks press release...

van oehlen, we are eggsperienced - bc3 cd

if you think that the blue chopsticks horse is a fusty, knowledge-heavy nag who answers exclusively to the name "reissue label," behold van oehlen. van oehlen is the duo of albert and markus oehlen. albert is best known to listeners for his heavy, integral participation in the red krayola. he currently runs the leiterwagen record label -- rare thing, batting nearly a thousand? -- providing a home for the likes of jailhouse, j.b. slik, and titankatzen as well as the rearcar / rearprojection new stream compilations. albert is among the most heralded visual artists of his generation and has had retrospectives of his work at the wexner center for the arts, hamburg's deichtorhallen, and the kunsthalle basel. markus oehlen is known to listeners as as the drummer of the legendary german punk group mittagspause, as one- third of jailhouse, and as the leiterwagen solo artist don hobby. he is familiar to sharp-eyed souls as an exceptional visual artist, a veteran of numerous gallery and museum shows. (two of markus's drawings grace gastr del sol's camoufleur; the cover of we are eggsperienced is his.) we are eggsperienced features contributions from the red krayola's mayo thompson and tom watson as well as german jazz legend rüdiger carl (cowws quintet and various recordings for the fmp label) and goldenen zitronen frontman schorsch kamerun. what is new stream music? a draft of albert's new stream manifesto was circulated before the red krayola's first live performance of fingerpainting. new stream is not dissimilar to cold jazz, but counts among its progenitors the red krayola's free-form freakouts, "revolution no. 9," sun ra's most bracingly alien synthesizer solos, and the deep freeze mice at their least musical. (released february 2000)

$13.41

back in stock as of
august 25th, 2008

first in stock on
august 25th, 2006

blue chopsticks (usa) #bc 02 cd

david grubbs / mats gustafsson “apertura” compact disc

apertura part 1 (39:42)
apertura part 2 (25:28)

blue chopsticks press release...

david grubbs & mats gustafsson, apertura - bc2 cd

david grubbs will gladly tell you the story of being knocked dead upon first hearing the swedish reed player mats gustafsson perform solo at chicago's renaissance society. mats gustafsson has been known to tell a similar tale about an all-electric, mcentire-backbeated gastr del sol show at the empty bottle. mats and gastr flitted about in similarly odd orbits with a gustafsson flageolet contribution to gastr del sol's upgrade & afterlife and the inclusion of jim o'rourke on mats's okka-disk debut, parrot fish eye. by 1999, mats gustafsson was a bit of a star in chicago. he had performed with ken vandermark, fred anderson, kent kessler, hamid drake, michael zerang, fred lonberg-holm, and a freshly minted peter brötzmann tentet. a slew of releases on okka-disk and a duo performance with thurston moore at the empty bottle festival of improvised music did nothing to abate the love. mats was dragged into the studio that year by david grubbs for the purpose of contributing to a thicket-in-the-works. the pair instead became terminally sidetracked with recording the two lengthy duets for harmonium and tenor saxophone and harmonium and fluteophone (mats's invention -- a flute with a reed mouthpiece jammed in the end) that make up apertura. listening to apertura, the first question is who is doing what? do the artists themselves know? mats was hot off of a tour with ken vandermark and the aaly trio, hence his singular performances on apertura (behold the twenty minutes plus of quiet circular breathing with which "apertura pt. 1" begins). reference points? for grubbs, his solo harmonium and reed organ performances; "aux noctambules," a duet with noël akchoté; and his performances with tony conrad. for gustafsson, his solo work and his excellent nothing to read duo cd with drummer paul lovens. apertura is at times starkly out of character for both individuals, and for this reason already a personal favorite of gustafsson and grubbs. what a strange fate to make such beautiful music! (released july 1999)

previous record label:
blossoming noise

...and that's everything on blue chopsticks in stock.
(why not take a look at the previous and next labels?)

next record label:
bomb mitte

.home.

.artists.

.labels.

.new.

.restocks.

.best.

.faq.

.soon.

... this page was last updated on saturday, february 11th, 2012 @ 5:09 pm