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... happy spring everyone !!! to commemorate our favorite season (and to help* get this place back to some sort of workable condition)* we're having a "spring cleaning" sale !!! please visit the *spring (2013)* cleaning page to view a list** of (recent, mostly 2012) releases that we're now offering at reduced prices (while supplies last, no rainchecks, etc) ...

previous record label: syr		there are 35 titles on table of the elements in stock. they are listed below.		next record label: taiga

$14.82

back in stock as of
february 10th, 2009

first in stock on
august 19th, 2005

threads:
free-improvisation
concert-recordings

xeric (usa) #xer 100 lp
table of the elements (united states) #xer 100 lp

mats gustafsson “the education of lars jerry” long playing record

a visit to källom (8:51)
lars get a slesson in myckelgensjö (4:30)
a photo is made in sundsvall (4:19)
disappointing lack of initial support (in kubbe) (6:22)
success in drömme i (3:56)
message from fatmomakke (4:28)
studies in saxnäs (6:41)
lars develops arachnophobia in amerika (5:33)

xeric press release...

recording: jim o’rourke, the renaissance society, chicago, 12 october 1995.
production: john corbett and mats gustaffson

swedish saxophonist mats gustafsson is one of the most significant new faces in improvised music. combining great sensitivity and attention to detail with boundless energy, gustafsson works regularly with the upper echelon of european and american improvisers, including bassist barry guy, percussionist paul lovens and pianist marilyn crispell. the education of lars jerry, which features gustafsson on tenor and baritone saxes, french flageolet and "fluteophone" (his own contraption combining alto sax mouthpiece and flute), is his second solo record, splendidly recorded by legendary producer jim o'rourke in the unique acoustic space of chicago's renaissance society art gallery.

"mats is the most modern of players where the genre tags of jazz, noise, experimental, avant-whatever are finally transcended to a new millennium -- where compositional concepts are at once in check with open improvisation and a super-postmodernism becomes what we always wanted: rock & roll!" - thurston moore, sonic youth

$14.82

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
march 12th, 2010

threads:
modern-composition
minimalism-drones

table of the elements (usa) #toe 819 cd

helen money “in tune” compact disc

mf (5:10)
in tune (4:15)
waterwalk (4:49)
untilted (5:54)
sagrada (5:26)
you are beautiful (4:07)
political song for michael jackson to sing (1:46)
too heavy (4:51)
everything i am thinking (6:45)

november 2009 release ; here’s a disc of cello-based “songs” from alison chesley, following in tote’s history of solo string / loop / overdub sets (see: agathe max, zeena parkins) ...

comparisons can be drawn to arthur russell’s non-“dance” sides ; esp. the more rhythmic aspects of her col legno playing ; the minutemen cover is a nice touch as well ...

table of the elements press release...

helen money
tune in toe-cd-819

release date: november 3, 2009

strap yourself in, and prepare for a mysterious ride: helen money is going to take us into uncharted territory. with its clattering rhythms, symphonic swells, distorted, plucked chords, and razor-toned riffs, in tune reaches for the limits of where an artist can take any single medium; in this case, the vehicle is, believe it or not, the cello. alison chesley (the sole member of helen money) uses atypical techniques and the accoutrements of rock ‘n’ roll to forge an exhilaratingly ominous batch of recordings.

chesley leaves no room for doubt about her rock agenda: the production at steve albini’s electrical audio vivifies a muscular angularity — and check out the gleefully raucous “cover” of the minutemen’s “political song for michael jackson to sing.” in tune is irresistibly entertaining, and its darkness elicits that pure kind of joy you get when confronted with something you know is going to move you to a place where you really want to go.

$14.82

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
march 12th, 2010

threads:
guitar-themed

table of the elements (usa) #toe 816 cd

jonathan kane “jet ear party” compact disc

smear it (6:59)
gripped (6:38)
super t-bone (6:06)
blissed out rag (7:58)
jet ear party (10:09)
thank you fallettinme be mice elf agin (5:53)
up in flames (4:07)
roller coaster (9:06)

may 2009 release ; cd version ...

table of the elements press release...

jonathan kane
jet ear party
toe-cd-816

release date: may 19, 2009

we dare you to name a more intensely powerful drummer or visionary multi-instrumentalist than jonathan kane. kane has burned a spectacular trail through the experimental rock scene: first as a founding member of no wave behemoth swans; then as the percussive thunder behind the minimalist ensembles of la monte young and the guitar armies of rhys chatham. but underlying it all is kane’s complete and life-long immersion in – the blues. armed with a singularly wicked back beat, kane is the master of the double shuffle (junior wells dubbed it “the whorehouse shuffle”), and he deploys it to devastating effect. add a dizzying whorl of cascading electric guitars, and you’ve got a rowdy, gut-bucket sound that shakes the meat right off the bone.

jet ear party, jonathan kane’s second full-length release, is a masterpiece of raw, ass-thumping americana. with guest appearances from members of his live band, february, kane barrels into these eight tracks like a freight train. he lunges at breakneck boogies and tom-driven swamp stomps with equal abandon. in a radical departure, he tones down his mojo long enough to accommodate female vocals for a breathlessly sexy, overtone drenched soul ballad. kane even pilots hardcore r&b a la wilson pickett into the creedence bayou for a sweat-soaked cover of sly stone’s “thank you fallettinme be mice elf agin” — and it’s got a freak-out bagpipe solo that would make the stooges proud. seriously, he’s not holding anything back.

forget about the black keys; forget about the white stripes. merging hip-shake rhythm and lustrous harmonic bliss, jonathan kane is single-handedly reinvigorating the blues for the 21st century — in vivid, raging technicolor.

$14.04

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
february 15th, 2008

threads:
modern-psych

best of 2008 !!!

table of the elements (usa) #toe 815 cd

megafaun “bury the square” compact disc

find your mark (5:14)
tired and troubled (4:46)
where we belong (11:16)
his robe (4:47)
drains (7:24)
lazy suicide (6:20)

debut from this durham-based trio, recently seen on tour w/greg davis & the akron family ... a mix of backwoods appalachiana-leaning acoustic psych-pop, occasionally descending into the sort of tape-mangled field recordings & feedback clusters you’d more readily associate with the label they record for (listen to the sound-sample for one of the more exotic moments) ...

as baffling as it at first might seem to read of a band in that loose animal collective mold recording for tote, it helps to put them in the same lineage as labelmates san agustin (albeit with vocals) or even oren ambarchi & chris townend’s sun project (there’s the same sort of fascination with am-radio era pop music dotted with between-the-cracks noises & cues from the avant-garde/freak scenes of yore...)

i’m going to let my guard down here a bit & mention that, in all honesty, i quite enjoy this record ; it takes a bunch of chances & detours far enough from the road-tested travelling sideshow / collective caravan methodology to make it work w/out seeming too derivative of the groups that have walked those particular shadows over the past few years. i’m not going to blanket recommend this for everyone that shops here, but if you own more than one neil young / the band record (or, hell, even jim o’rourke’s “song” albums) you just might see the light ...

table of the elements press release...

megafaun bury the square

from the vibrant southern quasi-capital of durham emerge megafaun, wearing earnestness across the chest and abstraction along the sleeves. they pour forth dulcet harmonies, as seeking vocals tug banjo lines up the appalachian mountains; redemptive noise soaks everything, like thick air wafting from the atlantic.

bury the square, megafaun’s debut, is a triumph, bearing an essential consequence: folk music has been wrestled from purist hands. clawhammer banjo and strummed acoustics lock and roll with electric guitars and electronic textures. they realize that folk implies deep, personal, intense expression, whether the instrument is a parlor piano with the lid thrown back or a distortion pedal with the case cracked loose. in this band, orthodoxy and unorthodoxy flow together as one.

$10.14

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
june 12th, 2008

threads:
modern-composition
experimental-instruments

table of the elements (usa) #toe 814 cd

melissa st. pierre “specimens” compact disc

fig. i (2:21)
fig. ii (1:53)
fig. iii (2:07)
fig. iv (1:54)
fig. v (2:20)
fig. vi (2:06)
fig. vii (2:06)
fig. viii (1:40)
bonus video: fig. viii

june 2008 release ; a suite of rhythm-heavy prepared piano pieces from composer melissa st. pierre ...

calls to mind the more bar-room piano trappings of “church of anthrax” & the solo piano bits of aphex twin’s “drukqs” only with a bit more filigree ... nice, short pieces don’t overstay their welcome ...

table of the elements press release...

melissa st. pierre.
specimens

melissa st. pierre tosses classicism and post-classicism overboard, utilizing the prepared piano – john cage's notorious instrument of choice – and electronic enhancement to sail resolutely in the direction of rock & roll. peppering the strings, hammers, and dampers with a variety of objects, she transforms the piano's typical timbre: sparkling gamelans chatter; harrowing voodoo drums call out in the night. specimens, st. pierre's debut ep, features production and performances by collections of colonies of beeszeena parkins as conservatory arsonists with a decidedly hendrixian flair.

specimens is an enhanced cd with exclusive video content.

"weird sounds, great chops." - tony conrad

$24.18

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
february 29th, 2008

threads:
guitar-themed
modern-composition
minimalism-drones

best of 2008 !!!

table of the elements (usa) #toe 813 cd

rhys chatham “guitar trio is my life !” triple compact disc set

guitar trio pt. 1, brooklyn (19:27)
guitar trio pt. 2, chicago (23:34)
guitar trio pt. 1, buffalo (21:15)
guitar trio pt. 2, toronto (19:20)
guitar trio pt. 1, montreal (22:24)
guitar trio pt. 2, cleveland (16:35)
guitar trio pt. 1, minneapolis (6:45)
guitar trio pt. 2, milwaukee (19:04)
guitar trio pt. 1, chicago (30:23)
guitar trio pt. 2, brooklyn (16:27)

... as psyched i am for this mammoth set of alternating renditions of rhys chatham’s “guitar trio pt. 1” and “guitar trio pt.2” - i can’t help but be a little bummed at the omission of either of the boston takes (which, to my amp-damaged ears, sounded quite fine w/chris brokaw, david daniell, winston bramman, myself, and the devil music guys essentially playing a single-chord to a sold-out allston-rock-city crowd for over an hour) - but that’s neither here nor there ...

what you do get from this excellent triple-disc box are takes from the brooklyn, buffalo, chicago, cleveland, milwaukee, minneapolis, montreal, and toronto stagings of the piece during february 2007, performed with ludicrously high levels of energy by chatham himself, along with such notables as andrew broder, tony conrad, david daniell, kim gordon, alan licht, robert longo, rob “lichens” lowe, doug mccombs, thurston moore, jon mueller, harris newman, jeff parker, lee ranaldo, chris rosenau, adam & ben vida, etc ...

if you don’t know the piece ; it’s essentially an exercise in yielding what chatham himself describes as “choiring” - a heavy, upper-register buildup of harmonic movement that results when so many guitar players, over 20 minutes, slowly work across an open e minor chord from the low e to the high e, at deafening volume, while a single drummer keeps time on a hi-hat (pt. 1) or contributes with a “driving backbeat” followed by a long fill / freak-out (pt. 2) - it’s the ultimate in high-gain rock ‘n’ roll minimalism, really, and because of the open interpretation, the piece can swing pretty heavily in a number of directions given the players - hence this collection offering 5 different realizations of each part by 8 different groups ...

highly recommended as a historical document and as a testament to the piece’s lasting relevance ...

table of the elements press release...

rhys chatham & his guitar trio all-stars
“guitar trio is my life !”

utilizing multiple electric guitars and a single chord, 1977’s “guitar trio” is composer rhys chatham’s signature work, and a euphoric, minimal-punk classic. it’s an inspired amalgamation — the droning, shimmering harmonics of john cale and tony conrad fused with the power and fury of the ramones — that had a meteoric impact. it placed chatham at the forefront of the burgeoning no wave scene; its influence then spread further, as protégés and participants in chatham’s ensembles — including glenn branca and members of sonic youth — folded the sound into their own. “guitar trio” remains a composition with a half-life, an adventure in sound that continues to radiate influence and inspiration.

now, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of “guitar trio” on an epic scale, chatham musters an all-star guitar army for the 3xcd set, “guitar trio is my life!” the sprawling collection features members of sonic youth, swans, tortoise, godspeed you! black emperor, hüsker dü, modern lovers, silver mt. zion, town and country, die kreutzen, 90-day men, collections of colonies of bees, and many more; even tony conrad gets in on the act. together these artists celebrate chatham’s wordless anthem, with its minimalist origins, rock & roll rhythm, ecstatic whorl of harmonics, and ever-evolving, ever-expanding nature.

so, take a listen, and hear what one man can do with hundreds of guitars, 30 years, one chord, and a skyscraper of amps set to liquefy. “guitar trio” endures.

3xcd set of previously unreleased material;
includes 32-page book with liner notes and unpublished photographs

$15.61

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
may 13th, 2008

threads:
guitar-themed
free-improvisation

table of the elements (usa) #toe 812 lp
radium (usa) #toe 812 lp

“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)

may 2008 release ; first label-comp for this table of the elements sub-series ; something of a springboard for the friendlier / contemporary styles / artists affiliated with the label ... exclusive material from the majority of the roster ; much variety makes for a nice, diverse listen ... lovely milky-white lp.

table of the elements press release...

impala eardrums a radium sampler

for fifteen years, table of the elements has been the preeminent source of avant audio, championing minimal, improvised, and outsider musics of various spots and stripes. now, as its influence radiates outward, the label presents radium, its “rock” imprint, showcased here with impala eardrums, a radium sampler.

while minimalist legend rhys chatham leads the way with a delightful unreleased piece from his mid-80s archives, most of the other contributors are younger folks, from a new generation of performers. it’s a diverse bunch, ranging from the raw americana of megafaun and jonathan kane, to the humid, pulsating krautrock of ateleia and the spectral songcraft of paul duncan. neptune serves up its version of home-forged proto-clangor, while collections of colonies of bees and school of seven bells pour forth in glistening, shimmering waves.

together, these eight tracks — all previously unreleased — have one thing in common: a resolute will to march headlong into the untamed brambles and briar patches of 21st-century sound.

$14.04

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
may 13th, 2008

threads:
guitar-themed
free-improvisation

table of the elements (usa) #toe 812 cd
radium (usa) #toe 812 cd

“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)

cd version ...

table of the elements press release...

$14.04

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
february 15th, 2008

threads:
experimental-instruments
art-punk
circuit-bending
modern-psych

table of the elements (usa) #toe 811 cd
radium (usa) #r 88 cd

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 ...

table of the elements press release...

behold: neptune, the most harrowingly original band on this planet — or the next. its three members are equal parts musicians, sculptors, scientists, blacksmiths, electricians, and industrial machinists; relentlessly inventive, possibly sane. together, they construct all of their instruments, forging guitars and drums out of circular saw blades, gas tanks, oil drums, bike parts, vcr casings, and miscellany from the trash. electronics, and even cords, are homemade as well. the combined effect is a bizarre, post-apocalyptic mélange of steel, iron, wire, rust, rivet, knob, and cable; it's lunacy, arc-welded for maximum destruction. concerts are seizures of motion. wearing 40-pound guitars assembled entirely from scrap metal, the members don't play their instruments — they battle them, like mechanized golems.

but make no mistake, this is not simply art with sharp edges and serious customs issues. neptune rocks. hard. recalling the slapdash angularity of the fall, the rhythmic ack-ack blasts of this heat, and the sheer proto-clangor of einstürzende neubauten, they count as one of the best experimental rock bands of any era. their dynamic, expertly wrought songs and skilled improvisations don't start; they explode. gong lake is the band's first unlimited cd release, and with it listeners will discover what fans of their live shows have known for years: neptune is otherworldly.

$10.14

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
january 17th, 2008

table of the elements (usa) #toe 809 cd

jonathan kane “the little drummer boy” compact disc single

the little drummer boy (14:28)

had to wait until after the holidays to bring this one in ...

table of the elements press release...

jonathan kane
the little drummer boy

format: cd ep
packaging: standard jewel
release date: december 4, 2007
file under: rock
catalog no: toe-cd-809

do jonathan kane's fat-bottomed grooves take your breath away, make you lose your mind? well, it's the holidays, and jonny can give as well as he can take, so here's his gift to you, boys and girls. it's a classic, the little drummer boy, done in his inimitable style, with layers of guitars, snow-drift-deep bass — and you'd better believe there's drums. hop into this sleigh — it's jacked-up, tricked-out, it's got 850 horses and not a restrictor plate in sight. yep, it's always a blue christmas when jonathan kane comes to town.

$10.14

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
september 13th, 2007

threads:
digital-musics
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones

table of the elements (usa) #toe 808 cd
radium (united states) #r 88 cd

ateleia “nightly” compact disc single

in inner air (3:08)
threaded (7:36)
sphere and locked (8:12)
nightly (6:57)

table of the elements press release...

james elliott is rapidly emerging as one of the most versatile voices in contemporary music. he collaborates with benjamin curtis (ex-secret machines); his band school of seven bells is making a big splash in the rock realm (david bowie recently invited them to perform at his high line festival in new york); and as co-founder of the acclaimed antiopic label, he has produced works by avant heavy-hitters including alvin lucier.

now he presents nightly, the latest work from his solo project, ateleia. in it, elliott artfully evokes the humid krautrock of popol vuh within a whirlpool of lush minimalism, nimble electronica and digital psychedelia. nightly is a voyage up a primeval river of sound within a steaming jungle of invisible detail- where the ultimate destination is forever out of reach.

$11.71

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
september 13th, 2007

table of the elements (usa) #toe 807 lp

school of seven bells “face to face on high places” long playing record

limb by limb (4:28)
face to face on high places (8:58)
s.ada.licht (2:56)

table of the elements press release...

from the breathing clouds of the living mountain emerge school of seven bells and their dazzling 12-inch debut, face to face on high places.

benjamin curtis, formerly of secret machines, leads the esoteric cabal. heliospheric guitar invocations with that band garnered him considerable distinction, as have collaborations with michael rother of neu!/kraftwerk. alternately, the rhythm rises from the underground; bassist james elilott records ambient electronica as the critically acclaimed ateleia, while the guitar armies of minimalist legend rhys chatham march to drummer joe stickney's beat. at the center are twin sisters alejandra and claudia deheza. their achievements with on! air! library! are substantial; multi-instrumentalist claudia has also worked extensively with prefuse 73 and a cloud mireya. together, their celestial vocal arrangements and lush, transcendental songsmithing cast the irresistibly intense psychomagical spell that illuminates school of seven bells.

face to face on high places is a dizzying whorl -- from the pounding ecstasies of the title track, to the mystic lyricism and lucid dreamscaping of "s.ada.licht" and the mesmeric groove of "limb by limb." luminous voices beckon from the far side of a mirage; whispered electronic infernos are swept away by raging torrents of percussion.

submit to school of seven bells, then ascend atop a thousand cyclones to a plain of infinite bliss.

clear, laser-etched 12-inch ep; beautifully packaged with metallic inks; limited-edition, vinyl-only release

$10.14

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
october 24th, 2006

threads:
minimalism-drones
modern-psych

table of the elements (usa) #toe 803 cd

jonathan kane “i looked at the sun” compact disc

bqe (5:35)
i looked at the sun (13:37)

table of the elements press release...

table of the elements launches its new rock imprint radium with a bang. jonathan kane's rollicking, majestic and critically-acclaimed debut february set you up with his lustrous, deep-grooved sound; now comes the bare-knuckled knock-out punch. on the opening track, "bqe," kane compliments his signature wall of guitars with the high-lonesome serenade of pedal steel, then puts that pedal to the metal and barrels through the psychedelic badlands of mississippi fred mcdowell's classic "i looked at the sun." add the dixie-fried strut of zz top's billy gibbons to glenn branca's guitar armies and you're still only halfway to kane's mind-blowing reinvention of both minimalism and the blues — it's a blistering day's drive from anything you've heard before.

$14.82

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
october 24th, 2006

threads:
guitar-themed
minimalism-drones

best of 2006 !!!

table of the elements (usa) #toe 802 cd

rhys chatham “an angel moves too fast to see” compact disc

prelude 7:36
intro 5:06
allegro 8:39
no trees left: every blade of grass is screaming 6:35
adagio 14:48

table of the elements press release...

rhys chatham altered the dna of rock. the new york-born composer began as a classically-trained prodigy, but by 1975, chatham was fusing the overtone-drenched minimalism of john cale and tony conrad with the relentless, elemental fury of the ramones. it was an inspired amalgamation — the textural intricacies of the avant-garde colliding with the visceral punch of electric guitar-slinging punk rock — and with it chatham created a new type of urban music. raucous and ecstatic, this sound energized the downtown new york scene throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, prefigured the no wave movement and cast a huge influence over the subsequent work of chatham’s many protégés, including glenn branca and future members of sonic youth.

however, by the late 1980s, chatham was chafing against the logistical and financial constraints imposed upon him in the states; in his mind was a vast, unprecedented sound. moving permanently from new york to paris, chatham began composing his masterpiece, a piece for one hundred electric guitars, electric bass and drums. the result, an angel moves too fast to see, is one of the most extraordinary works in the minimalist canon, one that demonstrates the majesty inherent in chatham’s amplified imagination. now widely available for the first time, this lavish cd presents this sonic revolution in all its glory, and cements chatham’s reputation as a monolithic figure astride both rock and classical musics.

$14.82

new to stock as of
april 21st, 2010

threads:
experimental-instruments
electro-acoustic-improvisation
free-improvisation
sound-art
digital-musics

table of the elements (usa) #toe 110 cd

zeena parkins “between the whiles” compact disc

glass (6:18)
vibratory (9:29)
inyoufrom (5:29)
gold (5:47)
wire (11:49)
jumping juggling (6:32)
bubble (13:01)

april 2010 release ; first new disc from zeena parkins in a while (the last was ... the “necklace” set for tzadik from 2006) ... here she’s (mainly) working solo on her trademark acoustic & electric harp (plus memory moog, glass harmonica, etc) rifling between some quite plaintive improv modes & more visceral electric overload (listen to the sound-sample for a taste of the latter) ...

table of the elements press release...

zeena parkins
between the whiles
release date: april 13, 2010
toe-cd-110
having collaborated with artists ranging from sonic youth to yoko ono to bjork, zeena parkins proves it: the classical harp is really a rock ‘n’ roll instrument. forget angelic choirs; zeena is the jimi hendrix of the amplified harp. with more soar, shimmer, screech, whine and wail than ever before, her new album, between the whiles, hurls wildly into oscillating soundscapes, showcasing her artistic vision and technical versatility. the sonic scope is immense, and there’s a lot to explore; dive deep, and you’ll come up with some rare and eerie treasures.

$14.82

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
january 22nd, 2007

threads:
guitar-themed
modern-composition
minimalism-drones
concert-recordings

best of 2007 !!!

table of the elements (usa) #toe 106 cd

rhys chatham “a crimson grail for 400 electric guitars” compact disc

a crimson grail: part one (20:42)
a crimson grail: part two (16:00)
a crimson grail: part three (19:49)

september 2008 ; this was unavailable for the last year or so, but is finally back in stock !!!

january 2007 release of this titanic piece by rhys chatham for rhythm section (the incomparable ernie brooks & jonathan kane) and 400 guitarists (including jean-françois pauvros !! try to pick him out !!!)

not since “lesson nº 1” have i heard such a triumphant wall of pick-string energy; the massive guitar-amp din that filled the space must have been overwhelming. this room-recording is as close as we’ll get to the event; the distance from the mics to the amps adds a nice ambience, merging all of that energy into one cohesive sound.

chatham’s been on a roll for the last few years; more power to him. this is an essential bit of massed guitar sound that i can and will recommend uncategorically. just plain awesome.

table of the elements press release...

rhys chatham a crimson grail for 400 electric guitars

rhys chatham, the man who rocks the minimalist canon like a hurricane, gathers up the city of light in the evanescent beauty of his latest piece - written for 400 guitars and performed live in the basilica of landmark sacre coeur - with 10,000 people watching and 100,000 more on national tv. as the music shimmers, it offers a snapshot of eternity, an echo of a moment a thousand years gone - and a thousand years yet to come

$16.38

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
december 1st, 2008

threads:
digital-musics
minimalism-drones
electro-acoustic-composition
guitar-themed

table of the elements (usa) #toe 100c lp

fennesz “june (orange vinyl)” one-sided long playing record

june (5:00)

december 2008 release ; color-vinyl pressing of fennesz’ contribution to the table of the elements “guitar series vols. 3 & 4” ...

... a positively lush vignette (yes, it’s a bit on the short side for an lp release) that, for my money, is as continually rewarding as anything on his recent “black sea” album (i’ve listened to this single piece about 15 times since these lps landed - it’s far from becoming old hat) ... highly recommended !!!

table of the elements press release...

fennesz
june

table of the elements continues to celebrate its 15th anniversary with the ninth installment in its guitar series vols. 3 & 4. it’s a 12xlp romp of deviant fretnoise by some of experimental music’s most prominent players, including christian fennesz, thurston moore, and sunn o)))’s stephen o’malley.

simply put, christian fennesz is a pioneer. as much as any artist, he is responsible for establishing the laptop computer as both a compositional tool and concert instrument. subsuming electro-acoustic strategies into a bedrock of pop, he terraforms vast new worlds of sound, within which both amm and the beach boys can cozily coexist. his guitar series contribution, june, is a suitably lush transformation, as electric guitars flow into deep streams of sound.

$16.38

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
october 28th, 2008

threads:
guitar-themed
minimalism-drones
electro-acoustic-composition

best of 2008 !!!

table of the elements (usa) #toe 099c lp

david daniell “i-iv-v-i (mustard vinyl)” one-sided long playing record

i (4:18)
iv (5:09)
v (5:03)
i (4:43)

november 2008 release ; the eighth in the guitar series vols. 3 & 4 ...

a four-part suite from mms perennial david daniell, starting with a hugely resonant buzzing drone, following through with an overdubbed steel-string mantra, a fine bit of ghostly bedroom-guitar wail coalescing into a doom-cloud, then a bit of soukous-influenced upper-neck staccatto playing with bowed raga undergrowth ...

as each segment focuses on an area of guitar-centric music that david does extremely well, this is something of a sampler-pack for his abilities ; each section comes across as fully formed, as a whole it’s a pretty damn breathtaking set of pieces ...

along with the oren ambarchi entrant, this is inarguably the highlight of the series thusfar (and with only the fennesz & o’malley sides left, most likely overall as well) ... highly recommended !!!

table of the elements press release...

david daniell
i-iv-v-i

table of the elements continues to celebrate its 15th anniversary with the eighth installment in its guitar series vols. 3 & 4. it’s a 12xlp romp of deviant fretnoise by some of experimental music’s most prominent players, including christian fennesz, thurston moore, and sunn o)))’s stephen o’malley.

david daniell is one of the hardest-working guitarists in avant-garde show business. he leads the troops in rhys chatham’s guitar armies; he was a member of jonathan kane's rollicking band february; and he performs regularly in a duo with tortoise's doug mccombs. he's collaborated with tim barnes, thurston moore, and loren connors; and his guitar work with his own band, san agustin, is the stuff of which fleeting blues-drone dreams are made. with influences rooted in blues, american minimalism, and post-punk ideologies, daniell's guitar playing is always inspired; when fused with his intricate electro-acoustic compositions, the results are breathtaking.

$16.38

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april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
october 28th, 2008

threads:
guitar-themed
minimalism-drones
electro-acoustic-composition

table of the elements (usa) #toe 098c lp

andrew burnes “telescope (green vinyl)” one-sided long playing record

telescope (20:12)

november 2008 release ; the seventh in the “guitar series vols. 3 & 4 ...

first solo release from san agustin / haunted house guitarist andrew burnes, 20+ minutes of sliding ebow / lap-steel tones reminiscent of a more present take on folke rabe’s “was?” ; that this is being released on vinyl adds just so much more to the overall feel of the piece - the slight pitch-slide that happens with each successive rotation of the record (listen to the sound-sample) lends a certain woozy vibe to the proceedings ...

this is a really nice one, esp. if extremely “gradual” music is your thing ...

table of the elements press release...

andrew burnes
telescope

table of the elements continues to celebrate its 15th anniversary with the seventh installment in its guitar series vols. 3 & 4. it’s a 12xlp romp of deviant fretnoise by some of experimental music’s most prominent players, including christian fennesz, thurston moore, and sunn o)))’s stephen o’malley.

table of the elements happily presents the long-overdue solo debut of andrew burnes. burnes, along with david daniell, is a founding member of the ethereal, post-blues ensemble san agustin; he’s also a member of haunted house, alongside loren mazzacane connors; and he’s performed in improv settings with the likes of ken vandermark and thurston moore. finally committed to vinyl, he doesn’t disappoint: telescope is a glittering chunk of sound, as burnes transforms that particular emblem of americana, the steel guitar, into one vast, slowly undulating drone.

andrew burnes’ name may not be familiar, but fans of the genre needn’t worry. back in 1993, table of the elements’ original guitar series featured what was only the second us solo release from a similarly unknown artist: jim o’rourke. you can trust us again with this one.

$16.38

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
july 17th, 2008

threads:
guitar-themed
electro-acoustic-composition

table of the elements (usa) #toe 097 lp

lee ranaldo “countless centuries fled into the distance like so many storms (clear vinyl)” one-sided long playing record

1. (4:05)
2. (3:28)
3. (1:15)
4.( 2:07)

july 2008 release ; the sixth in the table of the elements “guitar series vols. 3 & 4” (don’t panic, you didn’t miss #5 - it’s a belong 12” & will be out in a few weeks out-of-series) by sonic youth guitarist & recent bang-on-a-can collaborator lee ranaldo ...

“a final kiss” consists of four short guitar-centric miniatures, ranging from the detuned feedback & echo patterns of “1.” to the “intelligent” digital / time-stretch algorithms & field recordings of “2.” (listen to the sound-sample) to the pitch-shift staccato of “3.” to the noise-shrapnel frenzy of “4.” ...

one of the briefer entrants in the series thusfar, but a good one ...

table of the elements press release...

lee ranaldo
countless centuries fled into the distance like so many storms

table of the elements continues to celebrate its 15th anniversary with the sixth installment in its guitar series vols. 3 & 4. it’s a 12xlp romp of deviant fretnoise by some of experimental music’s most prominent players, including christian fennesz, thurston moore, and sunn o)))’s stephen o’malley.

sonic youth's lee ranaldo was part of the original table of the elements "guitar series" in 1993; now he returns with countless centuries fled into the distance like so many storms. it's an epic earful, replete with shimmering textures and an inimitable charging clangor. with ecstatic, rocking squalor, he summons some dazzling shronk, reminiscent of early sy, the soaring drone of john cale, and even the looping orientalia of dream syndicate-era la monte young. so duck and cover, as lee fires an impeccably aimed fusillade across the screaming fields of sonic love.

$16.38

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
december 1st, 2008

threads:
guitar-themed
minimalism-drones
lo-fi
modern-psych

table of the elements (usa) #toe 096c lp

belong “same places (slow version) (green vinyl)” one-sided long playing record

same places (slow version) (14:16)

august 2008 release ; color-vinyl pressing of the fifth in the table of the elements “guitar series vols. 3 & 4 ...

i raved about belong’s “colorloss record” a few months back when it hit the shelves here ; this new single seals the deal. a single 14-minute build of myriad overdubbed, low-pass filter guitar ; a veritable orchestra of swelling undertones & granular haze ; just excellent.

table of the elements press release...

belong
same places (slow version)

table of the elements continues to celebrate its 15th anniversary with the fifth installment in its guitar series vols. 3 & 4. it’s a 12xlp romp of deviant fretnoise by some of experimental music’s most prominent players, including christian fennesz, thurston moore, and sunn o)))’s stephen o’malley.

wafting, vaporously, from the suffocating heat of new orleans, belong shimmers like a mirage: vaguely discernable, yet always at the edge of an unobtainable horizon. collaborators mike jones and turk dietrich employ a singular and remarkably inscrutable studio technique (dietrich’s remix skills extend to nine inch nails’ “the frail”) to wholly liquefy source material – here electric guitars – into wave upon breaking wave of sound. comparisons are frequently made to william basinski’s notorious “disintegration loops,” and both efforts speak to intimate loss experienced on an epic, collective, and horrific scale: 9/11 and katrina, respectively. but while basinski’s self-destructing loops articulate a one-way road to oblivion, belong’s music is not only degenerative, it’s regenerative.

with “same places (slow version),” belong evinces a slow-motion transformation – plate tectonics, wired for sound. aural mountains melt into seas; yet icy barrens yield to breathing jungles of detail. the single, sprawling track may evoke decay, dissolution and destruction, but underfoot are tendrils of inexplicable joy. belong sings a lullaby of obliteration, and the paradox it embodies would make both kevin shields and tony conrad proud: crushing melancholia and shuddering euphoria, inexorably intertwined.

$16.38

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
june 12th, 2008

threads:
guitar-themed
minimalism-drones
modern-composition

table of the elements (usa) #toe 094 lp

jon mueller “strung (clear vinyl)” one-sided long playing record

strung (17:26)

june 2008 release ; the third in the ongoing guitar series vols. 3 & 4 ...

this installment, by the insanely prolific all-of-the-sudden jon mueller (no, not a “guitarist” per se, i know, but bear with me) works an almost pan(a)sonic-esque streak of pulsing white noise, all sourced to electric guitars ; recalls some of glenn branca’s early work (i.e. stephan wischerth’s anvil replaced by an electric guitar on a stand ...) ... pretty damn mesmerising ...

table of the elements press release...

jon mueller
strung

table of the elements celebrate its 15th anniversary with the third disk in its guitar series vols. 3 & 4, a 12xlp romp of deviant fretnoise by some of experimental music’s most prominent players, including christian fennesz, thurston moore, and sunn o)))’s stephen o’malley.

peripatetic composer, performer, improviser, and designer jon mueller is a busy guy, and both the rock and experimental music scenes are the richer for it. as a drummer he propels the ecstatic whorl of collections of colonies of bees and the occasional guitar army of rhys chatham; alternately his solo project, metals, is the most harrowingly intense percussive barrage you’ll ever encounter. he also finds time to collaborate with artists ranging from wilco’s glenn kotche to swans’ jarboe. whether it’s minimalist bombast, free-improv interplay, or electroacoustic finesse, mueller’s got it covered. but what can he do with a guitar?

in strung, mueller doesn’t play the guitar; he scrambles its molecules. laying down a photon-blast of sound, he initiates a relentless, rapid-pulse attack signal that summons wave upon wave of white noise. think inexorable alien invasion – the day the earth stood still, with lou reed as klaatu and metal machine music as the message. earth doesn’t stand a chance.

$16.38

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
may 13th, 2008

threads:
guitar-themed
free-improvisation

table of the elements (usa) #toe 093 lp

ateleia / benjamin curtis “baghdad batterie (clear vinyl)” one-sided long playing record

baghdad batterie (13:52)

may 2008 release ; the second in the 2008 guitar series, featuring james “ateleia” elliott & benjamin curtis’ heavily processed guitars over a wall of distorted / crunked casio beats ... fans of mid-90s too-pure spec (seefeel, specifically - this could almost be a “pure/impure” out-take ...) take note ...

table of the elements press release...

ateleia and benjamin curtis
baghdad batterie

table of the elements celebrate its 15th anniversary with the w3cond disk in its guitar series vols. 3 & 4, a 12xlp romp of deviant fretnoise by some of experimental music’s most prominent players, including christian fennesz, thurston moore, and sunn o)))’s stephen o’malley.

on baghdad batterie, ateleia and benjamin curtis fuse splendidly, as perfectly synchronized audio alchemists, and when they dip their axes in a vat of liquid electronica, the transmutation is complete: thick, glistening beats throb and undulate, without a tell-tale twang in sight. baghdad batterie is a fabulous piece of laptop psychedelia, and certain to delight fans of curtis and elliott’s previous collaboration, the exhilarating school of seven bells ep, face to face on high places.

the packaging of this vinyl-only release is similarly spectacular. it’s a one-sided, 12-inch lp, pressed on clear vinyl; the reverse is laser etched with an original illustration by acclaimed uk artist savage pencil, whose credits include album art for the fall, big black, and sonic youth. it’s a limited-edition pressing, so get it while you can – disks from the label’s original guitar series in 1993/1994 are now some of collectorville’s must coveted treasures.

$21.06

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
october 24th, 2006

threads:
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guitar-themed
digital-musics
free-improvisation

table of the elements (usa) #toe 090 cd

“a field guide to table of the elements - southeastern edition” double compact disc set

jonathan kane curl
arnold dreyblatt star trap
zeena parkins below the wall
san agustin embers
tony conrad indicting lully
tony conrad with faust encore
rhys chatham 100 guitars
leif inge 9 beet stretch (excerpt)

double-disc compilation containing exclusive materials from a large part of the tote roster. the second disc is an excerpt of leif inge’s 24-hour timestretch of beethoven’s 9th symphony, and it worth the price of the compilation alone...

table of the elements press release...

happy 21st century. here, on these eight unique tracks, is a field guide to the essential table of the elements. this sampler is more than a summary of label highlights, and certainly nothing so casual as an assortment of odds’n’sods. the performances make a statement as bold as their visceral impact and as rich as the conceptual process that underpins their creation. it’s no coincidence that jonathan kane jump-starts the show with “curl,” a low-down blues rumble powered by the drummer’s signature mule kick. the new york based musician has been the rhythmic motor behind so me of the singularly monolithic bands of the last 30 years. here, he summons the ghosts of slim harpo and junior kimbrough to commune with the shimmering harmonic textures his band creates. this blessed-out boogaloo may be the perfect response to the rallying cry: f*ck dance, let’s art! in the right pair of hands, gripping the right set of drumsticks, there’s scarcely any difference. dig in as north mississippi meets downtown new york. it’s the new, new, new hip-shake thing. and it’s superbad.

like kane, whose name is perfectly suited for a skin-slapping urban blues magus, arnold dreyblatt is a minimalist who never forgot that music is still the human mating call. anyone who has experienced the composer’s recordings with his marvelously-dubbed orchestra of excited strings knows how madly dreyblatt’s pieces swing. they’ve flaunt time as precise as a swiss watch. indeed, music like this can put you in the mind of the whirring cogs and pulleys of some small mechanized device. everything’s moving, twitching about, a bunch of individual sounds racheting up and down in a modulated relationship to all the other individual sounds. this animated playfulness gives “star trap” a real charm. springy rhythms dance with each other, as clipped percussion and purposefully bowed strings generate delightful harmonic chatter.

no less pixilated is the collaboration between improvising electric harpist zeena parkins and fellow traveler david kean – an engineer and instrument collector who oversees a most curious and impressive array of obscure keyboards at his audities foundation in calgary. here, the duo manifests some ticklish repartee between plucks and loops, as micro-sounds caper and vault through the spontaneous choreography of pure textural play.

georgia natives san agustin (david daniell, guitar; andrew burnes, guitar; bryan fielden, drums) have their own peculiar relationship with the sonic phenomena they create, awash in eddying pools of feedback and resonance evoked as if a natural event and as evaporative as a cirrus cloud floating high against crispy blue.

composer tony conrad and the german rock band faust partake of a different sort of conversation on a segment of their final live performance together: the encore from a feb. 18, 1995, concert at queen elizabeth hall in london. pitting conrad’s ferociously amplified violin against the primitive percussive onslaught of faust, and discordant shouts from the audience, the piece clangs and drones its way to an ecstatic pinnacle. conrad’s “indicting lully” hails from 1998, and an installation at the museum of contemporary art in los angeles. the piece finds conrad and alex gelencser on violin and cello, playing to the “orchestral” drone of three hurdy gurdy-like violins, turned upside-down, with the strings jutting against a spinning wheel, which agitated each string equally. the musicians performed while garbed in 18th century period costumes.

the concept of massed strings gets supersized in this excerpt from rhys chatham’s legendary “100 guitars.” this prelude to one of the most extraordinary works in the minimalist canon hints at the majestic potential inherent in chatham’s amplified imagination. eric burdon once fantastized about “10,000 guitars, grooving real loud,” but this composer makes a dream come true. and yet, if that’s not enough, check out the sampler’s closer. “9 beet stretch” is an instant milestone in modern music. think 100 guitars can’t be beat? try 24 hours of beethoven. this snippet comes from leif inge’s digitally realized adaptation of beethoven’s 9th symphony. extended to 24 hours by a literal “stretch,” which involved slowing down a recording of the masterpiece — with no distortion in pitch — so that it becomes a wholly new creature, “beet” opens up into an impossibly wondrous world of sonic phenomena. saturated in the rushing whirl of nameless angelic choirs, the listener is propelled forward into the eternal – no less a transcendent movement through the end of time than a passage through kubrick’s kaleidoscopic stargate. it’s a fitting way to conclude this compilation, stealing fire from the western cultural pantheon to fuel a voyage into uncharted territories, but it’s just such an enterprise that makes table of the elements such essential listening. happy 21st century, indeed.

$14.82

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
january 24th, 2006

table of the elements (usa) #toe 088 lp

jonathan kane “february” long playing record

curl 12:03
pops 6:15
sis 9:52
motherless child 6:14
guitar trio 12:20

late 2005 release ; the first new release from table of the elements in a few years! former swans drummer drops some intense chatham / branca-lineage electric minimalism ...

table of the elements press release...

jonathan kane is a downtown nyc legend -- as co-founder of the no-wave behemoth swans, and the rhythmic thunder behind the massed-guitar armies of rhys chatham and the rock excursions of la monte young -- and one of the hardest-hitting drummers on the planet.

with february, his first solo record, kane summons swans' concussive wallop, chatham's dense guitar strata (kane even manages a rollicking version of chatham's notorious "guitar trio"), and the perpetual propulsion of 70s krautrockers neu, then steers it all head-on into... the blues.

make no mistake about it: kane is a bluesman, and beneath the high-decible bombast of these five instrumentals, he's powering guitar-driven minimalism into the blues, and the blues into guitar-driven harmonic maximalism. so roll with jonathan kane down his highway 61 of the mind -- it's the shape of blues to come.

$14.82

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
january 24th, 2006

threads:
minimalism-drones
guitar-themed

table of the elements (usa) #toe 088 cd

jonathan kane “february” compact disc

curl 12:03
pops 6:15
sis 9:52
motherless child 6:14
guitar trio 12:20

late 2005 release ; the first new release from table of the elements in a few years! former swans drummer drops some intense chatham / branca-lineage electric minimalism ...

table of the elements press release...

$21.06

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
november 21st, 2006

threads:
guitar-themed

table of the elements (usa) #toe 085 cd

john fahey “sea changes & coelacanths: a young person’s guide to john fahey” double compact disc set

sharks (9:20)
planaria (9:54)
eels (6:13)
coelacanths (7:28)
juana (12:34)
hard time empty bottle blues: i (2:18)
hard time empty bottle blues: ii (3:05)
hard time empty bottle blues: iii (1:34)
hard time empty bottle blues: iv (2:23)
house of the rising sun / nightmare (19:09)
juana / guitar lamento (17:06)
red rocking chair (9:26)
song for sara (6:20)
son house / marilyn / my prayer / mood indigo (21:05)

november 2006 release; this excellent overview of john fahey’s career, containing much material making its debut on disc within this double-disc box. highly recommended both as a definitive tome on fahey’s oeuvre (there’s a good bit of “classic” takoma-era fahey on here as well as some of the more experimental/later drones & “industrial” pieces - listen to the sound-sample) & as possibly the first tote title to qualify as a universally accepted “holiday gift”...

table of the elements press release...

in the 43 years between his first recordings and his death in 2001, john fahey stomped across the american soundscape, leaving behind footprints of influence so breathtakingly vast that entire genres now huddle within them. his mesmeric guitar compositions fused the blues' syncopated rhythms with contemporary dissonance; eastern influences with musique-concrète. he was the first to demonstrate that traditional steel-string finger-picking techniques could be used to express a universe of non-traditional ideas. playing with versatility and a fierce imagination, fahey expanded the boundaries of the guitar, and his contribution to american music is immense.

in the early 1960s, a young john fahey searched out the missing bluesmen skip james and bukka white, thereby igniting the acoustic blues revival. by the early 1990s, it was fahey's turn to be rescued from oblivion by young enthusiasts — and reawakened from his hibernation, he had no intention of pandering to traditionalists. invigorated by the contemporary music underground, the man was ready to set minds ablaze. through his partnership with table of the elements, fahey released a series of extraordinary records, now compiled for the first time as sea changes & coelacanths.

here is fahey's trademark american primitive sound at its most harrowing and resolute. featuring skip james-influenced vignettes, deep-sea string-bendings, sonic collages, oaken reverberations and lengthy, impressionistic suites, these recordings — made between 1996 and 1998 — comprise a major portion of fahey's canon, and are the logical next-step in his life-long journey of exploration. sea changes & coelacanths embodies an artistic essence, with sounds that are undiluted, uncompromised, starkly honest, pure of vision and in every way innovative — just like the man himself.

"now that john fahey, the great koonaklaster no longer walks among us, it may be possible to review this final period of his amazing trajectory with the requisite objectivity. there is no more new john anymore; no more old john. there is only john fahey — immortal motherf*cker of the 20th century.

"and it's time for you to eat his dust." —byron coley, from the liner notes

features over two hours of music; 64-page book includes new essays by byron coley, david fricke and david grubbs, an interview with and original text by john fahey; plus previously unreleased photographs

$39.78

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
august 19th, 2005

threads:
guitar-themed
modern-psych
minimalism-drones

table of the elements (usa) #toe 081 cd

san agustin “the expanding sea” triple compact disc set

3 discs !!!

disc 1

villeurbanne / 10 march (16:56)
grenoble / 11 march (30:04)

disc 2

brussels / 9 march (15:50)
zürich / 21 march (30:29)

disc 3

berlin / 7 march (16:04)
bordeaux / 13 march (22:55)

table of the elements press release...

andrew burnes: guitar
bryan fielden: drums
david daniell: guitar

georgia natives san agustin have performed with a multitude of notables from the improvised community, including ken vandermark, thurston moore, loren mazzacane and others, but this boxed set is the first truly representative document of their live presence.

haunting moments of introspection are enveloped in clouds of bluesy guitar notes, then swept away by great electric gales; drones rumble and shimmer in the aftermath. the expanding sea is a sweeping work by a tremendous ensemble, one that is discreetly creating a genre-defying yet archetypically american music.

$11.71

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april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
august 19th, 2005

threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
plunder-phonic
digital-musics
modern-psych

table of the elements (usa) #toe 078 cd

presocratics “serve imperialism” compact disc single

nestor mahkno discovers america / pig latin (9:04)
red democracy (schizophrenia is no moral victory) (7:56)
the break-even point (3:33)

2002 release.

table of the elements press release...

"the body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries in itself the causes of its destruction."
rousseau, 1762 the social contract

"dead men's opinions in all things control the living..."
nathaniel hawthorne

presocratics serve imperialism is the latest dispatch from the doubted underclass intelligentsia. here, presocratics employ consumer and post-consumer goods to interrogate history and insomnia in their bid to wrest philosophy from professional academia and the class system it supports, thereby returning it to the people (in general, and those people who pay for cds with only 20 minutes of music in particular). this ep starts by wrapping vocals and instrumentation around recycled heavy metal (nestor mahkno discovers america) and climaxes with the society debut of the break-even point, the most breathtaking ballad ever to grace the electro-acoustic stage. behold rock energy mobilized against nostalgia!

$14.82

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
august 19th, 2005

threads:
plunder-phonic
lo-fi
psych-prog

table of the elements (usa) #toe 076 cd

thuunderboy! “thuunderboy!” compact disc

a penny for (1:33)
hey money go (2:03)
arms (2:31)
and they called it puppy (3:12)
goo goo (0:42)
let my (11:45)
oh oh touch (4:33)
a new day (4:48)
no wait a second (18:44)
wait a second (1:36)
at last (14:49)
[they[ called it (4:45)

yes, actually a recording of tony conrad’s two year old son ted essentially falling onto a turntable playing a copy of donny osmond’s “puppy love” 7” ca. 1973... i don’t see why you should have a problem with that...

table of the elements press release...

"what, after all, does one make of a two-year-old boy, a child who ultimately comes to be armed with two turntables and a microphone, creating a sonic collage through his instinctive abuse of a stylus and various 45 rpm vinyl recordings -- including that of a popular novelty tune sung by 1970s mormon pre-adolescent media sensation donny osmond? does the resultant accumulation of scratching sounds, surface noise, and reiterations of fragmented vocal phrases -- offered up in varying turntable speeds: slow, fast and juuuuust right -- constitute a signal moment in the age of mechanical reproduction? is it fair to argue that a precocious ted, the once and future thuunderboy, anticipated in these excursions of the early '70s everything from the rise of turntablism and hip-hop to the creative strategies of such disparate entertainers and/or conceptualists as fatboy slim, christian marclay and that erstwhile savior of pop (circa 1997), beck? and if so, then what sort of volatile questions might this pose about the creative appropriation and manipulation of pre-recorded sources, about artistic intent, about the virtues of repetition and about the subversive deployment of consumer electronics in the dark and wild years before napster? if, to paraphrase the archetypal philistine's response to an abstract painting, a two-year-old can do it, does that diminish the accomplishment of the seasoned turntablist who has dedicated years to mastering the wheels of steel and cultivating its staccato language? or, rather, does it affirm some unerringly democratic quality inherent in the very act of scratching and spinning, that a mere toddler could create hypnotic and deconstruct pop banalities into perversely humorous after-the-fact commentaries on the star-making machinery?

"what a splendidly infantile provocation!"
steve dollar (from the liner notes)

recorded and produced by tony conrad, 1973.

$14.82

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
august 19th, 2005

threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
plunder-phonic
minimalism-drones

table of the elements (usa) #toe 072 cd

presocratics “works and days” compact disc

radio esplanade (14:09)
dedication (0:43)
self-evident (3:26)
proselene (6:23)
state’s evidence (3:45)
the crisis in leadership (4:44)
one step back (6:22)
public good (3:25)
radio co-worker (14:55)
moon river (mercer/mancini) (4:23)

excellent 2000 disc by jon philpot and need windham; working the sort of electro-acoustic folk-zombie witchcraft perfected a few years down the line by folks like leafcutter john.

table of the elements press release...

produced and directed: presocratics
analog: need windham
digital: jon philpot
co-workers:
lance ledbetter, vlf recording (8), eugene chow, viola
david daniell, guitar
scott glazer, bass
heather mcintosh, cello
john morrison, drums
susan ottzen, harp
jon philpot, piano, arrangement
jason sneath, trumpet (10)

presocratics baffling debut cd is best described as electro-acoustic agit-prop. works and days is an audacious cross between the old-school tape manipulations of bernard parmegiani and the wry politics of red krayola circa corrected slogans; it culminates with a faithful, lovingly orchestrated version of the mercer/mancini classic, moon river.

...

"having created a stir in the international cassette underground, the presocratics now surface with a debut cd whose brilliance lurks within a form that can best be described as electro-acoustic agit-prop. an audacious cross between the old-school tape manipulations of bernard parmegiani and the wry politics of the red krayola circa corrected slogans, works and days culminates with a faithful, lovingly orchestrated version of the mercer/mancini classic 'moon river'."

in 2004 jon philpot went on to release a solo release on eastern development under the moniker of 'bear in heaven'.

$14.82

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
april 2nd, 2008

threads:
guitar-themed
modern-composition
minimalism-drones

table of the elements (usa) #toe 056 cd

rhys chatham “a rhys chatham compendium • selected works 1971-1989” compact disc

an angel moves too fast to see (edit) (7:36) 1989
guitar trio (edit) (3:04) 1977
drastic classicism (edit) (3:50) 1982
two gongs (edit) (7:00) 1971
guitar cetet (bonus track not contained in box set) (2:55) 1977
waterloo, no. 2 (edit) (2:28) 1986
die donnergötter (complete version) (21:46) 1985

... sampler disc for the (o/p) chatham box set, includes a recording of “guitar cetet” not on the box ...

table of the elements press release...

excerpts from the forthcoming rhys chatham 3-cd box set, an angel moves too fast to see

at first glance, new york-born composer rhys chatham might have seemed unlikely to alter the dna of rock; a classically trained musician, chatham was piano tuner to glenn gould and la monte young, student of young and morton subotnick, protegee of tony conrad, and in 1971, while still in his teens, founder of the highly influential experimental music program at the kitchen in lower manhattan. nevertheless, it was rhys chatham who first applied multiple electric guitars to extended-duration, overtone-drenched minimalism. this amalgamation - of the intellectual experimentalism and textural sophistication of the avant-garde with the rhythmic brashness and visceral punch of punk rock - produced a raucous, ecstatic new type of urban music that energized the downtown new york scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, a music whose influence can be heard in the subsequent work of the many luminaries who participated in chatham's ensembles, including glenn branca and members of sonic youth, mars, band of susans and swans.

a rhys chatham compendium is distilled from the comprehensive 3-disc retrospective, an angel moves too fast to see, which includes all of chatham's major "minimal" pieces, from the thunderous "two gongs" (1971) and the no-wave tumult of "guitar trio" (1977) to the brass-based "massacre on macdougal street" (1982) and the epic, previously unreleased "an angel moves too fast to see" (1989), performed by an orchestra of 100 electric guitars. the accompanying 136-page book features dozens of never-before-published photos plus essays by chatham, tony conrad and lee ranaldo and artwork by famed visual artist robert longo. together they present a portrait of a city and a milieu where, for a moment, the raw, the sophisticated, the meditative and the danceable merged.

selected works 1971-1989, including unreleased recordings of his orchestra for 100 guitars

$14.82

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
august 19th, 2005

threads:
minimalism-drones
machine-music

table of the elements (usa) #toe 035 cd

b.c. gilbert “ordier” compact disc

ordier (5:19)
ordier ii (24:25)
reaction times (3:31)
message received (7:30)
slot andalou (4:41)
soine scan (7:13)

no, the photo to your left is not an optical illusion; this comes as a cd inside a wooden box (nice touch.)

solo, droning kunst-ton from wire’s bruce gilbert...

table of the elements press release...

though the era of punk was widely regarded as a time of extremes, legendary group wire and guitarist bc gilbert provided the most problematic, visionary and ironic response to the music scene of the mid seventies. the angular minimalism of their sound, the abstract, deadpan lyrics and a penchant for confrontation betrayed the art school origins and made wire an idiosyncratic triumph.

with bravery, integrity, absolute courage and energy -- and more ideas and concepts than any other musician of his era -- gilbert continues to forge ahead. in his post-wire work, he has utilized a variety of modernist tools and explored a vast range of experimental music, from electronic noise to ambient drones. ordier is another combative classic, as gilbert stirs up a wild swarm of electronics with his usual deft touch.

as gilbert writes: "i'm taking a very, very minimalist approach and really getting inside some of the sounds and chasing them to destruction. that's the biggest change that has happened since punk; the apparatus to manipulate noises are available to everyone for a few pounds. but human beings are naturally curious. give them machines and they'll pull them apart and abuse them for their own ends."

beautifully packaged in a custom-designed wood case.

$14.82

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
august 19th, 2005

threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones
digital-musics

table of the elements (usa) #toe 034 cd

bernhard günter “details agrandis” compact disc

four grey paintings (for jim o’rourke)
stone circles (for richard long)
écriture automatique (for giancarlo toniutti)

table of the elements press release...

details angrandis is the second cd by german composer bernhard günter, originally released in 1994. bordering on the imperceptible, it reveals a fascinating, microscopic universe of indescribable richness and subtlety.

$13.26

back in stock as of
april 21st, 2010

first in stock on
november 21st, 2006

threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones
musique-concrète

table of the elements (usa) #toe 019 cd

gastr del sol “the harp factory on lake street” compact disc

the harp factory on lake street (17:12)

2006 reissue of this classic david grubbs / jim o’rourke jam, originally released just prior to the tote-sponsored tony conrad / simon wickham-smith & richard youngs / zeena parkins & jim o’rourke tour in 1994 (i know - i bought a copy at the show in hartford @ real art ways - the printing on the disc was flipped upside down - i still have the damn thing 12 years later...)

table of the elements press release...

is 90s nostalgia underway yet? if not, this reissue may be just the thing to get it started. in 1994, chicago is the fountainhead for a bona-fide scene, in which bands are giving timbre and texture priority over riffs and power chords. to the chagrin of many, the press will label it all "post-rock." it's the definitive movement of the decade, and front and center are gastr del sol, comprised of david grubbs (previously: squirrel bait, bastro) and jim o'rourke (subsequently: wilco, sonic youth). some of their city-mates may shift more units; gastr, with a relentless drive for reinvention, shift the boundaries of where a band can go. avant punk, atonal song-styling, musique concrète, delicate piano-guitar interplay, raw electronics and modernist chamber music — all are fair terrain, traversed with subtlety and finesse. behind the obligatory horn-rims, grubbs and o'rourke have vision.

a dozen years later, this overdue reissue of 1994's the harp factory on lake street ep provides the missing piece in gastr's otherwise available discography. to hear it again is a treat. it's their notorious "big band" record, and the ten-piece ensemble is a veritable all-star team of mid-90s chicagoans, including members of tortoise, sea and cake, shellac, dazzling killmen, brise glace and the vandermark 5; through studio maneuvering courtesy o'rourke and engineer john mcentire, they blossom into a small-sized orchestra. remarkably confident in the use of space and dissonance, harp factory also emphasizes the conceptual "scrape", the friction between nuance and noise, that plays such a prominent role in gastr's subsequent upgrade and afterlife lp. familiar signposts are still in sight — o'rourke's compositional skills, grubbs' associative, absurdist musings — but this is definitely their boldest outing. it's a record full of blissful confoundment, one that aptly vivifies the spirit of an era. gastr del sol may have lasted a brief five years, but they are to the 1990s what the magic band, this heat and sonic youth were to their respective decades: intrepid trailblazers through the backwoods of sound.

format: cd
release date: february 2006
file under: rock
catalog no: swc-cd-19
upc: 600401019221

previous record label:
syr

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

next record label:
taiga

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... this page was last updated on sunday, may 19th, 2013 @ 7:12 pm