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 tochnit aleph 		there are 19 titles on tomlab in stock.
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 tompkins square 
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january 17th, 2008

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printed-matter

tomlab (usa) #tom 100 cd

“david shrigley’s worried noodles” book and double compact disc set

  • roger ferguson - welcome singer
  • christopher francis - one
  • grizzly bear - blackcurrant jam
  • r. stevie moore - live in fear
  • phil elverum & nick krgovich - whatcha doin'
  • scarlet's well - maybe
  • psapp - sad song
  • aidan moffat & best ofs - your hands are cold
  • yacht - i saw you
  • simon bookish - prince of wales
  • deerhoof - you, dog (aka kidz are so small)
  • hank - baby's bible
  • mariott 1262 (tv on the radio portland chapter) - sweet sweet potato
  • david byrne - for you
  • james chadwick - the wooden floor
  • islands - joy
  • cotton candy - a sentimental song
  • franz ferdinand - no
  • alig fodder - the hole
  • cibelle - elaine

  • dirty projectors - come forward
  • curtains - show me the way things work
  • max tundra - a truce
  • munch munch - squirrel
  • liars - panic button
  • tussle ft. david shrigley - a clash of heads
  • trans am - the film
  • john shankie - a song
  • scout niblett - the bell
  • final fantasy - joys
  • mount eerie - a sentimental song
  • dead science - once i found a diamond
  • lord cut-glass - maybe
  • no kids - another song
  • hot chip - no
  • casiotone for the painfully alone - the pretty girl
  • mitch friedman - awesome
  • bombay 1 - elaine
  • les georges leningrad - manager and coordinator of prostitutes
... more for the shrigley book/angle (this comes as a cd-sized, 100-page hardcover book in a slipcase w/the discs tucked into the jacket) than the limpid contributions from the more “commerical” end of the tomlab rolodex (i’m a huge fan of shrigley’s) ::

tomlab press release...
david shrigley
worried noodles 2xcd

"i didn't make a record. i couldn't be bothered to make a record. it would have been too difficult. it was easier not to make a record." writes david shrigley about his lp-sized book of song lyrics. the original worried noodles songbook reveals a never-ending curiosity; the lyrics are simple poetry, ironic yet somehow honest, and insistently inciting. the book merged the three spheres in shrigley's work - art, book, and music - yet it was silent.

that first edition, also released by tomlab, sold out within just 6 months of its publication two years ago. the book found a slew of new admirers of david shrigley's work in pop music circles, wherein the idea of adapting these songs to music was recognized as something that needed to happen.

in collaboration with david shrigley, tomlab gathered a diverse selection of musicians and bands from the unknown to the legendary to receive a copy of the book. many were already familiar with david shrigley's work, and some are among his most devoted fans. those who did not know of his work instantly fell in love with his quirky drawings and words. all of the artists wished to join this collaboration and delivered their stellar songcraft! during the process of the collaboration, shrigley found perhaps the best words to describe the strong enthusiasm present in the project: "now we have opened the can of worms we have to deal with the consequences." the can now counts 39 worms - all exclusives!

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$6.18

back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
july 19th, 2007

threads:
digital-musics
beat-research

tomlab (germany) #tom 078 ep

dat politics “alphabet series -p-” seven inch single record

  • like me
  • daddy long legs
tomlab press release...
dat politics
alphabet series -p-
7 "

the group was formed in 1998 as a 4 piece unit based in lille, northern france. since the beginning dat politics began to opperate in their own musical genre that became over the past years a certain kind of "hyper pop". mixing click-beats with glitch-melodies and sounds, but they sound very unlike most other laptop musicians. it’s all about a mixture between minimalism, electro - pop- acoustic & deconstructed techno, with a very joyful and humorous touch to it.

since their release of this years album "wow twist" the band got even more playful and wonderful than ever. for the tomlab alphabet singles series the found the time to create two brand new and exclusive tunes.

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back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
january 7th, 2005

threads:
plunder-phonic
digital-musics
guitar-themed

file under:
contemporary-electronic
sound-research
tomlab (germany) #tom 050 lp

the books “lost and safe” double long playing record set

  • a little longing goes away
  • be good to them always
  • vogt dig for kloppervok
  • smells like content
  • it never changes to stop
  • an animated description of mr. maps.
  • venice
  • none but shining hours
  • it not now whenever
  • an owl with knees
  • twelve fold chain
lp version, bee-yoo-tee-full.

decided that the smoke had finally cleared, so i brought in a few copies. despite the recent npr-vantage crossover appeal, and the resultant enthusiasm in their work, the books are not kowtowing to commercial demand... in many ways i see this as their most fully-formed and challenging work. still so far ahead of the rest of the avant digital-folk game we can all barely see their vapor-trails way off in the distance...
tomlab press release...
a few deep breaths after finishing their acclaimed record "the lemon of pink", the books set out to make their third album, "lost and safe". still based in north adams, ma, the books moved their studio across town from a freezing cold pantry in a ramshackle tenement into a moderately sized bedroom in the attic of a historic victorian, heat included. a big step up, indeed. they busied themselves buying up unmarked audio tapes at salvation armies across the east coast, expanding their notorious library of found sounds and samples to truly absurd proportions. along with the books' mainstay cello, guitar, mandolin and banjo, which all make appearances in "lost and safe", they also invested in a few new instruments to play with, most notably: a set of tuned plastic drain pipes, a cheap metal filing cabinet with subwoofers installed in it, and a vintage hohner clavinet, which they salvaged from a dutch basement and restored to funkiness. also, nick taught himself how to sing, more or less, and paul forged ahead in building an impressive library of found video and fonts that will be a feature of their first live tour in may, 2005.

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back in stock as of
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first in stock on
january 7th, 2005

threads:
plunder-phonic
digital-musics
guitar-themed

file under:
contemporary-electronic
sound-research
tomlab (germany) #tom 050 cd

the books “lost and safe” compact disc

  • a little longing goes away
  • be good to them always
  • vogt dig for kloppervok
  • smells like content
  • it never changes to stop
  • an animated description of mr. maps.
  • venice
  • none but shining hours
  • it not now whenever
  • an owl with knees
  • twelve fold chain
decided that the smoke had finally cleared, so i brought in a few copies. despite the recent npr-vantage crossover appeal, and the resultant enthusiasm in their work, the books are not kowtowing to commercial demand... in many ways i see this as their most fully-formed and challenging work. still so far ahead of the rest of the avant digital-folk game we can all barely see their vapor-trails way off in the distance...
tomlab press release...
a few deep breaths after finishing their acclaimed record "the lemon of pink", the books set out to make their third album, "lost and safe". still based in north adams, ma, the books moved their studio across town from a freezing cold pantry in a ramshackle tenement into a moderately sized bedroom in the attic of a historic victorian, heat included. a big step up, indeed. they busied themselves buying up unmarked audio tapes at salvation armies across the east coast, expanding their notorious library of found sounds and samples to truly absurd proportions. along with the books' mainstay cello, guitar, mandolin and banjo, which all make appearances in "lost and safe", they also invested in a few new instruments to play with, most notably: a set of tuned plastic drain pipes, a cheap metal filing cabinet with subwoofers installed in it, and a vintage hohner clavinet, which they salvaged from a dutch basement and restored to funkiness. also, nick taught himself how to sing, more or less, and paul forged ahead in building an impressive library of found video and fonts that will be a feature of their first live tour in may, 2005.

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$13.91

back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
november 23rd, 2004

threads:
1970s-electronic
1980s-electronic
analogue-synth
electro-acoustic-composition
live-electronic
musique-concrète
modern-composition

tomlab (germany) #tom 038 cd

“antologia de música electrónica portuguesa” compact disc

  • nuno canavarro - alsee (1987) 0' 52"
  • cândido lima - oceanos - (1978) 5' 53"
  • nuno rebelo - new amp - (1984) 3' 42"
  • isabel soveral - anamorphoses i (1994) 5' 19"
  • filipe pires - homo sapiens (1972) 4' 38"
  • telectu - performance # (1984) 4' 47"
  • jorge peixinho - elegia a amílcar cabral (1973) 5' 13"
  • rafael toral - mills session (introdução) (1997) 2' 22"
  • joão pedro oliveira - silence to light (1992) 3' 34"
  • anar band - plasticman (1977) 4' 42"
  • rené bertholo - áfrica aqui (1996) 1' 46"
  • carlos zíngaro - #444-07 (1981) 3' 24"
  • emanuel dimas de melo pimenta - lisbon revisited (1986) 3' 06"
  • no noise reduction - rlo ii (1995) 3' 32"
  • antónio ferreira - o verão nasceu da paixão de 1921 (1988) 8' 52"
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "filipe pires - homo sapiens (1972)"
i had been contacted a few years back by the portugese “plancton” label about this compilation when it was still in its planning stages... glad it’s finally seen the light of day via the help of rafael toral and mr. tom steinle.

when in town back in 2004, rafael explained the lack of earlier tape pieces by reminding me that “1972 was a cultural year zero for portugal”. the electronic music that followed over the next 30+ years is a mishmash of every conceivable phylum/belief system ranging from dry academic etudes to home-recorded zonk.

an astouding compilation, and the only collection of portugal’s electronic music history out there. essential.
tomlab press release...
this anthology covers authors and works informed by very different cultural backgrounds, normal as it is to the "inhabitants" of each cultural environment to live in somehow isolated communities. my goal was to weave a historic thread that would freely cross boundaries between the authors' cultural territories and also to document as many approaches to electronic music as possible, both on material and conceptual levels.

it's a work that i approached with both an artistic and personal perspective. that is to say, the anthology is also to be a work on its own, and relations between the pieces represented were determined by musical criteria, rather than chronological or other. i also intended to provide a view into each author in a possibly surprising way, always trying to escape each one's typical image, as well as to subtly evoke a playful dimension in creative processes.

these excerpts were chosen (by plancton music at first and myself later) because of their musical importance and historic relevance (either collective or personal). however, using this approach, the present anthology couldn't and wouldn't pretend to be exhaustive or complete.

rafael toral

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back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
november 23rd, 2004

file under:
contemporary-electronic
rock-etc...
sound-research
tomlab (germany) #tom 032 lp

the books “the lemon of pink” long playing record

  • the lemon of pink (1)
  • the lemon of pink (2)
  • tokyo
  • bonanza
  • s is for evrysing
  • explanation mark
  • there is no there
  • take time
  • don’t even sing about it
  • the future wouldn’t that be nice?
  • a true story of a story of true love
  • that right ain’t shit
  • ps
lp version, superior. album #2, just a bril. as its predecessor. much more focus on the acoustic instrumentation, less on the digital-grid-assembly methods & their artifacts. sorry it took so long to get this one in folks. i’m not lazy, just po’. one of my tops of 2003, in stock. finally.
tomlab press release...
in 2002, the books surprised everyone, including themselves, with their debut release "thought for food". through some sort of backward circuitous motion it found wide acclaim in small circles across the globe, ending up on many end-of-year top 10 lists.

confounded reviewers attempted to categorize the books' music as electro-acoustic sound collage, laptop, glitch, folktronica, cut-up indie bluegrass etcetera, but we prefer to think of it as blipworld / fakegrass / speedblues / chamberclick / eccentrock / country&eastern / glitch postanything music with samples. time will tell. it has been described as music that comes from everywhere yet remains warmly personal and intimate, often like a soundtrack, sometimes referring to a particular place or city, sometimes to a time in life. critics agreed that it found a compelling balance between instrumental innovation, silence and space, and between humor and absurdity. listeners agreed that it made them think, and feel strangely good.

this year, the books sally forth with their second full-length album "the lemon of pink". unlike "thought for food", which was composed on-and-off over several years across several cities and mountain villages, "the lemon of pink" was composed more or less continuously under one old roof in the beautiful post-industrial hamlet of north adams, massachusetts.

as our friend, jorge just, described it in a single sentence: "if you emptied 50 jigsaw puzzles onto your kitchen table, blindfolded yourself and put all of the pieces together by faith and instinct, sweating over the smoothness of each connection, working at it and working at it until finally you were finished, confident that each piece was precisely where it was meant to be, and after all that effort, you took a deep breath, removed your blindfold, looked at your work and saw something new, something inexplicable and strange and overwhelmingly comforting, something that felt exactly, impossibly, right, then you would have the books."

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january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
april 9th, 2004

threads:
plunder-phonic
digital-musics
guitar-themed

tomlab (germany) #tom 032 cd

the books “the lemon of pink” compact disc

  • the lemon of pink(1)
  • the lemon of pink (2)
  • tokyo
  • bonanza
  • s is for evrysing
  • explanation mark
  • there is no there
  • take time
  • don’t even sing about it
  • the future wouldn’t that be nice?
  • a true story of a story of true love
  • that right ain’t shit
  • ps
second album from nick zammuto and paul de jong. some of you might have judged the band based on the amount of press/blah-blah out there... and the subsequent embrace of the band by the npr-set... rest assured, they’re as freaked out by the whole thing as you/i... still this and its predecessor are two of the best records this decade. don’t write them off...
tomlab press release...
in 2002, the books surprised everyone, including themselves, with their debut release "thought for food". through some sort of backward circuitous motion it found wide acclaim in small circles across the globe, ending up on many end-of-year top 10 lists.

confounded reviewers attempted to categorize the books' music as electro-acoustic sound collage, laptop, glitch, folktronica, cut-up indie bluegrass etcetera, but we prefer to think of it as blipworld / fakegrass / speedblues / chamberclick / eccentrock / country&eastern / glitch postanything music with samples. time will tell. it has been described as music that comes from everywhere yet remains warmly personal and intimate, often like a soundtrack, sometimes referring to a particular place or city, sometimes to a time in life. critics agreed that it found a compelling balance between instrumental innovation, silence and space, and between humor and absurdity. listeners agreed that it made them think, and feel strangely good.

this year, the books sally forth with their second full-length album "the lemon of pink". unlike "thought for food", which was composed on-and-off over several years across several cities and mountain villages, "the lemon of pink" was composed more or less continuously under one old roof in the beautiful post-industrial hamlet of north adams, massachusetts.

as our friend, jorge just, described it in a single sentence: "if you emptied 50 jigsaw puzzles onto your kitchen table, blindfolded yourself and put all of the pieces together by faith and instinct, sweating over the smoothness of each connection, working at it and working at it until finally you were finished, confident that each piece was precisely where it was meant to be, and after all that effort, you took a deep breath, removed your blindfold, looked at your work and saw something new, something inexplicable and strange and overwhelmingly comforting, something that felt exactly, impossibly, right, then you would have the books."

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back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
august 31st, 2006

threads:
bedroom
digital-musics

tomlab (germany) #tom 028 cd

tujiko noriko “from tokyo to naiagara” compact disc

  • narita made (5:06)
  • zipper (6:56)
  • rocket hanabi (7:10)
  • mugen kyuukou (6:05)
  • kiminotamen (5:17)
  • tokyo (5:12)
  • tokyo tower (4:32)
  • robot hero (8:28)
tomlab press release...
mixing capriciousness with prettiness and outright experimentalism in a manner gently reminiscent of avant-pop genius haco, tujiko noriko's introduction to the world at large was one of the most astonishing of the last years. maybe second-best behind björk (the icelandic elfin pop-princess is probably a better comparative form-guide than the mego reference) and alongside the mysterious turns and deturns of cologne based niobe.

for her solo albums on mego tujiko noriko has worked at fusing digital sounds into pop-song forms, but not as some quaint modernist exercise, rather as some raw, enveloping, loving artistic craft. now much more confident vocally, she assumes a profoundly expressive position as a singer and is much closer to pop music than ever before.

tujiko noriko forges an awkward musical beauty that sets her apart from the no-fun out-electro underground, or shiny/happy japanese pop-kids, or any other measuring sticks that fail to measure up. she - like haco or björk - is off in her own distant musical world. and it's now going to come to you.

a natural born pop artist as nico or vincent gallo? future should tell pretty soon!

"from tokyo to naiagara" was produced by aki onda, a hyperactive and hypertalented musical wunderkind, working as a musician, composer and producer. he introduced elements that were not present in tujiko norikos previous releases: more quiet athmospheres and acoustic sounds ("zipper", "robot hero"), more beats, sometimes almost hip hop oriented structures ("narita made", "toyko tower"). on top of that tujiko noriko puts her "rocket hanabi" song with lyrics that tell a story so beautiful, so unexpected and so sad at the same time that we can only recommend it as our favourite from the album.

but watch out! this girl cries for no one! english translation of lyrics included.

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back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
september 2nd, 2003

threads:
analogue-synth
experimental-instruments
electro-acoustic-composition

tomlab (germany) #tom 027 cd

rafael toral “electric babyland / lullabies” compact disc

  • electric babyland - amb
  • electric babyland - slo
  • electric babyland - rdm
  • electric babyland - dne
  • lullabies - my head on your shoulders feels like home
  • lullabies - little stars
  • lullabies - bodyjoya mix pt 12 dreaming into the locked groove
the three lullabies tracks were originally out as a meeuw muzak single, nice to have them on cd. the electric babyland pieces work a tiny music box as the only sound-sources, running the recordings through his doepfer system...
tomlab press release...
sometimes a commissioned work gets a secret life of his own, much stronger than the initial idea, much more surprising, intriguing and overwhelming than we could hope for. and so unexpected for both sides, the artist and the commissioner that the final result reveals just pure marvel, wonder and beauty.

™ can be seen in that aspect. a record that has been tom's dream for many many years time - ever since the "lullabies" 7 inch single came out on the obscure dutch label meeuw musak with 3 wonderful pieces for guitar and musicbox.

in a pragmatic viewpoint, ™ is what has been coming out of the initial idea to extend the original lullabies into a more complete work. first versions of these pieces have been performed during the electric babyland european tour in 2002, revealing a lot of potential from just the live versions. and now, after a lot of studio work the final release of these pieces eventually sees the daylight.

rafael toral is using music box and analog modular system here. but the result is maybe his most beautiful and accessible record since "sound mind sound body". quite an achievement!

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back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
november 23rd, 2004

threads:
digital-musics
guitar-themed

file under:
guitar-themed
lap-top
sound-research
minimal-drones
tomlab (germany) #tom 026 lp

fonica “ripple” long playing record

  • soar
  • twang
  • whirr
  • perch
  • fluid
  • coda
  • rusl
  • zephyr
lp version, vastly superior fantastic disc by this japanese duo whom opened for greg & i in tokyo @ star pine’s... i was floored by their set their, and here in the comfort of my own home/studio/record shop their dulcet guitar-laced digital tones are providing the ultimate antidote to the november blahs. perfect...
tomlab press release...
fonica ist a male - female duo from tokyo, japan - keiichi sugimoto and cheason. their debut "ripple" (released as cd version in japan) in november 2002 has been highly acclaimed in their home country and is now published by tomlab in europe and north america. the tomlab version comes as cd/lp with special artwork and a reduced tracklisting. the japan release contains 2 additional tracks - remixes by sogar/12k as well as by mitchell akiyama/raster noton.

fonica use a lot of live instruments and dsp processing in parallel. their approach of combining electronic and acoustic is very spontaneous and is so beautiful, revelling and dreamy in a way that can only be described by using the band mum as a reference. "ripple" works without ressorting to clichees or kitsch and somehow reminds "endless summer" - with sack+blumm waving their hands in the background.

the most wonderful part in all of this: "ripple" doesn't sound like a typical, eclectic, japan style combination of references. fonica have been inspired by quite a couple of things out there but at the same time they have managed to record an album that shows a unique character, verycharming, joyful - a pleasure to listen to.

a small ripple announcing a big wave? definitely a very beautiful start into the springtime - and maybe they will be surfing into an endless summer, too!

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$13.91

back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
november 23rd, 2004

threads:
digital-musics
guitar-themed

tomlab (germany) #tom 026 cd

fonica “ripple” compact disc

  • soar
  • twang
  • whirr
  • perch
  • fluid
  • coda
  • rusl
  • zephyr
fantastic disc by this japanese duo whom opened for greg & i in tokyo @ star pine’s... i was floored by their set their, and here in the comfort of my own home/studio/record shop their dulcet guitar-laced digital tones are providing the ultimate antidote to the november blahs. perfect...
tomlab press release...
fonica ist a male - female duo from tokyo, japan - keiichi sugimoto and cheason. their debut "ripple" (released as cd version in japan) in november 2002 has been highly acclaimed in their home country and is now published by tomlab in europe and north america. the tomlab version comes as cd/lp with special artwork and a reduced tracklisting. the japan release contains 2 additional tracks - remixes by sogar/12k as well as by mitchell akiyama/raster noton.

fonica use a lot of live instruments and dsp processing in parallel. their approach of combining electronic and acoustic is very spontaneous and is so beautiful, revelling and dreamy in a way that can only be described by using the band mum as a reference. "ripple" works without ressorting to clichees or kitsch and somehow reminds "endless summer" - with sack+blumm waving their hands in the background.

the most wonderful part in all of this: "ripple" doesn't sound like a typical, eclectic, japan style combination of references. fonica have been inspired by quite a couple of things out there but at the same time they have managed to record an album that shows a unique character, verycharming, joyful - a pleasure to listen to.

a small ripple announcing a big wave? definitely a very beautiful start into the springtime - and maybe they will be surfing into an endless summer, too!

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$13.91

back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
july 19th, 2007

threads:
modern-psych
bedroom

tomlab (germany) #tom 023 lp

the phenomenological boys “melody, melody, melody and more melody” long playing record

  • intro
  • he's so dumb
  • interlude
  • everything's got a shade of green
  • visit to venus
  • interlude
  • will there be yodeling in heaven
  • let's get rid of richard
  • interlude
  • i like what you like

  • what do you take me for
  • interlude
  • invented part of the world
  • the
  • anti-beard song
  • the (go go goatee)
  • interlude
  • ice cream
  • most beautiful day of my life
  • the
  • end
... aka angela from weirdo records / preggy peggy & the lazy baby-makers fame and dave dougan of life partners fame & pals ...
tomlab press release...
the phenomenological boys
melody, melody, melody & more melody

another triumph for the fine feelings of the phenomenological boys! the phenomenological boys toot their horns for the fun of it! no doubt that's a major reason why we all enjoy listening to them so much. their own glowing enthusiasm for boisterous beeps bursts forth in every golden note. in other words, the phenomenological boys are entertaining because they love to entertain. currently the boys are riding a crest of great popularity with some sweet songs that pour out like honey. the boys' melody, melody, melody, melody and more melody should be a runaway best seller for tomlab. for in that collection are several pert and perky tunes bound to become standards overnight!

melody, melody, melody, melody and more melody is the latest project these p-boys recorded in somerville ma, usa and it's a pleasure to observe all those somerville musicians "dig" the boys. all the pros couldn't wait to get back into the studio with the phenom boys and go at it again. small wonder! the phenomenological boys are geniuses in their studios and these discerning people who work with them are the first to recognize and appreciate it.

not only is the phenomenological presence at home in somerville, but the boys can point with pride to their appearances with the famed life partners as featured vocalist and occupant of the first keyboard chair during the summer season of 2002. it was no stretch, as these very big boys blow everything from britney to bach with equal amounts of enthusiasm and skill.

every sound from that remarkable phenomenological viewpoint heralds the enormous versatility of these jubilant compadres. perfectionists who can read an intricate scoring at sight, they also improvise with the best of the swinging ensembles and the cool cats. yet these boys admit to being happiest when they're simply playing pretty for the people- which is exactly what they're doing here.

here again we have the phenoms surrounded by all their original melodic musical cohorts. if it weren't a worn phrase not worthy of their huge talent, we'd say "by popular demand" ... more melody!

and now...?

what is true and what is wrong? a full allstar-orchestra or the reincarnation of marylin monroe as rriot punk girl who is using her computer to pour out like honey one wonderful song after the other? the phenomenological boys keep all their seriousness regardless of their sometimes comical character!

but these songs don't sound really angry or cynical - feminism galore is not the target here. but still, these supersweet songs get you from the back with bittersweet comments and unbelievable i-want-to-sing-along allures. true hits - true subversion!

film music, cool jazz, country and punkrock are cooked together in an ingenious way and it is true pleasure to see with what ease and breathtaking elegance angela is moving from chanteuse to equivocal entertainer and back again. this album is a triumph - and not a quiet one!

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back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
july 19th, 2007

threads:
modern-psych
bedroom

tomlab (germany) #tom 023 cd

the phenomenological boys “melody, melody, melody & more melody” compact disc

  • intro
  • he's so dumb
  • interlude
  • everything's got a shade of green
  • visit to venus
  • interlude
  • will there be yodeling in heaven
  • let's get rid of richard
  • interlude
  • i like what you like
  • what do you take me for
  • interlude
  • invented part of the world
  • the
  • anti-beard song
  • the (go go goatee)
  • interlude
  • ice cream
  • most beautiful day of my life
  • the
  • end
... aka angela from weirdo records / preggy peggy & the lazy baby-makers fame and dave dougan of life partners fame & pals ...
tomlab press release...
the phenomenological boys
melody, melody, melody & more melody

another triumph for the fine feelings of the phenomenological boys! the phenomenological boys toot their horns for the fun of it! no doubt that's a major reason why we all enjoy listening to them so much. their own glowing enthusiasm for boisterous beeps bursts forth in every golden note. in other words, the phenomenological boys are entertaining because they love to entertain. currently the boys are riding a crest of great popularity with some sweet songs that pour out like honey. the boys' melody, melody, melody, melody and more melody should be a runaway best seller for tomlab. for in that collection are several pert and perky tunes bound to become standards overnight!

melody, melody, melody, melody and more melody is the latest project these p-boys recorded in somerville ma, usa and it's a pleasure to observe all those somerville musicians "dig" the boys. all the pros couldn't wait to get back into the studio with the phenom boys and go at it again. small wonder! the phenomenological boys are geniuses in their studios and these discerning people who work with them are the first to recognize and appreciate it.

not only is the phenomenological presence at home in somerville, but the boys can point with pride to their appearances with the famed life partners as featured vocalist and occupant of the first keyboard chair during the summer season of 2002. it was no stretch, as these very big boys blow everything from britney to bach with equal amounts of enthusiasm and skill.

every sound from that remarkable phenomenological viewpoint heralds the enormous versatility of these jubilant compadres. perfectionists who can read an intricate scoring at sight, they also improvise with the best of the swinging ensembles and the cool cats. yet these boys admit to being happiest when they're simply playing pretty for the people- which is exactly what they're doing here.

here again we have the phenoms surrounded by all their original melodic musical cohorts. if it weren't a worn phrase not worthy of their huge talent, we'd say "by popular demand" ... more melody!

and now...?

what is true and what is wrong? a full allstar-orchestra or the reincarnation of marylin monroe as rriot punk girl who is using her computer to pour out like honey one wonderful song after the other? the phenomenological boys keep all their seriousness regardless of their sometimes comical character!

but these songs don't sound really angry or cynical - feminism galore is not the target here. but still, these supersweet songs get you from the back with bittersweet comments and unbelievable i-want-to-sing-along allures. true hits - true subversion!

film music, cool jazz, country and punkrock are cooked together in an ingenious way and it is true pleasure to see with what ease and breathtaking elegance angela is moving from chanteuse to equivocal entertainer and back again. this album is a triumph - and not a quiet one!

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back in stock as of
february 15th, 2008

first in stock on
may 7th, 2003

threads:
folk
digital-musics
plunder-phonic
field-recordings

tomlab (germany) #tom 020 lp

the books “thought for food” long playing record

  • enjoy your worries you may never have them again
  • read eat sleep
  • all bad ends all
  • contempt
  • all our base are belong to them
  • thank-you-branch
  • motherless bastard
  • mikey bass
  • excess straussess
  • getting the done job
  • a dead fish gains the power of observation
  • deaf-kids
now available on lp for those w/souls...

my favorite album of 2002, finally in stock. nick zammuto was living in manhattan, happily. suddenly no one knew where he was. for close to six months. turns out he had some sort of crisis, decided to hike the entire appalachian trail (maine to georgia, 2160 miles). now he's the chef at elmer's vegetarian bed & breakfast in hot springs, nc. only he's no longer nick, he's wally. visited him down there in march, almost passed out in the hot spring. of dehydration of all things. in his free time, nick cuts up improvisations with his cellist-friend paul, field recordings, and all manner of noises into choice, post-consumer digital chestnuts. somehow referencing woody guthrie/leo kottke-lineage americana with the euro-purist binary of early ryoji ikeda, noto, etc.... first fresh idea i've heard in some time, executed with reckless abandon towards fitting in with existing genre-signifiers. awesome.
tomlab press release...
virtual indie-rock? tom & jerry haunted by the ghosts of postrock? post-laptop glitch and clicks&cuts? an attempt to post-everything or simply another candidate for the consense album 2002?

"thought for food" explores the limits of instrumental trickery on top of mindful sample database management. controversial, equivocal and political, "the books" are building bridges and leaving geographical obstructions in music behind. they are obsessed with their respective autobiography of sound and create a work rich in reference from tv shows to vintage newscast and redneck evangelists to hippiegurus. the result is energetic, idealistic, feet whipping, unsettling and disturbing at times...but always guarding a delicate instrumental flow against the rigidness of digital sterility.

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back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
may 7th, 2003

threads:
plunder-phonic
digital-musics
guitar-themed

tomlab (germany) #tom 020 cd

the books “thought for food” compact disc

  • enjoy your worries you may never have them again
  • read eat sleep
  • all bad ends all
  • contempt
  • all our base are belong to them
  • thank-you-branch
  • motherless bastard
  • mikey bass
  • excess straussess
  • getting the done job
  • a dead fish gains the power of observation
  • deaf-kids
“nick zammuto was living in manhattan, happily. suddenly no one knew where he was. for close to six months. turns out he had some sort of crisis, decided to hike the entire appalachian trail (maine to georgia, 2160 miles). now he's the chef at elmer's vegetarian bed & breakfast in hot springs, nc. only he's no longer nick, he's wally. visited him down there in march, almost passed out in the hot spring. of dehydration of all things. in his free time, nick cuts up improvisations with his cellist-friend paul, field recordings, and all manner of noises into choice, post-consumer digital chestnuts. somehow referencing woody guthrie/leo kottke-lineage americana with the euro-purist binary of early ryoji ikeda, noto, etc.... first fresh idea i've heard in some time, executed with reckless abandon towards fitting in with existing genre-signifiers. awesome.” - keith fullerton whitman (pitchfork top ten)
tomlab press release...
virtual indie-rock? tom & jerry haunted by the ghosts of postrock? post-laptop glitch and clicks&cuts? an attempt to post-everything or simply another candidate for the consense album 2002?

"thought for food" explores the limits of instrumental trickery on top of mindful sample database management. controversial, equivocal and political, "the books" are building bridges and leaving geographical obstructions in music behind. they are obsessed with their respective autobiography of sound and create a work rich in reference from tv shows to vintage newscast and redneck evangelists to hippiegurus. the result is energetic, idealistic, feet whipping, unsettling and disturbing at times...but always guarding a delicate instrumental flow against the rigidness of digital sterility.

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$13.91

back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
september 2nd, 2003

threads:
electro-acoustic-composition

tomlab (germany) #tom 019 cd

rafael toral “early works” compact disc

  • a
  • b 2
  • c
  • b 1
  • a viii
  • sand precision
very early 4-track experiments from the late 80s, with one 1990 piece recorded on 8-track open reel. paving the path for his later guitar work...
tomlab press release...
tomlab is happy to announce a new collaboration with rafael toral! after the previous cd release "cyclorama lift 3" (tom7) we had the opportunity to work with rafael on the release of his very early recordings.

"having completed "violence of discovery and calm of acceptance", i found myself drawing a continuous line going back in time some 15 years. these early pieces are at the other end of that line. at the time of recording them, i was far from dreaming i would ever release records at all. i found them of little value then, but under the light of all my following works, from "sound mind sound body" through "wave field" and "cyclorama lift" to "violence of discovery and calm of acceptance", they stand out as having paved the way for all this music." - rafael toral, december 2001

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$8.51

back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
september 2nd, 2003

threads:
live-electronic
electro-acoustic-composition

tomlab (germany) #tom 007 cd

rafael toral “cyclorama lift 3” compact disc single

  • cyclorama lift 3 (20’58”)
late 90s toral piece (recorded in 1998 at “noise precision”), issued in its entirety as a cd single. beautiful brain-wave clusters...
tomlab press release...
cyclorama lift 3 is a piece about the idea that electronic resonance is everywhere in our electronically mediated perception of sounds. like a ghost-in-the-machine.

cyclorama lift is a piece about the idea that electronic resonance is everywhere in our electronically mediated perception of sounds. like a ghost-in-the-machine. it's performed with an empty circuit, basically a feedback loop using as main instruments two 8-second delays and a 4-band parametric equalizer. there's no input, the loop is constantly nourishing and digesting itself. the circulating sound is electronic resonance.

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$13.91

back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
september 2nd, 2003

threads:
bedroom
digital-musics

tomlab (germany) #tom 005 cd

harald “sack” ziegler / frank schultge blumm “sack & blumm” compact disc

  • seathing 5.04
  • homeglow 2.59
  • elefrozoo 1.26
  • baby bass bus 2.30
  • marmel 2.07
  • papad west 3.12
  • ebb 6.11
  • wawahkel 4.42
  • barn tupper 2.44
  • enrico carrousel 2.28
  • pim pom pom 3.05
  • sixtease 3.50
debut album from sack & blumm! one of my favorite contemporary electronic “bands”, here in their humble beginnings...
tomlab press release...
with their debut on tomlab, sack & blumm continue a homerecording series between their postboxes in cologne and berlin. instrumental music in the best sense, very playfull, relaxed and groovy...

sack&blumm are not a band or a studio project but may be described rather as a homerecording project that was conceived independendly in their bedroom studios in berlin and cologne. the digital multitrackers and the german postal service ferrying their ideas back and forth were definitely playing a major role in the production of the album. tracks were produced in several steps, e.g. frank would record the african finger piano from the first track "seathing" and send a dat to harald in cologne who would then layer the recording with his french horn and send the tape back to berlin.

as frank explains, "sack&blumm knew each other and kept meeting each other on many different stages throughout germany. frank schueltge "blumm" was playing with "dieauch" his band of that time and harald "sack" ziegler was performing as a solo artist. the first collaboration was initiated by bernd spring who is running the dhyana label. blumm wanted to do a release and sack was already expected to do a release for him, so bernd combined the two of them and the result was "die fünfte dengelophonie": not a split- but rather a cooperation-single that was - in contrast to sack's answer on staubgold - influenced more by blumm. a common style and a balanced working process was found with the help of tom and the release on his label."

instead of sequencing work on computers, the music lives from the experience of two musicians. folk themes are set against digital fragmentations, and techno tropes are taken up on acoustic instruments. "sixtease", for instance, takes jungle's two-step and scores it for wash-tub and spoons. most of the instruments on sack&blumm were played live onto the multitrack and the arrangements of the electronic sounds are produced with haralds toy instruments. a pc was used only for the track "pim pom pom" and for the final mastering process that was done by tom steinle.

"sack&blumm like it best to produce their music mechanically/physically in the room, using more or less everything that they can get in their hands. structures arise from our curiosity in the origin and the physicality of sounds (wood, stone, sheet metal, paper, air... ) and from experimenting and playing with the materials (plucking, beating, rubbing, blowing... ). musical instruments are based on these principles of generating sound and musical instruments can be everything and they can be found everywhere. the ones that you find in the toy stores are most of the times very attractive because they carry these very beautiful overtones in their ground noise level or they tend to be totally unpredictable which makes a high potential for surprising results. and not to forget, sack&blumm have both followed classical training before on their instruments horn and guitar. the compositions of sack&blumm are most of the times improvisations to a recorded tape, an opportunity, a reaction and open ears for what is coming out from its own. what we like best in sack&blumm is new mail from each other."

tom says thank you!! some parts of this text were taken from phil sherburnes review for urbansounds and some were contributed by frank schueltge blumm.

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$13.91

back in stock as of
january 17th, 2008

first in stock on
july 19th, 2007

threads:
digital-musics
bedroom

tomlab (germany) #tom 001 cd
digital narcis (japan) #dn tom 001 cd

visor “visor” compact disc

  • jörg follert - inbox
  • jens massel - passing landscapes
  • tom steinle - night interludes
  • jörg follert - by car
  • tom steinle - airport
  • jens massel - alaska
digital narcis reissue of tomlab 001; visor’s self-titled debut. visor = jens massel (senking), jörg follert (wunder), and tom steinle (tomlab.) i have a very soft-spot for the kinds of non-dancefloor electronic music people were making in the mid-to-late 90s; this is a shining example ...
tomlab press release...
visor
s / t

visor is a collaboration by joerg follert (saucer, motel, wunder), jens massel (genf, kandis, senking) and tom steinle. visor is a tribute to talk talk's last album "laughing stock". each of the three members contributed two tracks, with each contributor's cuts intersequenced with the others'.

originally a limited home-burnt edition of 100 copies with handmade covers in 8 different colors for christmas 97, visor was sold out within 2 weeks and made its small rumours around the world... our repress is sold out by now.

these days visor is already the classic tom album...

previous record label:
 tochnit aleph 		...and that's everything on tomlab in stock.
(why not take a look at the previous and next labels?)		next record label:
 tompkins square 
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