robert turman / neon depth “the depth of neon b/w indes of right & wrong” c29 cassette

• robert turman - the depth of neon
  
  
• neon depth - index of right & wrong

a soundesign press release...

robert turman v. neon depth | a soundesign recording 049 the ninth tape in the asr "versus" split series is a disorienting voyage into the depths. on side a robert turman (co-founder of non and frequent collaborator with aaron dilloway) masterfully reassembles looped portions of neon depth. robert creates a stark post-industrial nightmare with a bone chilling collision of siren and serenity. side b is the original track that robert used to construct "the depth of neon" with. "an index of right & wrong" is an anxiety laden trip taken from a 2008 collab between john ellitott (outer space) & david russell (collapsed arc). pro-dubbed cassettes graciously mastered by wyatt howland. c29 edition of 120 pro-dubbed cassettes

personable “human disco” c20 cassette

• untitled (1)
  
  
• untitled (2)

agents of chaos press release...

personable "human disco" c20 {m ged gengras homage to e.b.m., transmat records, and the ultra-minimal acid house sounds}

sean mccann “sincere world” long playing record

• i've seen your face before (9:25)
  
• academy hall (7:31)
  
  
• transplanted heart (6:02)
  
• over the stars (there is rest) (4:37)
  
• deep sea divers (4:12)
  
• removed (3:13)

providien “followed by a wraith” long playing record

• red man’s vietnam
  
• seeker of the sun
  
• followed by a wraith
  
• no us
  
• no other
  
• next one
  
  
• group birth
  
• sewer animals
  
• salmonella bunker blues
  
• keep searching

amethyst sunset press release...

providien "followed by a wraith" amethyst sunset 008 the midwest is a real shangri-la for bohemia basement bleakness so it’s not real surprising that loner tape grime duo providien hail from the snow-blasted state of ohio, and have a grim grassroots aura that just feels right. led by sword heaven electrician mark van fleet and partner-in-crime/childhood friend nathan reynolds (also of weirdo goths american jobs), providien’s debut, “followed by a wraith”, sprawls from disembodied horror atmospherics to no-fi sludge death marches to pure weirdo home-taper acoustic guitar meltdowns, each new zone more unsettling and brainwashed than the last. has elements of mammal (especially the recent drone-suicide ballads), the shadow ring (just replace all the british stuff with raw american sloth), and various other esoteric cassette miserablists, but that’s just a roundabout way of saying this shit rules.  - britt brown the lp is limited to 200 copies on black vinyl with color center labels and a paste on cover insert with album info and tracklist is printed on cardstock.

hny “here you can touch the sky” long playing record

• valley of the rogue
  
• hot like the sun
  
• do you get the picture?
  
  
• instrumental
  
• lost to the sky
  
• hunt me down

amethyst sunset press release...

as-010 - hny - "here you can touch the sky" lp very excited to be able to present the vinyl issue of hny's "here you can touch the sky". over the past few years, hny has released some stellar cassettes through ranky tanky, not not fun, and goaty tapes when finding some free time from shredding with social junk. here you can touch the sky is a half hour full of haunting guitar + vocal work that was released in 2008 through ranky tanky and is now ready to shine on vinyl. this record collects all the songs from the original cassette release and includes one previously released instrumental. limited to 500 copies on clear with orange splatter with a printed 11x11 insert with lyrics.

ben vida / keith fullerton whitman “splitaggregatepulseripper (damaged iiii) b/w 080114” long playing record

• ben vida - aggregatepulseripper (damaged iiii) (11:31)
  
  
• keith fullerton whitman - 080114 (18:20)

amish press release...

ami 033 r/w ben vida / keith fullerton whitman aggregatepulseripper (damaged iiii) / 080114 the third iteration in the required wreckers series, a split lp featuring new and exclusive work from ben vida and keith fullerton whitman (ami-033 r/w). having collaborated over the last decade as a trio with greg davis, this release features new solo-work by two of america's most important emerging sound artists. the first side of this release debuts a new composition from ben vida. in keeping with his recent patchwork-based compositions, aggregatepulseripper (damaged iiii) continues to explore vida's interest in both digital and analog control sources, a compositional process that refuses to fetishize one technology over another and, more interestingly, appears (though, of course, these appearances are deceptive) to displace the musician's hand from the compositional process. in light of vida's early work with the acoustic ensemble, town and country, and the world music and concrete studies of his solo project, bird show, this new compositional method should not be overemphasized. for this piece, vida creates a complex web of patches that change and morph in what he has contextualized as a series of shifting generative patterns. the subtitle of his piece references how these patterns coalesce in aggressive, almost hardcore, clusters of sound that refuse to slip into contemplative or mystical arenas that so many in today's electronic music reference in relation to their work. vida's composition opts instead to remain engaged in the phenomenal and spatial forces that shape our perception of sound. the flipside of this lp features keith fullerton whitman's third in a series of splits (previous releases have included no fun production's b/w carlos giffoni and amethyst sunset's b/w with mike shiflet) documenting a particularly productive period in his creative output - a series of "synth concerts" from 2007 and 2008. recorded on january 14, 2008 at pa's lounge in somerville, ma, this piece documents the fourth in whitman's solo synthesizer sets. his technical set-up is based around a theme (and circuitry) of economy, in which the artist makes use of each cv-source in a variety of fashions. throughout the recording one can discern talking from the audience and ambient room-tone noise, as well as sound coming from different sources spread throughout the room - a small battery powered speaker on stage right, a giant barbetta on stage left. each speaker was fed into a different patch irrespective of its frequency response. whitman uses a hybrid system of digital and analog sound sources that, with the exception of a single 4096 bd delay, is presented here without treatment, overdub, or sequencing of any sort. new york-based artist meredyth spark provides the cover art and sixteen-page booklet for this release. sparks has been assisting amish for the last few years with design and layout. this is the first release to exclusively feature her work. the images and design elements for the cover art come from her extraction series (in truth, the front and back covers are extractions of her extractions), paintings and collages that draw heavily from the aleatory methods and analog/digital processes that both vida and whitman utilize in their recordings.

mike shiflet / pete swanson “bedside b/w college view” long playing record

• mike shiflet - bedside (15:04)
  
  
• pete swanson - college view (12:32)

amish press release...

required wreckers volume 5 mike shiflet / pete swanson “bedside” b/w “college view” lp release date: 9/4/2012 catalog: ami035r/w format: lp * mastered by timothy stollenwerk * letter- pressed obi strip * artwork and 16-page art booklet by miranda lichtenstein and cameron martin amish is pleased to officially announce a new release featuring work from two american noise and sound artists, the ohio-based mike shiflet and the recent portland-to-new york transplant pete swanson. the fifth installment in the label’s required wreckers series (ami-035r/w) features side-long compositions that borrow as much from the worlds of noise and power electronics that swanson and shiflet were affiliated with in the early parts of their careers, as from techno and modern composition. mike shiflet’s “bedside” utilizes disparate sources - guitar, field recordings, abstract electronic textures and white noise - to create a composition that’s both warmly pastoral and defamiliar. this is one of shiflet’s most beautiful works to date. shiflet has released a number of critically acclaimed recordings over the last decade for labels like type and ecstatic peace!, as well as collaborating with c. spencer yeh in burning star core. pete swanson’s “college view” documents another example of his recent recordings’ attempt to blur the lines between techno, noise, and electronic music. “college view” drags detroit dance music into a static field of electricity, and then doubles back again. “college view” documents another great example of swanson’s mature, post-yellow swans output, as indicated on a series of releases since 2011 on labels like three-lobed and type. miranda lichtenstein and cameron martin provide the visual art for this release. the cover art and booklet included with the release feature images from a series of manipulated photographs of chinese scholar rocks that the artists have worked on since 2008. the images suggest the same kind of blasted pastoralism that shiflet and swanson invoke in each of their pieces. lichtenstein and martin have each exhibited their work internationally in shows in new york, tokyo, austria and at the 2004 whitney biennial. with equal nods to throbbing gristle’s retrograde conceptualism and recommended records unwavering musicality, amish is pleased to announce the required wreckers series. r/w will explore the work of artists operating at the intersections of sound art, improvisation, drone, outsider experimentation and modern composition. in the spirit of its name, r/w aims to disrupt the boundaries typically used to delimit genre and the sensibilities that help to inform taste. in so doing, r/w slips out from under the simple, reductive classifications so often used to discuss, and even critically engage, contemporary music. situating r/w in the gap between throbbing gristle’s celebrated a-musicality and the unrelenting craftsmanship of henry cow, these releases acknowledge their debt to historical precedent. each release is a one-time vinyl pressing and will be housed in a letterpress band (designed by bryan christopher baker) that will vary with each installment. these lps will also include artwork and assorted ephemera that invoke our deepest respect for the medium and the hand-crafted (and assembled) components we regret have disappeared with the rise of digital media. r/w terminates after ten installments.

metal mountains “golden trees” compact disc

• structures in the sun (5:47)
  
• orange/yellow (5:26)
  
• the golden trees that shade us (5:37)
  
• flickers within/without (4:28)
  
• turn to the east (5:04)
  
• silver sun (5:26)
  
• prisms (3:50)

amish press release...

ami 042 metal mountains golden trees cd golden trees is a minimalist psych-folk masterpiece. a supergroup of sorts, helen rush, pat gubler and samara lubelski have created seven songs characterized as much by quiet and restraint than by their acclaimed musicianship. the lyrical lines in these songs appear suspended between pregnant pauses of silence and subtle instrumental flourishes. on one side of the gap, samara lubelski's violin invokes the velvets and other avant string-players. on the other side, p.g. six layers effects and pointillist finger picking, while evoking outright weirdness from his guitar rig. at the center, helen rush has penned songs of delicate beauty and fragile intimacy. with matt valentine, helen and pat formed the core nucleus of tower recordings. samara also performed with later incarnations of tower, as well as hall of fame, thurston moore's band, and as a solo-artist. where the early tower catalogue was characterized by schizophrenic studies in a variety of forms (folk, noise, drone, lo-fi skronk, etc), metal mountains' songs like "structures in the sun," "the golden trees that shade us" and "turn to the east" provide us with sonic beauty in high fidelity. though helen gave us a sample of her post-tower recordings-work with "silver sun," which we released on the and to the disciples that remain compilation, she here provides us with a rearranged treatment of that song, which along with "prisms" opens the folk idiom into a new minimalist terrain. we've been waiting more than ten years to explore this sonic space, which in music industry dog years, amounts to almost two centuries. this full-length is well worth the wait.

metal mountains “golden trees” long playing record

• structures in the sun
  
• orange/yellow
  
• the golden trees that shade us
  
  
• flickers within/without
  
• turn to the east
  
• silver sun
  
• prisms

metabolismus “mauser o.k.” seven inch single record

• carousel
  
• do they owe us a living?
  
  
• asthma game
  
• supergenug

chris weisman “transparency” double compact disc set

• round (2:29)
  
• music in the line (3:01)
  
• the winning blues (2:28)
  
• bicycle (3:22)
  
• symbols and signs (3:03)
  
• number 2 man (2:40)
  
• almost a mood (1:42)
  
• the radial spoke (3:30)
  
• money madness (4:31)
  
• transparency (1:36)
  
• feel the houses (2:28)
  
• anybody's time (3:12)
  
• fire and flame (2:59)
  
• rosenwinkel vertigo (2:02)
  
• sound of the summer (3:22)
  
  
• the beatles (3:50)
  
• be easy on yourself (3:07)
  
• in the walls (2:38)
  
• the pilot's skull (2:36)
  
• contact high (2:15)
  
• no business shoes (3:41)
  
• ordinary consciousness (2:08)
  
• 1999 (2:38)
  
• the sun comes back (2:18)
  
• rain doctor (2:37)
  
• mystery (1:51)
  
• the sweetest flags (4:14)
  
• arabesque (3:51)
  
• crosst bridge (3:02)
  
• angleterre anywhere (3:39)

autumn press release...

ar021 chris weisman - transparency 2cd release date: 02/01/2011 300 copies jewel case with full color artwork artwork by ryan storm in a hardly circulated and seldom referenced 1967 interview with paul mccartney and john lennon from during the making of what would become sergeant pepper's lonely hearts club band, they use the words "jokes" and "folk" in describing their new music. with this crazy perceptual distance between the artist and the public in mind - between what they think they're doing and how we end up boxing it - consider chris weisman's song-based albums not as "pop" but as an almost side effect of jazz, an upper extension (if you will) over a base of changes playing, free improvisation, and guitar teaching. jazz is more self consciously a field in pursuit of novel pitch relations than the retro rainbow of what calls itself pop now (though his vermont boot grinds deceptively deeply into many of its potholes), and the project of making wrong notes work - at the expense of popularity for over 20 years - is transparently weisman's nerdy ambition (this is the author of a book called "nonmusical patterns and their mystical meanings"). "transparency" - chris' latest (always imagined to be his last) - : joke folk through and through, his "the beatles", 30 songs and all. - donald christopher 2011 chris weisman's new double album folk/pop masterpiece. his most personal & accessible album yet. for fans of elliott smith, the beatles, and weird music.

jeph jerman “arrastre” c42 cassette

• arrastre 8
  
  
• arrastre 9

autumn press release...

ar022 jeph jerman - arrastre cassette (c42) release date: december 2010 150 copies professionally duplicated cassette with laser printed j-card we have a set of surprisingly resonant pot lids in our kitchen, which i've used in various recordings in the past and one night while doing the dishes i had the idea to try playing them in the manner of tibetan singing bowls, by dragging a thick wooden dowel around their rims. i found that with a little practice this worked well, so i made a multi-track recording of four of them. i then, as i am want to do, became obsessed with this idea, buying up piles of pot lids from local second-hand shops and making more recordings, some using as many as ten different lids. after two months of this activity i was left with over two hours of recordings of resonant metal drones, which i enjoy so much that i thought i'd share them all. comprising nine pieces of music ranging in length from 5 to 20 minutes, these recordings are available on three separate releases, on three different formats: a full-length vinyl record, a 45 minute cd-r and a 40 minute cassette. arrastre is the spanish word for drag, and also the name of a 19th century mining apparatus, wherein large boulders were drug around an ore-filled pit by means of a large spindle and arm, driven by pack animals. this cassette release is 1/3 of the arrastre triptych.

mirror to mirror “yesterday” cassette

• be nice
  
• take me
  
• i want to be going
  
• inside
  
  
• every night
  
• keep it out of your head
  
• all comes back
  
• time for what

autumn press release...

ar029 mirror to mirror - yesterday cassette release date: 11/17/11 100 copies professionally duplicated cassette with laser printed j-card artwork by greg davis mirror to mirror is alex twomey from los angeles. his previous mirror to mirror music has been released on ekhein, jugular forest, arbor, gift tapes and more. while alex usually offers up blissful cloud spaces, here on 'yesterday' he moves in a much more melodic way. joyous sequences, bright shapes & radiant harmonics. reminiscent at times of michaal stearns' 'm'ocean'. alex still retains the blissful, peaceful and lush feelings but now its shaded with more movement, energy and inertia. the shape of things to come?

minoru sato / -m/s / asuna “measure in nature” compact disc

• resonances transition in nature states (24:56)
  
• solid vibrations of each organ through nrf amplification (23:38)

autumn press release...

ar030 minoru sato -m/s & asuna - measure in nature cd release date: 05/01/12 200 copies silk-screened cardboard ecopak artwork by saiko kimura mastered by greg davis minoru sato & asuna have been working together over the last 8 years or so. they have previously put out 2 excellent records (on spekk and senufo). their duo finds common ground from two distinct voices. minoru is known for his sound work exploring lucier-esque paths of making physical phenomena audible and the use of feedback and natural resonant frequencies. asuna is quite a musical chameleon, ranging from noise blasts, free improv, beats, pop songs, dense organ drones, field recordings and toy music sound collages. 'measure in nature' collects two long form pieces recorded in 2004 & 2011 spanning the width of their collaboration so far. 'resonances transition in nature states' highlights asuna's contribution a bit more, a thick shimmering and pulsating bed of prepared reed organ drone stasis (reed organs with the keyboard and entire casing removed just leaving the chromatic organ reeds, motor / air system and soundboard) subtly accentuated and filtered through minoru's resonant tubes and vases. 'solid vibrations of each organ through nrf amplification' highlights minoru's system. shifting tonal centers of pure resonant frequency feedback through glass tubes and vases along with asuna's crackling and burnt organ motor textures. this piece is less static than the first with more arcs and waves and weight. i've been working on putting together a release with these two wonderful japanese musicians for several years now and im thrilled with what finally came together. it was worth the wait. this is an especially focused, conceptually tight and musically rich album.

che chen “block flute signal #1 b/w t-h-r-s-h-l-d-s” c52 cassette

• block flute signal #1
  
  
• t-h-r-s-h-l-d-s

autumn press release...

ar031 che chen - block flute signal #1 / t-h-r-s-h-l-d-s cassette release date: 04/03/12 100 copies professionally duplicated cassette with laser printed j-card artwork by che chen mastered by greg davis this is one of che's first proper solo releases (after last year's excellent pulaski wave 7" and some self-released recordings). che uses a nice palette of instruments along with tape recorders / loops / delay to create warm fidelity, organic, and pulsing sounds. side a is a beautiful long form flute meditation. side b is an episodic composition alternating between field recordings and instruments / tones, reflecting the ideas of thresholds from outside to in, passing through, up and down. movements from one space to another. che's music hints at aspects of christina kubisch, phill niblock and/or takehisa kosugi's music while forging his own unique path in our current digital age. block flute signal #1 - a long form piece that works with the harmonic and timbral possibilities of a simple set of materials. two block flutes--a bass recorder and small double recorder (eastern european in origin)--played by humming and blowing simultaneously to create more than one pitch. the tape loop consists of a simple two-note pattern played on the double recorder, pitched down one octave. (double flute, bass recorder, voice and tape) t-h-r-s-h-l-d-s - conceived of as a sequence of episodic concrete sounds, out of an interest in listening to things one at a time, as discrete sound forms, that progress in series. intervals of silence and field recordings made while passing through various thresholds and doorways form transitions between the various sounds. (zither, sine wave generators, feedback, tape delay and field recordings)

ajilvsga “massacre canyon” c82 cassette and c86 cassette boxed set

• wolves milk
  
• moan bird
  
• pawnee killer
  
  
• the animal's war party
  
• silver crow
  
• holy black twin eagles
  
  
• spirit land
  
• retribution
  
• soulless mechanisms & magical formulae
  
  
• red sky monster
  
• the hunter & the owl
  
• medicine child

avant archive press release...

ajilvsga massacre canyon aa007cs :: double-cassette duration: 168 minutes if you’ve been hanging around the tiny experimental voids that have been surfacing in north america over the past five-or-so years, there is some chance that you’ve brushed up against the rolling thunderhead called ajilvsga. the duo’s body of work is massive, and so even though it’s only a glimpse, massacre canyon is nonetheless a necessary document in the evolution of this musical icon. this soaring double-cassette collects tracks from ajilvsga’s past—some pieces more ephemeral than others, but everything worthy of a second (or tenth) glance. what these selections have in common is only a certain ability to succinctly (as much as one can, given the nature of the music, both in density and in length) define this oklahoman tag-team’s oeuvre: an animal darkness, tainted with imagery both accusatory and mournful. through their own multitude of sonic approaches, may you find ajilvsga’s essence living in the spaces of massacre canyon. alas, it’s not the end: side d contains 40 minutes of new music. onward!

excavacations “afternoon future” c35 cassette

• porter
  
• buncha thieves
  
• the sine iii
  
  
• no county
  
• the sine ii
  
• they’re open again
  
• the sine i
  
• two balloons on the horizon

avant archive press release...

excavacations afternoon future aa008cs :: cassette duration: 35 minutes pop music isn’t what it used to be. excavacations know this as well as anyone, and you’ll know it too when you find yourself tapping your foot suddenly after emerging from a murky fog of sustained guitars and synthesizers. chad parsons & nicholas longworth’s increasingly signature stamp onto the musical underground is unmistakably playful, but don’t miss the signposts pointing back in time, and (it hardly bears mentioning) don’t miss the caverns of solemnity from which their lighter sensibilities emerge. these two musicians have been feeding on the morsels that popular rock & roll has left behind, and washing it down with a swig of experimental electronics and a gulp of musique concrete. their knowledge shows through when suddenly we find ourselves at that point where we want to hit rewind and hear that unforseen verse repeated yet again. when you find yourself frustrated that the last verse was indeed the last verse, take some consolation and rest in the longer stretches of abstraction, and keep in mind that excavacations just might come back with another verse or two. how soon? keep listening.

bret schneider “model of a garden scene with watering can” c59 cassette

• door #1
  
• chichnsync
  
• sdimpt
  
• h.pelepr
  
• h.ppel-or
  
• prawnroom
  
  
• noso-ft.
  
• spmizzle
  
• darb0ven
  
• prop
  
• (n) more kitesch

avant archive press release...

bret schneider model of a garden scene with watering can aa010cs :: cassette duration: 59 minutes bret schneider has created a world of chaos from the helm of his digital workstation. model of a garden scene with watering can is on the surface a simple exploration into abstract sound by way of (and perhaps limited by) his digital means, though schneider brings into this sound collage many sources of sound. the root of this dense structure is still quite simple: play. about his creative process, schneider says, “i tried to make a situation where the music is like the inverse space of the known world ... in a sense it is me making all the wrong decisions, going against my intuition, being the negative space of intuition.” if you’re not interested in process or philosophy, perhaps you’ll at least be turned on by the ear-tickling sonic concoction that is the manifestation of schneider’s approach to creative sound. if there is anything left of your brain by the time you’re through listening, you’ll certainly receive a gracious ‘thank you’ from your ears.

rogue cop “act of violence” c32 cassette

• untitled (1)
  
• untitled (2)
  
• untitled (3)
  
  
• untitled (4)
  
• untitled (5)
  
• untitled (6)

avant archive press release...

rogue cop act of violence aa013cs 32 minutes drew dahle, meet electric guitar. electric guitar, meet your abuser. mr. dahle, aka rogue cop, is badder than any wing-nut in a trench coat and fedora you've ever encountered. the brazenness with which dahle handles his axe is insisted upon with every second of act of violence. this album is vindication for both the hard-headed purists and the die-hard experimentalists. no frills required, no rule book exists. act of violence is difficult to discuss simply because it has very few points of reference. it is simply the sound of a guitar being mangled. though if you listen closely and perhaps long enough, you can certainly begin to create your own frame of reference. rogue cop has his own way of doing things, and if you give him a chance, you'll start to come around to the idea that his way could be your way too.

yellow swans / oakeater “split” long playing record

• yellow swans - inhabitants (15:57)
  
  
• oakeater - an open entrance (4:38)
  
• oakeater - the keeper (8:09)
  
• oakeater - time dilation (3:28)

astro “synthetic spectra” c60 cassette

• synthetic spectra 1 (10:59)
  
• synthetic spectra 2 (16:48)
  
  
• live in beijing (28:31)

blossoming noise press release...

synthetic spectra artist: astro catalog#: bn052cs label: blossoming noise media: tape released: 09-10 astro was formed in 1993 as an outlet for hiroshi hasegawa's solo analog synthesizer work. this is the second release from astro on blossoming noise and features a more abrasive tone than what is found within astral orange sunshine. limited to 120 copies.

nature camp “sinth” c20 cassette

• sinth
  
  
• open head 2

centre press release...

centre 03 - nature camp "sinth" c20 edition of 100 a new duo out of cleveland, side a is a guitar heavy kraut romp with steady percussion and side b is a classic weirdo newcomer freak out ala early early spooky tan dream

comet bodies “human vapors” c40 cassette

• human vapors (1)
  
  
• human vapors (2)

centre press release...

centre 04 - comet bodies "human vapors" c40 edition of 100 julian of cylindrical habitat and buddy adam miller who does isle of sodor cook up some darrrrk zones, somewhat of an industrial release from these two , while most kids there age are chugging beer thru a funnelor forming a neon crystal feather boa drocal band or a combo of both , these kids are harvesting raw sounds with all the right intentions, true stuff.

untrance “deleted seniors” c100 cassette

• deleted seniors (1)
  
  
• deleted seniors (2)

cherried-out merch press release...

untrance - "deleted seniors" c100 new 100 minute tape by fugly superspeed mutilated tekno collective untrance - "deleted seniors". unintelligent dance music - buy and/or die

bruce russell “maximalist mantra music” compact disc

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

crank automotive press release...

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