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Artist: Locrian
Title: The Crystal World
Price: $19
Format: LP (Black)aaEdition: 500
Length: 49'aaTrx: 6
Catalogue Number: URLP056
Released: March 26, 2011
Recorded: Recorded by Dave Whitcomb, Chicago IL, 2010.
André Foisy, Terence Hannum, Steven Hess.
Gretchen Koehler violin on 6. Erica Burgner vocals on 2 and 6.
Side A
1.Triumph of Elimination Audio
2.At Night's End
3.Pathogens
Side B
1.The Crystal World
2.Obsidian Facades Audio
3.Elevations And Depths
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Artist: Locrian
Title: The Crystal World
Price: $17
Format: 2CDaaEdition: 1000
Length: 102'aaTrx: 7
Catalogue Number: URCD056/057
Released: November 27, 2010
Recorded: Recorded by Dave Whitcomb, Chicago IL, 2010.
André Foisy, Terence Hannum, Steven Hess.
Gretchen Koehler violin on 6. Erica Burgner vocals on 2 and 6.
Disk I
1.Triumph of Elimination Audio
2.At Night's End
3.The Crystal World
4.Pathogens
5.Obsidian Facades Audio
6.Elevations And Depths
Disk II
1.Extinction Audio I--Audio II
A marked change had come over the forest, as if dusk had begun to fall. Everywhere the glacé sheaths which enveloped the trees and vegetation had become duller and more opaque. The crystal floor underfoot was occluded and gray, turning the needles into spurs of basalt. The brilliant panoply of colored light had gone, and a dim amber glow moved across the trees, shadowing the sequined floor. At the same time it had become considerably colder.
The Crystal World, the third studio album from Locrian, is an epic journey. Titled after JG Ballard’s 1964 novel that tells the story of a physician who specializes in leprosy sent to a remote African outpost to discover a jungle that is slowly crystallizing and encroaching upon everything it touches. Disc one comprises six tracks while disc two consists of one extended piece, Extinction, that picks up on the intensity of disc one and sustains it for close to an hour. On The Crystal World, Terence Hannum, and André Foisy, are joined by Steven Hess (On, Pan American, Ural Umbo) on percussion and electronics. Hess’ contribution pushes Locrian deeper into the abyss of despair rendering a sound that is darker, bleaker, and engulfing than any of the group’s previous releases. Locrian continue the conceptual trajectory of blackened drone that the group initially embarked on during their first studio album Drenched Lands (2009). Masters of layering, The Crystal World finds the group manipulating tones and textures that transport the listener to an apocalyptic wasteland. At times, the layers are serene and somber, at other times they are chaotic.
The Crystal World is Locrian's essential release, finding the band creating a sound all of their own. A sound that evades simplistic analogies to black metal, power-electronics, noise, or other categories. This is the album that will stun fans of the bands previous works with how far the group has come from their early releases. Presented in a Stoughton gatefold sleeve with art by Vberkvlt.
Artist: Surface of the Earth
Title:
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 500
Length: 73'aaTrx: 9
Catalogue Number: URCD060
Released: March 26, 2011
Recorded: Recorded at Thistle Hall, Wellington, NZ, 1994/95.
1.Arc (excerpt) Audio
2.4.02
3.Preview
4.Causer Gird Audio
5.Castle
6.Voyager
7.Library
8.4.55
9.Sea of Japan
Gunn Amps and Smashed Guitars.
Surface of the Earth was recorded live to cassette, using two microphones in a wooden community hall in Wellington, New Zealand. The lp was gathered from two or three recording sessions in 1994/95. Back then we used to book out the hall for a couple of days, set up our gear and then record everything. It was a very atmospheric room for recording.
Tony and Donald would put their guitars through their two old Gunn valve amplifiers and get to work. Tony often used this broken down cheap guitar with only two strings and he would twist and manipulate it for ages, not even touching the strings. This used to give us a lot of the low, ‘growliness’ that you can hear on our recordings.
Sometimes Donald and I would stop but Tony would carry on and it was always such an impressive sound - I’ve never really heard anything else like it. I don’t even think he used any effects but it sounded like an army of noise. Donald often used to fade in and out with minor chords and subtle feedback, which was very important to the recordings. Tony and I always thought he had such a lovely range of sounds.
I had a synth and would usually tape down one of the keys and arrange the tunings of my guitar to suit the drones. Mostly I would try and coax some feedback out my guitar and then try and control it, like on “4.02”. Sometimes the instruments would feel like they were taking over and unusual things would happen - when a recording was going well you just wanted to keep it going forever. One false move though and it was all over and time for a break.
We also had a few effects - reverb, walkie talkies, dictaphones and other bits of equipment. Not sure if Tony and I had our e-bows on this album but they certainly featured later. The room itself was some kind of instrument, plus there was all the noise from the street. On one of the tracks I think there is the sound of a taxi driver coming through the speaker. Later on we listened to the cassettes to see if we had something interesting on our hands. The next thing was to transfer the best parts to DAT.
First up we made a lathe cut Peter King 7” (4.02/4.55) which sold about 100-150 without any trouble so a double lp was the next idea. We made 20 of these, which became a bit of a collector’s item, so we also made about 30 cassettes and mostly we gave them away. I did the covers, using some images from a Soviet sound recording book I had found, metallic paper and the photocopier at my work. This was on our own label, World Resources.
Later we hooked up with Bruce Russell and he asked us if we’d like to do a cd with H-Corp. Since things could sometimes take a long time with us (and I’d moved away from Wellington), we thought the best option was to give him this one to reissue so at least a few more people could hear it. Bruce must have made 700 or so in 1997 and they sold pretty well - he was the reason it got heard, especially in the USA.
From memory we had to cut a couple of minutes out of the orignial lp (first track, “Arc”) to get it to fit on cd. There’s an overdubbed synth on one of the tracks and “Voyager” was spliced together in numerous places otherwise all live. Instruments were three guitars, 1960s Gunn valve amps, plus synth drone. We also used e-bows, dictaphones (“Library”), walkie talkie (“4.02”) and Casio SK-1 sampler on one track. “Castle” was a bonus track added to the H-Corp cd.
Anyway, people seemed to like it and we got some good reviews. Later we made a 7” and lp, “Interference." Plus there was another 7” and a few other releases on compilations. After that we recorded Surface of the Earth 3, which was abandoned after it was mastered and Surface of the Earth 4 which suffered a similar fate.
We were always conscious of releasing too much stuff. Some noise groups were putting out records all the time, but we were never into that.
Paul Toohey, Surface of the Earth.
Artist: Graves and Orchestra Pits
Title:
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 300
Length: 47'aaTrx: 8
Catalogue Number: URCD059
Released: March 26, 2011
Recorded: Recorded by Graves and Orchestra Pits at theEelectric Park II, Stuttgart
and at Studio 34 and Kikuchi's bedroom, Tokyo in 2008-2010.
Yoshihiro Kikucji: drumkit, percussion, electronics.
Daniel Vujanic: electric and acoustic guitars, synthesizers, electronics, percussion,
glockenspiel, piano, thumb piano, found sounds, field recordings, mouthpieces.
Berna Walter: violin and viola.
Daniel Kartmann: percussion and vibraphone on 4.
Heiner Stilz: flute, tenor and baritone sax on 7.
1.Thlock
2.Spill the Unicorn Blood Audio
3.Moles
4.Winterlichten Audio
5.Knochenanker/Mouth of Light
6.Permafrost Vow
7.I Can See the Ape in You
8.Sudbanj
Graves and Orchestra Pits is a transcontinental duo utilizing guitars/electronics/drums in order to create an ecstatic and unique sound mixing raw power with modern composition, subtle electroacousic alchemy and sonic maximalism. They create a stunning kind of meta-music that sound anarchic and futuristic at the same time.
In 2008 composer/musician Daniel Vujanic began to shape vibrant bodies of sound. Atmospheric guitar lines, morphing drone clouds, minimalist patterns and crunching electronics that wouldn't fit into the aesthetic and musical parameters of his previous projects (Baja, Höhlenmusik Ensemble, E Jugend). The compositional results were demanding a very specific rhythmical backbone. One that could underpin and enforce Vujanic's distillation of euphoric noise, hallucinatory constructivism, and the hollow bones of rock 'n' roll. That's the point where drummer Yoshihiro Kikuchi came in. An integral part of Japan's vivid noise music scenery and also a colorful percussionist, he manages to combine massive minimalism, dense improv and ritualistic polyhythms.
The self-titled debut album effortlessly creates a blissful intensity with its additive compositional approach, sounding orchestral at times employing strings and synthesizers as well as sparse injections of glockenspiel, found sounds, piano, vibes and woodwinds.
The distinctive front cover talks about the mystic whoredom of death, a motif that has existed throughout rock 'n' roll's underground history. This artwork stands on the same tradition, but alters the detailed elements in whole, from the inside by contemporary editing approaches by Kikuchi, to resonate with sound contents. The real dead bodies photos were scanned, colored, printed, and collaged, scanned again and combined with typography.
Artist: Oikos
Title: Ecotono
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 300
Length: 43'aaTrx: 7
Catalogue Number: URCD061
Released: March 26, 2011
Recorded: Recorded and mixed by Oikos, November '09 – June '10.
1.Pulsar Audio
2.Ecotono
3.Boreas
4.Deriva
5.Red Forest Audio
6.Threshold
7.Jatavena
The word Ecotono is built from two roots. Eco (oikos/casa) and tono (tonos/ tensión). An ecotono, or ecotone, is a habitat created by the juxtaposition of distinctly different habitats; an edge habitat; or an ecological zone or boundary where two or more ecosystems meet. It is a transition area between two distinct habitats, where the ranges of the organisms in each bordering habitat overlap, and where there are organisms unique to the transition area. An ecotone region provides conditions of both the types of neighboring ecosystems and thus supports a greater variety of life forms. It also has species living exclusively in the ecotone region resulting in very high species diversity.
An analogy for the sound of Oikos. Spanish duo of David San Martín and Rafael Femiano. A diverse cross section of musical elements living in tension. The aggregate revealing more than could be know from each part. Dense guitar magik draped over layers of digital texture. A shimmering and loud work that represents the menacing nature that lies behind the facade of all living things.
Presented in a heavy paper folder with art from Reuben Sawyer at Rainbath Visual and print work from Alan Sherry.
Artist: Tetragrammaton
Title: Point of Convergence
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 500
Length: 63'aaTrx: 6
Catalogue Number: URCD032 / Shokyo5
Released: November 27, 2010
Recorded: Recorded in Japan 2010.
TOMO: hurdy-gurdy, saxophone, waterphone, crystal bowls, percussion, voice.
Cal Lyall: guitar, rhodes piano, hydrophone, gongs, percussion.
Nobunaga Ken: drums, percussion (gongs, bells, bowls, frame drum), voice, taisho-koto.
1.Disjecta Membra Audio
2.Portrait of Turab (Part I)
3.Temporality of Action Audio
4.Sol de Paula
5.Silybin Therapy
6.Portrait of Turab (Part II)
Trapped on an ocean of disparate languages, sound gravitates towards meaning, escaping the obsolescence of mother tongues by denying the slow decay of time. In the biblical tale of the Tower of Babel, God punishes the tower builders by scattering them across the earth, unintelligible to each other. As they departed their blissful prison of same-think, they became drunk with new songs, washing down their newfound 'auditory cheesecake' with sectarian babble. In as much as their speech had been confounded, they were offered a musical re-enchantment through floating words, alveolar clicks and talking drums. By refusing the past, their music ceased to exist in time, choosing instead to create it.
Employing hurdy-gurdy, crystal bowls, bells, voice, drums and waterphones, Tetragrammaton revisits the bedraggled unlanguage of the castoff nomad builders with quantum force. Climbing into gilded time capsules, the three members soon reappear uttering unknown tongues and blowing ancient horns, drenched in the embryonic saliva of Thoth, that Egyptian God of knowing-it-all. Point of Convergence is arguably the group's finest outing yet, capturing stripped-down harmonic explorations, overdriven dronescapes, meditative underwater recordings and a judicious dose of blown-out psychedelia.
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Artist: Gog
Title: Heavy Fierce Brightness: Spells of the Sun
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 500
Length: 40'aaTrx: 3
Catalogue Number: URCD053
Released: November 27, 2010
Recorded: Recorded at Arcane Digital Studios, January and August 2010.
Guitar and noise by Michael Bjella. Drums by Josh Bodnar.
1.Spells of Shadow Audio
2.The Opening Audio
3.Heavy Fierce Brightness
Pour the sun upon the ground, stand to throw a shadow, watch it grow into a night and fill a spinning sky. Heavy Fierce Brightness: Spells of the Sun writhes and creaks and slowly burns. Feedback, riffs and drums ignite like a brilliant star exposing our corners and weaknesses. Black/white. There can be no darkness until something shines. Gog's second release for Utech Records. Four-panel poster sleeve. Illustration by Terence Hannum.
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Artist: Daniel Menche
Title: Terre Paroxysm
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 500
Length: 60'aaTrx:4
Catalogue Number: URCD054
Released: November 27, 2010
Recorded: Recorded and mixed throughout 2010.
Mastered in the analog domain at Stereophonic.
1.Track 1 Audio
2.Track 2 Audio
3.Track 3
4.Track 4
Terre Paroxysm is Daniel Menche's second release for Utech Records and a continuation in his bringing back the vehement nature of sound. A pure acoustic-electronic recording of storms: wind, ice and rain. The field recordings were captured by Menche and densely mixed and treated in a manner to create a sense of the earth sleeping then cracking open with violent emotion. An air of electronics crackles and slides around the storm recordings in a way that only can be described as acoustic-electro. Terre Paroxysm roars and cries with the organic sound only Menche can evoke. Photograph by Christopher Colville.
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Artist: Mamiffer/House of Low Culture
Title: Split
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 500
Length: 34'aaTrx: 2
Catalogue Number: URCD055
Released: November 27, 2010
Recorded: Recorded and mixed in CA, WA and IL, 2008-2010.
Mamiffer- Faith Coloccia: piano, synthesizer, organ, field recordings, tapes.
Chris Common: percussion, bass, effects.
House of Low Culture- Aaron Turner: guitar, voice, electronics, piano.
Faith Coloccia: guitar. Z’ev: percussion.
1.Uncrossing Audio
2.Ice Mole Audio
A spacious, luxurious split release from Mamiffer and House of Low Culture. Piano, guitar, synthesizer, organ and field recordings are just a few of the devices that etch the open, free passages of music. A remarkable piece from each contributor. LP available on Sige. Collage by Are Mokkelbost.
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Artist: Aural Fit
Title: Mubomuso
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 500
Length: 40'aaTrx: 5
Catalogue Number: URCD031 / Shokyo4
Released: September 4, 2010
Recorded: G/V: Bohachi Mondo. B: Tanabe Endo Kenichi. D: Nanbu Teruhisa.
1.Overexposure Audio
2.Revelation 1
3.Revelation 2
4.Embedded Command 1 Audio
5.Embedded Command 2
Mubomuso is a neologism, made up from two extant words. Mubo suggests the unadorned and unaffected, while muso means to be in a state without thought or preplanning. All parts of the release lead the listener towards the consideration of a very specific topic – war and violence, and the deeper connections to human nature. Stripped of the clothing of civilization, etiquette and socialization, we slowly become aware of reactions and purposes that exist deep within us – embedded commands codes. Is violent conflict then engraved on our DNA? What purpose does humanity serve on this planet?
Aural Fit are the biggest underground psych/noise rock band to rise from the in-the-red psych aesthetics of early High Rise. Bohachi Mondo, Tanabe Endo Kenichi and Nanbu Teruhisa breathe fire. Unyielding, the band devastate on their third full length. Volume at white noise levels, pained vocals, overdriven guitar and unsettled bass and drums are telling of Aural Fit's perception of the world.
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Artist: White Static Demon
Title: Apparitions
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 500
Length: 47'aaTrx: 2
Catalogue Number: URCD048
Released: September 4, 2010
Recorded: Avalanche 2009-2010. Justin K Broadrick: electronics, vocals.
1.Endless Vacuum Audio
2.Unforgiving Eidolon Audio
Bleak analog electronics and voice from Justin K Broadrick. Apparitions is a dark, insalutary recording of sub bass throb, scathing frequencies and sheets of feedback unleashed with the ferocity of early power electronics sides. A material electric attack from places unknown. Photographs by Paul Lee.
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Artist: White Static Demon
Title: Decayed
Price: $9
Format: C70aaEdition: 100
Length: 54'aaTrx: 3
Catalogue Number: URCS049
Released: September 4, 2010
Recorded: Avalanche 2008. Justin K Broadrick: electronics, vocals.
Side A
1.Decayed Audio
2.Beggar
Side B
1.Never Ending Death Trip Audio
Analog conduction of Avalanche's digital release.
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Artist: RST
Title: The Sunset Limited
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 300
Length: 62'aaTrx: 8
Catalogue Number: URCD050
Released: September 4, 2010
Recorded: Recorded in Waitakere City, Aotearoa. Andrew Moon: electric guitar, synth.
1.Desolator Audio
2.Flak
3.Alien Years
4.Secret Fires Audio
5.The Cult
6.Chrome
7.Negative Water
8.Phantoms
A dark space blues built from electric guitars, The Sunset Limited presents the next phase of RST’s exploration of the limitless kinetic possibilities of that hallowed rock and roll instrument. Colossal rumbles and riffs arc across an expanse of darkness, lighting shadows of phantom cities, burnout survivors, fires burning in endless night. Here RST pushes its own aesthetic out beyond the void, building on the slow momentum of fifteen years staring into space, stone in hand, amps on high and tilted skyward. Photograph by Matthew Porter.
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Artist: The Human Quena Orchestra
Title: A Natural History of Failure
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 300
Length: 39'aaTrx: 1 [1-9]
Catalogue Number: URCD051
Released: September 4, 2010
Recorded: Personnel: Renata Castagna [9], David Graham [6], Brandon Nickell [5]
Matthew H. Reis [7], Ryan Unks [1-9], Jason Zeh [1, 8]
1.A Natural History of Failure Audio I--Audio II--Audio III
Emotional distance. Scientism. Abuse. Greed. Love. Self destruction.
A study of modern, alienated, forced-individualists, wired together in our hell.
Initially a collection of high-volume live pieces by Unks and Graham, this work was crafted into album form with contributions from a group of like-minded friends who performed together during the tours of the same name in 2009. Weapons-grade Trogotronic electronics utilized throughout.
Four-panel poster sleeve. Photograph by Olli Kekäläinen.
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Artist: Rahmane
Title: Islands of Pathos
Price: $7
Format: C70aaEdition: 100
Length: 66'aaTrx: 10
Catalogue Number: URCS052
Released: September 4, 2010
Recorded: Recorded 2007.
Side A
1.Aljamiado Audio
2.Islands of Pathos
3.Bring Me the Head of the Sun (Varosha) Audio
4.Golden Chain
5.White Ant, Black Crescent
6.Amaya
Side B
1.Circles of the Abyss
2.Bitter Lemons
3.Ledra
4.Maiden of Life
New Zealand free noise/drone figure Duncan Bruce offers an album several years in the making. Alto sax, synthesizer, percussion and field recordings are only a handful of the ingredients that make up these strange and wonderful recordings. Part edge-of-the-world noise and part multicolored island narrative. A haunting document front to back.
Olive cassette. Illustration by Terence Hannum.
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Artist: Arcn Templ
Title: Emanations of a New World
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 500
Length: 39'aaTrx: 8
Catalogue Number: URCD030 / Shokyo3
Released: May 27, 2010
Recorded: Performed and recorded 2008-2010 by Leslie Low and Vivian Wang.
Mixed by Leslie Low.
1.Innocence & Ignorance
2.Three Realms
3.Wandering in an Empty Forest
4.Four Rivers of Melancholy Audio
5.Eighteen Steps of Evil
6.The Looming of Nothing
7.Dread Mountain Audio
8.A Thousand Arms of Mercy
Vivian Wang and Leslie Low, both of The Observatory, recount childhood memories of mythological fantasy theme park called Haw Par Villa. First called Tiger Balm Garden, the odd but colorful attraction contained a strange mix of characters and familiar tales from Chinese mythology and folklore, mixed in with earthy depictions of modern life and the Chinese concept of hell. The mutual love and dread of the park is told over eight recordings. Voice, guitar, percussion and other traditional instrumentation weave a cloth of surreal bliss, eeriness and horror.
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Artist: RM74
Title: Reflex
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 500
Length: 49'aaTrx: 11
Catalogue Number: URCD045
Released: May 27, 2010
Recorded: Recorded, arranged, mixed and mastered by Reto Mäder at Hinterzimmer,
Bern, 2007-2010. Reto Mäder: guitars, strings, percussion, piano, electronics, kalimba,organ, synthesizer, effects.
1.Early Morning Fog
2.Temporal Resolution Audio
3.Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
4.The Human Factor
5.Organ-Origami
6. Send a Message in C Flat Morse Code
7.Incremental Shift Audio
8.Garden of the Lower Lights
9.Ripple Tank
10.Slowly Up and Digital Down...
11. ...To Earth
Reflex is the fifth solo album by Switzerland's Reto Mäder (Ural Umbo, Sum of R, Pendulum Nisum) as RM74. A creepy, paranoid record of sinister melody and complex structure. Electronics, organ, synthesizer, guitars and other instrumentation drifts in and out of bizarre atmospherics. The tracks gain emotional resonance as they move among vexing swells of dense, rotting psychedelia. Presented in a heavy matte sleeve printed with dark metallic ink. Includes fold out insert. Photograph by Phillip Nesmith.
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Artist: Ural Umbo
Title: Latent Defects
Price: $7
Format: C40aaEdition: 200
Length: 38'aaTrx: 6
Catalogue Number: URCS043
Released: May 27, 2010
Recorded: Recorded in Bern and Chicago by Reto Mäder and Steven Hess. Mixed and mastered by Reto Mäder at Hinterzimmer, Bern. Based on material from URCD040.
Side A
1.Unknown Chemistry
2.Like a Supine Form Audio
3.Deeply Afflicted
Side B
1.Behind the Curtains
2.Elastic Curve
3.Final Acousma...Before The End Audio
Sister EP to the s/t debut release. Utilizing source material from the original recordings, Latent Defects is an meeting of bleak atmospherics and wintry incantation.
Black cassette. Photograph by Rik Garrett.
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SOLD OUT
Artist: Locrian
Title: Drenched Lands
Price: $30
Format: 8-trackaaEdition: 13
Length: 34'aaTrx: 5
Catalogue Number: UR8X046
Released: March 27, 2010
1.Obsolete Elegy In Effluvia and Dross
2.Ghost Repeater
3.Barren Temple Obscured by Contaminated Fogs
4.Epicedium
5.Obsolete Elegy In Cast Concrete
Drenched Lands was a groundbreaking record for Locrian. So immense that there seemed to be no amount of available formats able to contain it. Not cd. Not lp. Not even cassette. Drenched Lands required a format so archaic and unplayable as to put the final nail in the coffin. The corpse must never rise again. Utech Records has secured the rights to issue this incredible album on 8-track. Each tape was painstakingly recorded on AGFA 45 Lear Jet Stereo 8 blanks using the best vintage machine, the Sony TC-228. Make no mistake that this is the ultimate edition. Thirteen copies.
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Artist: Hasegawa-Shizuo
Title: Lift
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 500
Length: 43'aaTrx: 1
Catalogue Number: URCD029 / Shokyo2
Released: January 23, 2010
Recorded: Recorded in Tokyo, Japan, 2009.Hasegawa Hirotomo and Uchida Shizuo all instruments.
1.Lift Audio Ia Audio II
It was on a night when sleep simply would not come, not matter how long
I sprawled on the grass or how many pages of my book I leafed through.
The black shaggy 'thing' expelled all the breath in its body.
Phu phu phuu.
And as it did so, something glowed softly at the crown of its head.
"Ahh, what a beautiful light! I should put a hat over it to stop it flying away."
The black shaggy thing took his favourite hat, the one he had hung from
a tree branch, and popped it onto his head.
"Perfect."
Hirotomo Hasegawa and Shizuo Uchida. Hasegawa was the lead singer of seminal early eighties Japanese punk/hardcore group Aburadako (Greasy Octopus), while Uchida was a long-term member of Haino's Nijiumu medieval dream-drone unit. The recording is the result of unedited improvisation. A beatific recording filled with light and avidity.
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Artist: Ural Umbo
Title:
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 500
Length: 47'aaTrx: 9
Catalogue Number: URCD040
Released: January 23, 2010
Recorded: Recorded in Bern and Chicago by Reto Mäder and Steven Hess.Mixed and mastered by Reto Mäder at Hinterzimmer, Bern. Roger Ziegler (guest musician on 1 and 7).
1.The Lights Would Stop Flickering
2.Theme of the Paranormal Feedback Audio
3.Förlåta Jag
4.Voices from the Room Below
5.Don't Eat Carrots, My Little Ghost Horse
6.Stumbling Upon Blood and Mercury Audio
7.Pendulum Impact Test
8.Among the Bones
9.Mathieu 2004-2009
Ural Umbo is Reto Mäder (Sum of R, RM74) and Steven Hess (On, Haptic) electrifying internal music through a broad spectrum of instrumentation. Horns, piano, organ, harmonium, bass guitar, strings, electronics, drums and percussion guide the formation of black, subliminal melodies and slow feedback accompaniments. Each piece consumes the organic and dynamically balanced process that created it. With a nod to 1960s horror movie scoring Mäder and Hess displace sound from the veil of the supernatural and coax it back to our world. Presented in a heavy black/white sleeve with white translucent paper overlay. Photograph by Rik Garrett.
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Artist: Architeuthis Rex
Title: Dark as the Sea
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 300
Length: 64'aaTrx: 7
Catalogue Number: URCD041
Released: January 23, 2010/November 27, 2010
Recorded: Recorded and mastered by Antonio Gallucci in Blissland, Spring, 2007.
1.Untitled No.1
2.Cephalopedie Audio
3.Dark as the Sea
4.We Dream the Seashore
5.Another Kind of Blue Audio
6.Bbroke
7.Untitled No.2
Architeuthis rex. Leviathan. King. Magnificent sea dweller and haunter of the dreams of Italian artist Antonio Gallucci. Dark as the Sea is that dream, each of the seven recordings an aperture into a horrific underwater world filled with the fear of what lies outside. Together, the album is a kaleidoscope of Don Cherry's Brown Rice, backward masked King Tubby acetates, strange strings, outer space broadcasts of unholy funeral rites, mescaline, percussion and metaphysical drone. Photograph by Kengo Matsuda.
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Artist: The Skull Defekts/The Sons of God
Title: Received in Studio Dental, Gothenburg
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 300
Length: 61'aaTrx: 1
Catalogue Number: URCD044
Released: January 23, 2010
Recorded: Received in Studio Dental, Gothenburg by Leif Elggren, Joachim Nordwall,
Henrik Rylander and Kent Tankred.
1.Received in Studio Dental Audio Ia Audio II
For the recording, Henrik Rylander and Joachim Nordwall of drone operators The Skull Defekts got together with the legendary performance and noise duo The Sons of God - consisting of conceptual artist and self-proclaimed king of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland Leif Elggren and electro-acoustic sound artist Kent Tankred. The place for the meeting was Rylander's Studio Dental and the album was received in one night. The process developed immediately and there was no struggle to find a common idea of sound. Rylander and Nordwall on no-input mixing desk and analog synths and Elggren and Tankred on amplified metallic rakes, an old fan and FX. Something was caught on tape. That something is what you are now listening to. Photograph by Carley King.
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Artist: VagusNerve
Title: Lo Pan
Price: $13
Format: CDaaEdition: 500
Length: 58'aaTrx: 3
Catalogue Number: URCD028 / Shokyo1
Released: August 8, 2009
Li Jianhong: guitar. VAVABOND: laptop.
1.In the summer of 2006, Li made a dream about a lopan and a UFO. Audio
2.Vavabond felt some magical power hiding between the symbols, numbers and
text on the lopan.
3.No doubt. The lopan is a universe. Audio
The lo pan is an ancient, intricate compass used in the practice of traditional Chinese feng shui and is sometimes referred to as “the universe on a plate.” A lo pan consists of two parts – a square wooden base into which is fitted a freely rotating saucer-shaped disk. In the centre of the disk is a small depression containing a magnetized needle. Between the needle and the edge of the disk are engraved several concentric rings, each divided into sectors containing different sets of Chinese characters.
The relationship between this physical object and the music you hear on this album was inspired by a dream that Li Jianhong (guitar) had in June 2006. In his dream he came to a clearing in a dark forest which contained a huge lo pan, as big as a table. Convinced that the device could provide a way to summon UFOs, he lay down on the lo pan and began to rotate around the various symbols on the concentric rings. As he did so, a vast array of UFOs appeared above the forest. For Li Jianhong then, the lo pan represents a form of ancient knowledge that can be used to unlock the secrets of the universe. His collaborator in VagusNerve, VAVABOND (laptop), reads the lo pan in a slightly different way. For her, it is a device which can be used to discover a balance between the individual and the cosmos, by aligning personal energy with the cosmic. This idea of balance runs through the music as it pulses, shifts and resonates freely, seeking to create and then destroy structures of equilibrium.
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