BIKNEVA Even Stars Burn Out On Their Own (Big John) cd 12.98
Jeepers, we've an abundance of Bikneva for you! Two equally lovely cds, their self-titled debut from 2002 and this, their second slightly more outerspace sounding full length. Ultra lush, atmospheric keyboard-laden music that occasionally drifts into easy listenin' lounge territory. Not in a bad (i.e, cheesy) way though! Not at all. I've also seen Bikneva listed online under 'ambient' and 'new age"' but I can't really say that either of those tags fit. Each smooooth, languid track soothes in its own moody way that's often very reminiscent of Angelo Badalamenti's gorgeous work on the Twin Peaks soundtrack. You almost expect Julee Cruise to flutter in with her angelic vocals, but instead there's a gentlemanly chorus of ba-da-ba's in the track "I'm In I'm Walking". Very nice!
MPEG Stream: "Guncleaning"
MPEG Stream: "I'm In I'm Walking"

BIKNEVA s/t (Big John) cd 12.98
Jeepers, we've an abundance of Bikneva for you! Two equally lovely cds, their second full length called Even Stars Burn Out On Their Own and this, their self-titled debut from 2002. Ultra lush, atmospheric mostly keyboard-laden (organ and piano) music that occasionally drifts into easy listenin' lounge territory. Not in a bad (i.e, cheesy) way though! Not at all. I've also seen Bikneva listed online under 'ambient' and 'new age"' but I can't really say that either of those tags fit. Each smooooth, languid track soothes in its own moody way that's often very reminiscent of Angelo Badalamenti's gorgeous work on the Twin Peaks soundtrack. You almost expect Julee Cruise to flutter in with her angelic vocals, instead you get a gentlemanly chorus, some loudspeaker spoken word samples, maybe some gentle banjo and guitar as well as static-y crackles that sound like dust on your turntable needle. Very nice!
MPEG Stream: "Seed The Clouds"

BILL, JASON & JACK ROSE Via St. Louis (VHF) cd 13.98

BILLION DOLLAR BABIES Complete Battle Axe (NMC) 3cd 29.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A tasty three disc set from Billion Dollar Babies, the band comprised of three former Alice Cooper Band members who namd themselves after an Alice Cooper song and recorded just one album in 1977 -- Battle Axe. While disc one is the entire Battle Axe album presented for the first time on cd, and disc three is their first ever live show (Flint, Michigan 1977, totally fierce!), it is disc 2 that I keep coming back to. These are the original demos, and while there's lots of tape hiss and murky production on the demos, I really like their rough handhewn quality. Lots of cowbells, buttkicking hooks, fistpumping attitude, glam-via-Arizona wonderfulness. A very cool previously undiscovered hard rock gem.
RealAudio clip: "Shine Your Love"
RealAudio clip: "I Miss You (live)"

BILLY MAHONIE The Big Dig (Too Pure) cd 13.98
A band, not a guy. A British instrumental quartet, playing stuff roughly in the Mogwai/Tortoise realm (influenced by, and hyped as such, at least). They did a split single with AQ's UK-post-rock faves Rothko. We're fairly certain that if this was playing in the store and a fan of the aforementioned bands walked in, they'd be intrigued by Billy Mahonie. And as one of their song titles states: "We Accept American Dollars."

BIOMECHANICAL The Empires Of The Worlds (Earache) cd 14.98
Holy crap. This band is so completely mindblowing. Ultra technical, downtuned black thrash... power metal? An impossible mix of techgrindthrash a la Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan, Strapping Young Lad and the like, but with plenty of chugcrunchmosh as per Pantera, but most importantly, a huge heaping dose of classic melodic power metal: blazing leads and harmony solos like they were plucked straight from some Iron Maiden b-side, wailing and soaring eighties style Rob Halford like vocals, all plopped smack dab in the middle of a dense sludgy, churning whirpool of brutal pummeling technical thrash metal. Imagine your favorite eighties metal record, Avenger, Obsession, Omen, doesn't matter, now imagine that band going through one of those science fiction transformations, you know like where the dinky little robot is dragged down the conveyor belt, strapped down and then is suddenly awash in a blur of sparking machines, and molten metal, a hundred mechanical arms with all manner of alien tools welding and cutting, sparks spraying everywhere, flames and smoke, until the tiny robot emerges a hulking armored battle machine, all sharp edges and planet crushing firepower. That's basically Biomechanical. Imagine Iron Maiden or especially Queensryche (the singer sounds a hell of a lot like Geoff Tate) with a 21st century makeover. A blurred buzzy blast of totally brutal thrashmetal, technical and convoluted but super catchy. With those wailing vocals that at first sound so completely out of place, but immediately make Biomechanical so much more interesting than their grunting shrieking thrash metal brethren. Plus they smear the proceedings with all sorts of bizarre keyboards which gives the whole record a demented alien vibe. The metalheads around AQ have been rocking this nonstop since we first got it a few months back!
MPEG Stream: "Enemy Within"
MPEG Stream: "The Empires Of The Worlds"

BIOSPHERE Autour De La Lune (Touch) cd 15.98
This latest release from Norwegian sound artist Geir Jenssen is a much darker, and less rhythmic affair than past releases. Based on an early sixties' dramatisation of Jules Verne's De La Terre A La Lune, Jennsen has sampled bits of dialogue, sounds from the MIR space station, and assorted other atmospheric detritus, incorporating them into his original sounds, resulting in an expansive nine part, minimal soundscape, that is darker and creepier than the subject matter would suggest. The record starts off quite tranquil, dreamy and somnambulent, simple melodies smeared into washes of minimal shimmer, but the sound rapidly takes on a quite ominous hue, sinister and subtly nightmarish, with buzzing sinewaves and threatening rumbles. This ominous drone forms the basis of the entire record, occasionally shifting into fuzzy shortwave interference, mysterious transmissions from the ether, buried rhythms, and subtle variations on Biosphere's glacially shifting low end. This actually sounds like it would be perfect horror movie music, haunting and tense, pregnant with the possibility of the sustained minor key drones erupting into something much more terrifying. But the fact that it never does only makes it that much more effective.
MPEG Stream: "Rotation"
MPEG Stream: "Modifie"

BIOSPHERE Cirque (Touch) cd 15.98
Still embracing mid-90s ambient electronica, Biosphere fabricates sub-zero atmospheres out of digital swoops, complete with buried radio samples and exotic percussion. It ends up sounding not unlike the ambient realms for Muslimgauze, if the political agenda were based on the plight of the French (whatever that might be) rather than the Palestinians.

BIOSPHERE Dropsonde (Touch) cd 15.98
When this came out on vinyl a couple months back, we sort of let is slip by; but the cd is a different matter. It's probably not that the music is all that different (other than the obvious fact that the cd is almost 25 minutes longer than the LP), but Biosphere's ambient beatitudes work so much better through the extended / not-having-to-rise-from-the-couch format of a cd. Biosphere is the work of Norway's Gier Jenssen, who has been producing some mighty fine ambient based electronica for nearly 15 years. Dropsonde retains all of Biosphere's lovely ambient swaths, arctic lullabies, and hypno-dreamtime loopings, not too warm and not too cold. Just right! The one detour to this records is found in Jenssen's occasional splashes of skittering jazz percussion, rendering Dropsonde the Norwegian parallel to the noirish timbres that Amon Tobin had crafted on his brilliant Supermodified and Permutations albums. Unlike so much "ambient" music which disguises a lack of good ideas behind tasteful synth patches and sultry grooves, Biosphere has always stood out in the slightly misnamed genre (after all, how can ambient music have beats?), and Dropsonde is yet another feather in his cap.
MPEG Stream: "Birds Fly By Flapping Their Wings"
MPEG Stream: "Fall In Fall Out"

BIOSPHERE Shenzhou (Touch) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Most of the sensorially depressed semantics of the Chill-Out subculture that arose out of the rave scene had the pretense of such cutesy catch phrases as "I Think Therefore I Ambient." Ugh. The majority of the music that was championed within that early '90s Ambient scene has failed to age with any dignity or grace, instead fading away as mindless New Age drivel. Biosphere - the Ambient project of Norwegian Geir Jensen - has always been the exception to that rule, by never allowing his music to comfortably fall into the regions of aural wallpaper. His first two albums "Microgravity" and "Patashnik" would probably transcend their status as minor classics in their thoughtful recomibinations of Techno propulsion and Ambient utopianism, if it weren't for the ill-advised (though fashionable at the time) use of extra-terrestrial imagery. At the height of the Ambient-Techno phenomenon in 1995 or so, Levi's licensed a Biosphere track off of "Patashnik" for a jeans commercial, which had the same steroid-injected effect on Biosphere's sales as those of Spiritualized, Trio, and Nick Drake with their Volkswagen. Wisely, Jensen took the money and ran from commercial success. He has since declared his permanent base of operations to be Tromso, Norway - located some 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle - and has signed to the exceptional Touch label. Both decisions have resulted in a profound maturation of the Biosphere sound far away from the puerile Chill Out agendas.
"Shenzhou" is the third Biosphere record for Touch, and continues to describe aural environments that are at once decidedly Arctic, yet wholly inviting and warm. Jensen has drawn a very direct line on this album back to Impressionist composer Claude Debussy by basing this album on some very old vinyl recordings of various Debussy pieces. The surface noise crackle may parallel that of the recent Touch production from turntablist Philip Jeck, but "Shenzhou" doesn't extend the comparison beyond their similar source materials. This is distinctly a Biosphere album filled with synaesthetic driftings, subtle rhythmic pulsations, and hypnotic loopings, all culled from the muted instrumentation of those Debussy compositions. Biosphere has yet again succeeded in crafting an exceptionally poetic album that is as accessible as it is subtly expressive. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Ancient Campfire"
RealAudio clip: "Two Ocean Plateau"
RealAudio clip: "Fast Atoms Escape"

BIOSPHERE Substrata / Man With A Movie Camera (Touch) 2cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
After a few very nice ambient techno albums for the R&S sublabel Apollo, Biosphere released the purely ambient album "Substrata" in 1997 on All Saints. Now a member of the Touch Records roster, Biosphere has reissued that album as a double cd with the unreleased sountrack to "Man With A Movie Camera" originally commissioned for Biosphere's hometown Tromso International Film Festival in 1996. With its numerous references to Eno's "On Land," "Substrata" has often been hailed as one of the great ambient albums of the 1990s. Yet, "Man With A Movie Camera" is certainly the better of the two offerings, with reverb drenched smattering of gritty vocal samples and distant techno rhythms breaking through the deep 'n' dreamy wash of sound, at times sounding like a more approachable Zoviet France.
RealAudio clip: "Silent Orchestra"
RealAudio clip: "Endurium"

BIOSPHERE / DEATHPROD Nordheim Transformed (Rune Grammofon) cd 16.98
Using the recently reissued electro-acoustic masterpiece "Electric" by Arne Nordheim as the sole source material, Biosphere's and Deathprod's remixes are ice-laden, mesmerizing abstractions of sweeping electronic darkness.

BIOWIRE Disparation (Kindercore) cd 13.98
Pulsating electronic euro-pop from Sweden. Co-released by syrup-pop label Kindercore and light'n'fluffy electronic pop label Emperor Norton. The perfect place for this release to be. At times sounding very much like the soundtrack to Sega Saturn's Bomberman videogame. Soothing, swirling and sweet.

BIPOLAROID E(i)ther Or (Surreal But Kind) lp 14.98
It's been 4 years since we last heard from New Orleans' goofily monickered Bipolaroid. We went a little crazy for their acid drenched Pink Floyd worship. And we were actually wondering what happened to them not too long ago, when weirdly enough, we got a call from a lawyer who was representing Polaroid and were thinking about suing the band! Fortunately, it seems nothing came of that, especially since only a little later we got a brand new Bipolaroid album in the mail. And thankfully it takes up pretty much right where the last one left off. 
Tripped out sixties style psychedelia, woozy and warbly and weary and druggy, whirring organs, shimmery guitar strum, wild drumming, soaring arrangements, swirling space-y effects everywhere, vocals that are a dead ringer for Syd Barrett's, often doused in delay or weird "Hurdy Gurdy Man" style FX, but like on the first record, Bipolaroid take their love of Floyd and supercharge it, adding a heaping dose of Hawkwind in places, creating an awesome space rock / sixties drug rock hybrid. Some of the songs are slow and slithery and sexy, with fluttery flutes, moody piano, and drawled mournful vox, others, like the opener, are wild and rollicking with the vocals nearly buried under a psychrock blowout, the drums all over the place, strings soaring in the background, and everything soaked in fuzzy organ, sounding all Deep and way Purple. The rest hover somewhere right in between, slipping effortlessly from strummed folky meander to propulsive trippy space groove and right back again.
Any one into classic psychedelia and sixties prog will most likely dig this a lot. And Elephant 6 folks might get into this as well, since it shares much of the same retro aesthetic. The recording definitely sounds of the time, and even the songwriting would be tough to peg as modern, in fact, you could definitely pass this off as some reissued unearthed psych rarity. But none of that really matters, ultimately, this is just a killer tripped out psych pop record, and like the first one, we find ourselves going a little nuts and playing it over and over and over...
MPEG Stream: "Day In The Life Of A Raincloud"
MPEG Stream: "Transparent Make-Believe"
MPEG Stream: "Cucumbersome"

BIPOLAROID E(i)ther Or (Surreal But Kind) cd-r 9.98
It's been 4 years since we last heard from New Orleans' goofily monickered Bipolaroid. We went a little crazy for their acid drenched Pink Floyd worship. And we were actually wondering what happened to them not too long ago, when weirdly enough, we got a call from a lawyer who was representing Polaroid and were thinking about suing the band! Fortunately, it seems nothing came of that, especially since only a little later we got a brand new Bipolaroid album in the mail. And thankfully it takes up pretty much right where the last one left off. 
Tripped out sixties style psychedelia, woozy and warbly and weary and druggy, whirring organs, shimmery guitar strum, wild drumming, soaring arrangements, swirling space-y effects everywhere, vocals that are a dead ringer for Syd Barrett's, often doused in delay or weird "Hurdy Gurdy Man" style FX, but like on the first record, Bipolaroid take their love of Floyd and supercharge it, adding a heaping dose of Hawkwind in places, creating an awesome space rock / sixties drug rock hybrid. Some of the songs are slow and slithery and sexy, with fluttery flutes, moody piano, and drawled mournful vox, others, like the opener, are wild and rollicking with the vocals nearly buried under a psychrock blowout, the drums all over the place, strings soaring in the background, and everything soaked in fuzzy organ, sounding all Deep and way Purple. The rest hover somewhere right in between, slipping effortlessly from strummed folky meander to propulsive trippy space groove and right back again.
Any one into classic psychedelia and sixties prog will most likely dig this a lot. And Elephant 6 folks might get into this as well, since it shares much of the same retro aesthetic. The recording definitely sounds of the time, and even the songwriting would be tough to peg as modern, in fact, you could definitely pass this off as some reissued unearthed psych rarity. But none of that really matters, ultimately, this is just a killer tripped out psych pop record, and like the first one, we find ourselves going a little nuts and playing it over and over and over...
MPEG Stream: "Day In The Life Of A Raincloud"
MPEG Stream: "Transparent Make-Believe"
MPEG Stream: "Cucumbersome"

BIPOLAROID Transparent Make Believe (Surreal But Kind) cd 14.98
Holy Pink Floyd! New Orleans' Bipolaroid (ahem) are definitely channeling some serious Syd Barrett on the acid drenched Transparent Make Believe. In fact, everytime we've played this in the store, someone has come up and asked if it was in fact some strange lost Pink Floyd record. From the first track, a bizarre hybrid of the Beach Boys' In My Room and Pink Floyd's Astronomy Domine you know things are gonna get weird. The Floydisms abound, swirling psychedelic swoosh, drunken Barrett-ish vocals, loping drug addled waltzes. But mix in lots of strings, some serious spaced out heavy bits and you have a totally wicked heavy rock Floyd meets Hawkwind hybrid. The sound is so authentic you'd be hard pressed to convince someone this record wasn't recorded 30 years ago. But who cares. Definitely for fans of all things druggy and psychedelic. And why not tease your psych nerd know it all friends with this long lost psychedelic gem before you bring the hammer down and shatter their already fragile egos!
MPEG Stream: "Farewell And Godspeed"
MPEG Stream: "King Of Cabbages"

BIRCHVILLE CA T MOTEL s/t (Insample) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The debut album from this enigmatic New Zealand noise outfit who recently released an album for the great Drunken Fish label. Nauseating electronics, guitar noise, and cymbal crashing that comes off as an amalgamation between Solmania and Skullflower. Packaged somewhat annoyingly in an oversized 7" package and zip-lock bag.

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Astro Catastrophies (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) 3xcd-r 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The opening track on Astro Catastrophies, this brand new triple disc set from Birchville Cat Motel, finds BCM tackling the RIFF, the static drone and blurred soundscape of past releases converted into a sort of druggy stoner rock, a hypnotic metallic krautrock. Think some minimal blissed out version of Kyuss, Circle, Pharoah Overlord, Gore, and Skullflower at their riffiest. In fact the sound here is similar to the transformation Skullflower went through when they released Exquisite Fucking Boredom. Harnessing all that free noise into churning spaced out riffage.
"Sublime Prince Of The Royal Secret" begins like any other BCM record, drifting black clouds of low end churn, leaning toward the more overt heaviness of BCM offshoot Black Boned Angel, but then the drums drop, and the riff unfurls, a huge sun baked, blown out, glacial crush, looped and mesmerizing, repeated and robotic, the drums pounding, a gorgeously heavy and hypnotic dirge. In the background though is an epic expanse of grinding murk, and glistening shimmer, keening coruscating sheets of bassy rrrroooaaar, haunting chimes, and howling feedback, building until the riff and the rhythms are swallowed up completely.
The rest of disc one follows a similar pattern, long drawn out smears of processed guitar, dense and roiling, muddy percussion and downtuned melodies, that seems as if they might drift on and on forever, before once again, the rhythm and the riff kick in, on "Driving Golden Dopamine", it's some unlikely splatter of clapping, that gives way to a strange stuttering Spacemen Three like riff over a motorik drum machine rhythm, and on "Divinity Soldiers", the washed out high end ur-drone becomes a chugging Hawkwind style doper up outer space exploration, relentless and intense, once again wreathed in glistening, glimmering shimmers of sound.
The other two discs are just as heavy, and riffy and kick ass, each track subverting the riff, turning it into some blissed out BCM cloud of sound, but rocking in a way Birchville never really did before. Andee had been bugging Kneale to record a record next time he was in SF, with him playing BIG LOUD drums, thinking it would be an amazing combo, a crushing rhythm section sunk into a dense black hole of buzz and drone, and damn if this doesn't come pretty close.
From stuttering single notes peppering a shuffling rhythm, the whole thing processed into machinelike loops, to almost My Bloody Valentine style blown out metallic bliss pop, to almost choral sounding streaks of glimmering high end sparkles over blurred guitars and fluttering melodies, to super chaotic kitchen sink clatter demarcated by a blooping bleeping drum machine, to the truly bizarre "Hells Silver Titans", that begins as a glorious chime flecked drone, but suddenly erupts into straight up AC/DC riffage (so much so that we're still not entirely convince It's not just a sample, and actually, after more listens we're convinced it absolutely is, a single riff, the clicking hi-hat, chopped and looped into a simple, head nodding jam, like Philip Glass composing with classic rock riffs, and finally, "Damn Infinity Hairtie", which closes the set with a slab of buzzing black noise, going from grim funereal low end, to amp destroying FX drenched stun guitar psychnoise freakout.
As with all Celebrate Psi Phenomenon releases, packaged in that immediately recognizable wall paper sleeve, with three printed inserts, one for each disc...
MPEG Stream: "Sublime Prince Of The Royal Secret"
MPEG Stream: "Driving Golden Dopamine"
MPEG Stream: "Divinity Soldiers"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Beautiful Speck Triumph (Last Visible Dog) 2cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another release from the oh-so-prolific Campbell Kneale aka Birchville Cat Motel. And as much as we scoff occasionally at musicians who seem to release a record a week, Campbell's output has managed to remain relatively dud-free, even being one of the most prolific. The difference this time is it's a real cd, not a cd-r, and not just a cd, but a double cd! Exactly the way this sort of stuff was meant to be heard, stretched out forever with plenty of time to develop and expand, burn brightly and fade away. Two discs, six tracks, all but one twenty minutes plus. Drone nirvana my friends. A low rumbling drone that over the course of 30 minutes swells to a keening resonant whine with clicking and chirping (think crickets, pebbles, geiger counters) splattered throughout. Shakers, chimes, rattles, and bells manage to be clattery and distinct, but at the same time become a meditative and sonorous whole. Warm chords stretch langorously into the ether, while instrument crackle and amp buzz provide rhythmic support before spreading into a gauzy, indistinct raga. Chords and notes are smeared into a noir-ish cinematic blur-scape. A warm fuzzy expanse of late night swoosh, bookended by creaking springs and ambient clatter. A forty minute coda of clatter and croon and creak and crunch and click and calm. So goddamn good. Employing an unlikely arsenal of electric, acoustic and fake guitars, synth, cheap organ, recorder, clarinet, contact mics, wired turntables, violin, bells, baby rattles, firecrackers, piano, cymbals, melodica, steel pot lid, drums, space phone, tape loops and floorboards, Kneale may have sealed BCM's fate with an all but unbeatably perfect two plus hours of divine Ur-drone.
MPEG Stream: "White Ground Elder"
MPEG Stream: "Trembling Forest Spires"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Bird Sister Blasphemy (Battlecruiser / Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 14.98
Bird Sister Blasphemy is the most recent release on Battlecruiser, the outsider metal sublabel of the mighty Celebrate Psi Phenomenon which in the past has birthed such hellish AQ faves as Black Boned Angel, Mirag, Mrtyu, Wardagger, Wings Of Vengeance, Wolfskull, You Should Have Slain Me, Ghoul, Ming, Cicadashrine and The Cops among others. This is the first time a Birchville disc has found its way onto Battlecruiser, but once you hear it you'll understand why. A sort of a dark side addendum to the also just released (and reviewed elsewhere on this list) full length Birds Call Home Their Dead. Four songs, twenty six minutes, a no brainer if you're a BCM fan obviously, and especially if you just bought Birds Call Home Their Dead. The first track begins a dark meandering drone before the band launches into what sounds remarkably like a blown out version of the intro to Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher", and the song just sort of locks into step right there, turning that sort-of-intro, into a looped free-rock space jam, relentless drum pound, swirling clouds of freaked out FX, throbbing rumbling bass, and squiggly guitars and synths all over the place. The second track is like the harshest buzziest black metal record, made somehow even more harsh and buzzy, a relentless blast of blown out white noise fury, with some semblance of rock, buried way way way way down in the mix. Track three is some sort of tribal ur-drone free-skree raga workout, with layers of buzz and drone, what sounds like guitars and bagpipes and clouds of feedback and amp buzz and thick swells of screech and shimmer, all underpinned by a relentless drum corps krautrock rhythm jam. The title track finishes things off, and manages to take all the sounds from the first three songs and blow them to smithereens, whatever color comes after red as in "in-the-red", that's where this track is, pegged WAY beyond the red, a wall of vacuum cleaner guitar and squealing horn skree and some wild tribal drumming, relentless and circular, threatening to shred ear drums and speakers, before drifting off in a soft swirl coda of chants and mumbled percussive flutter. Phew. Maybe not as metallic as many  of the Battlecruiser releases, but in no way is this the softest or the easiest on the ears. Fierce and furious and dense and harsh, but as with most BCM stuff with plenty of melody lurking within the chaos. 
Bird Sister Blasphemy definitely holds up on its own, and is as good as anything in the series, but once you dive in, it's easy to hear the sonic connection to its Birds Call Home Their Dead big brother, and it's equally easy to see that you probably need both!
MPEG Stream: "Powder Slave"
MPEG Stream: "Tonal Fire Antichrist"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Birds Call Home Their Dead (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest blast of brutal beauty from the Kiwi king of soft noise, Campbell Kneale, aka Birchville Cat Motel. Birds Call Home Their Dead is a three track epic, packaged in new ultra fancy packaging (more on that in a sec) and as always as lovely and dreamy as it is harsh and heavy. The opener, the title track, is nearly a half hour, beginning with layers of slowly shifting keyboard swells, little clouds of glitch and buzz, and a slowly developing krautrock beat. The keyboards sound like some damaged loop, yanked out of "Baba O'Reilley" and turned inside out, allowed to shimmer and shake, and to eventually erupt into a thick coruscating wash of jagged buzz and swirling noise. The drums remain an incessant pulse, like a Can rhythm track dropped into a Dead C b-side, and everything run through Kneale's magical bank of special FX. Like a supercharged outerspace noiserock Godspeed or something, that builds and builds and builds until the whole thing explodes into a full on in the red space rock free jam, like Monster Magnet, Hawkwind, F/i, Mugstar, the Telescopes, Circle and the Heads all jamming simultaneously. A dense cloud of FX, psych guitar, clouds of swirl and shimmer, streaks of feedback, walls of amp buzz and high end skree, all hovering over that unstoppable motorik beat. Eventually, the guitars drift off leaving just some strange random clattery and the sound of birds and insects and nature. 
The second track is a brief burst of gorgeously languid high end shimmer, layers of guitar and tangled melodies as well as deep reverberant swells all woven into a swaying static sound field of notes beating against one another amidst a dreamlike raga drift. A pretty killer one two punch. 
And as if that wasn't enough, for those of you who snoozed and losed on the recent ridiculously limited tour only cd-r Her Anger Is Limitless, well, you're in luck, cuz that whole disc is tacked on here as track number three. A single half hour track, created out of what sounds like manipulate samples of voices, is transformed into a massive glistening technicolor shower of sound. You know how when it's crazy hot, kids open up the hydrants and just run around in the street as tons of cool water rains down on them. Imagine a similar situation, except when the hydrant is cracked, out comes thick torrents of billowy fuzz and grinding whir, all sparkling and dense and warm and thick, and you just close your eyes and let the sounds wash over you and fill your ears. It sounds like a million guitars, and guys outside cutting down trees and tossing them in the wood chipper and some sort of futuristic synth battle and thousands of little bells and chimes and a roomful of amps turned on and buzzing with no instruments plugged into them, all smeared into one gorgeous glimmering sonic deluge.
As always, so absolutely amazing. And as we mentioned before, this is the first release in the swank new Celebrate Psi packaging, a full color, eight paneled digipak style sleeve, the outside retaining the CPsiP wallpaper motif, but the inside offering all sorts of gorgeous photos and some minimal liner notes, with the cd affixed to a little foam nub on one of the panels. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Birds Call Home Their Dead (excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: "Her Anger Is Limitless (excerpt)"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Blankangelspace (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We at AQ have long been fans of Campbell Kneale and his project Birchville Cat Motel who along with the Dead C, Omit, Gate and a handful of others have helped to define one of the richest free-rock-noise-drone scenes in the world. For years Kneale has been releasing cds, lps and cassettes (most of them quite limited) of noisy electronic soundscapes and gorgeous organic drones. So when we discovered Kneale also ran a label, we figured it was definitely worth checking out. And how right we were. Not only is all of the music on Celebrate Psi Phenomena amazing, but the packaging is perfectly and stunningly designed as well (quite nice considering this is a cd-r label. See our crappy cd-r packaging rants in the last three or four lists) with each cd in a plastic sleeve nestled between two sheets of old fashioned textured wallpaper, printed, and sealed with a gold star.
Two extended tracks from label overlord and sole member of the very prolific Birchville Cat Motel. The first track is 20 minutes of growling modulated wheeze, thick and low and rumbling, with subtly shifting melodies suspended jsut below the surface. Over the course of the track, the sound gets more urgent and more aggressive with swooping upper register scrapes and wails. Track two is an epic at 40 minutes. A primal drone built from instrument buzz, that beats and slowly shifts as the tones overlap and intermingle. This minimal hum and whirr builds in intensity until the low end threatens to shake your stereo from its now-precarious perch. Melodies crystallize from the cosmic slop, becoming a lush and spaced out epic drone ala Taj Mahal Travellers, with sparse (very occasional) percussion and keening high end explorations. Totally mesmerising.
RealAudio clip: "Blankangelspace 1"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Chaos Steel Skeletons: One (Celebrate Psi Phenomena) 2cd-r 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Long in the works 'career retrospective' from one man free noise avant rock doom drone wrecking crew Campbell Kneale and his long running Birchville Cat Motel. Six discs, spanning the life of BCM, unreleased tracks, rarities, long out of print lathe cuts, lps and cassettes, a mighty impressive and awe inspiring overview of a project that as far as we're concerned has yet to release a bad record. Which is sort of mind blowing considering the sheer volume of material Kneale has released over the last however many years.
So Chaos Steel Skeletons is definitely essential for all of you BCM fanatics. No matter how on the ball you were, how much of a constant eBay lurker you've been, there's no way in hell anyone, except the man himself, has all of these tracks. And the crazy thing is, this six disc set, is just a -selection- of tracks, a true comprehensive retrospective would have required some sort of box set of Merzboxian proportions. Not that we would have complained, in fact, just like most of you, we wouldn't hesitate to sign up for a 50 cd Birchbox RIGHT NOW. Just say the word.
For BCM newbies, we would probably recommend Chi Vampires or Our Love Will Destroy The World, as Chaos Steel Skeletons might be a bit much, or a bit expensive, but hell, it's all fucking great, and the more we think about it, the more we realize that maybe there might not be any better place to start that a 6cd set. But now those unfamiliar with the Birch are probably wondering, okay then, but what the hell does it sound like? Well, as stated above, Birchville hovers in some amorphous musical area we'd have to label 'free noise avant rock doom drone' or something like that. Imagine Sunroof! and the Dead C and Reynols and Hototogisu and Vibracathedral Orchestra and SUNNO))) and Wolf Eyes and the disparate sound worlds each inhabits, now imagine one little man who can flit effortlessly between them all, going from grinding chaos to soothing drone in the blink of an eye. From huge buzzy fuzzed out ragas to grinding downtuned pummel to blissy ambience to plinkplonk and clattery mayhem to shrieking high end skree and everything in between. The stuff on these discs tends toward the noisy (there's even a sort of Sabbath cover on volume three) as these are what might be referred to as 'the early years', but even at his noisiest, Kneale manages to sneak in some wondrous melody or soothing sound, even if it does often get totally obliterated moments later. You can by these double discs separately, but c'mon, you're not fooling anybody, buying two discs of a six disc set is sort of like petting half a kitten, or playing half a guitar, or watching half a movie, it just isn't right!!!
As always, SUPER LIMITED, handsomely packaged in cool wallpaper sleeves, and each disc comes with liner notes about each song, not always entirely informative, but usually pretty darn funny!
VERY RECOMMENDED!!!
MPEG Stream: "White Alpha Matte"
MPEG Stream: "Dog Pus Halo"
MPEG Stream: "Trinity High Water Mark 2"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Chaos Steel Skeletons: Three (Celebrate Psi Phenomena) 2cd-r 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Long in the works 'career retrospective' from one man free noise avant rock doom drone wrecking crew Campbell Kneale and his long running Birchville Cat Motel. Six discs, spanning the life of BCM, unreleased tracks, rarities, long out of print lathe cuts, lps and cassettes, a mighty impressive and awe inspiring overview of a project that as far as we're concerned has yet to release a bad record. Which is sort of mind blowing considering the sheer volume of material Kneale has released over the last however many years.
So Chaos Steel Skeletons is definitely essential for all of you BCM fanatics. No matter how on the ball you were, how much of a constant eBay lurker you've been, there's no way in hell anyone, except the man himself, has all of these tracks. And the crazy thing is, this six disc set, is just a -selection- of tracks, a true comprehensive retrospective would have required some sort of box set of Merzboxian proportions. Not that we would have complained, in fact, just like most of you, we wouldn't hesitate to sign up for a 50 cd Birchbox RIGHT NOW. Just say the word.
For BCM newbies, we would probably recommend Chi Vampires or Our Love Will Destroy The World, as Chaos Steel Skeletons might be a bit much, or a bit expensive, but hell, it's all fucking great, and the more we think about it, the more we realize that maybe there might not be any better place to start that a 6cd set. But now those unfamiliar with the Birch are probably wondering, okay then, but what the hell does it sound like? Well, as stated above, Birchville hovers in some amorphous musical area we'd have to label 'free noise avant rock doom drone' or something like that. Imagine Sunroof! and the Dead C and Reynols and Hototogisu and Vibracathedral Orchestra and SUNNO))) and Wolf Eyes and the disparate sound worlds each inhabits, now imagine one little man who can flit effortlessly between them all, going from grinding chaos to soothing drone in the blink of an eye. From huge buzzy fuzzed out ragas to grinding downtuned pummel to blissy ambience to plinkplonk and clattery mayhem to shrieking high end skree and everything in between. The stuff on these discs tends toward the noisy (there's even a sort of Sabbath cover on volume three) as these are what might be referred to as 'the early years', but even at his noisiest, Kneale manages to sneak in some wondrous melody or soothing sound, even if it does often get totally obliterated moments later. You can by these double discs separately, but c'mon, you're not fooling anybody, buying two discs of a six disc set is sort of like petting half a kitten, or playing half a guitar, or watching half a movie; it just isn't right!!!
As always, SUPER LIMITED, handsomely packaged in cool wallpaper sleeves, and each disc comes with liner notes about each song, not always entirely informative, but usually pretty darn funny!
VERY RECOMMENDED!!!
MPEG Stream: "Chinese Automotive Dimantler"
MPEG Stream: "Mercury Vapour Lamp"
MPEG Stream: "Tinfoilteeth"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Chaos Steel Skeletons: Two (Celebrate Psi Phenomena) 2cd-r 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Long in the works 'career retrospective' from one man free noise avant rock doom drone wrecking crew Campbell Kneale and his long running Birchville Cat Motel. Six discs, spanning the life of BCM, unreleased tracks, rarities, long out of print lathe cuts, lps and cassettes, a mighty impressive and awe inspiring overview of a project that as far as we're concerned has yet to release a bad record. Which is sort of mind blowing considering the sheer volume of material Kneale has released over the last however many years.
So Chaos Steel Skeletons is definitely essential for all of you BCM fanatics. No matter how on the ball you were, how much of a constant eBay lurker you've been, there's no way in hell anyone, except the man himself, has all of these tracks. And the crazy thing is, this six disc set, is just a -selection- of tracks, a true comprehensive retrospective would have required some sort of box set of Merzboxian proportions. Not that we would have complained, in fact, just like most of you, we wouldn't hesitate to sign up for a 50 cd Birchbox RIGHT NOW. Just say the word.
For BCM newbies, we would probably recommend Chi Vampires or Our Love Will Destroy The World, as Chaos Steel Skeletons might be a bit much, or a bit expensive, but hell, it's all fucking great, and the more we think about it, the more we realize that maybe there might not be any better place to start that a 6cd set. But now those unfamiliar with the Birch are probably wondering, okay then, but what the hell does it sound like? Well, as stated above, Birchville hovers in some amorphous musical area we'd have to label 'free noise avant rock doom drone' or something like that. Imagine Sunroof! and the Dead C and Reynols and Hototogisu and Vibracathedral Orchestra and SUNNO))) and Wolf Eyes and the disparate sound worlds each inhabits, now imagine one little man who can flit effortlessly between them all, going from grinding chaos to soothing drone in the blink of an eye. From huge buzzy fuzzed out ragas to grinding downtuned pummel to blissy ambience to plinkplonk and clattery mayhem to shrieking high end skree and everything in between. The stuff on these discs tends toward the noisy (there's even a sort of Sabbath cover on volume three) as these are what might be referred to as 'the early years', but even at his noisiest, Kneale manages to sneak in some wondrous melody or soothing sound, even if it does often get totally obliterated moments later. You can by these double discs separately, but c'mon, you're not fooling anybody, buying two discs of a six disc set is sort of like petting half a kitten, or playing half a guitar, or watching half a movie, it just isn't right!!!
As always, SUPER LIMITED, handsomely packaged in cool wallpaper sleeves, and each disc comes with liner notes about each song, not always entirely informative, but usually pretty darn funny!
VERY RECOMMENDED!!!
MPEG Stream: "Beekeeper"
MPEG Stream: "Airlike MetalWeb"
MPEG Stream: "The Immaculate Perfume Of Freshly Sawn Timber"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Chi Vampires (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This all time aQ fave back in stock!
The thing with Campbell Kneale's Birchville Cat Motel, is everything he puts out is great. Really. There are very few bands we can say that about. And even fewer who have such a ridiculously extensive catalog of releases. So what is it that makes one record worthy of Record of the Week status? Well, to be quite honest, almost any of the BCM records -could- be a record of the week, but every once in a while, BCM offer up something -really- special. And as much as we totally love all things Birchville and love to immerse ourselves in their (actually, his) blissed out ambient drone ragas, we can't help but love the fact that lately, BCM mainman (only man?) Campbell Kneale has developed a thing for metal, even proudly wearing a Darkthrone T on his recent US tour. Better late than never we say. The first evidence of this new found metallic leaning, was the launching of a new label (Kneale owns and operates the Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label) called Battlecruiser, a series of limited 3" cd-r's chronicling a weird sect of underground metal, mostly made by NZ noise / drone guys who had also caught the metal bug (two new Battlecruiser releases get reviewed elsewhere on this list). One of the first Battlecruiser releases was by an outfit called Black Boned Angel, which just so happened to BE Campbell Kneale, and was a massive pummelling sludgy black hole of SUNN-like dirge metal. Recently re-released on cd and reviewed again on the AQ list, everyone here could not get enough of Kneale's weird drifting almost ambient take on blackened metal. Fans of Earth and SUNN and all that sort of slow motion doom definitely found a new band to love. Little did we expect that Kneale's metal would leak on over into his main project, but it has, and we couldn't be happier. The first three tracks on Chi Vampires are classic BCM, gorgeous ambient prog, like a blissed-out take on Goblin's creepiest horror film interludes, with slowly drifting swaths of thick warm sonic swirl, sun dappled and dreamily indistinct, but also slightly ominous. Completely epic and the sort of music that either rocks you to sleep, or puts you in a trance, sending you on a trip through your inner senses, dizzying and mesmerizing. Those tracks alone could have had us pushing for a BCM record of the week, at last. But then the final track "Chi Vampires" hits, and it hits hard. Huge guitar riffs, not processed guitar drones, but ACTUAL RIFFS, bulldoze and crush all in their path, massive and intense, ultra low, and ultra heavy, with haunting heavily reverbed chanting offering the only counterpoint. This is like SUNNO))), but sped up to say 18 or 19 rpm, and with actual melodies, and the chanting, so creepy, like a drone metal ritual being performed at the bottom of a massive cavern, riffs filling the room with thick low end, making it hard to breathe, hard to see, the chanting distracting you only enough to maybe worry about escaping with your life, making it to the surface without being sucked into the blackness. The riffs eventually drift off, as the mysterious makers of these sounds trudge slowly back to the center of the earth, chanting as they go, the reverb of the cave turning the chants into indistinct vocal blurs, until they too fade into blackness, and you're left dazed, unable to move, staring into the void. So intense and haunting and heavy and utterly amazing!
MPEG Stream: "Blonde Moth Burial"
MPEG Stream: "Chi Vampires"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Copenhagen (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A single track, recorded live during Birchville Cat Motel's last European tour, in January, at a place called The Church in Copenhagen, Denmark. Things start off with what sounds like someone sliding the pews (if it is indeed a real church) over the rough stone floor, before those sounds are joined by tinlking, chiming clatter and a distant whir of compressed melody that slowly and subtly shifts and shimmers, hums and glistens, turning the jarring opening into dreamy, sleepy droning warmth.
MPEG Stream: "Copenhagen"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Creeping Frost Onset (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We at AQ have long been fans of Campbell Kneale and his project Birchville Cat Motel who along with the Dead C, Omit, Gate and a handful of others have helped to define one of the richest free-rock-noise-drone scenes in the world. For years Kneale has been releasing cds, lps and cassettes (most of them quite limited) of noisy electronic soundscapes and gorgeous organic drones. So when we discovered Kneale also ran a label, we figured it was definitely worth checking out. And how right we were. Not only is all of the music on Celebrate Psi Phenomena amazing, but the packaging is perfectly and stunningly designed as well (quite nice considering this is a cd-r label. See our crappy cd-r packaging rants in the last three or four lists) with each cd in a plastic sleeve nestled between two sheets of old fashioned textured wallpaper, printed, and sealed with a gold star.
Another slab of prime drone from CPP main man Campbell Kneale, this time enlisting the help of two Kneale family members and utilising oscillators, turntables, clarinet, violin, motorized acoustic guitar, bowed roof (!) and various toy instruments. Starting with a dog whistle range sine wave that wavers and flutters on its way to your eardrum, it's soon joined by complementary (but no less piercing) harmonics as well as a barely audible low end pulse. You gotta be patient with this one. After about ten minutes, the high end shimmer becomes the foundation for a cacophony of clang and strum and feedback and clatter eventually breaking down into what sounds like a primitive preschool free jazz jam session. Toy pianos, caveman percussion, with spurts of beeping and squeaking and lots of noodling that eventually works its way back up to a shrieking, skronky free jazz drone ending in a meditative jazzy free rock shimmer...Nice.
RealAudio clip: "Creeping Frost Onset"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Crop Circle Empires (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We at AQ have long been fans of Campbell Kneale and his project Birchville Cat Motel who along with the Dead C, Omit, Gate and a handful of others have helped to define one of the richest free-rock-noise-drone scenes in the world. For years Kneale has been releasing cds, lps and cassettes (most of them quite limited) of noisy electronic soundscapes and gorgeous organic drones. So when we discovered Kneale also ran a label, we figured it was definitely worth checking out. And how right we were. Not only is all of the music on Celebrate Psi Phenomena amazing, but the packaging is perfectly and stunningly designed as well (quite nice considering this is a cd-r label. See our crappy cd-r packaging rants in the last three or four lists) with each cd in a plastic sleeve nestled between two sheets of old fashioned textured wallpaper, printed, and sealed with a gold star.
Birchville mainman (only man) and CPP head honcho releases another gem. One 40 minute, delicate and crystalline drone. Quiet and slowly shifiting, like the sound of ice melting or a black hole forming or both. So gorgeous.
RealAudio clip: "Crop Circle Empires"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Curved Surface Destroyer (Last Visible Dog) 3cd 19.98
At first we figured this massive triple cd was a collection of long out of print cassettes and cd-r's, which in a way it sort of is. In fact this three disc set is a collection of live performances, recorded all over the world, featuring different live versions of many classic BCM recordings, tracing the development of Campbell Kneale's Birchville Cat Motel, and the growth of BCM's sound from swirling found sound ambience to more aggressive free noise exploration (dipping his toes into the metal that would come to define his project Black Boned Angel).
The first disc features two tracks, both near 30 minutes, recorded in 1998 and 2000 in New Zealand. The first is a soft shifting shimmering soundscape of gentle whirs and distant percussive actions. Quite dreamy and tranquil. The second features a lot more buzz, a sort of extended raga, tones are stretched out into thick layers of sound, one atop the other, a hypnotic meditative dronescape of bombinating strings and glistening high end tones.
The second disc jumps ahead to 2001 and 2003, for two shows one recorded in a temple in Japan the other in Denmark. The Japanese show is a half hour of distant drones, behind ambient recordings of rain and wind, the music building and building until the drones sound almost like a rainstorm themselves. Very reminiscent of the sadly now out of print Kougezan Koukiji record, also performed live in a temple during a rainstorm. The Danish show clocks in at 40 minutes and is another abstract exploration, starting out very spare, with plenty of random clatter and found sound detritus, but eventually building into a thick heady drone before eventually breaking down into strange buzzes and reverbed whirs.
The third disc features two tracks from quite recently, one from last year, one from earlier this year. The first recorded in Scotland, is incredibly lush, a soft buzzing drone grows in intensity until it is a massive wall of vibrating strings, layers of thick whir and rumbling low end, near the end, in comes a killer drum and metal guitar riff, that sounds strangely like a loop pulled from "Number Of The Beast" but could, we suppose be the guys actually rocking out. Either way, it makes for an amazingly epic jam, this instantly recognizable metal snippet, repeated over and over beneath an ocean of glistening sonic shimmer. The final track, recorded in Japan, earlier this year, finds Kneale returning to his ambient roots, a soft shimmering soundworld, swirls of vibrating metal, loops of subtle sound smeared into silvery streaks, lots of metallic reverberation, somehow harnessed into a dark dolorous drift. So goddamn lovely.
Essential for ALL Birchville fans. Even if you have some of these tracks on a cd-r or cassette, these versions are distinctly different so you'll probably want them anyway. And for BCM newbies, this would make for a darn fine introduction (the price is right too for a triple cd!). Six breathtakingly gorgeous longform free drone epics, it doesn't get much better than this.
Once again, packaged in one of those now ubiquitous three-pocket plastic sleeves that's nice and slim but more or less ensures that all the discs will wind up with some minor cosmetic scratches on their playing surfaces.
MPEG Stream: "Reversing Spiral Galaxies"
MPEG Stream: "Fairy Teeth"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Four Freckle Constellation (Conspiracy) lp 30.00
Another new record from AQ's patron saint of buzz and drone and epic soundscapery, New Zealand's Mr. Campbell Kneale, aka Birchville Cat Motel. Every new BCM record is full of new sonic directions, new discoveries, Kneale deftly managing to forge ahead musically, while somehow infusing whatever it is he's doing with a distinct Birchville sound, that while difficult to describe, is not at all difficult to hear.
This lp only release comes from Belgium's Conspiracy records, hence the hefty price tag, but like all BCM records it's well worth it.
This one starts out with a bang. Or rather a grinding dirgey rrrrooooar. Sounding more and more like a full band, right out of the gate Kneale is spewing an avalanche of super chaotic and noisy doooooom, squalls of distortion, sheets of feedback, pounding drums, a seriously brutal chunk of heaviness, but that eventually gives way to a drones out bagpipe jam (an electric bagpipe, part of Kneale's unique sonic arsenal), sounding almost like a heavier more epic Amps For Christ. Drone-y and raga-like, the long drawn out upper register tones eventually bliss out into a whirring tranquil outro laced with deep soft swells and dreamlike whirs.
The flipside begins with tangle of thick buzz and streaks of rumbling low end, underpinning a garbled downtuned angular melody, strangely and sort of impossibly noisy and pretty simultaneously. The track lurches into full forward motion, as if we were in for another doomic dirge, but instead, the track transforms into a glistening bliss out, all sputtery percussion and twinkling high end, eventually finishing off in the same manner as side A, but here the outro is a bit more intense, the tranquility disrupted by muted shards of atonal chaos, finally drifting off to silence.
LIMITED TO 350 COPIES!!! With super intense four panel, fold out, full color cover, with artwork by Seldon Hunt.

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Gunpowder Temple Of Heaven (Pica Disk) cd 14.98
Noisemaker Lasse Marhaug's Pica Disk label offers us three brand new blasts of delightful noisiness. Two discs of SERIOUS noise from Incapacitants and Hijokaidan, and this one of softer prettier noise, from long time aQ favorite Campbell Kneale, aka Birchville Cat Motel.
And even by BCM standards, Gunpowder Temple of Heaven is pretty pretty noise. One long meditative ur-drone, shimmering, glistening layers of reverberating sound, like Spacemen 3 played Phill Niblock. The sort of dense dronemusic, that becomes alive when listened to closely. The various sounds sprawling and twisting, changing shapes, timbres shifting, overtones beating, subtle rhythms, ghostly melodies, all this going on just below the surface. The surface being long thick, rich tones, each drifting subtly, tonal colors gradually changing.
What begins as soft and shimmery, soon builds to something more gritty and dense, glistening sonic flares smeared into roiling swirls of blinding sound. Eventually, the rough edges are worn away, and the tone becomes more and more pure, smoother and more rich, the sound of organs, and lilting melodies surfacing, the sounds gentler, their interactions with each other more complimentary, soothing, dreamlike, mesmerizing, various notes and tones gradually sloughing off, leaving less and less sound, the drone becoming more fine, more simple, until finally, a single note wavers and then blinks out. Divine!
Super deluxe gorgeous packaging. Gatefold digipak, with thick velvet backing for the cd, and a booklet with an awesome BCM essay from the Dead C's Bruce Russell.
MPEG Stream: "Gunpowder Temple Of Heaven (excerpt)"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Her Anger Is Limitless (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We won't go into to much detail with this one, other than to say, boy are we lucky. This is a tour only cd-r release, available exclusively on BCM's 2006/7 European tour, and thankfully, since most of us couldn't make it to any of those shows, Mr. Campbell Kneale, aka Birchville Cat Motel, stashed us a whole half of the pressing! That's right, 25 of the 50 are here, and if those numbers don't make it obvious, these will be gone before you know it. And as if we even need to tell you, it's a killer. So act fast if you want one of these.
A single half hour track, created out of what sounds like manipulate samples of voices, is transformed into a massive glistening technicolor shower of sound. You know how when it's crazy hot, kids open up the hydrants and just run around in the street as tons of cool water rains down on them. Imagine a similar situation, except when the hydrant is cracked, out comes thick torrents of billowy fuzz and grinding whir, all sparkling and dense and warm and thick, and you just close your eyes and let the sounds wash over you and fill your ears. It sounds like a million guitars, and guys outside cutting down trees and tossing them in the wood chipper and some sort of futuristic synth battle and thousands of little bells and chimes and a roomful of amps turned on and buzzing with no instruments plugged into them, all smeared into one gorgeous glimmering sonic deluge. So good. And again, 25 copies and then they are gone. For good.
Packaged in the classic, CPsiP wall paper sleeve with brown and black liner note insert.
MPEG Stream: "Her Anger Is Limitless (excerpt)"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Home (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's really amazing how I never get tired of this BCM stuff. I think a lot of that is due to the fact that all of these records are completely different, and while the differences are subtle, you are rewarded for active listening, digging deep into the layers of sound and focusing on different patterns and rhythms, different sounds and instruments. Campbell Kneale, like Matthew Bower before him, seems to have a direct line to the primordial drone, able to summon it at a moments notice, and then channel it through all sorts of strange instrumentation. 'Home' is definitely UR-DRONE of the highest order, a very Eastern tinged raga, with plucked and bowed strings, subtle feedback and barely-there percussion woven into a seamless tapestry of head expanding sound.
RealAudio clip: "Home (excerpt)"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Jewelled Wings (Freedom Form) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another under the bed find from Campbell Kneale. We should get this guy to clean house more often. Not only did he unearth a handful of the long out of print debut Birchville Cat Motel cd on Insample (see elsewhere on this list) he also managed to scrape up the last 20 of these EVER. Released way back at the beginning of this century, Jewelled Wings was lp only, and features an all acoustic, no overdubs, no effects Birchville Cat Motel. You might be thinking BCM Unplugged or something, but even sans electronics, Kneale can kick up a serious fuss. A dense swirl of Dead C style free rock clatter with chimes and bells and various percussive bits all mixed into the thick sonic stew that is the BCM wall of droning sound, each and every bit constructed from an unusual array of non instruments, household implements, bits of this, some of that. You can almost imagine Kneale spending weeks placing microphones all over his house, in the garage, the bathroom, the office, outside on the roof, by the kids' swingset, in the shower, all over the kitchen, and then just going apeshit and essentially playing his whole house. And we're pretty sure that's not all that far off the mark.
LONG OUT OF PRINT. ROUTINELY SELLS FOR WAY TOO MUCH ON eBAY!!! We have 20 copies and then they are gone for good. And try to be a sport and not buy these to just re-sell on eBay. Let folks who actually enjoy listening to music give these lps nice homes! One per customer, naturally.

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Long Vanished Spirals (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We at AQ have long been fans of Campbell Kneale and his project Birchville Cat Motel who along with the Dead C, Omit, Gate and a handful of others have helped to define one of the richest free-rock-noise-drone scenes in the world. For years Kneale has been releasing cds, lps and cassettes (most of them quite limited) of noisy electronic soundscapes and gorgeous organic drones. So when we discovered Kneale also ran a label, we figured it was definitely worth checking out. And how right we were. Not only is all of the music on Celebrate Psi Phenomena amazing, but the packaging is perfectly and stunningly designed as well (quite nice considering this is a cd-r label. See our crappy cd-r packaging rants in the last three or four lists) with each cd in a plastic sleeve nestled between two sheets of old fashioned textured wallpaper, printed, and sealed with a gold star.
This is a compilation of the a-sides of most of Birchville's super limited lathe cut singles. From roaring blasts of distorted guitar, buzzing and squealing to gentle bowed Middle Eastern melodies to shimmering blissed out dronescapes to crackling clatter and clang, rattle and scrape to speaker melting almost-power-electronics. An awesome compilation of Kneale's many different sonic personalities.
RealAudio clip: "Long Vanished Spirals"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Mighty Spine Catcher (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is a collection of random recordings from 200-2002, but even as a collection of outtakes and leftovers, it functions quite nicely as a proper record, or even as an excellent introduction to the mighty (and mighty prolific) Birchville Cat Motel. This is that sublime NZ drone, with occasional bursts of dog whistle skree and cascading feedback. Lush and rich and dreamy. Fans of Sunrrof!, Total, Vibracathedral Orchestra and drone in general should really, if they haven't already, invest in a serious BCM collection!
RealAudio clip: "These Darkening Orbits"
RealAudio clip: "Mighty Spine Catcher"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Our Love Will Destroy The World (Pseudo Arcana) cd 14.98
There was a time when Campbell Kneale and his Birchville Cat Motel were all about the drone. Channelling classic minimalists and modern skree merchants, offering up drifting droning soundscapes, tranquil and freeeeee. But then something happened. Not sure if it was some sort of regression to his teenage years, or hanging with the wrong crowd, but suddenly Kneale started becoming mildly obsessed with metal. And the sound of BCM began to reflect that. The drones were still in place, but now they were constructed from screaming guitars and huge slabs of ultra distorted slow motion riffs. This new direction, which would later result in the formation of post-BCM outfit Black Boned Angel, first surfaced on the appropriately titled Screamformelongbeach which we originally referred to as BCM's quote unquote rock record, and whose cover art featured a Campbell-Kneale-as-rock-god-in-action blurred photo. Our Love Will Destroy The World is actually a reissue of Screamformelongbeach with almost a half hour of extra music from the same time period. Here's what we had to say about Screamformelongbeach when we first had it:
While this is certainly BCM's most rock record to date, it's be no means -that- sort of rock record. A groovy seventies rock riff gets looped and repeated FOREVER, while Kneale sprays grinding skree, viscous fuzz and squealing feedback all over. Before a strange purposeful stadium rock drum beat emerges from the chaos, and the sonic deluge eventually abates, skipping and skittering into a spare and abstract rhythmscape. Very reminiscent of the most recent Skullflower, whose Sabbath-hypno-Hawkwind-mantra turned 'the riff' into psychotropic drone rock nirvana.
The bonus tracks pretty much follow the same sort of course, some riff is blown out and buried in sheets of corrosive feedback and sludge guitars, drums are buried and nearly swallowed whole by the din. A beautifully pumelling guitar on fire to the face! Essential for fans of the last few Skullflower records, the last Vibracathedral Orchestra, as well as stuff like SUNNO))), Boris and the like, although BCM on this recording at least is less slow and low and more high and dry!
MPEG Stream: "Heavens Flaming Horse"
MPEG Stream: "55,000 Flowers For The Hero"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL s/t (Insample) cd 14.98
We managed to get a handful of this, the very first Birchville Cat Motel recording, direct from the man himself, after discovering a pile hidden away in his house. But those flew out of here in no time and seemed gone for good. But a few weeks ago, the man behind Insample got in touch to let us know he had his own little stash of discs he'd be willing to part with, so we got a bunch, not sure how long they'll last, but if you missed out before, you got another chance...
It's a bit hard to believe that Campbell Kneale's Birchville Cat Motel has been around for almost a decade, although when you take a look at just how many releases the man has produced over the last decade, it becomes a little bit easier. This here self titled cd (yeah, it's a cd, just packaged in a weird 7" style sleeve) is the very first Birchville recording from way back in 1997. So, what's it doing on the AQ list circa 2007 you ask? Well, it hasn't been repressed, nope this is still seems to be stone cold out of print, but Mr. Kneale just happened to be doing a little house cleaning when he discovered a long forgotten stash of these gems and offered them to us. We took all of 'em and sold 'em. Now we've got another batch direct from the label, but like before, not sure how long these will be around...
We're not really sure what Kneale did before BCM, but this caustic blast of NZ noise announced loud and clear that it didn't matter one bit. Kneale has taken BCM sonically from one end of the spectrum to the other, soft shimmery ambience, massive metallic drones, blissed out free rock weirdness, but when he was just starting out, Birchville was a seriously mean machine. Hard and harsh and not a little bit scary! There are hints of the deft crafter of droney sonic worlds that Kneale would become, but here, Kneale is a warrior of noise, head down, hunkered behind his gear ready to do battle, bathed in a halo of white hot fury, exploring a world of caustic industrial grind, walls of shrieking feedback and thick swells of buzz and hiss, bells and clattery percussion, simple melodies and subtle sonic sparkles are all drenched in a viscous shower of coruscating crunch. There are bits of tranquility here and there, but they are fraught with peril, cuz there's always some noisy beast just out of earshot ready to pounce. A gorgeously chaotic caterwaul!
Packaged in an oversized 7" sleeve with a little cd pocket. And again, this is already and still OUT OF PRINT, has been for years. These last copies might just be the last ever!
MPEG Stream: "Cast Iron Tether"
MPEG Stream: "So Sad Doll"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Screamformelongbeach (Pseudo Arcana) 3" cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This purports to be BCM's 'rock record', hence the title and the Campbell-Kneale-as-rock-god-in-action blurred cover photo. And while this is certainly BCM's most rock record to date, it's be no means -that- sort of rock record. A groovy seventies rock riff gets looped and repeated FOREVER, while Kneale sprays grinding skree, viscous fuzz and squealing feedback all over. Before a strange purposeful stadium rock drum beat emerges from the chaos, and the sonic deluge eventually abates, skipping and skittering into a spare and abstract rhythmscape. Very reminiscent of the most recent Skullflower, whose Sabbath-hypno-Hawkwind-mantra turned 'the riff' into psychotropic drone rock nirvana.
MPEG Stream: "55,000 Flowers For The Hero"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Second Curved Earth Destroyer (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) 3cd-r 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The first Curved Earth Destroyer collected a handful of live Birchville performances, from all over the world, spanning enough years, that we were able to hear the gradual development of BCM, from more ethereal tripped out ambient drones, to something much more aggressive and almost metallic.
This second installment doesn't offer the same development, or such a wide breadth of sound. It's simply a collection of various stellar performances, culled from the last three years. Seven long sets, spread out over three discs, recorded all over, New Zealand, France, Australia, Hong Kong and a couple from the USA, some of the song titles sound familiar enough that they seem like variations of songs from other discs ("Dead Call Home Their Birds" instead of the other way around, "Gunpowder Church Of Satan", etc.) but it hardly matters, the sound of BCM is so gorgeous, so epic and organic, whether it's a glistening sheet of high end shimmer, or a corrosive slab of crumbling blistering crunch, the sounds are deftly stretched into expansive sonic vistas, some sun dappled and dreamy, others blackened and harrowing.
Disc 3 (no need to go in numerical order right?) features the above mentioned tracks, recorded in France and NZ, and finds BCM, aka Campbell Kneale, doing the epic Ur-drone, long tones held forever, layered and layered, both tracks washed out and shimmery, the second, almost orchestral, both completely mesmerizing, like an even more epic Sunroof!
Disc 2 begins with the 29 minute "Junkshop Rainbow Superserpent", a live collaboration with 1/3 Octave Band, the first half of the track, much more folky and abstract than usual, before building to a super dramatic crescendo of bowed metals and feeding back guitars, before unwinding into a field of bell like tones, and swooping backwards FX. Tripped out and haunting. The other two tracks, recorded in Hong Kong and NZ respectively, feature still more static ambience, the first like a cd-r minimal drone version of Arvo Part, glimmering, glistening, shimmering stretches of slow drifting sounds, soft overtones, gentle buried barely-there melodies, the second, much more lo-fi, lots of static and buzz and hiss and fuzz, but beneath it all lurk little warbly melodies, wheezing layers of whir and whisper, and a deep droning rumble.
Disc 1 is all USA, recorded in Rochester and Chicago, the Rochester track is nearly 25 minutes of slow building ambient clatter, blurred and smeared into long tones, a warm whirring drone over the top, all tangled up with low end melodies that creep in gradually, the percussive clatter transforming into a cloud of tinkling chimes wreathed by the increasingly corrosive buzz. The Chicago track is another wall of static buzz, this one spends its first half murky and muted, before blossoming into a flurry of whirling buzz and more distant tinkling chimes, before finally fading out into a super minimal lo-fi drift.
Packaged in that instantly recognizable CPSIP wallpaper style sleeve, with three inserts containing minimal liner notes for each disc, and of course SUPER LIMITED! We did get a bunch of these, but as always, these very well might be the last copies we can get, so grab one while you can...
MPEG Stream: "Dead Call Home Their Birds Live"
MPEG Stream: "Gunpowder Church Of Satan"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL September (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We at AQ have long been fans of Campbell Kneale and his project Birchville Cat Motel who along with the Dead C, Omit, Gate and a handful of others have helped to define one of the richest free-rock-noise-drone scenes in the world. For years Kneale has been releasing cds, lps and cassettes (most of them quite limited) of noisy electronic soundscapes and gorgeous organic drones. So when we discovered Kneale also ran a label, we figured it was definitely worth checking out. And how right we were. Not only is all of the music on Celebrate Psi Phenomena amazing, but the packaging is perfectly and stunningly designed as well (quite nice considering this is a cd-r label. See our crappy cd-r packaging rants in the last three or four lists) with each cd in a plastic sleeve nestled between two sheets of old fashioned textured wallpaper, printed, and sealed with a gold star.
This is a super limited tour-only release for Birchville's recent Japanese tour. One hour long track. There's something about a piece of improvised music, when everything just clicks and the result is transcendent, spectacular, and becomes almost a living thing, instead of a piece of music played by some guys. And 'September' is a perfect example. This hour long, static drone is a lush chaotic mix of guitars, squealing and feeding back, layer upon layer, woven into gossamer washes of rough (pleasingly so) sound. Like My Bloody Valentine with all of the rhythmic/rock band elements removed. Just the very essence of sound, drone, music. So beautiful.
RealAudio clip: "September"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Seventh Ruined Hex (Important) cd 14.98
With most bands who possess the kind of extensive catalog that Birchville Cat Motel does (41 different titles on the aQ site so far, this making it 42), after a while, it's hard to know what to say. It's tempting to just say something like "you love this band already, if you like the other records, you'll like this one too, so just buy it", and that would probably work on a bunch of folks, it sure would on us, but the thing about BCM, is the sound changes enough to make every new record exciting and new, familiar enough to appeal to fans, but definitely interesting enough to convince most of us that we actually do need another BCM disc to add to the 30 or 40 we already have. This one is no different. Right out of the gate, BCM main man, and axe wielder Campbell Kneale, offers up something we haven't heard from him in a while, a fierce roiling cloud of blown out psych guitar. Thick sheets of keening feedback, dense swirls of high end shimmer like Haino plays Sunroof!, dense squalls are pulled out into long ropy streaks of blinding white hot buzz and skree, as the track progresses, the rough edges and jagged corners seem to get worn away, the sound becoming more washed out, but still just on the edge of full on ear drum damage. That's sort of the magic in music like this, figuring out a way to harness noise, and twist it into pleasing shapes, which Kneale is quite adept at. By the end of the track, the low end has caught up to the high, and the track blisses out nicely.
But that track definitely sets the stage for the rest of Seventh Ruined Hex, a record that is all about HIGH END. It's much easier to wrangle low tones into something dense and beautiful and drone-y and listenable, but the upper registers are inherently a lot more brutal and punishing and difficult to work with. But Kneale, as always, is up to the challenge.
That opening, extended high end ur-drone is followed up by some awesome sonic weirdness, a brief respite from the skree, a strange stuttering rumbling soft cacophony of looped guitars, damaged FX, some thick metallic crunch, all warped an warbly, with a haunting pretty little melody underneath. Definitely another one of those tracks (every BCM record has one) that you can totally imagine being an hour long and it's own full length.
The next track brings us right back to the static drone, and those upper registers, a simple chiming bit of percussion, underscores a crystalline high end smear, various notes and tones, woven into a glistening web of slowly shifting notes and overtones, a glancing listen, and it sounds like some difficult listening, but let your ears adjust to this high end soundworld, and suddenly the track blossoms and reveals its sonic treasures, filling your ears with a cascade of blinding glimmering streaks and warm glowing barely-there melodies.
The title track brings things back into the midrange, at least briefly, a growling, rough edged loop, guitar it sounds like, grinding out a muted pulse, some dark shimmer, some fuzzy blur, but still shot through with slivers of that high end skree, building again to swirling slow motion supernova of sound, emitting thick pulses of smoldering opalescence.
Finally, the record closes with the 17 minute "Bee", which begins all ultra lo-fi doom jam, moaning downtuned guitars and crumbling production, before transforming into a thick gossamer haze of gorgeous lullaby like whirs and shimmer, the high end kept in check, the whole track a slow build, very epic and cinematic, the various stretched out notes and chords churning beneath a layer of warm gentle buzz, midtrack, the sounds threaten to loose themselves and soar skyward, but are quickly reeled back in, the rest of the track a long slow fade, the high end sinking deeper and deeper beneath a warm blanket of instrument hum and blurred melody.
MPEG Stream: "Ghastly Star"
MPEG Stream: "Werewolf Shorn Of Its Hell"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Shapeshifter (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We at AQ have long been fans of Campbell Kneale and his project Birchville Cat Motel who along with the Dead C, Omit, Gate and a handful of others have helped to define one of the richest free-rock-noise-drone scenes in the world. For years Kneale has been releasing cds, lps and cassettes (most of them quite limited) of noisy electronic soundscapes and gorgeous organic drones. So when we discovered Kneale also ran a label, we figured it was definitely worth checking out. And how right we were. Not only is all of the music on Celebrate Psi Phenomena amazing, but the packaging is perfectly and stunningly designed as well (quite nice considering this is a cd-r label. See our crappy cd-r packaging rants in the last three or four lists) with each cd in a plastic sleeve nestled between two sheets of old fashioned textured wallpaper, printed, and sealed with a gold star.
This is an expanded line-up (expanded from the usual one man Birchville Cat Motel) performing all acoustic recorded between 1999-2000. Sparse and clattery, with lots of random percussion, woodwinds and bowed metal drones. A clinking clanking, rattling free folk/jazz, sounding somewhere between Native American Folk music, No Neck Blues Band, an orchestra tuning up and a stripped down and acoustic Godspeed You Black Emperor. Mostly calm and meditative with occasional moments of free clamour and stumbling rhythmic fall out.
RealAudio clip: "Shapeshifter 1"
RealAudio clip: "Shapeshifter 4"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Siberian Earth Curve (Drunken Fish) cd 13.98
An enigmatic stateside debut from this New Zealand (I think... they are pretty enigmatic after all...) ensemble which drones on through guitar, appliances, cymbals, and some dizzying device which generates a warbling tonality which hits some pretty nauseating (in a good way, like rollercoasters are entertainment through nausea) frequencies.

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Small Christian Victories (Diagnosis...Don't!) 3" cd-r 10.98
ATTENTION BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL OBSESSIVES!!!
The newest release on the Grey Daturas' Diagnosis...Don't label is a sweet lil' slab of feedback folly from NZ noisenik Birchville Cat Motel recorded live on a fire escape in Wellington New Zealand.
This here brand new 14 minute long 3" cd-r ep is BCM at his most fiery and white hot. Thick guitar drone mushed through a battery powered walkman speaker giving it that special grinding crunch sound you just sort of want to strip naked and luxuriate in. But as it's Mr. Kneale, he's able to work some of that magical alchemical musical voodoo of his, and make this shrill shrieking grinding coruscating beast sound downright pretty and soothing. Feedback becomes glistening melodies rendered in glorious dreamy high end. Not sure if it's organ or guitar, but it's all upper register skree, and it's all goddamn beautiful.
Packaged in thick textured paper grey mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi. Nice.
And as always, this is SUPER LIMITED, and odds are we won't be able to get more. We did get a whole bunch, but don't let that keep you from ordering it now or you'll be kicking yourself when these are gone...
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Summer's Seething Pulse (Mar/ino) cd 14.98
Our hyper prolific buddy Campbell Kneale returns with another piece in the puzzle that is Birchville Cat Motel. Three extended tracks, over 50 minutes! The first track displays the harsher side of our normally mild mannered noisenik, with warm white noise that slowly gets its jagged edges smoothed off until the raw spiky skree becomes a warm muted roar. Track two finds us in much more familiar territory. 30 minutes of what sounds like bells and chimes, that are stretched into a warm wash of overtones and reverberations, with occasional clatter and buzz bobbing to the surface. Gorgeously meditative. Track three sounds like an indie rock band caught in Kneale's sticky web, trying desperately to pick out notes on their guitars, struggling against the thick, unyielding pull of oblivion. Shimmering feedback and rumbling drones occasionally let a stray note or chord make it to the surface, but those are quickly swallowed up by the murky morass.
MPEG Stream: "Sleep June Slope"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL The Frog Prince (Anthem) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
An ultra-uber-super-mega limited 7" from all time AQ noisemakers Birchville Cat Motel, released on Anthem Records, the same folks who brought us the killer Brainbombs 7" Stinking Memory a while back. The packaging this time around is no frills, a plain sleeve, hand stamped, the record numbered in gold ink (limited to 212 copies) and it's only one song, a one sided 7", but it's unlike any BCM recording we've heard yet. It kills us that it's only a 7"...
It begins with a strange collection of vocalizations, duck calls, metallic shimmers, distant moans, alien rhythms, and what sounds like monkeys or maybe crickets, a dense tangle of sounds that swirl and intertwine before giving way to a propulsive metallic groove, a chugging guitar, plodding drums, but all beneath a mighty chorus of croaking frogs (hence the title?)! It sounds a bit like the main riff from Judas Priest's "You Got Another Thing Coming" looped over and over. And throw in the frogs and suddenly you've got some crazy mix of Circle's Andexelt and Sounds Of North American Frogs, and that is a very good thing indeed. 
LIMITED TO 212 COPIES!!!

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL Vespertine (Last Visible Dog) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More minimal dreaminess from Campbell Kneale and his one man drone machine Birchville Cat Motel. 'Vespertine' is one 40 minute barely fluctuating drone constructed from guitars tapes, radios, synthesizers and vacuum cleaners! This is some gorgeous deep listening: layers and layers of fuzz and hum transport the listener to another plane. Otherworldly and transcendental supreme drone. Perfect.
RealAudio clip: "Vespertine"

BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL We Count These Prayers... (Corpus Hermeticum) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHE