CROWN OF AMARANTH, A Love.Lies.Bleeding (Crucial Bliss) cd-r 11.98
Crucial Bliss is an offshoot of the Crucial Blast label, who normally specialize in all things heavy, sludgy, grinding, brutal... well, you get the idea. In the past we've reviewed Crucial Blast titles from Burmese, Genghis Tron, The Goslings, Skullflower and a bunch more. Crucial Bliss focuses on stuff that is more... well, blissful. But not always blissful in the strictest sense. Sure we reviewed Aidan Baker's Periodic a few lists back and that was indeed blissful. But now we've got the latest from Crown Of Amaranth, which while still blissful, is hardly peaceful or dreamy or any of the other descriptors you might associate with bliss.
Amaranth, is a grain, but not just any grain. It was used by the Aztecs, mixed with other ingredients to form edible idols that were consumed before human sacrifices. When the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, they banned the evil grain thinking it would stop the human sacrifice. Quite a lot of historical baggage for a little old grain. But that bloody bit of history is somehow appropriate considering Crown Of Amaranth's sound, a harsh and harrowing, ominous and foreboding set of drones. Miniature epic soundscapes of disembodied guitar fragments set adrift amidst a sea of hissing white noise and muted industrial scrape, fuzzy indistinct broadcasts from the ether, mumbled scratchy abstract missives rendered in crumbling melodies and washes of swirling static, church organs drift and dissipate into haunting junglescapes tangled up with bits of crooned vocals and processed slabs of grinding droning crunch. The last few tracks up the ante aggression-wise, and dip bruised and bloodied toes into a black pool of serious noise, emitting bursts of full on shriek and hiss, but almost always tempered by stretches of dark tranquility and brutal bliss.
SUPER LIMITED. We got these direct from the band. Not sure how long they will last or if we'll ever be able to get more...
MPEG Stream: "The Untapped Resources Of A Dead Planet"
MPEG Stream: "Kefuhachi Tract"
MPEG Stream: "To Be Silent, To Be Sure"

CROWNED HEADS OF EUROPE, THE Witnesseth (Sounds Of Battle And Souvenir Collecting) lp 17.98
From the folks behind Gog and Servile Sect, both big time faves around here, comes another curious bit of abstract heaviness, the curiously monickered Crowned Heads Of Europe. A CRAZY limited lp, only 100 copies, and for a quick idea of what you're in for, have a look at the legend on the back of the sleeve: "dROne. aRT/dOOM. experiMENTAL. sataniC/celestial." Indeed. We're sold already. Helps too that the packaging is pretty elaborate and trippy too, a thick gold metallic fold over sleeve, printed in black ink, the back side is only a half sleeve, revealing the black vinyl lp within, but also revealing a layer of textured prismatic holographic plastic.
So what exactly are The Crowned Heads Of Europe all about. Is it art doom drone satanic celestial experimental? Yeah, pretty much. Deep drones, recorded so hot and in the red, that the sound crumbles, wrapped in hiss and distortion, wreathed in soft edged feedback, the melodies abstract, a reverb drenched chiming blur, that gives way to a thick caustic downtuned crumbling sonic churn, a black ambience equal parts MZ412 and Wolf Eyes, a subtle industrial vibe, and plenty of shimmer surrounding the heavy grinding core. As the record progresses, no matter how heavy and corrosive the sound, it also manages to be weirdly pretty, a little psychedelic too. The record offers up brief squalls of squiggly distorted high end, only to follow with a lurching slow motion bass dirge, trudging through a creepscape rife with ghostly voices and melodies, processed vocals drown beneath slabs of FX drenched crush, super minimal doomic drones a la Trollmann, blossom into shimmery stretches of soft swirl and dreamy ambience, finishing off with a longform blast of crumbling in-the-red dronedirgedoom, the sounds so blown out, the overtones seem to add a whole layer of accidental melody, and the tones beating against one another create strange stuttering rhythms, everything buried beneath layers of filthy distorted murk and buzz, before slipping into something soft and hauntingly pretty, fading out in a blur of minimal cinematic creep.
LIMITED TO 100!!! Each lp comes with a cd-r containing all the music on the record.
MPEG Stream: "Processional (The Four Faces)"
MPEG Stream: "Vena Amoris"
MPEG Stream: "Bluebonnets"

CRYSTAL FIST FEAT. UNIVERSAL INDIANS Live at Liquid Room 2.22.1997 (Zero Gravity) cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We love pretty much everything on Japanese label Zero Gravity, including this recent disc. But unlike the abstract electronics found on most Zero Gravity releases, Crystal Fist's album is an electro-acoustic hippie jam that owes more to the No Neck Blues Band, Amon Duul, and the Taj Mahal Travellers than to Ryoji Ikeda. Featuring the stumbling, 'free' drumming of Merzbow's Masami Akita (here leaving his noise persona behind for his first love, psychedelic rock), this single thirty three minute piece is a druggy, spacey, hypnotic masterpiece, that starts as a murky, otherworldly soundscape; all chirping crickets and ambient murmur. The sound is soon bolstered by the drone of Huun Huur Tu -like faux throat singing, whirring feedback, and the hum of rumbling turntables and abused cd players. This pagan ritual reaches a fever pitch as various percussion elements are introduced, and Akita's style of brain-damaged-Jaki Leibezeit drumming builds a rickety framework around the whole ceremony.
What's amazing is that this sounds so much like it was recorded in the seventies....not in 1997. And it most certainly doesn't sound like turntables and cd players, it sounds more like rickety old amps, and bowed metal, and the vocalizations of lysergically enhanced druids. So recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Live At Liquid Room"

CSECTION s/t (Malleable) cd-r 10.98
There are plenty of ways to make noise with a guitar. Lord knows the aQ list is proof of that. Whether it's running a guitar through a computer the spews out soft pixelated hum, or leaning a guitar against an amp and letting huge waves of black buzz pour out, or strapping one to a table and attacking it with all manner of toys and implements resulting in plenty of scrape and scrabble, or just running a guitar through a million effects pedals until what comes out the other side is nothing but streaks and blurs and rumbles and roars and barely retains any guitarness at all.
Then there's whatever the hell Alex Nagle does to his guitar that transforms it into Csection. Nagle's name might be familiar to you as the man behind the genius Flittermice Of Eld, a 'group' who took a handful of notes from a Darkthrone song and turned them into a heaving mass of dark drones and fractured buzz. Csection finds Nagle again doing unspeakable and confusional things to his guitar, and again the results are pretty fantastic.
A single 25 minute track, beginning with some weirdly digitized distortion drenched guitar shredding, that sounds a bit like it's been run through a Commodore 64, sheets of high spread out over all manner of strange crumbling low end, detuned riffage, that high end spiraling into squiggly clusters of rapid fire notes one second, sprawling out into a shimmering stretch of soft noise the next. Over the course of the track, the guitar becomes less and less recognizable, at one point shifting into a gloriously burnished field of high end streaks, all assembled into some strange alien melody, while within, various overtones clash and collide, blend and beat feverishly against one another. Imagine Phil Niblock composing for high end shred guitar, or a droned out more static version of one of Mick Barr's maniacal projects (Orthrelm, Octis, Orcrilim).
There are moments here and there, when the high end drops out, and the sound briefly becoming more of a gnarled angular drift, with Marc Ribot like guitars floating in spaced out fields of reverb, atonal, and haltingly melodic, but those interludes are usually quite fleeting, quickly subsumed by still more squalls of Nagle's frazzled and fucked up digital buzz.
This is a super limited cd-r, we've had them a while, so there's a good chance that when we sell out we won't be able to get more. Packaged in cool hand screened red and silver digipacks...
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"

CUJO Adventures In Foam (Shadow Records) cd 15.98
Third re-issue (first in a jewel case) of this seminal release of Amon Tobin's under the moniker of "Cujo." Very mo-waxy, down-tempo drum and bass with lots of lifted jazz breaks. An excellent album that has aged much finer than most of its contemporaries from 1997.

CUL DE SAC Ecim (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd 14.98
Damn, it's hard to believe this album is fourteen years old! Back in print after many years, Cul De Sac's ambitious debut sounds fresher than ever. One of the first bands to directly reference the rhythmic propulsions of Can, while at the same time expanding their musical arsenal to include surf music, psychedelic post-rock, Mediterranean trance music and folk, Cul De Sac have been faves here forever. Ecim reads like a drug-induced travelogue through non-linear time with each song setting up a unique feel distinct from each other yet oddly connected. Covers of Tim Buckley's "Song of the Siren" and "The Portland Cement Factory, at Monolith, California" by John Fahey (with whom they would subsequently collaborate) provide some familiar ground while at the same time offering something completely unexpected. Recommended! And oh yeah, this remastered reissue's got three previously unreleased bonus tracks from 1991, and brand new liner notes!
MPEG Stream: "Death Kit Train"
MPEG Stream: "Stranger At Coney Island"
MPEG Stream: "Nico's Dream"

CULPER RING 355 (Neurot) cd 14.98
Named, for some reason, after a Revolutionary War spy cell, Culper Ring is an experimental collaborative side project from three Bay Area underground music notables: Steve Von Till of Neurosis/Tribes Of Neurot, Kris Force of Amber Asylum, and Mason Jones of Subarachnoid Space. There's none of Neurosis's crusty metal grind to be found here, so this might appeal more to fans of Subarachnoid's space rock and Amber Asylum's gothic chamber strings, with the spacey folky vibe these three conjure up. Apparently inspired by the likes of Coil, Nurse With Wound and Current 93, Culper Ring utilize violin, effects-laden guitars, haunting female vocals and some electronic noises to generate a soundworld that's melancholic, dark, a bit droney and "psych". It's actually quite pretty and mellow, with eight untitled tracks to wander through your ears. Not bad at all for a project that we suspect got its start just 'cause the principals all happened to share a practice space.
MPEG Stream: "track eight"

CULTURAL AMNESIA Enormous Savages Enlarged (Klanggalerie) cd 21.00
Cultural Amnesia would have certainly disappeared entirely, but one of the band's earliest supporters was an 18 year old kid named Geoff Rushton, who later changed his name to John Balance when he formed Coil in 1983 (the same year that Cultural Amnesia ceased activities). Cultural Amnesia managed three cassettes, some compilation tracks, and a half-finished album during that time period, with one of those cassettes being released through Rushton's Hearsay And Heresy label. In all likelihood, Coil completists had come across these cassettes and brought them to light over two decades later. Vinyl On Demand was responsible for one of the anthologies of Cultural Amnesia material, but the better collection was Enormous Savages first released on vinyl by Anna Logue in 2006. This cd version through Klanggalerie flushes out the comp with five tracks recorded in recent years, now that they've gotten back together.
Had it not been for their early demise, this was a band that could have followed in the footsteps of Throbbing Gristle, Clock DVA, Dome, and Cabaret Voltaire circa 1981, as a blank austerity followed through the eccentric darkness grafted onto post-punk songs bristling with inventive if cheap electronics. Choppy sparkplug guitars influenced by Keith Levene's work on PiL's Metal Box punctuate the synthetic melodies, drum machinations, and motorik electronics. Lyrically, these are abject tales of blood, scars, alienation, and British misery, with some of the lyrics penned by Rushton himself. Those painfully eloquent songs are prescient of what Rushton was to bring to Coil's early work on Scatology, but they serve Cultural Amnesia very well on their own. The band had reformed in 2000, and offered 5 new tracks, which actually seem to pick up right where they left off, moving more towards the Pop Group's muscular grooves and fidgety funk, with the same Spartan tape recording which dominated their early work. A very welcome document from Britain's cassette culture.
MPEG Stream: "Repetition For This World"
MPEG Stream: "Blind Rag"
MPEG Stream: "Fetish For Today"

CULVER Hand Of Ice (Basses Frequences) cd-r 12.98

CULVER Lora Draws Blood (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.
Latest blast of abstract sounds from the murky and mysterious musical world of Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, this one from UK dronelord Culver, who tries his hand, according to the blurb on the website, at some atmospheric ambient 'metal', there's even an Abruptum namedrop which obviously sets the bar pretty dang high. It is true, Abruptum, among others, has definitely proven that mood and atmosphere can be just as heavy and grim as riffs and shrieks, although we're not so sure this is -quite- as evil as that Abruptum reference would have led us to believe. That said, this may not be -evil- but it's still incredibly dark and ominous and droney. And that's definitely enough for us. The first track is all acoustic guitar, plucking out a funereal threnody, a creeping mournful melody, droney and dirgey in an atmospherically acoustic way, over the course of 14 minutes the notes buzz a little more and the melody blurs slightly into an even more fuzzy and haunting acoustic dirge. Not heavy perhaps, but really fucking awesome. And subtly scary in its own way. The second track is a keening shimmering buzz, a nine minute exercise in building tension, sounding like some sort of minimalist horror movie music, tense and gorgeously static, while under the surface lurk subtle sonic shits and distant droning rumble. The final track is a 20+ minute whir, warm and thick and layered, like a super super lo-fi SUNNO)), a churning metallic riff, slowed waaaaaaay down and sort of blurred into a swirling sea of black buzz. Super hypnotic and mesmerizingly seasick, a slow neverending ebb and flow of crumbling fuzz drenched drone. The kind of song/sound you wish would play forever. The ultimate minimalist dronemetal trance jam!
SUPER LIMITED! WE GOT ABOUT 30 COPIES, WHEN THOSE ARE GONE THAT'S IT. ALREADY SOLD OUT AT THE LABEL!
MPEG Stream: "Where The Wolfbane Falls"
MPEG Stream: "Something Vulture Lost"

CULVER-COURTIS Culver-Courtis (Riot Season) lp 17.98
Super limited lp from Anla Courtis, of AQ faves Reynols, teamed up here with UK noisemaker Culver, for a disc of surprisingly serene shimmer, all rumblig shifting sonic swells and gently dulcet drones, drifitng and hazy and gorgeously indistinct. Four tracks, almost an hour of sweet sweet bliss out. This is a reissue of a very limited and long out of print self-released cassette!
MPEG Stream: "Aurraei Ravena Part One"

CURIA s/t (Fire Museum) cd 13.98

CURRAN, ALVIN Canti Illuminati (Fringes Archive) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CURRENT 93 A Little Menstrual Night Music (United Durtro / Anomalous) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"A Little Menstrual Night Music" is a remix of Current 93's "In Menstrual Night," a record that has long been thought of as the most oblique of Current 93's pre-folk recordings, dominated by liturgical choral loops and clunking rhythmic couplings of piano and drums. The original album was produced back in 1986, as an exploration of the question of where dreams go when they die; yet this remix, produced by Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter for Current 93's recent San Francisco performances, emphasize the dreaminess of the recordings, having filtered out most of the percussive aspects and allowing only a few vocal snippets from Ruby Wallis and Rose McDowell to emerge from the thick cloud of reverb that swallowed the original. And, the usually omnipresent voice of C93's David Tibet is surprisingly absent in this fantastic piece of sonic hypnogogia.
MPEG Stream: "A Little Menstrual Night Music (1)"

CURRENT 93 Aleph At Hallucinatory Mountain (Coptic Cat) cd 14.98
It's always a challenge to delve into the polyglot mythologies of David Tibet, as the visions in his lyrics reference a host of esoteric subjects: the gnostic Christian texts of the early 2nd Century, Thelemic citations from Aleister Crowley, snippets of Coptic, and plenty of Tibet's feverish dislocations of images delivered in stream of consciousness. The central protagonist here is Aleph, a character with a slippery persona, one that may be acting before God set the universe in order, one that may be acting as a dopplerganger to Adam, one that may be the murderous precursor of Cain, one that may spell out an alternate origin of Lucifer, or one that is unique to Current 93. To avid Current 93 fans, these mysteries and contradictions are commonplace; but the biggest shift for Current 93 is in the musical arrangements. Gone are the fairy-dusted madrigals for just piano, 12-string guitar, and violin. Tibet has now grasped onto a blistering, occasionally sprawling psychedelia centered upon heavy, proto-metal riffs. Amon Duul's Yeti, the psychedelic moments of Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, and certainly early Alice Cooper all factor into Current 93's arrangements. Given the '70s laden heaviness of this album, it's a little hard to believe that Al Cisneros (Om, Sleep) who had previously collaborated with Tibet isn't present. Instead, Tibet has brought on board Alex Neilson, Andrew WK, Keith Wood, Matt Sweeney, Rickey Lee Jones, James Blackshaw, porn-star Sasha Gray, and a host of others. Once again, Steven Stapleton is at the helm of the production with Andrew Liles adding his deft hand in the mix as well. Alex Neilson's presence on drums is of particular note, as his heavy-handed fills and lumbering gate does away with the taut precision which gave some Current 93 albums an anal retentive quality. Neilson in conjunction with the army of guitarists churning through these heavy, psychedelic riffs makes this album as good as it is.
MPEG Stream: "Invocation Of Almost"
MPEG Stream: "On Docetic Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Not Because The Fox Barks"

CURRENT 93 Black Ships Ate The Sky (Durtro / Jnana) cd 14.98
Current 93's David Tibgris gris
et is an apocalyptic poet in the truest definition, as his work hinges upon his obsessive desire to transcribe and translate the revelations, visions, nightmares, and dreams that have come to him over the past two decades. The apocalyptic genres of art have come to define the possibilities of how the world as we know it might come to an end (e.g. astrophysical disasters, nuclear war, zombies, fire-ants, etc.); however, in the earliest manifestations of apocalyptic art, it was simply the chronicling of revelations given from the heavens to man below. Throughout his numerous recordings in Current 93, Tibet has embodied the whole apocalyptic tradition, all the while strengthening his admittedly heretical belief in a Patripassianist Christ, who suffers beyond the crucifixion of Jesus throughout the aeons until his second coming (NB. this is but a brief synopsis of Tibet's complicated, Gnostic, and poetic theology).
Black Ships Ate The Sky has been in the works for almost four years, with Tibet's great friend and long-time collaborator Steven Stapleton proclaiming this to be a fantastic recording. Lo and behold, Black Ships Ate The Sky *is* a magnificent album, returning to the somber acid folk stylings haunted by the shadows and smoke last heard on the earlier masterpieces Thunder Perfect Mind and Earth Covers Earth. As on all of the Current 93 albums, Tibet surrounds himself with an impressive battery of musicians that reads like a who's who of alt-folk-avant-rock greats: Will Oldham, Ben Chasny, Antony (as in .. And The Johnsons), Shirley Collins, Cosey Fanni Tutti, William Basinski, Al Cisneros (from Om), and the aforementioned Steven Stapleton. Black Ships Ate The Sky is thematically based upon Tibet's vision aptly described in the title as it relates to a Christian hymn by Charles Wesley called "Idumae" which repeats itself seven times (eight if you count "Black Ships Were Sinking Into Idumae" sung by Cosey Fanni Tutti), as sung by Tibet's numerous guest vocalists. As strong as many of the versions of "Idumae" are, Tibet and his peculiar voice are central to Black Ships. He's impassioned throughout, occasionally possessed with an infernal rage as on the second version of the title track, and elsewhere adopting a gentle delicacy. The music swirls around simple guitar arrangements, laced with Chasny's acidic guitar leads and Stapleton's sidereal productions... and it's stunningly good together. Time will tell if this will be the greatest Current 93 record Tibet has produced (as many have already claimed); but it's clearly in the running.
MPEG Stream: "This Autistic Imperium Is Nihil Reich"
MPEG Stream: "Black Ships Ate The Sky"
MPEG Stream: "Idumae (featuring Shirley Collins)"

CURRENT 93 Black Ships Ate The Sky (Durtro / Jnana) 2lp 24.00
Now available on vinyl!!
Current 93's David Tibet is an apocalyptic poet in the truest definition, as his work hinges upon his obsessive desire to transcribe and translate the revelations, visions, nightmares, and dreams that have come to him over the past two decades. The apocalyptic genres of art have come to define the possibilities of how the world as we know it might come to an end (e.g. astrophysical disasters, nuclear war, zombies, fire-ants, etc.); however, in the earliest manifestations of apocalyptic art, it was simply the chronicling of revelations given from the heavens to man below. Throughout his numerous recordings in Current 93, Tibet has embodied the whole apocalyptic tradition, all the while strengthening his admittedly heretical belief in a Patripassianist Christ, who suffers beyond the crucifixion of Jesus throughout the aeons until his second coming (NB. this is but a brief synopsis of Tibet's complicated, Gnostic, and poetic theology).
Black Ships Ate The Sky has been in the works for almost four years, with Tibet's great friend and longtime collaborator Steven Stapleton proclaiming this to be a fantastic recording. Lo and behold, Black Ships Ate The Sky *is* a magnificent album, returning to the somber acid folk stylings haunted by the shadows and smoke last heard on the earlier masterpieces Thunder Perfect Mind and Earth Covers Earth. As on all of the Current 93 albums, Tibet surrounds himself with an impressive battery of musicians that reads like a who's who of alt-folk-avant-rock greats: Will Oldham, Ben Chasny, Antony (as in .. And The Johnsons), Shirley Collins, Cosey Fanni Tutti, William Basinski, Al Cisneros (from Om), and the aforementioned Steven Stapleton. Black Ships Ate The Sky is thematically based upon Tibet's vision aptly described in the title as it relates to a Christian hymn by Charles Wesley called "Idumae" which repeats itself seven times (eight if you count "Black Ships Were Sinking Into Idumae" sung by Cosey Fanni Tutti), as sung by Tibet's numerous guest vocalists. As strong as many of the versions of "Idumae" are, Tibet and his peculiar voice are central to Black Ships. He's impassioned throughout, occasionally possessed with an infernal rage as on the second version of the title track, and elsewhere adopting a gentle delicacy. The music swirls around simple guitar arrangements, laced with Chasny's acidic guitar leads and Stapleton's sidereal productions... and it's stunningly good together. Time will tell if this will be the greatest Current 93 record Tibet has produced (as many have already claimed); but it's clearly in the running.
MPEG Stream: "This Autistic Imperium Is Nihil Reich"
MPEG Stream: "Black Ships Ate The Sky"
MPEG Stream: "Idumae (featuring Shirley Collins)"

CURRENT 93 Black Ships Heat The Dancefloor (Durtro) cd + dvd 13.98
Dance mixes of Current 93? Really? Yup, this is a dual disc CD/DVD combo with remixes of the Current 93 epic Black Ships Ate The Sky. JG Thirlwell (aka Foetus) offers up two industrial strength remixes, which are pretty much identical in terms of sound although one is a couple of minutes longer. The hammering drum machines and dense electronic overdrive recall the Al Jourgensen / Paul Barker productions of the Wax Trax! sound, with David Tibet ominously reciting the title of that aforementioned album. Matmos delivers a remix of that same track giving it a slippery funk that David Tibet's voice has never experienced before. The Matmos duo also rework Antony's contribution to that very same album. The DVD features two videos produced by Cam Archer.
MPEG Stream: "Black Ships Ate The Sky II (remixed by JG Thirlwell)"
MPEG Stream: "Black Ships Ate The Sky (remixed by Matmos)"

CURRENT 93 Courtyard / Jerusalem (Durtro / Jnana) cd ep 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two songs from Current 93, and both are covers of Simon Finn songs, neither of which are as good as the epic acid folk originals but maybe still worth checking out for C93 fans!
MPEG Stream: "The Courtyard"

CURRENT 93 Dawn (World Serpent) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The exact history behind this record is vague as no one from the recording sessions can remember when it was recorded more specifically than sometime between 1985 and 1986, placing "Dawn" nebulously as the fourth, fifth, or sixth album from Current 93. Yet, one thing remains very clear about this album, "Dawn" was the final Current 93 document that featured David Tibet's blood curdling sermons of nightmarish imagery, fronting the C93's gnarled collages of noise, tape loops, and studio effects. After this album, Current 93 pursued and refined the style that they are known for now: "menstrual minstrals and apocalyptic folk songs," where the history of UK folk was infused with pantheistic mythologies, that expanded beyond the apocalyptic prophecies of Current 93's early work. David Tibet has previously scoffed at "Dawn" because of the relative ease at which he, Steven Stapleton, and company produced this record, through the use of looping collages. While such a dismissal indicates Tibet's belief that Current 93 would be best as a UK folk vehicle, it doesn't acknowledge how powerful Current 93 had become in using this medium to convey Tibet's drug addled visions of the apocalypse. Almost all of the images of "Dawn" are recontextualizations of Catholic imagery or inverted bastardizations of Catholicism. Snippets of liturgical chants, medieval vocal chorales, and rounds of carillon bells phase in and out of loops from Aleister Crowley incantations, funeral dirges, and the ubiquitous voice of Tibet, whose snarling voice has been processed into wraith like slashes of malevolent noise. The opening track "Great Black Time" -- which appears in two slightly different versions on this CD reissue -- also features the odd intrusion of "California Dreaming" amidst crashing waves of church bells.
The recently reissued "Dawn" is certainly not as stong as Current 93's early masterpieces "Dogs Blood Rising" and "Nature Unveiled," yet it remains an solid document of post-industrial / nightmare culture from the early to mid '80s.
RealAudio clip: "Great Black Time (version 1)"
RealAudio clip: "Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus"

CURRENT 93 Dogs Blood Rising (Durtro) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Dogs Blood Rising" marks the pinnacle of the earliest Current 93 sound, before the band changed its sound to the recent 'apocalyptic folk and menstrual minstrals.' Current 93's ringleader David Tibet has orchestrated a horrific collage of looping Crowleyian chants, slashing noises, and deep reverberating low end rumbles. On top of these dark hallucinatory recordings, he and a number of vocalists (including Steve Ignorant from Crass and John Balance from Coil) recite nightmarish epistles proclaiming the apocalypse is upon us. The fifth track is a strange foreshadowing to the later folk sound of Current 93, as Tibet weaves an acapella chorus of "Scarborough Fair" as sung by Nick Rogers and evil recitation of "Sounds of Silence" from Tibet who affects his most gravel throated voice. Covering Simon & Garfunkel may not seem very evil, but Current 93 had a way (at least during this album) to make folk music very threatening.

CURRENT 93 Dogs Blood Rising (Durtro / Jnana) lp 22.00
"In a foreign town, in a foreign land, reaping time has come." Thus spake David Tibet on the 2nd album from his heretically-minded project Current 93. Those words became commonplace within the Current 93 pantheon of poetic allusions toward Tibet's horrifying visions of the end of the world. While his tireless research and spiritual development has found Tibet nowadays with a self-constructed theology that includes elements of Christian doctrine, Coptic Gnosticism, Crowley's magick, Buddhist transcendentalism, and far more esoteric subjects, the apocalyptic visions for Tibet in 1985 were centered firmly between dual, conflicting personalities: Christ and Crowley. These two play out in the Current 93 drama built not upon the taut acoustic folk as found on Tibet's more well known constructions, but through a darkly hallucinatory collage of monastic chanting looped against thudding percussive blows that are less structural and more of a protracted stomp of corporeal punishment. Tibet has always relied upon musical accompaniments for his visionary work, and Dogs Blood Rising is no different as Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound deftly shapes the slashing feedback and growling utterances into a hellish orchestration for Tibet's bellowing not only for the Antichrist but also for the weeping Christ who suffers till the end of time in his own theological reasoning. As commonplace as Tibet's voice is on all of the Current 93 albums, he has recruited a number of guest vocalists, including Steve Ignorant of Crass and Diana Rogerson, serving to de-center the album further. The five disquieting collages of Dogs Blood Rising are totally the stuff of nightmares, long standing as one of the pinnacles of industrial culture. Now back in print on vinyl with reproductions of the original fliers from the first edition of the album, but probably not for long!
MPEG Stream: "Falling Back In Fields Of Rape"

CURRENT 93 Earth Covers Earth (Free Porcupine Society) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Run by the former Deerhoof bassist Rob Fisk, the Free Porcupine Society has specialized in packaging all of their releases in msyterious paper sleeves that he's hand decorated with random paint streaks splattered across silkscreened illustrations of clunky anthropomorphic figures. Musically, the label defines their releases as "no wave hermit folk" and "eco-terrorist hobbit rock," with releases by Tom Carter, Scorces, Xiu Xiu, Badgerlore, and others. So at least when it comes to the music, a reissue of the pagan-folk classic Earth Covers Earth by Current 93 is a logical one. But when it comes to the meticulously construsted imagery of Current 93, the craft-cornered artwork of the Free Porcupine Society is a slightly mismatched pairing. That said, Fisk has certainly adjusted the idosyncratic design style of the FPS in repackaging the original artwork -- with its homage to the Incredible String Band as the cover photo and a plethora of drawings from Current 93's David Tibet. And considering that this is the first time that Earth Covers Earth has been in print for many years, vinyl or otherwise; this is a very welcome reissue.
Originally released in 1988, Earth Covers Earth was the second album in which Tibet ventured down the path of "apocalyptic folk", after numerous records of frightening hallucinations and occultish chants. Languid and mournful, Earth Covers Earth taps into the eccentricities and shadows that haunt the traditions of British folk music, best typified in the work of Shirley Collins and the soundtrack to the Wicker Man. Tibet's own fascination with Christian Gnosticism (at the time, a fascination just in its infancy) and his ability to surround himself with very talented musicians provided an exceptional framework for this Earth Covers Earth, which ranks as one of the most well developed albums of Current 93's death-folk facade. Tony Wakeford (Sol Invictus) and Douglas P (Death In June) provided the melancholic acoustic guitar strum, while Rose MacDowell occasionally delivers her creepy sing-song vocals alongside the ubiqitous Tibet waxing poetic about the existential collapse around him. There are reasons why Current 93 has such an iconic status, and Earth Covers Earth is one of them.

CURRENT 93 Faust (World Serpent) cd 19.98
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With their two recent collaborations with horror novelist Thomas Ligotti, Current 93 has made a few detours from their magickal folk music to get back to the style of apocalyptic collage which marked their first and best records. "Faust" is another return to those terror-filled dadaist sonic assemblages, and like those Ligotti-inspired recordings, it is based on a literary text. This interpretation of "Faust" was written by the decadent Count Eric Stenbock at the end of the 19th Century. In working with texts other than his own, Current 93's ringleader David Tibet tends to keep his voice and ego out of the process. Rather, Tibet & Stapleton have collaborated to build mostly instrumental creepy hypnotic drones. "Faust" is 35 minute piece composed of the constant chatter of voices muttering, chanting, and whispering with a lulling rhythmic plod of heavy chimes. It is as if one is eavesdropping on some Crowleian incantation. Evil stuff.

CURRENT 93 Halo (Durtro Records) cd 21.00
Live in London, October 2003.

CURRENT 93 How He Loved The Moon (Moonsongs For Jhonn Balance) (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2lp 26.00
How He Loved The Moon is Current 93's tribute to the late Jhonn Balance of Coil who died in December of 2004. Balance and Current 93's David Tibet had been longtime friends, dating back to their time in the revolving door membership of Psychic TV back in the early '80s. Despite the elegaic poem that Tibet inscribed as liner notes, Tibet has stepped back into the shadows of this album, giving the helm to longtime collaborator Steven Stapleton who was given the task of reworking the early Current 93 album In Menstrual Night in honor of Balance. Given that In Menstrual Night was an exploration into the question as to where dreams go when they die, it's a fitting source material; although it has to be asked why the need to remix the album twice, as Stapleton has already remixed In Menstrual Night back in 2003 for A Little Menstrual Night Music. Anyway, the densely reverberated vocalizations, cloudy drones, and blunt post-Faust percussion from the original remain, smeared across 2LPs.

CURRENT 93 How I Devoured Apocalypse Balloon (Durtro Jhana) 2cd 17.98
Over the past decade or so, Current 93 has steadily simplified their arrangements, moving from an impassioned psychedelic death-folk to a delicately scored sound for piano, guitar, violin, and the occasional tape loop. This transition obviously has focused the attention of Current 93 upon David Tibet, his voice, and his lyrics which become even more pronounced during their live performances. How I Devoured Apocalypse Balloon is a double disc set of the two Toronto performances that Current 93 delivered in June 2004, and showcase the radical simplicity of Current 93's music set against the complexities of Tibet's mythological revelations. For these performances, Tibet brought on board Ben Chasny (Six Organs Of Admittance) and Simon Finn along with Michael Cashmore, John Contreras, and Graham Jeffery. Many of the tracks from these two sets return to earlier work by Current 93, with a number of tracks from Earth Covers Earth and Thunder Perfect Mind, as well as revisitation of "Falling Back in Fields of Rape," which David Tibet wrote for both Current 93 and Death In June back in the mid-'80s. Unfortunately, there's no tracklisting for these two performances, although if you need to know a quick Google search will solve this dilemna. Regardless, these live performances are immaculated played, very well recorded, and certainly reflect the overall aesthetic of Current 93, making this a worthwhile document for all C93 fans.
MPEG Stream: "They Returned To Their Earth (June 19, 2004)"
MPEG Stream: "This Shining Shining World (June 19, 2004)"
MPEG Stream: "Earth Cover Earth (June 18, 2004)"

CURRENT 93 Hypnagogue I / Hypnagogue II (Durtro) cd 14.98

CURRENT 93 I Have A Special Plan For This World (Durtro / World Serpent) cd 15.98
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Ah, to be scared by Current 93 is a very good thing. The last time Tibet and co. put aside their trademarked renaissance faire folk was with their first collaboration with Lovecraftian horror novelist Thomas Ligotti. "I Have A Special Plan..." is the second collaboration between C93 and Ligotti to spine tingling results. Tibet recites a story written by Ligotti just for this release with Stapleton and Christoph Heemann providing the creepy droning and mutations on Tibet's voice. The only fault is the length, a short 22 minutes.
RealAudio clip: "I Have A Special Plan For This World"

CURRENT 93 Inmost Light Trilogy (Jnana) 3cd 45.00
Current 93's epic Inmost Light Trilogy had originally been issued back in the mid-'90s as three separate releases, with the two short program discs Where The Long Shadows Fall and The Stars Are Marching Sadly Home bracketing the full length album All The Pretty Little Horses. But through a tragic turn of events that has been recounted here and many other places, the distribution company that released those discs went out of business, rendering this (and pretty much the entire Current 93, Nurse With Wound, Coil, and Sol Invictus back catalogues) out of print. Fortunately, a hearty few have lovingly reissued much of that material, Jnana being one of those labels; and it's Jnana who has thoughtfully reissued what David Tibet exclaimed as his "Hallucinatory Patripassianist Song" as a triple cd set.
Where The Long Shadows Fall opens with a stately loop of a beautifully sad / eternally holy female choral melody, obviously taken from an old piece of vinyl as the crackle and hiss of the surface noise provides a familiar antiquated patina. Additional baroque vocal melodies intertwine with a chiming 12-string acoustic guitar strum which slowly progresses with the plod of a heavy doom track, minus the downtuned distortion; and then of course, there's David Tibet reciting his trademarked revelations surrounding his heretical beliefs about Christ, Satan, and the end of the world as we know it. Where The Long Shadows Fall is an open ended piece, built upon illusion and impression. For the elegantly mangled nursery rhymes that Current 93 is known for, look to the second disc All The Pretty Little Horses. Here, David Tibet conducts business mostly as a duet with the acoustic guitar of Michael Cashmore, who has done more to define Tibet's apocalyptic take on British folk than any other guitarist (including Ben Chasny, Tony Wakeford, Douglas P, etc.). These tunes are sparsely arranged with occasional flourishes of electronic manipulation and baroque instrumentation. Along with Cashmore, other noteworthy guest appearance include Nick Cave and Shirley Collins.
The final disc The Stars Are Marching Sadly Home is one of the darker recordings that Current 93 has made since Tibet abandoned the dirge collages of tape loops and cackling voice which dominated his very first recordings. That same vocal loop which opens Where The Long Shadows Fall is the backbone to this atmospheric work, although it has been shrouded in reverb and pushed into the background of whispering drones and shadowy sounds. Tibet's voice growls with the aid of plenty of timestretched tricks that perfectly augment Tibet's already creepy voice.
If you didn't have the opportunity to pick these up when they originally came out, you really should now, and spend some time with these recordings as they have clearly aged well over the past decade and stand amongst the best of the Current 93 recordings.
MPEG Stream: "Where The Long Shadows Fall"
MPEG Stream: "All The Pretty Little Horses"
MPEG Stream: "Calling For Vanished Faces"
MPEG Stream: "The Stars Are Marching Sadly Home"

CURRENT 93 Judas As Black Moth (Castle) cd 21.00
Thanks to an insatiable appetite for British folk and Christian Gnosticism, Current 93 evolved out of the tumultousness of British Industrial Culture into an eccentric avant-folk ensemble grounded by the charismatic singer / visionary David Tibet (who nowadays is qualifying himself as David Late Michael after a particularly convoluted revelation he had earlier in 2005). A few years ago, Current 93's distributor World Serpent dissolved, immediately rendering the catalogues of C93, Nurse With Wound, Coil, Sol Invictus, and Antony & The Johnsons out of print. Yet all of these bands persisted, releasing their works on various labels across the globe. Judas As Black Moth is actually the third double disc anthology of Current 93's work, focusing upon the most recent releases on which C93 has exacted a very precise sound with minimal arrangements for acoustic guitar, piano, Tibet's voice, and very little else to emphasize the profound melancholy of Tibet's lyrics and the peculiarities of his revelatory poetry. This anthology takes tracks from Where The Long Shadows Fall, Soft Black Stars, Of Ruine Or Some Blazing Starre, All The Pretty Horses, Thunder Perfect Mind, Earth Covers Earth, and a few others; it does exclude all of the exquisitely grim collage recordings from the early '80s. Nevertheless, Current 93 remains apocalyptic in the true sense of the word.
MPEG Stream: "Sleep Has His House"
MPEG Stream: "Lucifer Over London"
MPEG Stream: "A Gothic Love Song"

CURRENT 93 Live At Bar Maldoror (Durtro) cd 17.98

CURRENT 93 Nature Unveiled (Durtro / Jnana) lp+7" 25.00
Nature Unveiled was Current 93's debut, with the subtitle "Antichrist Revealed." As much as C93 has evolved since 1984 when David Tibet began this project, Current 93 emerged fully formed with much of the conceptual groundwork laid out for an entire lifetime of Tibet's research into occult mysticism and heretical Christianity. This album was conceived from beginning to end as a nightmare, with all of the exaggerated sounds collaged in harsh relief against a doomscape of the blackest of sounds. Tibet employed a handful of musicians with ties to Industrial Culture -- Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound (who has gone on to aid and abed Tibet on most of the C93 records), John Murphy (once of SPK and Lustmord's ensemble), and even Annie Anxiety of Crass. But even the most abstracted sounds of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV often related or at least exposed some sort of relationship to technology, whilst Current 93 was all about creating a bleak soundtrack collaged from monastic chants, monstrous growls, and bellowing clusters of low end rumble, all coated with brimstone, sulfur, and ash. Throughout the album, David Tibet moans and spits repetitive chants that "Maldoror is dead," with no chance for hope and no escape. Perhaps even more so today with so many blackened ambient projects and feral noise technicians about, Nature Unveiled is an ever impressive document and a chilling visionary masterpiece.
United Jnana has reissued Nature Unveiled in one of its earliest forms, complete with the original liner notes, a small poster, and the bonus split 7" between Current 93 and Nurse With Wound. This probably won't be around for very long, so don't dally on this one!
MPEG Stream: "Ach Golgoth: The Mystical Body Of Christ In Chorazaim"

CURRENT 93 Of Ruine Or Something Blazing (Durtro Jnana) cd 14.98

CURRENT 93 Six Six Six: Sick Sick Sick (World Serpent) cd 22.00

CURRENT 93 Sleep Has His House (Durtro) cd 14.98

CURRENT 93 Swastikas For Goddy (World Serpent) cd 18.98
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CURRENT 93 The Great In The Small (Durtro) cd 15.98
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During a recent illness, David Tibet had one of his earthmoving visions in which he was told to summarize his life's work in a singular recording. The powers that be instructed him that this life summary was to be a densely layered collage of all of his recordings as Current 93 and with Steven Stapleton all piled on top of each other. When Tibet recovered from his sickness, he and Stapleton actualized that prophetic vision with "The Great In The Small." And, yes it really is a dense collage of ALL of the Current 93 albums, drenched in a thick dose of cathedral reverb. Unfortunately, the idea and inception of this record is much more exciting than the sound itself. For fans only.

CURRENT 93 The Great In The Small (Durtro) lp 19.98
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During a recent illness, David Tibet had a one of his earthmoving visions in which he was told to summarize his life's work in a singular recording. The powers that be instructed him that this life summary was to be a densely layered collage of all of the recordings as Current 93 and with Steven Stapleton all piled on top of each other. When Tibet recovered from his sickness, he and Stapleton actualized that prophetic vision with "The Great In The Small." And, yes it really is a dense collage of ALL of the Current 93 albums, drenched in a thick dose of cathedral reverb. Unfortunately, the idea and inception of this record is much more exciting than the sound itself. For fans only.

CURRENT 93 The Seashore Rears To Oblivion (Durtro) cd 18.98
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CURRENT 93 Thunder Perfect Mind (Durtro / World Serpent) cd 20.00
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The companion release to a Nurse With Wound album of the same name, "Thunder Perfect Mind" is a stately album of their bleak reinterpretation of occultish 60s UK folk. Joined by The Bevis Frond's Nick Soloman on a few tracks, this rather sad album from Current 93 has a definitively psychedelic overtone to it. One of the recommended Current 93 releases.

CURRENT 93 Thunder Perfect Mind (Jnana / Durtro) 2cd 22.00
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Finally available again!
Thunder Perfect Mind has long been considered one of the best and most well-rounded albums for the very prolific Current 93. Up until this 1991 album, Current 93 had conjured a mythology out of occultism, apocalyptic literature, and pataphysical dialetics that went hand in hand with the post-industrial research into esoteric thought from Psychic TV, Clock DVA, Lustmord, etc. Yet, with Thunder Perfect Mind, Current 93's figurehead David Tibet began to explore his own relationship with these theologies, and begin to actively form his own highly personal interpretations which have led to his current position as an admitted Christian heretic. The title to this record itself comes from an early piece of Gnostic poetry often associated with heretical sects of Christian Gnosticism, and it describes a female deity who acts as metaphysical balance between the opposites on the earthly plane. Inspired by the beauty of this poem, Tibet firmly established the blueprint of Current 93's music which continues to this day: an eccentric reworking of '60s British folk tinged with an epistomological sadness that reflects Tibet's own notion of the fall of humanity against the backdrop of a Godly perfection. Lilting melodies for acoustic guitar laced with violin and flute dominate Current 93's Thunder Perfect Mind, with the ever-present Tibet divining his own personal mythology with its pantheon that includes Christ, Hitler, and Khalki as its protagonists as well as saintly references to his many friends (notably Death In June's Douglas P and several of Tibet's former lovers). As strikingly personal as Tibet's lyrics are, there is a portentous universality and stylized beauty that he invokes through his fragile folk music.
Thunder Perfect Mind has undergone many different pressings, and perhaps with the current relationship between Tibet's own Durtro, the Canadian label Jnana, and the mighty Revolver distribution, this album can finally remain in print! Like the last pressing on World Serpent, Thunder Perfect Mind is presented as a double disc with a full disc of studio out-takes and live tracks.
MPEG Stream: "A Sadness Song"
MPEG Stream: "A Lament For My Suzanne"
MPEG Stream: "Maldoror Is Ded Ded Ded Ded"

CURRENT 93 / NURSE WITH WOUND Bright Yellow Moon (Durtro / United Dairies) cd 17.98
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Both Steven Stapleton and David Tibet have been working on each others albums almost since the inceptions of both Nurse With Wound and Current 93, and the two of them have collaborated as equals on a few Stapleton / Tibet albums. But both Tibet and Stapleton make a big deal out of the fact that "Bright Yellow Moon" is the first proper collaboration between the entities Current 93 and Nurse With Wound. Whatever.
Somehow this collaboration has reawakened the nightmare culture which both ensembles propagated during the beginnings of Current 93 and Nurse With Wound, so you'll find less of the anally retentive folk stylings which have populated Current 93 and less of the smug weird-for-the-sake-of-being-weirdness from the last couple of Nurse With Wound albums. Michael Cashmore -- Tibet's favorite guitarist to play on the Current 93 albums -- does make a few appearances, offering more of a high-lonesome sound of big single plucked strings than his normal 12-string affair. Behind these solitary notes, Stapleton gradually builds a sublime collage of slashing noises, mechanical vocal loops, and generalized ominous atmospheres which is very reminiscent of his work on C93's "Dogs Blood Rising" and NWW's "Homotopy For Marie." Tibet, of course, offers an bleak recitation of one of his prophetic revelations. As in C93's previous "The Great And The Small," Tibet's inspiration comes from the near-death experience he encountered after his appendix burst and went gangrenous. However, unlike "The Great And The Small," "Bright Yellow Moon" comes much closer to explaining Tibet's horrors.
RealAudio clip: "Disintegrate Blur 36 Page 03"
RealAudio clip: "Nichts"

CURRENT 93 / THOMAS LIGOTTI In A Foreign Town, In A Foreign Land (Durtro / World Serpent) cd + book 22.00
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After over a decade of crafting a persona as the Gnostic court minstrel, David Tibet made a welcome return to the 'culture of nightmares' that ran through the first Current 93 records with the 1997 collabortive album / book with horror novelist Thomas Ligotti. The title itself comes from a recurring theme that Tibet brought to those early Current 93 recordings and also made their way into some Death In June albums. Cross-referencing various forms of apocalyptic literature, that unknown foreign town is the inception place for the apocalypse, with Tibet announcing the prophetic statement that "reaping time has come." While most apocalyptic literature (including the often misunderstood Book of Revelation) offers a vision of existential hope to a world shrouded in despair, Tibet's apocalyptic language concentrates on the descriptive details of how the world might end, instead of why the world is falling apart. Furthermore, these details dwell with the subjective viewpoint of a protagonist inflicted by madness, feverish hallucinations, wholly encompassing fear, and the awe-inspiring nature of terror; thus, the objective truth about the coming of the end of the world is left unanswered.
Thomas Ligotti, admittedly one of Tibet's favorite writers, has built an entire career on awakening the spirit of H.P. Lovecraft through ghastly tales of ancient demonic forces and hidden archons plotting against the rest of the world. For their collaboration "In A Foreign Town, In A Foreign Land," the two divided the labor evenly amongst their stonger talents with Ligotti providing a novella and Tibet's Current 93 producing the atmospheric soundtrack. Ligotti's contribution is easily the best that I've encountered of his work, favoring a Victorian sensibility of horror based not so much on the supernatural, but on the quiet whisperings of insanity. Current 93's soundtrack is a perfect fit with Ligotti's text, centered mostly upon the luminous bleak drones constructed by Current 93's line up of Tibet, Christoph Heemann, and Steven Stapleton. As a whole, the Current 93 soundtrack casts a gloomy tone, punctuated occasionally by razor-like slashes of treated noise and vocal interjections from various characters in the Ligotti text, read by Tibet, Andria Degens, and Shirley Collins. The return of Current 93's dark collage work previously found on Tibet's early masterpieces "Dogs Blood Rising" and "Nature Unveilled" is technically more refined than those rough hewn recordings, and are just as effective.
Originally, "In A Foreign Town, In A Foreign Land" was published as a hardbound book with an accompanying cd. This, the second edition, has been condensed down to a smaller CD-sized book. Other than that, there are no changes to what is easily one of the highlights to both artists' careers.
RealAudio clip: "His Shadow Shall Rise To A Higher House"
RealAudio clip: "A Soft Voice Whispers Nothing"

CURSE, CHARLES Rain In Skull (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 23.00

CURTIS, CHARLES Ultra White Violet Light / Sleep (Squealer) 2cd 17.98
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Charles Curtis is a classical cellist and avant garde composer and this is a reissue of a super limited double lp released only in Germany last year. Four long tracks that can be played separately, or in different combinations on multiple stereos. Three of the tracks are gorgeous drones built from cellos, electric guitars and sinewaves, while the fourth track is a dreamy hypnotic mini-epic ala Godspeed You Black Emperor; dark rumbling post rock with a monotone disembodied voice rambling throughout. Quite nice.

CUSTER, BETH Vinculum Symphony Live (bc records) cd 13.98
Great San Francisco musician and composer Beth Custer (Club Foot Orchestra, Eighty Mile Beach) assembled these players and instrument builders for the Yerba Buena performance recorded on this disc.

CZUKAY, HOLGER La Luna (Tone Casualties) cd 15.98
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Holger Czukay (ex-Can, y'know) starts out "La Luna" on the right foot with Zoviet France-like dark ambient electronic loops, but to my ears missteps with the inclusion of new ageist female vocal incantations (from his wife, U-She) intended to draw from the power of the universe. Those who liked the long, ambient track at the end of his last solo album should check this out, however. And it's not deliberately wacky like some of his earlier solo work.

D!O!D!O!D! Ghost Temple (PSF) cd 16.98
The latest from Tokyo's PSF label isn't one of their usual offerings of free jazz, outsider improv folk, or garage psych... it's not even "Japanese noise". It's actually Chinese noise. Not that that sounds much different from the Japanese variety! The oddly named D!O!D!O!D! are a raucous n' rowdy guitar and drums duo hailing from Hangzhou, China. Guitarist Li-Jianhong and drummer Huang Jin lay it on thick here, freaking out with the best of 'em. Crashing, clattering drum battery versus scrabbling, feedback guitar overload. Non-stop madness. If loud n' noisy improv is your thing, if you dig Hijokaidan and Ascension and Rudolph Grey and Harry Pussy and suchlike skronk and skree, you'll be happy PSF hooked up with these two frenzied Chinese noisniks to bring you this disc. Includes liner notes in English translation.
MPEG Stream: " UnUnn?"
MPEG Stream: "Meen_Mo"

D'ANGELO, ANDREW & JAIME FENNELLY Duets: Terpsichorea #2 (Falcta-Galia / Transparency) cd 14.98
An improv duo from Brooklyn, New York. D'Angelo (who has several solo recordings to his credit) plays alto sax and bass clarinet, whilst Fennelly plays double-bass. But both guys also manipulate their acoustic sounds electronically. Doubtless they could stir up quite a racket with their instruments alone, but the PowerBook & electronic effects processing adds even more texture (spacey, rumbling) to their scraping, squealing interplay of horn and bass. We wouldn't try to sell this to anyone not already into the whole avant-skronk free jazz thing, but if that's your bag, give these guys a listen.
RealAudio clip: "Is #8"
RealAudio clip: "Improvisation #1"