COLECLOUGH, JONATHAN / ANDREW LILES Torch Songs (Die Stadt) 2lp+cd 54.00
Much like the entire back catalogue of John Duncan, British avant-drone artist Jonathan Coleclough has often buttressed his work through an ongoing set of collaborations, each of which push his work into interesting territories while maintaining that essence of Coleclough that makes all of his albums so enthralling. His 2006 collaboration with Murmer was easily one of the best drone albums of that year, twisting field recordings and quiet sessions with electric objects into a gauzy, crepuscular blur that even made those at Artforum perk up their ears and listen. Torch Songs came to fruition when both Coleclough and Liles performed in Preston (probably at the request of the ever-charming Colin Potter) in 2005. In fact, much of the source material for Torch Songs originated from Coleclough's performance to which Liles went on to "add, subtract, multiply, and divide" further. The fundamentals of Torch Songs are primarily Coleclough's signature moves: swelling, resonant drones manipulated from acoustic sources and distilled into tonally vibrant beams of pure sound. Yet, Liles (who in and of himself is a fine technician of sonic alchemy to the point where he has often graced the stage alongside Steve Stapleton, Colin Potter, and Matt Waldron in Nurse With Wound) interjects his own sidereal gestures with wooden creaks, digital time stretching, radiant eruptions of dissonant couplings with Coleclough's drones, and occasional jaunts of heavily filtered tin-can and rubber-band rhythms that parallel much of the output from Liles' recent 12 part Vortex series. Yet for all of Liles' baroque flares for the sonically surreal, it is Coleclough who authors the strongest material on Torch Songs through his sublime use of the drone. The first 300 copies of Torch Songs comes with a bonus CD that documents Coleclough's aforementioned Preston performance back in 2005.
MPEG Stream: "Live at St. Peters (Extract)"

COLECLOUGH, JONATHAN / COLIN POTTER / BASS COMMUNION s/t (ICR) 2cd 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Despite our allegiance to all things produced by British drone masters Jonathan Coleclough and Colin Potter, this double disc co-produced with Bass Communion (the solo project of No-Man's Steven Wilson) made us wince at the possibility that Coleclough and Potter had unwittingly stumbled down the path of New Age banality. To be fair to Bass Communion, our only previous encounter with him was a subpar remix album he did for Muslimgauze; providing a lasting impression of Bass Communion as something of a droll ambient contemporary of The Orb. Perhaps we were wrong, as the sprawling collaborations and mixes found here don't exhibit the fluffiness of New Age; but at the same time, some of the source materials do seem quizzically thin, with just a couple of woefully obvious synth tones looping indefinitely through a few eq filters. However, Bass Communion's mix of work by Potter and Coleclough is one of the stronger pieces, with a glacial pall settling upon fluctuating drones and downpitched miasma. Coleclough's first of two mixes is another of the album's highlights, with frozen elements chattering amidst a set of deep, dark ambient passages that would make Lustmord and Thomas Koner jealous. Andee's new favorite going-to-sleep album.
MPEG Stream: COLIN POTTER / BASS COMMUNION "Raiser"
MPEG Stream: BASS COMMUNION / POTTER & COLECLOUGH "Yossaria"
MPEG Stream: JONATHAN COLECOUGH / BASS COMMUNION "Pethidine"

COLECLOUGH, JONATHAN AND COLIN POTTER Low Ground (ICR) cd 17.98
Through his exceptional career that spans work in Ora, a handful of fantastic solo projects, and the AQ-favorite "Sumac" collaboration with Andrew Chalk, Jonathan Coleclough has mastered the harder-than-it-looks art of disguising how he constructs his epic droneworks. His recordings have always been marked by a vigilantly maintained resonance of acoustic phenomena, which appear not as ephemeral sonorities but rather as epochal, monumental tones. "Low Ground" -- recorded in collaboration with engineer extraodinaire Colin Potter (also of Nurse With Wound fame) and saxophonist Tim Hill -- is no exception to the Coleclough blueprints. That said, Coleclough has been slowly moving away from the Ora / Chalk purity of sound, with an increased interest in digitizing his drones.
Under most circumstances, the presence of a saxophone on a drone album would make me cringe in agony; but thankfully, Coleclough's alchemy is so complete that you would be hard pressed to hear anything remotely sounding like a saxophone on "Low Ground." Instead, beautiful slowly aerated pulsations of ringing tones open this album, recalling the strangely comfortable sounds of a radiator pushing hot steam through archaic pipes on a cold winter eveneing. Coleclough and Potter gradually treat these sounds with some DSP actions (mostly timestreching and EQ-filtering) that pixelate into digital buzzings. "Low Ground" shifts from these sedate, transcendent metaphors into far more malevolent sci-fi scores, with the introduction of deep, menacingly low-end frequencies smattered with natural events of snapping twigs and trickling water. As the album draws to a close, Coleclough and Potter twist tiny slashes from the dark, slightly wavering drone into a majestic coda of those digitized radiator wheezes which opened the record.
As wonderful as anything else that Coleclough has done. Very highly recommended.
RealAudio clip: COLIN POTTER "Sinister Dexter"
RealAudio clip: JONATHAN COLECLOUGH "Tunnel"
RealAudio clip: COLECLOUGH, POTTER, AND TIM HILL "Beech Shadow"

COLEMAN, JAMES Zuihitsu (Sedimental) cd 14.98
Boston thereminist James Coleman comes from the very spartan school of improvisational "new music" alongside John Wall, Phil Durrant, and the Durian label. Coleman's spartan wisps of tones from the theremin (that early electronic instrument played without touching it, rather by manipulating the electrical waves emitting from it) accompany a number of guest musicians including Greg Kelley (trumpet), Tatsuya Nakatani (percussion), Vic Rawlings (cello and electronics), Bhob Rainey (saxophone), Liz Tonne (voice), and the undr quartet.

COLLECTIONS OF COLONIES OF BEES Six Guitars (Table Of The Elements) 12" 17.98

COLLEEN ET LES BOITES s/t (Leaf) cd 10.98
Colleen is the only music maker we can think of who can so perfectly crawl into our hearts, curling up and making it feel like home, with such delicacy and the softest sweetest touch. While not the official follow up to her gorgeous sophomore outing, The Golden Morning Breaks, this is a collection of recordings she made when commissioned by the French national radio station to record music for a special broadcast of Atelier De Creation Radiophonique (Radiophonic Workshop Of Creation). In taking on this commission Colleen decided to use the opportunity to further explore her love of and work with music boxes. Using everything from miniature music boxes hidden in 1940's birthday cards to huge Victorian parlor boxes, she hijacks and tweaks these boxes to create even more melodic, haunting, and beautiful creations. Whether playing them with her fingers or using a mallet, resampling, adding delay, reverb or pitch shifting, Colleen is one of those rare souls who can somehow make the sound of music boxes even more precious, delicate and dreamlike. Luckily she was happy enough with the results that she allowed Leaf to release this under the name Colleen Et Les Boites (Colleen and the Music Boxes). And once again we wish we could commission Colleen to make music for all of our dreams. So totally beautiful!
MPEG Stream: "The Sad Panther"
MPEG Stream: "Your Heart Is So Loud"

COLLEY, JOE 8 Phased Loops (Mixer) 2 x 7" 14.98
For this double 7" set, sound artist Joe Colley (who recently dropped his longstanding Crawl Unit moniker) presents an exercise in conceptual minimalism, even if the end results aren't entirely keeping in the minimalist tradition. On each composition, Colley manipulates only two tape loops, allowing them to phase in and out of rhythm, slowing them down, speeding them up, and crossfading between the two. Considering that his source materials are ominous electronic field disturbances and hotwired drones, the cross-pollenization of the two loops creates a sonic friction that is intentionally caustic and mechanical. Even the drones are noxious enough as to create a very tense environment for the mantra of looping crackle and hum.

COLLEY, JOE Anthem: Static For Empty Life (Crippled Intellect) 3" cd 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
While he may have permanently dropped his industrialist moniker Crawl Unit, Joe Colley continues to impress with his ominous compositions of mistreated electronics, tonally pleasing feedback mantras, and abrasive physicality. "Anthem: Static For Empty Life" lifts itself out of deep rumblings with streaming, cold gray ribbons of electrical fizzings that subtly phase across the stereo field. These physically active drones build up to a sublime chorus of electrical field hummings, which abruptly jump-cut to throbbing mechanical stabs of low-bit-rate noise. Often alluding to less specific metaphors of urban decay or social collapse, Colley's aesthetic choices are just as strong as work by John Duncan or Francisco Lopez. It's a bit of shame that it's 18 minutes long, but it does make for a great ride!
RealAudio clip: "Anthem (excerpt 1)"
RealAudio clip: "Anthem (excerpt 2)"

COLLEY, JOE Desperate Attempts At Beauty (Auscultare) cd 11.98
If you hold the cover at just the right angle, a misanthropic and self-loathing text emerges from what might appear at first to be simply just another austere, all white package housing another austere album of micro-glitch minimalism. This well-executed design strategy (courtesy of Randy Yau) works to complement Joe Colley's subversive agenda, which even ends up undermining his own intentions. For all of the macho posturing of the text (e.g. "REMEMBER HOW WE DESTROYED THE THINGS THAT MADE US HAPPY AND HOW WE STILL DO? LETS DAMAGE EACH OTHER BEYOND REPAIR..." and so on) and the opening 8 second jolt of unneccessary noise, Colley's sound constructions speak of an inquisitive spirit. Throughout this record, Colley pokes and prods various sonic-making situations that often hold fascinating textural detailings. The most obvious example of this is found in his recordings of water being absorbed by modelling clay, which results in a dense chorus of tiny squeaks and squiggles. Colley almost allows himself to be seduced by these sounds; but just before he does, that misanthropic urge deep within his being instructs him to obliterate those curious textures though harsh digital noises, piercing arpeggiations, and noxious jump-cuts. This strategic hammering of sound certainly keeps the listener alert to what may be coming next; thus making the intricate detail work far more enjoyable... if "enjoyable" can in fact be a description attributed to Colley's solo output or his earlier work as Crawl Unit.
MPEG Stream: "January Broken Statis"
MPEG Stream: "Claysound 07.02"
MPEG Stream: "Headache (Diagnostic Testpulse For Blown PA)"

COLLEY, JOE Hive (Ferns) 3" cd 9.98
A few months ago, the French label Ferns published a brilliant 3" CD from mnortham who created an homage to his father, the race car driver, through a ecstatic droning collage of racetrack recordings. The very next release from the label happens to be from the Bay Area's Joe Colley, who in turn, composed a unsettling piece dedicated to his father as well, the beekeeper. We simply could not help notice the coincidence of the fatherly inspiration found on these two recordings, and wonder if the next couple (i.e. Small Cruel Party and Giancarlo Toniutti, if you must know) will follow the same pattern in creating sonic portraits. As you probably could ascertain, Colley's Hive is sourced from beehives, with many of the recordings processed and mangled. With the resultant sounds being much less destructive / misanthropic than those heard on Psychic Stress Soundtracks or Desperate Attempts At Beauty, Colley pursues a relatively subtle composition through the anxious energy of bees rattling within a hive and swarming drones that have been hushed into a peculiarly dreamy cloud of soft white noises. Hive is incredibly well executed, but the lack of anything overtly abrasive, toxic, or downright meanspirited in a Colley piece can be a little unsettling, as we had braced ourselves for the swarm of bees to erupt from the speakers in a nightmarish attack of razor-sharp distortion. But after the second and third listens to Hive, we sank into the rich buzzing sounds wondering if this is how it sounds to have a colony of bees placidly crawling over one's head. Very nicely done.
MPEG Stream: "Hive 1"
MPEG Stream: "Hive 2"

COLLEY, JOE Psychic Stress Soundtracks (Antifrost) cd 15.98
Once known as Crawl Unit, the Californian misanthrope Joe Colley has never been as prolific as many of his contemporaries such as Francisco Lopez, Daniel Menche, and The Hafler Trio. While this is not to say that none of those artists exhibit much in the way of quality control (quite the contrary!), Joe Colley's constant fussiness coupled with a self-identification with failure lends his recordings to readings as these fringe elements of sound research touching on psychological issues into the nether regions of the human psyche as well as mechanical engineering gone awry. It's been a little over two years since Colley's previous album Desperate Attempts At Beauty, and we have to say that Psychic Stress Soundtracks is a step up from that impressive piece of work. Refreshingly devoid of digital effects and techniques, the Psychic Stress Soundtracks feature five lengthy compositions in which a handful of surplus electronics, motors, and mechanical objects have been rewired to exaccerbate their collapse. Within the hiss of circuits meltings and gears jamming, Colley coaxes a toxic array of hums, clicks, pings, and drones, and in turn, sculpts them into an amazing set of electro-shock minimalism confounded by numerous compositional detours and ruptures. This is well worth checking out!
MPEG Stream: "A Melody of Failure"
MPEG Stream: "Rehersal For Highspeed Paralysis"

COLLEY, JOE Waste Of Songs (Oral) cd 16.98
Earlier in 2006, Joe Colley won an Award of Distinction at the 2006 Prix Ars Electronica in Digital Music for his album Psychic Stress Soundtracks. The jurors of Ars Electronica grafted a political sentiment onto Colley's work by drawing parallels between Psychic Stress Soundtracks and the use of extreme sound as a method of interrogation pushed to the brink of what can be defined as torture under the Geneva Convention. While Colley's previous work has intentionally blurred the boundaries between noise, sound research, and psychology, all of his investigations (including Psychic Stress Soundtracks) appear as exercises in self-negation and existential failure manifested through maltreated electronics (as opposed to what those at Ars Electronica saw in his work as a mimetic work of external horror). Waste Of Songs is a blunt follow up to Psychic Stress Soundtracks, and true to Colley's demeanor, he's not particularly inclined to resolve any questions about the intentions of his album or its relation to the outside world. Rather, it's another brilliantly executed album of his own "negative reactions to an environment" as realized through jittering electronic feedback, overdriven servo-motors smoldering with too much voltage pushed through their dynamos, volatile drones extracted from the ether, and field recordings rendered toxic with choice use of DSP treatments. The exact synthesis between Xenakis' precision and Wolf Eyes' malaise; yeah, that's close enough to describing this. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Internal Apocalypse and Half Asleep"
MPEG Stream: "Lung Crack and Tuning Sickness"

COLLEY, JOE & JASON LESCALLEET Annihilate This Week (Brombron) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "Prayer"
MPEG Stream: "Nervous Laughter"

COLLEY, JOE / CRAWL UNIT Sound Until the World Ends (Staalplaat / ERS) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is not a split release as Joe Colley is the individual behind Crawl Unit, and perhaps should be seen as an indication that Joe is phasing out his Crawl Unit moniker. Regardless, "Sound Until The World Ends" is another great addition to the often overlooked / underappreciated catalogue of Mr. Colley, whose work has always been as good / if not better than Francisco Lopez, Zbigniew Karkowski, and other manipulators of physical sound. This vinyl only LP (as is the case for everything released so far on ERS) is broken into discrete sections which begin quite benignly with low-end drones and the delicate flutter of delay pedals feeding back upon themselves. But any tranquility these sounds offer quickly dissipates amidst noxious distortions and chopped white noise that steadily build up into a crescendo and quickly drop off into an abyss of deep tonal floats. This is the pattern that Colley follows through 4 or 5 sections throughout the record. Constructed at Colley's base of operations in Sacramento during the much ballyhooed California power crisis in the summer of 2001, "Sound Until The World Ends" alludes to the hyperboles of apocalyptic literature (found in the title and the pseudo-luddite note that this album was "mixed by hand (without a computer)". Given how incredibly hot Sacramento can get in the summer, such references may be warranted. Nevertheless, this is a great album.

COLLINS, NICOLAS Devil's Music (EM) 2cd 26.00
Some experimental music is more experimental than other experimental music. Nicolas Collins' Devil's Music, it's safe to say, was (and is) an Experiment. One that tests a theory described in the liner notes: "I have long assumed the radio to be the world's cheapest, yet most powerful synthesizer: you can find any sound out there; the only question is, can you find the sound you want when you want it?" Naturally, the results of this experiment fall into that realm of unusual sounds that would be reissued by Japan's ever-eccentric EM Records label, and glad we are of EM's diligent efforts to dig up such artifacts!
Devil's Music hails from the heyday of sampling music (late '80s), so it bears some similarity to the works of Christian Marclay and Steinski, but Collins is (as per his theorizing) using radios, not turntables. It also reminds us of stuff by John Oswald, the Tape-Beatles, and other "plunderphonic" artists, but in John Cage like fashion, Collins has introduced an element of chance into the genre of sample-basic music making. Inspired also by hip hop DJs, Collins' music here is performed live, in a spontaneous, improvisatory mode, at the mercy of whatever he can snatch from the local airways at that very moment to weave into his stuttery sound-collages. Every performance was thus very different in audio content, if not structure and rhythm.
Further explanation, from the liner notes to the original Devil's Music LP (1986): "[F]ragments of radio broadcasts are digitally sampled, looped, re-triggered and occasionally reversed or de-tuned. All material is taken from FM and AM transmissions occuring at the time of the performance. The performer plays off of certain musical ground-rules intrinsic to the sampling system (which consists of two modified inexpensive effect devices) to develop the quirky rhythmic interplay that characterizes the piece."
Conceptually (and chaotically) interesting, definitely, but difficult listening too. You know best your own tolerance for this sort of thing. People into rhythmic noisiness ought to like it. The density of this "music", and the element of repetition, makes it mesmeric, maybe. But for many, it might be maddening - ferinstance, hearing some anonymous announcer man say "outdoor swimming pool" over and over and over again, nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nineteen style, amidst a barrage of (drum machine?) beats, before the track shifts, ADD-like, to another non-sequitur sample randomly snatched from the airwaves, is sure to drive some folks nuts!
Though the first side of Devil's Music is supposed to be "dance" oriented (he tuned into his favorite of New York's urban dance stations, like a DJ looking for breaks), the inclusion of voices from radio advertising tends to dominate. The second side of Devil's Music is maybe a bit more, um, musical seeming in its source material. "More rock, less talk" would be the motto, except it's not rock, actually easy listening and classical radio stations being plundered. Both sides are featured on the first disc of this two disc set, along with a previously unreleased 1988 tape music piece utilizing lots of voices scanned from police band radio, ship-to-shore transmissions, taxi dispatch, etc., which aren't all cut up and stuttery like on Devil's Music, but patched together into more of a "narrative" exercise.
The second disc here consists of yet more delirious variations on the Devil's Music concept, realized at live concerts in Europe and the USA, originally released on a 1987 cassette release entitled Real Landscape. And also, in addition, on this disc you'll find a computer program Collins wrote recently that's essentially a software "recreation" of his original hardware set-up and compositional strategy so that YOU can plug a radio into your computer and try making the Devil's Music yourself!! There's both Mac and PC versions provided. (Not included on the vinyl format, obviously.)
And there's extensive liner notes (complete with footnotes) from Collins about his ideas, methods, and equipment (with color photos of the latter, for all you tech geeks). EM, as always, has certainly done a thorough job with this release, which deserves the attention. Difficult listening it may be, but put into historical context, you can see how some consider Collins a bit of a techno pioneer, and certainly hear how his work foreshadowed the digital "glitch" music of Oval and Lesser and the like later on.
MPEG Stream: "Devil's Music A"
MPEG Stream: "Devil's Music B"

COLLINS, NICOLAS Devil's Music (EM) 2lp 32.00
Some experimental music is more experimental than other experimental music. Nicolas Collins' Devil's Music, it's safe to say, was (and is) an Experiment. One that tests a theory described in the liner notes: "I have long assumed the radio to be the world's cheapest, yet most powerful synthesizer: you can find any sound out there; the only question is, can you find the sound you want when you want it?" Naturally, the results of this experiment fall into that realm of unusual sounds that would be reissued by Japan's ever-eccentric EM Records label, and glad we are of EM's diligent efforts to dig up such artifacts!
Devil's Music hails from the heyday of sampling music (late '80s), so it bears some similarity to the works of Christian Marclay and Steinski, but Collins is (as per his theorizing) using radios, not turntables. It also reminds us of stuff by John Oswald, the Tape-Beatles, and other "plunderphonic" artists, but in John Cage like fashion, Collins has introduced an element of chance into the genre of sample-basic music making. Inspired also by hip hop DJs, Collins' music here is performed live, in a spontaneous, improvisatory mode, at the mercy of whatever he can snatch from the local airways at that very moment to weave into his stuttery sound-collages. Every performance was thus very different in audio content, if not structure and rhythm.
Further explanation, from the liner notes to the original Devil's Music LP (1986): "[F]ragments of radio broadcasts are digitally sampled, looped, re-triggered and occasionally reversed or de-tuned. All material is taken from FM and AM transmissions occuring at the time of the performance. The performer plays off of certain musical ground-rules intrinsic to the sampling system (which consists of two modified inexpensive effect devices) to develop the quirky rhythmic interplay that characterizes the piece."
Conceptually (and chaotically) interesting, definitely, but difficult listening too. You know best your own tolerance for this sort of thing. People into rhythmic noisiness ought to like it. The density of this "music", and the element of repetition, makes it mesmeric, maybe. But for many, it might be maddening - ferinstance, hearing some anonymous announcer man say "outdoor swimming pool" over and over and over again, nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nineteen style, amidst a barrage of (drum machine?) beats, before the track shifts, ADD-like, to another non-sequitur sample randomly snatched from the airwaves, is sure to drive some folks nuts!
Though the first side of Devil's Music is supposed to be "dance" oriented (he tuned into his favorite of New York's urban dance stations, like a DJ looking for breaks), the inclusion of voices from radio advertising tends to dominate. The second side of Devil's Music is maybe a bit more, um, musical seeming in its source material. "More rock, less talk" would be the motto, except it's not rock, actually easy listening and classical radio stations being plundered. Both sides are featured on the first disc of this two disc set, along with a previously unreleased 1988 tape music piece utilizing lots of voices scanned from police band radio, ship-to-shore transmissions, taxi dispatch, etc., which aren't all cut up and stuttery like on Devil's Music, but patched together into more of a "narrative" exercise.
The second disc here consists of yet more delirious variations on the Devil's Music concept, realized at live concerts in Europe and the USA, originally released on a 1987 cassette release entitled Real Landscape. And also, in addition, on this disc you'll find a computer program Collins wrote recently that's essentially a software "recreation" of his original hardware set-up and compositional strategy so that YOU can plug a radio into your computer and try making the Devil's Music yourself!! There's both Mac and PC versions provided. (Not included on the vinyl format, obviously.)
And there's extensive liner notes (complete with footnotes) from Collins about his ideas, methods, and equipment (with color photos of the latter, for all you tech geeks). EM, as always, has certainly done a thorough job with this release, which deserves the attention. Difficult listening it may be, but put into historical context, you can see how some consider Collins a bit of a techno pioneer, and certainly hear how his work foreshadowed the digital "glitch" music of Oval and Lesser and the like later on.
MPEG Stream: "Devil's Music A"
MPEG Stream: "Devil's Music B"

COLLINS, WILLIAM FOWLER Perdition Hill Radio (Type) cd 15.98
We were big fans of William Fowler Collins' debut album, Western Violence & Brief Sensuality, so we're very happy to see that his follow-up, Perdition Hill Radio is being released on one of our favorite experimental labels, Type. Fitting right at home between Koen Holtkamps's dreamy effervescent drift and Svarte Greiner's darkly spectral shipwreck atmospherics, Collins offers an intense nocturnal Western counterpart to the unrelenting Southwest heat of his debut. And from the image of a dim moon behind a dark looming hill on the cover, it's obvious this is a much more doom-laden outing than before. Like slow motion black holes opening in the dark desert sand, the guitar drones that Collins conjures undulate and pull us down into a nether world of enveloping starless night, the air electric with magnetic activity and static radio transmissions that churn and dissipate in an infernal ebb and flow of sonic waves. Like moving indiscernible shapes in the dim light, uncertain sounds peek out through the din, prowling animal growls, ghostly disembodied dialogue like EVP transmissions buried under sheets of noise that at times conjure images of passing trains, horse-led stagecoaches, mysterious Native American rituals, and swarms of flies. The song titles like "Grave Robbing In Texas" and "Slow Motion Prayer Circle" only add to the dread and mystery of what those fleeting sounds could allude to. On the album's 21 minute centerpiece, "Dark Country Road", the far-off echoing twang of a slide guitar can be heard fading into the distance before a mountainous dronescape rises out of the still air and crests tunnel-like into an inky pool of uneasy shimmer for much of its length (the vinyl version ends in a locked groove!). Only on the last song, "The Ghosts of Eden Trail", does the sound brighten up into a beautifully levitating and expansive drifting ambience offering just a glimpse of torturing hope. The limited double vinyl version contains a side-long bonus track, "Saturnine Reverie" not on the cd. We have often said that Earth's later records are Cormac McCarthy novels in song, but Perdition Hill Radio is the closest comparison to an imagined soundtrack for The Road that we have ever heard, and that of course means this has our highest recommendation!!!
MPEG Stream: "Grave Robbing In Texas"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Country Road"
MPEG Stream: "On Perdition Hill"

COLLINS, WILLIAM FOWLER Perdition Hill Radio (Type) 2lp 23.00
We were big fans of William Fowler Collins' debut album, Western Violence & Brief Sensuality, so we're very happy to see that his follow-up, Perdition Hill Radio is being released on one of our favorite experimental labels, Type. Fitting right at home between Koen Holtkamps's dreamy effervescent drift and Svarte Greiner's darkly spectral shipwreck atmospherics, Collins offers an intense nocturnal Western counterpart to the unrelenting Southwest heat of his debut. And from the image of a dim moon behind a dark looming hill on the cover, it's obvious this is a much more doom-laden outing than before. Like slow motion black holes opening in the dark desert sand, the guitar drones that Collins conjures undulate and pull us down into a nether world of enveloping starless night, the air electric with magnetic activity and static radio transmissions that churn and dissipate in an infernal ebb and flow of sonic waves. Like moving indiscernible shapes in the dim light, uncertain sounds peek out through the din, prowling animal growls, ghostly disembodied dialogue like EVP transmissions buried under sheets of noise that at times conjure images of passing trains, horse-led stagecoaches, mysterious Native American rituals, and swarms of flies. The song titles like "Grave Robbing In Texas" and "Slow Motion Prayer Circle" only add to the dread and mystery of what those fleeting sounds could allude to. On the album's 21 minute centerpiece, "Dark Country Road", the far-off echoing twang of a slide guitar can be heard fading into the distance before a mountainous dronescape rises out of the still air and crests tunnel-like into an inky pool of uneasy shimmer for much of its length (the vinyl version ends in a locked groove!). Only on the last song, "The Ghosts of Eden Trail", does the sound brighten up into a beautifully levitating and expansive drifting ambience offering just a glimpse of torturing hope. The limited double vinyl version contains a side-long bonus track, "Saturnine Reverie" not on the cd. We have often said that Earth's later records are Cormac McCarthy novels in song, but Perdition Hill Radio is the closest comparison to an imagined soundtrack for The Road that we have ever heard, and that of course means this has our highest recommendation!!!
MPEG Stream: "Grave Robbing In Texas"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Country Road"
MPEG Stream: "On Perdition Hill"

COLLINS, WILLIAM FOWLER Western Violence & Brief Sensuality (West Mountain Road Recordings) cd 14.98
Known as "The Land of Enchantment", the romantic appeal of New Mexico also harbors a thinly veiled sinister quality. Despite its prominence as an epic desert monument heralding incredible vistas and inspiring a nature-based spirituality from its large population of Native Americans, New-Agers and even Catholic Hispanics who flock to the sanctuary of Chimayo every year to take a bit of holy soil said to be blessed with healing powers, the western expansion of the US has also brought to the land massive genocide, toxic pollutants, and covert Government operations. On William Fowler Collins debut CD, the former Mills College graduate who recently relocated to New Mexico, explores the paradoxical perspective of his adopted home through his experimental guitar compositions that are equally beautiful and jarring. Collins' varied use of the guitar with the help of filters and computer programs evokes a wide range of electro-acoustic tropes, many reminiscent of field recordings. The bristling sheets of loud distorted drone that open "Dawn at McDonald Ranch" come across like an air-raid siren or a swarm of locusts before it diffuses into waves of pensive yet gossamer shimmer. The industrial crackle and whirring machine drones of "Untitled Dream 2" recall the metallic toxicity of Superfund sites, and the staticy build-up of broadcast transmissions retains a warm shifting undertone that eases the tension slightly by invoking the bucolic domiciles where such threats live in uneasy harmony. Images of magnetic storms, train engines, electrical lines, and the high-powered industry that Collins evokes through his guitar work are tempered by quietly restrained passages that harbor introspective reflection over the vast and contradictory landscape of mountains, arid deserts and broken mesas. Having previously played with Matmos, Aero-Mic'd, and in his former band Mire, it's nice to see Collins coming into his own on this amazing and accomplished debut. Fans of Tim Hecker, Steven R. Smith, and Flying Saucer Attack should check this out. Recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Dawn At McDonald Ranch"
MPEG Stream: "Foothills' Ghost"
MPEG Stream: "Over The Mountain"

COMAE s/t (Rhiz) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Comae is a new collaborative project formed by London-based sound architect Janek Schaefer and Robert Hampson (Main, Loop). Beautiful guitar based sonicscapes are accentuated with found sound abstractions and spatial dynamicism (via piercing test tones and low frequency rumbles). Pieces vary from dense aural vehemence to dispassionate minimalism and super low frequency pulses. Quite nice.
RealAudio clip: "Courou"

COMBAT ASTRONOMY Dreams No Longer Hesitate (Zond) cd 11.98
A couple years back, we raved about a disc called The Dematerialized Passenger, the first album from this unique band (or perhaps we should say project), remember? In case you don't, here's the deal: Combat Astronomy are a USA/UK collaboration, creating a crushing industrial/jazz/prog hybrid. Imagine Godflesh with a free improv horn section, saxophones squealing amidst the metallic riffage. Or Scorn taking a skronked-out stab at chamber music. Like their earlier release, this new Combat Astronomy opus is again laced with punishing, rigid drummachine beats, along with heavy, uber-low-end fretless bass shaking each song with doomic distortion. Which establishes an absurdly heavy context for sax, clarinet, flute and bassoon to freak out organically, like wild weeds creeping through cracks in giant slabs of concrete, on the floor of an abandoned factory somewhere.
But unlike their all-instrumental debut, this time Combat Astronomy have recruited a female vocalist, Elaine di Falco, who also plays some piano, to add yet another unusual dimension to their mashup of extremes, now reminding us slightly of James Plotkin's now forgotten post-Old project Flux. (Hmm, maybe Kayo Dot and later Ulver could be other comparisons now too.) If the addition of her vocals makes this a bit more overtly melodic, it's still no less extreme overall. And certainly just as intricate, her delicate vocal arrangements in themselves quite complex, multi-tracked, as on the urban R&B influenced (???? no, we're crazy) "Touch The Moon" and the album's whispery coda, "Ordinary Miracles". And the focus of CA is still on the ominous grooves, ambient electronics, and battling horn bleats... tracks like "Alive Inside Eternity" and "Sentinel" are lengthy epics (12:36 and 16:49, respectively) of serious beats and blats and skree, in the challenging, compelling, militant manner to which actually only Combat Astronomy can truly lay claim. The vocals, when present, then take it into another, equally unlikely, atmospheric realm of twisted prog-pop. Pretty darn cool!
MPEG Stream: "I Can't Breathe"
MPEG Stream: "Lightning In Her Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "Alive Inside Eternity"

COMBAT ASTRONOMY The Dematerialised Passenger (Discus) cd 10.98
A grinding, rumbling distorto sub-bass death march with jackhammering machine beats... sounds kinda Godfleshy at first... but then, what's this? Heavy-duty blasts of saxophone, flute and bassoon?? Yes indeed, Combat Astronomy combine industrial metal with freaked out free jazz and prog, making for maybe the heaviest "jazz" record since Switzerland's under-exposed and now defunct 16-17 assaulted our ears with Gyatso back in '94. Yet there's also interludes of calm -- doomy passages of ambient moodiess with droning, multitracked reeds. And then it's back to the grind. The rhythms are punishingly mechanical, but also interestingly off-kilter. The weird timing adds to the sense of unease that's also built up by the squonky, skronky sax bleating and ominious electronics... Who's responsible for this brutal, beautiful madness? Well, Combat Astronomy's all-instrumental album The Dematerialized Passenger is a trans-Atlantic collaboration, built upon the foundation of the distorted bass, guitar and programmed beats of one James Hugget from Minnesota USA, in collusion/collision with the saxes, clarinet, violin and effects of Sheffield UK's Martin Archer. Remember that Masayo Asahara cd we reviewed a while back? Saint Agnes Fountain, the supposed long-lost '70s Japanese minimalist drone-prog album that was actually the work of a current-day British musician? He's *that* guy. Two of Archer's pals join in on flute and bassoon as well. The results are likely to alienate all but the most adventurous jazz, metal, and prog fans...which is why we figured a lot of AQ customers might like it! Could certainly be a good one for fans of Godflesh, God, 16-17, Aufgehoben, Last Exit, Zdrastvootie, and other far out outfits on the extremes of industrial, prog and/or improv.
MPEG Stream: "Greedy Angels"
MPEG Stream: "Orion"

COMET III Astral Voyager (Fire Museum) cd 14.98
Frickin' gorgeous! This hitherto unknown to us Sicilian duo (Delfo Catania on guitars, sitar, flute, tapes, homemade instruments, percussion, etc. + Carlo Matanza on Moog, organ, theremin, and suchlike synths) delivers a sparkling slab of late-night, outer-spheres, electro-acoustic dronepsych improv. Good listening with the lights off, eyes closed, headphones on, suitably relaxed, ready for the "astral voyage" that this indeed simulates and/or stimulates. The ceremony begins with reverbed tones in placid alternation, heralding a gentle, crickety/treefroggy drone bedecked with ringing pulsations, swirling electronics, pretty ping ping pings and hummmmmummmummm... It's all quite organic and lovely, sort of like Jewelled Antler meets Popol Vuh, all new weirded out. An abstract ritual of chiming and tinkling opens track two, which also is graced with wordless female vocals, moaning on high, the contribution of guest Shirin Demma. Echoing piano chords also punctuate this haunted voidscape... strings zing, as things drift sweetly and serene but with an undercurrent of ominousness. On track three, Comet III introduce some non-sucky saxophone exhalations (courtesy of another guest, Caetano Firlito), bringing more smokey, somnolent, and melodious atmosphere, steering our astral voyage into the dreamlands of track four's thicker haze of slo-mo synthesizer spinning out wobbly drones. And then finally, on the album's 15 minute title track, a suspenseful electronic rhythm is begun, amidst bells and bloops and a bed of soothing synth that sometimes rears up into a denser, spookier sizzle. This one's a bit like a spaced-out John Carpenter soundtrack, as heard (hallucinated?) through the walls of a New Age isolation tank... towards the end some simple folky guitar meander adds to the mesmerizing mood. An altogether satisfying voyage, is Comet III's debut trip though our headspace, a perfectly mysterious and evocative tribute to its kosmiche krautrock forebears for sure...
MPEG Stream: "C1"
MPEG Stream: "Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Astral Voyager"

COMETS ON FIRE & BURNING STAR CORE s/t (Yik Yak) 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.
A long while back we had a super limited lp featuring a freaked out psychedelic team up between Bay Area psych rock heroes Comets On Fire, and Ohio drone noise outfit Burning Star Core. While that lp is loooong gone, the label just discovered a box containing the last 30 cd-r's of this disc, originally sold on tour only, which features completely differently music than the lp, although recorded during the same sessions. So if you missed out on the lp, this cd-r should do you right, and if you got the lp and loved it, then this here is like a perfect part two. Another massive slab of freaked out lo-fi psych-sludge. Most definitely NOISY, and quite certainly LO-FI. Blown out, ultra reverbed, psychedelic noise. There may indeed be actual songs, but they are struggling constantly to stay afloat, pummelled by wave after wave of mayhemic skree and crumbly distortion, bottomless pit reverb and fuzz Fuzz FUZZ! Wow. We're pretty sure the sessions that yielded these sound (captured on the out of print lp and this here cd-r) were purely a studio concoction, but the thought of actually experiencing this stuff live had us excitedly donning protective eyewear, thick soled boots, fire retardant clothing, industrial strength earplugs and strapping on our rock and roll hardhats!
ALREADY OUT OF PRINT! We have 30 copies, and once those are gone, it's gone for good...
MPEG Stream: "I"

COMFORTS OF MADNESS Autism (Durian) cd 17.98

COMFORTS OF MADNESS Röhren (Charhizma) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Tinkering effects and cartoony samples join a traditional jazz improv set which would easily be at home on Zorn's Tzadik. Features fabulous Japanese guitar player Uchihashi Kazuhisa (Altered States, Ground Zero).

COMMON EIDER, KING EIDER Figs, Wasps And Monotremes (Root Strata) cd 12.98
Record number two from the peculiarly monickered Common Eider, King Eider, the one man project of Mr. Rob Fisk, formerly of Deerhoof, currently of Badgerlore, and much like the first disc, Figs, Wasps And Monotremes, is another haunting missive of long drawn out drones, and minimal folk mesmer.
The intro is a smoldering shimmer of scraped strings, wavery falsetto vocals, and all manner of overtones and harmonics, mysterious and hypnotic, we would have been quite happy if it had gone on just like that for the record's entire 32+ minutes, but the record soon shifts to something more songy (only slightly though), deep distant swells, dense soft drones and more ethereal falsetto vocals, all drift over insistently sawed strings, the string unfurling an almost looped sounding rhythmic melody. The record drifts lazily after that from spare melancholic reverb drenched sun dappled soft folk, all shimmery and washed out, to still more keening high end drones, looooong tones allowed to howl and buzz and slowly decay before being overtaken by still more growling, scraped strings, sounding almost like a 20th century string quartet slowed down to no beats per minute, to fractured free folk, steel string buzz, angular abstract riffage wrapped in haunting gauzy lo-fi hum, to super intense, almost Sunroof! worthy sheets of high end ur-drone, the notes crumbling and distorted and gorgeously blown out, and back to more introspective folky flutter.
A gorgeous sprawling, abstract record, the listener drifting dreamily from song to song, sound to sound, sinking ever deeper, falling in slow motion, Common Eider's blurred soundscapes moving past, like a film slowed way down, so each frame flickers gently before slipping away, allowing another to take its place. Absolutely lovely.
Gorgeous packaging too, as with all Root Strata releases, a three panel white cardstock sleeve, printed in silver ink, adorned with images of fruits and branches and a platypus!
MPEG Stream: "Wasp Tunnels (Intro)"
MPEG Stream: "Monotreme Mom (For Jamie & Andrew)"
MPEG Stream: "Brown Trumps White (Harry's Mix)"

COMMON EIDER, KING EIDER How To Build A Cabin (Yik Yak) cd 12.98
Latest bit of abstract beauty from Mr. Rob Fisk, formerly of Deerhoof, now of Badgerlore, a gorgeous slow burning expanse of soft and shimmery minor key Appalachian guitar, buzzing bowed viola, and reverb drenched vocals. Each track is a slow build, a musical new dawn, the guitar sprawled out like dew on grass, the vocals like a gauzy fog hugging the ground, a tranquil blissful drift, the viola offering bits of blurred grit and melody, so so gorgeous. Imagine some impossible blend of Grouper, Henry Flynt and Jack Rose. The surprise here, is the occasional blast of jagged super distorted guitar. Not sure how many folks remember the amazing Slap Happy Humphrey record, a long out of print Japanese disc featuring Jojo from Hiokaidan, one of the Angels In Heavy Syrup and one of the Subvert Blaze guys, long soft swirls of lilting dreamy folk occasionally interrupted by huge crashing psychnoise guitar. Bits of this disc definitely remind us of a sort of modern freakfolk version of that disc, although the psychnoise intrusions here are much less frequent, and even at their noisiest offer up some gorgeous keening melodies.
Barring the bits of coruscating heart-of-the-sun guitar freakouts, most of this disc is delicate and gentle, the vocals indistinct and plaintive, wrapped in soft billows of reverb, the guitar spare and lovely, the viola adding just the right bit of raga like drone... Fans of any of the above mentioned bands will love this for sure. And anyone into the current crop of dreamfolk would do well to check this out as well.
GORGEOUS packaging. A thick white textured paper booklet printed with silver metallic ink, sewn together, the cd in a clear plastic sleeve, the artwork featuring images of ducks and instructions on how to build a cabin (of course), all held together by an extra wide Japanese style obi. Wow.
MPEG Stream: "Steal Your Hair"
MPEG Stream: "Hollemn"
MPEG Stream: "Please Don't Drill In Anwr"

CONCEPT BUREAU Identity Encoder (self-released) cd-r 6.98
Concept Bureau is the name of this Bay Area project who generate a plethora of sounds using a machine they call The Identity Encoder. According to the liner notes the mysterious mechanism "translates personal facts and preferences into sound". These particular recordings were done just down the street from us at Artists' Television Access (ATA for short, it's a cool center for d.i.y. underground media works). The fourteen tracks of the fourteen participants range from soothing womb-y pulses and blips to a cavalcade of wind-up and squeak toys run amok. If you didn't know the story behind this release you could easily believe that these are some home recordings made by an old BBC Radiophonic engineer.
Limited to 50, packaged in hand-numbered, hand-sewn cardboard sleeves.
MPEG Stream: "Heather Dewey-Hagborg"
MPEG Stream: "Charlie Kayamoto"

CONCERN Truth and Distance (Digitalis) cd 12.98
One of several new releases on the always kick ass Digitalis label, this one from a one man band called Concern, that one man being Gordon Ashworth, little brother of Owen Ashworth of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, as well as a member of the late great Peyote Calamity, a weird heavy outfit, who sadly never released a proper record, but neither of those bands necessarily hint at the sounds to be found here. Utilizing a vast collection of instruments and noise making devices, zither, lap harp, mbira, banjo, piano, clarinet, trombone, accordion, acoustic guitar and alto horn, Ashworth blurs all those various instruments into long streaks of hazy drone-y dreaminess. Three tracks, all long, all gorgeously lush and textured, strangely melodic and propulsive for a sound that tends toward a more static drift.
Opener "Truth And Distance" bristles with energy, a glowing warm shimmer, the edges growing ever sharper as the songs sprawls outward, from a hushed whisper to a mighty heart of the sun ur-drone, the sound raw and organic, the core a deep unwavering drone, but the sound is like a stream, carrying all manner of glitch and hum, stray bits of disembodied guitar, melodic fragments, eventually transforming into a strange abstract Appalachia, a soft swirling tangle of upper register buzz and and skittery processed tones, definitely some of the most divine drones we've heard.
The first track is well over half the total length of the record, but the second two tracks, while shorter, are just as beautiful and epic. "Young Birth" builds from hushed whir to almost symphonic sounding majesty, a warped otherworldly new age, all tranquil and blissed out, the various tones overlapping and intertwining before fading out in a soft flurry of crackle and hum. While the final track, "Heartsink", begins all raw and fuzzy and almost heavy with a Tim Hecker sort of vibe, only to shift gears, and allow the sound of the various instruments to become distinct and identifiable. Which in no way means the sound is any less dreamlike, soft shimmers of heavily reverbed piano drift weightlessly in an expanse of soft muted melodies, the overtones creating distant drone-y swells, the result a lovely abstract sort of classical chamber dronemusic, so so so nice.
Essential listening for the drone inclined, and any one into Tim Hecker, Aidan Baker, Fennesz, Belong and the like might just have a new favorite record.
MPEG Stream: "Truth And Distance"
MPEG Stream: "Young Birth"

CONCRETES Boyoubetterunow (Up) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Definitely walking a raucous and veering path to your ear... it's The Concretes. Decidedly Swedish and experimental. Okay, allow me to elaborate: quirky, strolling pop that takes many stylistic turns. Perhaps this is due to the fact that this group sometimes swells to include up to 18 members, with Horns, organ bits, sing song-y melodies. The vocals bring to mind those of Smack Dab (if you're unfamiliar with them, they were an odd little pop band with a precariously fragile female vocalist that released two albums on Homestead Records in the early '90s.) Fans of Stereo-Total should certainly check this out.

CONFUSIONAL QUARTET s/t (Elica) cd 16.98
Finally back in stock, hopefully for longer than before! Last time we listed it (on AQ-L #109), we sold out super fast and weren't able to get any more until just last week!! Here are the nice things we said about this disc back then:
Not a new release, but we managed to get a few in stock for the moment, so we thought we'd list this. We got turned on to the Confusional Quartet (great name!) a while back because of a review our friend Tim Ellison wrote in his great 'zine Modern Rock (formerly Rock Mag!), and now it's a big favorite of a bunch of us here at AQ. As you may be aware, Italy in the '70s boasted a lot of excellent progressive rock bands. Following on that tradition, the Confusional Quartet, an Italian group who flourished in the very early '80s, play a unique brand of New Wave prog rock. Their mostly-instrumental compositions are quirky, catchy, and energetic. Complex yet poppy, this should appeal to folks into both Devo (who were fans!) and John Zorn, into both video-game and surf music, as they combine New Wave keyboards, No Wave guitars, and avant-garde concepts. Tim described this a lot better than that, unfortunately I don't have his 'zine in front of me at the moment to crib from! However, whenever this gets played in the store, we invariably have customers asking about it, and sometimes even buying a copy, so check out the real audio clips! This nicely digipak'd cd has 24 tracks compiling their entire recorded output circa 1980-81 (a self-titled LP, self-titled EP, and a flexi disc, plus a couple unreleased cuts). And, there's their really charming vintage d.i.y. video-clip for their version of "Volare" as a cd-rom bonus! Plus art, photos, and bilingual text in the cd-booklet. Exciting and fun, a real find.
RealAudio clip: "Bologna Rock"
RealAudio clip: "Pensione Elastica"
RealAudio clip: "Nebdo Zip"
RealAudio clip: "Volare"

CONNORS, LOREN Night Through: Singles and Collected Works 1976-2004 (Family Vineyard) 3cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There are musicians who are incredibly technical and ultra proficient on their chosen instrument. Then there are others who don't have that kind of technical talent but who more than make up for it with a never ending reserve of raw emotion and deep personal expression. But rare is the performer who has both. Loren (sometimes Mazzacane) Connors is one of that rare breed. This 3-disc collection gathering bits and pieces from almost 30 years of recordings is an amazing testament to the ghostly, captivating sounds Connors has conjured up with his guitar. Unlike most guitar players Connors knows how to coax an impossibly wide range of sounds from an instrument that is usually approached from a much more singular point of view. Whether it's lurking feedback, washing in and out of his smoke filled strumming, or his more direct stripped down and totally pretty pick and strum, Connors is always challenging himself, never resting or relying on one specific sound or style. If somehow Connors is missing from your cd/record collection, and if you found yourself entranced by Earth's last outing Hex..., and perhaps you love the sounds of Tom Carter, the instrumental outings of Tom Verlaine, then for sure NEED to get some Loren Connors running through your veins and filling up your ears. Because of his prolific nature (Wow, has he ever released a ton of records and collaborated with a who's-who of underground luminaries!) this is one of those instance where a retrospective makes a lot of sense and is perfect for those of you who never knew exactly which records to start with. Now you have your answer. This one. One moment sounding like crazy psychedelic Japanese guitar jams, the next creating goose bumps with his chilling and subtle delivery, the next creating a creepy web of sound with distant off key vocals that rival Jandek in their mysterious and riveting nature, and the next laying down the ghostly sounds for a soundtrack to a film we wish would exist. Such a great journey, wandering through this moonlit collection of songs.
MPEG Stream: "Many Miles More"
MPEG Stream: "Haunted House"
MPEG Stream: "Night Through"

CONNORS, LOREN The Murder Of Joan Of Arc (Table Of The Elements) 12" 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Second in the Table Of The Elements' label series of limited, one sided clear vinyl 12"s, this time from ultra prolific guitarist Loren (formerly Mazzacane) Connors. Sublime and mesmerising, Connors' guitar is a dark cloud of distant chiming chords, shimmering reverb, and warm rich sonic swirl. Minimal but somehow completely epic, a dark cinematic dream/drone-scape. So good. Striking woodcut image silkscreened in silver ink on the clear vinyl in a clear sleeve. VERY LIMITED. So don't dawdle.

CONNORS, LOREN & ALAN LICHT In France (FBWL) cd 19.98

CONNORS, LOREN MAZZACANE Airs (Road Cone) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CONNORS, LOREN MAZZACANE Bridge, the (Megalon Records) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CONNORS, LOREN MAZZACANE In Twilight (Alien8 Recordings) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

CONNORS, LOREN MAZZACANE Portrait Of A Soul (FBWL) cd 16.98
Absolutely gorgeous guitar instrumentals from a true American genius, Loren Mazzacane Connors, who has been recording since the early 1970s. While other records of his have featured impassioned howls, this French import album's pure emotion is rendered oh so quietly in 26 short jewel-like pieces, a song suite that, as the liner notes tell, chronicle the artist's slow realization of his inability to capture the essence of another person through his music. (The cycle of songs begins with day and ends at a hopeful dawn, so perhaps all is not lost.) This is utterly deep introspection told in aching, weeping guitar lines, melodic and simple, without any sort of effects or distortion. For those of you coming at this from a "rock" angle, imagine the incredibly emotive guitarwork of Mick Turner (Dirty Three) stripped down to its bare essence. Yeah, it's that good. So highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Day (1)"
RealAudio clip: "Dawn (26)"

CONNORS, LOREN MAZZACANE The Daggett Years (Ecstatic Peace/Father Yod) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
17 tracks by cult "Venusian blues" guitarist L.M. Connors, of unaccompanied acoustic improv recorded for Daggett Records back circa '79-'80, and long out of print. Much of that material was collected for last year's limited-edition 4 cd boxset which is also now totally out of print! So, to appease fans who missed that (or the curious who weren't sure if they needed 4 cds) here's a "best-of-the-box" collection selected by Connors himself. Remastered by Jim O'Rourke.

CONNORS, LOREN MAZZACANE / JEAN-MARC MONTERA / THURSTON MOORE / LEE RANALDO mmmr (Numero Zero Audio) cd 14.98

CONNORS, LOREN MAZZACANE / LICHT, ALAN Hoffmann Estates (Drag City) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
An impressive line-up accompanies this 'duet' between Alan Licht and Loren Mazzacane Connors with production by Jim O'Rourke and contributions from Darin Gray (ex-Dazzling Killmen), Rob Mazurak (Isotope 217), Ken Vandermark, amongst others. Slow lugubrious guitar solos with minimal jazz structures.

CONNORS, LOREN MAZZACANE / SASHA FRERE-JONES Standing Upright On A Curve (Sub Rosa) cd 15.98

CONRAD, TONY Early Minimalism (Table of the Elements) 4cd 45.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is a 4-cd box set with 96-page booklet and enhanced cd-rom featuring interviews, performance footage, and video scores. Includes the amazing, previously lp-only Four Violins recording from 1964 (whereas the other discs are recent compostions/recordings, featuring Jim O'Rourke on electric violin amongst other players).
(from the liner notes:)
"'History is like music - completely in the present.' In 1962 Tony Conrad's amplified strings introduced the sustained drone of just-intonation into what became known as 'minimal' music. Utilizing long durations and precise pitch, he and his collaborators forged an aggressively mesmerizing 'Dream Music' - denying the activity of composition, elaborating shared ideas of performance, and articulating the Big Bang of 'minimialism.' However, the many rehearsal and performance recordings from this period were repressed, and remain inaccessibly buried to this day.
In 1987 Conrad set out on a ten-year return expedition to the site of these entombed fragments; from them he reconstructed and regenerated the epic EARLY MINIMALISM. Reaching back through time, Tony Conrad weaves a mobile narrative over and under minimalism: making music out of history, and history out of music."

CONRAD, TONY Fantastic Glissando (Table Of The Elements) cd 16.98
It's 1969 and Tony Conrad finds himself fascinated and obsessed with the sounds of sine wave oscillators. One of the godfathers of minimalism nearside LaMonte Young, Conrad was always on the more harsh side of things then other Minimalist disciples like Terry Riley and Steve Reich. Fantastic Glissando is a series of electronic compositions that Conrad created with sine wave oscillators that he then processed through a pump counter with head gap delay. The result is an aggressive textured drone that sounds like something traveling near the speed of light. This cd reissue includes a bonus 10-minute track that was not included in the LP version. The first time we heard this in the store, it was pouring outside and by the time it ended the sun was shining...San Francisco natural occurence? Or the work of Conrad's intense hand in the sky? We're still not sure.
MPEG Stream: "Fantastic Glissando"
MPEG Stream: "Process Four Of Fantastic Glissando"

CONRAD, TONY Four Violins (1964) (Table Of The Elements) lp 16.98

CONRAD, TONY / EDWARD KA-SPEL split 10" (Beta-Lactam Ring) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Certainly an odd pairing for a split release, with '60s minimalist Tony Conrad on one side, and the surrealist Edward Ka-Spel on the other. This is a release that will certainly not win over any fans from the grumpy minimalist school into liking Ka-Spel or his outfit the Legendary Pink Dots... but will certainly make LPD collectors very happy. Ka-Spel percolates a variety of somewhat silly synthetic sounds that could have been informed by Terry Riley's "In C" but conform more to Ka-Spel's fragmented lullaby approach, with all of the pseudo-goth references one would expect from a Ka-Spel / LPD release. On the flip, playing with Alexandria Gelencser on cello, Conrad sets down layers of extended intonations of abrasive violin drones. Numbered and limited to 500 copies.

CONRAD, TONY WITH FAUST Outside The Dream Syndicate - 30th Anniversary Special Edition (Table Of The Elements) 2cd 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Excellent reissue! Out of print since its release in 1972 when it went almost completely unnoticed, this album is finally available in special 30th anniversary boxed double disc format! A shorter version of it was available briefly in 1993 but this features a whole other disc of extra material.
It wasn't until after playing and performing for over ten years that the now-legendary experimental violinist Tony Conrad finally put his music down on wax. This was after his tenure as an integral member of the Theater of Eternal Music's Dream Syndicate with Lamonte Young, Marian Zazeela, John Cale, and Angus MacLise (NB: the latter two being founding members of the Velvet Underground, which got its band name from a paperback Conrad found lying in the street.) The Dream Syndicate's raison d'etre was exploring the sonic depth, meaning and sound of the almighty DRONE. A chance meeting with producer Uwe Nettelbeck resulted in an intense three-day recording session at Faust's secluded farm slash studio and it was here that Conrad finally got to breathe life into his own take on the drone. The Faust fellows supply a warm, insistent drum beat and a just as unstoppable bass throb. Both the bass *and the drum* are 'tuned' to specific notes over which Conrad lays his droning violin. And that's it. For half an hour. So great! Not boring at all -- your ears quickly become attuned to the waverings, harmonies, and other minute changes amongst the three elements. Fans of Neu, Can, Kraftwerk, and of course Faust NEED this. As does anyone into hypnotic droning rock ala AQ faves Circle, Highly recommended, definitely seminal album by one of the pioneers of drone.
RealAudio clip: "excerpt 1"
RealAudio clip: "excerpt 2"

CONRAD, TONY, TIM BARNES, MATTIN s/t (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.
The legendary Tony Conrad teams up with some noisy young bucks for an hour of full on, high heaven, upper stratosphere, black cloud, acid rain melting everything in sight into silvery puddles, full bore skree. Recorded live in Buffalo in April 2005, there is nothing subtle about this 60 minute blast. The core is Conrad's near static lazer cannon blast of white hot, high end, which gets gloriously torn to shreds and allowed to crumble into crackling pieces, dropping huge flaming shards of shrieking grind and throbbing crunch on a defenseless audience. There are moments of near ambience too, nothing but spaced out fuzz, and little bits of clatter and scrape, but before too long, another salvo is launched and everything peels away in thick strips of charred flesh, revealing a glowing super nova of sound inside. This is another one of those records, that given a casual listen, is pretty rough, a bit of serious ear torching noise. But strap yourself in, and make it through the first brutal blast, and you'll feel your ears blossoming like flowers in the Springtime, opening up and letting all sorts of sonic subtleties in. Then it's a near transcendental, blissed out ur-drone, albeit, one that is heavily spiked with fiery fragments of ultra distorted shimmer and shriek, and thick slabs of skull rattling rumble. The musical equivalent of listening to a star implode, or better yet an entire galaxy collapsing. Intense!
MPEG Stream: "One"

CONTAGIOUS ORGASM The Flow of Sound Without Parameter (Ground Fault) cd 11.98
Hiroshi Hashimoto has been active as Contagious Orgasm since 1986, haunting his native Japan with a Gothic application of disjointed samples, anachronistic collages, and early-Coil industrialisms.
"The Flow of Sound Without Parameter" is supposedly treatments of field recordings from a small town in Germany, but have been joined by so many horror film samples and shards of electro-shock rhythms, that the sound is more like a bombastic fusion of Pan Sonic and Foetus than an Eric La Casa album of delicately processed environmental sounds.
RealAudio clip: "Soundtrack To Your Mission"